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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.