What is desktop publishing and word processing

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«Digital typography» redirects here. For a more general directory of digital systems in typography, see Template:Typography.

Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal («desktop») computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online content.^[1] Desktop publishing software can generate layouts and produce typographic-quality text and images comparable to traditional typography and printing. Desktop publishing is also the main reference for digital typography. This technology allows individuals, businesses, and other organizations to self-publish a wide variety of content, from menus to magazines to books, without the expense of commercial printing.^[2]

Desktop publishing often requires the use of a personal computer and WYSIWYG page layout software to create documents for either large-scale publishing or small-scale local multifunction peripheral output and distribution — although non-WYSIWYG systems such as TeX and LaTeX are also used, especially in scientific publishing. Desktop publishing methods provide more control over design, layout, and typography than word processing. However, word processing software has evolved to include most, if not all, capabilities previously available only with professional printing or desktop publishing.^[3]

The same DTP skills and software used for common paper and book publishing are sometimes used to create graphics for point of sale displays, presentations, infographics, brochures, business cards, promotional items, trade show exhibits, retail package designs and outdoor signs.

History[edit]

Desktop publishing was first developed at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.^[4]^[5] A contradictory claim states that desktop publishing began in 1983 with a program developed by James Davise at a community newspaper in Philadelphia.^[6] The program Type Processor One ran on a PC using a graphics card for a WYSIWYG display and was offered commercially by Best info in 1984.^[7] Desktop typesetting with only limited page makeup facilities^{[citation needed]} had arrived in 1978–1979 with the introduction of TeX, and was extended in 1985 with the introduction of LaTeX.

The desktop publishing market took off in 1985 with the introduction in January of the Apple LaserWriter printer.^[8] This momentum was kept up by with the addition of PageMaker software from Aldus, which rapidly became the standard software application for desktop publishing. With its advanced layout features, PageMaker immediately relegated word processors like Microsoft Word to the composition and editing of purely textual documents. The term «desktop publishing» is attributed to Aldus founder Paul Brainerd,^[9] who sought a marketing catchphrase to describe the small size and relative affordability of this suite of products, in contrast to the expensive commercial phototypesetting equipment of the day.

Before the advent of desktop publishing, the only option available to most people for producing typed documents (as opposed to handwritten documents) was a typewriter, which offered only a handful of typefaces (usually fixed-width) and one or two font sizes. Indeed, one popular desktop publishing book was titled The Mac is Not a Typewriter, and it had to actually explain how a Mac could do so much more than a typewriter.^[10] The ability to create WYSIWYG page layouts on screen and then print pages containing text and graphical elements at crisp 300 dpi resolution was revolutionary for both the typesetting industry and the personal computer industry at the time; newspapers and other print publications made the move to DTP-based programs from older layout systems such as Atex and other programs in the early 1980s.

Desktop publishing was still in its embryonic stage in the early 1980s. Users of the PageMaker-LaserWriter-Macintosh 512K system endured frequent software crashes,^[11] cramped display on the Mac’s tiny 512 x 342 1-bit monochrome screen, the inability to control letter-spacing, kerning, and other typographic features, and the discrepancies between screen display and printed output. However, it was a revolutionary combination at the time, and was received with considerable acclaim.^{[citation needed]}

Behind-the-scenes, technologies developed by Adobe Systems set the foundation for professional desktop publishing applications. The LaserWriter and LaserWriter Plus printers included high quality, scalable Adobe PostScript fonts built into their ROM memory. The LaserWriter’s PostScript capability allowed publication designers to proof files on a local printer, then print the same file at DTP service bureaus using optical resolution 600+ ppi PostScript printers such as those from Linotronic.

Later, the Macintosh II was released, which was considerably more suitable for desktop publishing due to its greater expandability, support for large color multi-monitor displays, and its SCSI storage interface (which allowed fast high-capacity hard drives to be attached to the system). Macintosh-based systems continued to dominate the market into 1986, when the GEM-based Ventura Publisher was introduced for MS-DOS computers. PageMaker’s pasteboard metaphor closely simulated the process of creating layouts manually, but Ventura Publisher automated the layout process through its use of tags and style sheets and automatically generated indices and other body matter. This made it particularly suitable for the creation of manuals and other long-format documents.

