Desktop Publishing & Computer Graphics

Most of this work was taken from Computer Dimensions, LaserDisc Series, Southwestern Publishing, 1993

Originally, computers could only produce alphanumeric characters, but

today, computers can work with graphic images or pictures in exciting and

dramatic ways.

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

Desktop publishing is the use of a computer to produce publications such as

newsletters, flyers, brochures, books, magazines, and other publications by just

about anyone. Desktop publishing radically transformed the world of publishing in the mid 1980s. Now,

anyone with a computer, a scanner, a high-quality printer, and software can produce documents that are print

shop quality right from the desktop.

Although there are professional desktop publishing programs available such as Adobe InDesign,

Adobe PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher, The Print Shop, and PagePlus, desktop publishing can be

accomplished by using a standard word processing program and a graphics programs to produce source

documents-articles, chapters, drawings, maps, charts, and photographs that are to appear in the publication.

GRAPHICS

Computer graphics refers to any pictorial representation that a computer can

generate and display through any appropriate output device (monitor, printer, plotter,

and so on). Graphics software is any software that can produce pictures. Such

software includes paint programs, animation programs, presentation software, draw

programs, and CAD (Computer-Aided Design) programs.

Computer graphics come into our lives daily. Most of the graphics on television

are created and edited with computer graphics software. Businesses use presentation

software to create computer “slides” that are transferred to film or videotape, or displayed directly from the

computer through a special electronic projector. Animation programs help users create movie-like sequences

that used to require the full facilities of television or film studios. Sophisticated graphics software can make

entire full-length movies and shorts. We are all familiar with great animations that have been made like Toy

Story, A Bug’s Life, and many others. The three major types of graphics programs are paint programs, draw

programs and CAD programs.

PAINT PROGRAMS

When you use a paint program, you use the blank screen as a canvas. You paint the

picture that you want with a series of electronic tools and a palette of colors, making

changes and printing your art whenever you want (just a you would with a word processing

program). Examples of some paint programs from the most basic to the most complex are

Desktop Publishing & Computer Graphics

Most of this work was taken from Computer Dimensions, LaserDisc Series, Southwestern Publishing, 1993

Paint, Paintshop Photoshop, and Illustrator.

CAD (COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN)

CAD programs are different from paint programs in that CAD

programs store drawings in the form of mathematical formulas, while

paint programs store pictures as graphic images. For example, a CAD

program defines a circle as having a certain mathematical radius,

while a paint program stores an electronic image of whatever you have drawn on the screen. Designers in

fields such as architecture, packaging, automotives, and general product design regularly use computer-aided

drawing/drafting software to create drawings of objects on the computer before they create the objects in the

“real” world. More and more, people are using CAD programs to produce designs and blue prints that they

used to produce by hand.

DRAW PROGRAMS

Draw programs stand midway between paint and CAD programs, combining features from both. You use a

draw program when you need more power and flexibility than a paint program offers, but do not need the

sophistication (or the initial expense) of a CAD program.

As with paint programs, you create the image that you want with a series of

electronic tools and a palette of colors and shades of gray. As with CAD

programs, the objects you draw are stores as a series of mathematical formulas,

and so are easy to edit. As with both paint and CAD programs, you use a mouse

to do the work. Uses for draw programs include creating logos for companies,

designing business cards, flyers, and handouts, illustrating business charts and

maps, and laying out floor plans.

Because of all its flexibility as well as the way that it combines features from word processing, paint, and

CAD programs, draw software is considered by many people to be the best general-use computer graphics

tool.