Difference Between Electronic Publishing And Desktop Publishing
Electronic publishing is the general term for computer-based delivery of information. The first use of “e-publishing” was for sharing information among defense contractors. Scientists working for the U.S. Department of Defense at different universities across the country during the late 1960s used the original ARPANET (a wide area network that linked computers at various centers) to share research findings. E-publishing has since moved far beyond what even its inventors imagined. Millions of people and thousands of corporations use the Internet to publish everything from personal “vanity pages” to scientific research to corporate capabilities brochures to product catalogs.
Electronic publishing’s largest impact remains the World Wide Web. The Web has made it possible for almost anyone to be an e-publisher. The growth in the publishing industry by 2009 was largely fueled by self-publishing and publishing on demand (POD). In POD anyone can write and create a book that can be downloaded at the request of a purchaser. The Web has expanded the definition of a “publisher” and made it possible for anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to publish whatever he or she likes.
Desktop publishing is a method for using a computer, a digital or laser printer, and various computer software programs to prepare and print documents. Desktop publishing systems can handle anything from a single page of text to books and magazines. Computer-aided publishing has been available since the early 1970s for organizations willing to invest large sums. But desktop publishing as a function of personal computers became possible on a broad scale only in 1985. That was when the first relatively inexpensive laser printer producing letter-quality type and visuals was introduced. The systems have since become more sophisticated. Some professional print shops now rely solely on desktop publishing systems.
A basic desktop publishing system allows its user to produce printed matter by employing a variety of type fonts and sizes. Type justification, hyphenation, and other typesetting capabilities are offered by various publishing software programs. Computer commands and instructions for producing text and graphics are relatively simple.