Desktop publishing moved into the home market in 1986 with Professional Page for the Amiga, Publishing Partner (now PageStream) for the Atari ST, GST’s Timeworks Publisher on the PC and Atari ST, and Calamus for the Atari TT030. Software was published even for 8-bit computers like the Apple II and Commodore 64: Home Publisher, The Newsroom, and geoPublish. During its early years, desktop publishing acquired a bad reputation as a result of untrained users who created poorly organized, unprofessional-looking «ransom note effect» layouts; similar criticism was leveled again against early World Wide Web publishers a decade later. However, some desktop publishers who mastered the programs were able to achieve highly professional results. Desktop publishing skills were considered of primary importance in career advancement in the 1980s, but increased accessibility to more user-friendly DTP software has made DTP a secondary skill to art direction, graphic design, multimedia development, marketing communications, and administrative careers. DTP skill levels range from what may be learned in a couple of hours (e.g., learning how to put clip art in a word processor), to what’s typically required in a college education. The discipline of DTP skills range from technical skills such as prepress production and programming, to creative skills such as communication design and graphic image development.

As of 2014, Apple computers remain dominant in publishing, even as the most popular software has changed from QuarkXPress – an estimated 95% market share in the 1990s — to Adobe InDesign. As an Ars Technica writer puts: «I’ve heard about Windows-based publishing environments, but I’ve never actually seen one in my 20+ years in design and publishing».^[12]

Terminology[edit]

There are two types of pages in desktop publishing: digital pages and virtual paper pages to be printed on physical paper pages. All computerized documents are technically digital, which are limited in size only by computer memory or computer data storage space. Virtual paper pages will ultimately be printed, and will therefore require paper parameters coinciding with standard physical paper sizes such as A4, letterpaper and legalpaper. Alternatively, the virtual paper page may require a custom size for later trimming. Some desktop publishing programs allow custom sizes designated for large format printing used in posters, billboards and trade show displays. A virtual page for printing has a predesignated size of virtual printing material and can be viewed on a monitor in WYSIWYG format. Each page for printing has trim sizes (edge of paper) and a printable area if bleed printing is not possible as is the case with most desktop printers. A web page is an example of a digital page that is not constrained by virtual paper parameters. Most digital pages may be dynamically re-sized, causing either the content to scale in size with the page or the content to re-flow.

Master pages are templates used to automatically copy or link elements and graphic design styles to some or all the pages of a multipage document. Linked elements can be modified without having to change each instance of an element on pages that use the same element. Master pages can also be used to apply graphic design styles to automatic page numbering. Cascading Style Sheets can provide the same global formatting functions for web pages that master pages provide for virtual paper pages. Page layout is the process by which the elements are laid on the page orderly, aesthetically and precisely. Main types of components to be laid out on a page include text, linked images (that can only be modified as an external source), and embedded images (that may be modified with the layout application software). Some embedded images are rendered in the application software, while others can be placed from an external source image file. Text may be keyed into the layout, placed, or – with database publishing applications – linked to an external source of text which allows multiple editors to develop a document at the same time.
Graphic design styles such as color, transparency and filters may also be applied to layout elements. Typography styles may be applied to text automatically with style sheets. Some layout programs include style sheets for images in addition to text. Graphic styles for images may include border shapes, colors, transparency, filters, and a parameter designating the way text flows around the object (also known as «wraparound» or «runaround»).

Comparisons[edit]

With word processing[edit]

As desktop publishing software still provides extensive features necessary for print publishing, modern word processors now have publishing capabilities beyond those of many older DTP applications, blurring the line between word processing and desktop publishing.

In the early 1980s, graphical user interface was still in its embryonic stage and DTP software was in a class of its own when compared to the leading word processing applications of the time. Programs such as WordPerfect and WordStar were still mainly text-based and offered little in the way of page layout, other than perhaps margins and line spacing. On the other hand, word processing software was necessary for features like indexing and spell checking – features that are common in many applications today. As computers and operating systems became more powerful, versatile, and user-friendly in the 2010s, vendors have sought to provide users with a single application that can meet almost all their publication needs.

With other digital layout software[edit]

In earlier modern-day usage, DTP usually does not include digital tools such as TeX or troff, though both can easily be used on a modern desktop system, and are standard with many Unix-like operating systems and are readily available for other systems. The key difference between digital typesetting software and DTP software is that DTP software is generally interactive and «What you see [onscreen] is what you get» (WYSIWYG) in design, while other digital typesetting software, such as TeX, LaTeX and other variants, tend to operate in «batch mode», requiring the user to enter the processing program’s markup language (e.g. HTML) without immediate visualization of the finished product. This kind of workflow is less user-friendly than WYSIWYG, but more suitable for conference proceedings and scholarly articles as well as corporate newsletters or other applications where consistent, automated layout is important.

In the 2010s, interactive front-end components of TeX, such as TeXworks and LyX, have produced «what you see is what you mean» (WYSIWYM) hybrids of DTP and batch processing.^[13] These hybrids are focused more on the semantics than the traditional DTP. Furthermore, with the advent of TeX editors the line between desktop publishing and markup-based typesetting is becoming increasingly narrow as well; a software which separates itself from the TeX world and develops itself in the direction of WYSIWYG markup-based typesetting is GNU TeXmacs.

On a different note, there is a slight overlap between desktop publishing and what is known as hypermedia publishing (e.g. web design, kiosk, CD-ROM). Many graphical HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver use a layout engine similar to that of a DTP program. However, many web designers still prefer to write HTML without the assistance of a WYSIWYG editor, for greater control and ability to fine-tune the appearance and functionality. Another reason that some Web designers write in HTML is that WYSIWYG editors often result in excessive lines of code, leading to code bloat that can make the pages hard to troubleshoot.

With web design[edit]

Desktop publishing produces primarily static print or digital media, the focus of this article. Similar skills, processes, and terminology are used in web design. Digital typography is the specialization of typography for desktop publishing. Web typography addresses typography and the use of fonts on the World Wide Web. Desktop style sheets apply formatting for print, Web Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) provide format control for web display. Web HTML font families map website font usage to the fonts available on the user web browser or display device.

Applications[edit]

A wide variety of DTP applications and websites are available and are listed separately.

File formats[edit]

The design industry standard is PDF. The older EPS format is also used and supported by most applications.

References[edit]

^ Bear, Jacci Howard. «What’s Involved in Desktop Publishing?». Lifewire. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
^ Ruiter, Maurice M. de (1988-04-29). Advances in Computer Graphics III. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783540187882.
^ Amanda Presley (2010-01-28). «What Distinguishes Desktop Publishing From Word Processing?». Bright Hub. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
^ Winograd, Terry (1996). Bringing Design to Software. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0201854916.
^ Jones, Steve (2002). Encyclopedia of New Media. SAGE Publications. p. 127. ISBN 978-0761923824.
^ «What You See Is Pretty Close to What You Get: New h&j, pagination program for IBM PC, » Seybold Report on Publishing Systems, 13(10), February 13, 1984, pp. 21-2.
^ «Type-X ’85: Fulfilling the Promise of the PC, » Seybold Report on Publishing Systems, 15(2) pp. 4-5.
^ Casselman, Grace (November 2, 1992). «Desktop Publishing». Computer Dealer News. 8 (22) – via Gale Cengage Computer Database.
^ Stiff, Paul (13 September 2006). «The Stafford papers». The optimism of modernity: recovering modern reasoning in typography. Retrieved 27 December 2009.
^ Williams, Robin (1990). The Mac is Not a Typewriter: A Style Manual for Creating Professional-level Type on Your Macintosh. Berkeley: Peachpit Press. p. 11. ISBN 9780938151319.
^ Thompson, Keith (8 June 1987). «MacIntosh Layout Package Remarkably Fast, Powerful». InfoWorld. 9 (23): 51. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
^ Girard, Dave (2014-01-13). «How QuarkXPress became a mere afterthought in publishing». Ars Technica.
^ For more editors in the genre, see Comparison of TeX editors under the WYSIWYM / (partial) WYSIWYG editing style.

Источник

Summary: Difference Between Word Processing and Desktop Publishing is that Word processing software, sometimes called a word processor, allows users to create and manipulate documents containing mostly text and sometimes graphics. While Desktop publishing (DTP) software enables professional designers to create sophisticated documents that contain text, graphics, and many colors.

Word Processing

Word processing software, sometimes called a word processor, allows users to create and manipulate documents containing mostly text and sometimes graphics. Millions of people use word processing software every day to develop documents such as letters, memos, reports, mailing labels, newsletters, and Web pages. A major advantage of using word processing software is that users easily can change what they have written. Word processing software also has many features to make documents look professional and visually appealing. For example, you can change the shape, size, and color of characters; apply special effects such as three-dimensional shadows; and organize text in newspaper-style columns.

Most word processing software allows users to incorporate graphical images, such as digital photos and clip art, in documents. Clip art is a collection of drawings, photos, and other images. A user inserted an image of a baseball player in the document. With word processing software, you easily can modify the appearance of an image after inserting it in the document. You can use word processing software to define the size of the paper on which to print and specify the margins.

A feature, called wordwrap, allows users to type words in a paragraph continually without pressing the enter key at the end of each line. As you type more lines of text than can be displayed on the screen, the top portion of the document moves upward, or scrolls, off the screen.

Desktop Publishing

Desktop Publishing includes that materials that looks professionally published. Desktop publishing (DTP) software enables professional designers to create sophisticated documents that contain text, graphics, and many colors. Professional DTP software is ideal for the production of high-quality color documents such as textbooks, corporate newsletters, marketing literature, product catalogs, and annual reports. Designers and graphic artists can print finished publications on a color printer, take them to a professional printer, or post them on the Web in a format that can be viewed by those without DTP software.

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Word processing Software	Desktop publishing Software
It is a kind of software that focuses on the line-by-line creation of text documents.	It is a kind of software which allows the complex pages of the given text and graphics.
It Cannot handle more of the graphical elements into it as it has its own place.	It generally Handles more graphical elements.
They were created to create the document.	They were originally created to design printed documents.
These programs are running on general purpose computers.	Desktop Publishing can be a solution for all sorts of projects.
Helps in changing the shape and style of the characters of the paragraphs.	They are often used to produce physical media like publications such as books, newspapers, brochures, and magazines, etc.
In this you can also easily create columns as well as frames and pages.	Text and graphics can also be easily imported from outside sources.
It does not give you complete control over the look and feel of your document.	DTP ideal for creating newspapers and magazines.
It helps in storing and creating the typed documents in a new way.	They are frame-based software.
It helps in Formatting text like bold, underlining, font type, etc.	They are very easy to import.
It helps in Correcting grammar and spelling of sentences.	It works in columns frames and pages.
It provides the various tools like copying, deleting and formatting, etc.	It helps in converting your document into a professional one.
It is dynamic in nature for exchanging the data.	It is dynamic in the only size.
It make it easier for you to perform repetitive tasks.	It has an automatic restructuring.
It is Inexpensive.	It is Very expensive.
Helps in detailed formatting and editing of your document.	It helps in creating the documents in electronic content with the help of page layout software.

Basic Features of Word Processors

There are various Word processors, but all word processors support the following basic features:

Insert text: Lets you to insert text anywhere in the document.
Delete text: You can remove characters, words, lines, or pages from document easily and without leaving any trace.
Cut and paste : It has facilities to move the selected text by removing (cut) it from one place of document and inserting (paste) it somewhere else.
Copy : Supports creating duplicate of a selection of text without any trouble.
Page size and margins : It has options to define and change among various page sizes and margins, and the word processor will automatically readjust the text so that it fits in new layout.
Search and replace : Allows you to search for a particular word or phrase in document. You can also replace one text with another and optionally everywhere that the match occurs.
Word wrap : Word processor has this feature to automatically moves to the next line after you complete a line. This is also known as soft line break or auto line break. Word wrap also readjust text if you change the margins, paper orientation or page size.
Print: Word processor supports various printers to send a document for printout.

Word processors that support only these features (and maybe a few others) are called text editors. Most word processors, however, support additional features that enable you to manipulate and format documents in more sophisticated ways. These more advanced word processors are sometimes called full-featured word processors.

Additional Features of Full-featured Word Processors

File management : Many word processors contain file management capabilities that allow you to create, delete, move, and search for files. File menu is MS Word has commands for this task.
Font specifications: Allows you to change typeface (fonts) within a document. You can specify font, font size, font styles such as bold, italics, and underlining and different effects like superscript, subscript, outline, strike-through etc.
Footnotes and cross-references: Automates the numbering and placement of footnotes and enables you to easily cross-reference other sections of the document.
Graphics: Allows you to embed illustrations (images) and graphs into a document. Some word processors let you create the illustrations within the word processor (using autoshapes and drawing tools); others let you insert an illustration produced by a different program.
Headers , footers , and page numbering: Allows you to specify customized headers and footers that the word processor will place at the top and bottom of every page. It can keeps track of page numbers so that the correct number appears on each page.
Layout : Supports different page size, margins and page orientation within a single document. It also has facility to apply various indentation to paragraphs.
Macros : A macro is a character or word that represents a series of keystrokes. The keystrokes can represent text or commands. The ability to define macros allows you to save yourself a lot of time by replacing common combinations of keystrokes.
Merges: Allows you to merge text from one file into another file. This is particularly useful for generating many files that have the same format and structure but different data. Generating mailing labels is the classic example of using merges.
Spell checker : A utility that allows you to check the spelling of words. It will mark any word having spelling mistake or that it does not recognize. Spell checkers have ability to produce a list of suggested word to make you easier to correct mistakes.
Table of contents and indexes: Word processors have features to automatically create a table of contents and index based on special codes that you insert in the document.
Thesaurus: Word processors have a built-in thesaurus that allows you to search for synonyms without leaving the document.
Windows : Lets you to edit two or more documents at the same time. Each document appears in a separate window. This is particularly valuable when working on a large project that consists of several different files.
WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get): With WYSIWYG, a document appears on the display screen exactly as it will look when printed.

Word Processors And Desktop Publishing Systems

Desktop publishing is as good as having a mini-printing press within a personal computer. Publishing software helps design the page layout for each document. Tools in desktop publishing applications can help the user to configure the layout, where things are printed in the final design and how things are printed.

The line dividing word processors from desktop publishing (DTP) systems is constantly shifting. In general, though, desktop publishing applications support finer control over layout, and more support for full-color documents.

Both word processing and desktop publishing are similar in many ways but different in areas that cover the publication of documents.

Similarities between Word Processors and Desktop Publishing Systems

Both the word processor and DTP systems deal with text that can be formatted.
Word processors and desktop publishing systems work with tables and pictures.
Both tools have many similar features like WordArt, Clip Art, and text styles.

The differences between Word Processors and DTP Systems

Word processing involves creation, editing, and printing of text while desktop publishing involves production of documents that combine text with graphics.

Word processing is difficult to layout and design as compared to desktop publishing. Thus, desktop publishing is used to work on things like newsletters, magazines, adverts, and brochures where layout is important. Word processing documents are common for simple memos, letters, manuscripts, and resumes.
When creating a desktop publisher, the first page is blank and a text frame must be added to add text. This is unlike the word processing in which text can be directly entered into the blank page.
With desktop publishing, users can easily manipulate text and graphics and try new ideas. In contrast to this, word processing tools are adding more page layout features. Thus, the line that draws the difference between the two hardly exists now.
Though there are many differences between the two, more word processing applications are coming out with enhanced features that mimic many of the desktop publishing tools on the market today. So, whether you choose to use word processing or desktop publishing software all depends on your document publishing needs and what application your are most comfortable using

Types of Word Processing

Word Processing applications are organized into a number of categories according to their complexity: Simple programs that manipulate ASCII are called Text Editors. More complex programs that feature formatting commands are called Word Processors. Some word processors are included in integrated application packages, which also feature other application programs. Such packages are convenient, but may not have all the features of larger programs. Full – featured word processing programs contain many options for formatting text and documents. They also might contain special utilities for more complex formatting and composition. Desktop publishing programs are designed for more complex formatting, especially the integration of text and graphics.

Text Editors

The simplest programs that do word processing are known as text editors. These programs are designed to be small, simple, and cheap. Almost every operating system comes with at least one text editor built in. Most text editors save files in a special format called ASCII. The biggest advantage of this scheme is that almost any program can read and write ASCII text.

The biggest advantage of text editors is the price. There is probably already one or more installed on your computer. You can find a number of text editors for free on the Internet. The ability to write ASCII text is the biggest benefit of text editors. It is a very good way of storing text information, but it has no way of handling more involved formatting. Text editors generally do not allow you to do things like change font sizes or styles, spell checking, or columns.

Windows: Notepad, DOS: Edit, Macintosh: SimpleText etc are some common text editor programs:

Integrated Packages

An integrated package is a huge program that contains a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database tool, and other software applications in the same program. The advantages of an integrated package derive from the fact that all the applications are part of the same program, and were written by the same company. Since they were presumably written together, they should all have the same general menu structure, and similar commands. The word processor built into an integrated package is probably more powerful than a typical text editor.

Integrated packages have some disadvantages. With the advent of GUI and modern operating systems, programs have become more and more standard even if they were written by completely different companies. The programmers had to make some compromises in order to make all the applications fit in one program. Word processing programs that are part of integrated packages generally have their own special code for storing text information, although they can usually read and write ASCII as well. However, if you choose to save in ASCII, you cannot save all the special formatting commands.

Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office Suite, Lotus Works, Claris Works are some examples of integrated packages.

High-end Word Processors

Word processing programs have evolved a great deal from the early days of computing. A modern word processing program can do many things besides simply handling text.

Since the early ’90s, most word processors feature a WYSIWYG interface. This feature is important because the real strength of word processors is in the formatting they allow. Formatting is the manipulation of characters, paragraphs, pages, and documents.

Modern word processors also are designed to have numerous features for advanced users. Some of the additional features that one can expect to find on a modern word processor are spelling and grammar checkers, ability to handle graphics, tables, and mathematical formulas, and outline editors.

These full-featured word processors sound wonderful, and they are. You might wonder if they have any drawbacks.

Word processing programs as I have described often cost hundreds of dollars.
Many of the features of full – fledged word processors are not needed by casual users.
High-end word processing programs almost always save documents in special proprietary codes rather than as ASCII code. This makes the document incompatible with other applications. If you write a document in WordPerfect, you may not be able to read it in Word.

WordPerfect, Microsoft Word are some examples of commercial Word Processing packages

Desktop Publishing

Another classification of word processing you should know about has an uncertain future. These programs are called desktop publishing applications. Desktop publishing is taking the text that already been created, and applying powerful formatting features to that text. Traditionally, applications that allowed the integration of text and graphics, and allowed the development of style sheets were thought of as desktop publishing. Such a program makes it easy to create other kinds of documents than plain pages. With a desktop publisher, there are already style sheets developed to help you create pamphlets, cards, signs, and other types of documents that you wouldn’t be able to create on a typewriter.

The higher end word processing programs give you most of the features you could want in a desktop publishing program. It is possible to do many of the same things. Desktop Publishers are still very popular in certain specialty fields (graphic arts, printing, and publishing,) but the effects can be duplicated with skillful use of a word processing program.

Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Publisher are the example of some common Desktop Publishing programs.

Sign / Banner Programs

Another level of desktop publishing that has become very popular is the advent of specialty printing programs such as ‘The Print Shop’ or ‘Print Master +.’ These programs are designed specifically to help the user create signs, banners, and greeting cards. They are very easy to use, and much less expensive than full-feature desktop publishing applications, but again the effects can be duplicated with a higher end word processor.

Points to Remember

Word processing did not develop out of computer technology. It evolved from the needs of writers rather than those of mathematicians, only later merging with the computer field
The term word processing was invented by IBM in the late 1960s.
A word processor is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of printable material.
Word processor may also refer to a type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 1980s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated processor (like a computer processor) for the editing of text.
Microsoft Word is the most widely used word processing software. Many other word processing applications exist, including WordPerfect (which dominated the market from the mid-1980s to early-1990s on computers running MS-DOS operating system) and open source applications OpenOffice.org Writer, LibreOffice Writer, AbiWord, KWord, and LyX. Web-based word processors, such as Office Web Apps or Google Docs, are a relatively new category.
Desktop publishing applications support finer control over layout and more support for full-color documents where as the word processing systems focus on editing and formatting of text.
Text Editors, Integrated Packages, High-end Word Processors, Desktop Publishing, Sign / Banner Programs are the different types of word processors.

References:

Webopedia – http://www.webopedia.com
Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org
Bright Hub – http://www.brighthub.com
IUPUI, Department of Computer and Information Science – http://cs.iupui.edu/

History[edit]

Terminology[edit]

Comparisons[edit]

With word processing[edit]

With other digital layout software[edit]

With web design[edit]

Applications[edit]

File formats[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Word Processing

Desktop Publishing

You may also like

Basic Features of Word Processors

Additional Features of Full-featured Word Processors

Word Processors And Desktop Publishing Systems

Similarities between Word Processors and Desktop Publishing Systems

The differences between Word Processors and DTP Systems

Types of Word Processing

Text Editors

Integrated Packages

High-end Word Processors

Desktop Publishing

Sign / Banner Programs

Points to Remember