Desktop Publishing (DTP) Turns 25

DTP software ripens at 25 (now 28)!

anno 1985…

Updated Desktop Publishing Time-Line – A history of DTP!

update December 4, 2012 – Markzware is the developer of FlightCheck. This DTP software can preflight InDesign, Quark, Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat PDF, Photoshop and more. Markzware has a Linkedin Group. It is the “Group of Prepress, Print & Color Management Professionals“. This group has a discussion called “Quark caters to gap in service to printers left by Adobe”. Users that commented are fine with Adobe and its service level. Many others, such as Frank Romano, are a bit peeved at Adobe neglecting the market that formed DTP. One comment made me think about the history of page layout applications and desktop publishing in general:

Quote by: Willie Soto Freelance Graphic Designer

Interesting, especially when you look at the history of the all-important desktop publishing (DTP) field:

History of Desktop Publishing or DTP software –

25 (28) years in the making…

1985 – Aldus Corp introduces PageMaker for Mac in July 1985. Adobe’s PostScript (page description language) provided the basis. Aldus Corporation founder Paul Brainerd creates the term, Desktop Publishing (DTP).
1986 – This year sees PageMaker PC come out; Macintosh is by then de-facto standard in Desktop Publishing.
1987 – QuarkXPress jumps into the page-layout scene!
1987 – In 1987 Adobe Illustrator arrives on the scene.
1989 – CorelDRAW enters the DTP arena.1990 – This year sees Adobe’s Photoshop spring to life (Wow, 20 year anniversary for .psd!).1990(?) – Altsys creates FreeHand and licenses it to Aldus. Illustrators around the globe began to use FreeHand.*(See note below- amazing…)!
1991 – Entry level DTP application Microsoft Publisher (Windows only) released.
1991 – The World Wide Web (WWW) launches, via the Internet, on August 6th.
1990’s – Quark becomes the most used application in DTP. Their partners program for XTension developers, like Markzware, is one of the longest standing. It still operates today.
1993 – Adobe introduces PDF 1.0 and Acrobat 1.0.
1994 – September 1994 sees Aldus merging with Adobe and PageMaker get’s new wings, but stays caged.
1995 – ’95 sees Patrick Marchese and Ronald Crandall launching FlightCheck at Seybold S.F.
1996 – Quark released QuarkXPress v 3.3. This graphic software included stable handling of Adobe’s Postscript fonts and Apple’s TrueType fonts. This made Quark the undisputed king of desktop publishing of that era. (FlightCheck can preflight Quark documents.)
Quark had 90% market share in the 1990s, but critics thought it was not innovative enough. (Believe it or not, the users wanted MORE Upgrades!).
1997 – November 24, 1997, Markzware files for and acquires US Patent # 5,963,641 for Preflighting.
1999 – Adobe releases “K2” as InDesign v1.0 in 1999! (FlightCheck can preflight InDesign documents.)
2001 – In April of 2001, PDF/X-1 and PDF/X-1a become international ISO standards.
2002 – We see a Quark conflict with Apple and the release of a functional Adobe InDesign 2.0.
2005 – December 3, 2005 – Adobe gobbles up competitor Macromedia. This solidified the new standard in DTP software.
2005 – Adobe added InDesign v3.0 to Creative Suite (CS). It also included Photoshop, Illustrator and Adobe PDF Acrobat. (FlightCheck can preflight InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat.)
2007 – In 2007 we see InDesign CS3 and Creative Suite 3 come to market. Many say, including myself from the number of CS3 files we get in, that CS3 is still popular software for DTP today.
2008 – QuarkXPress v8.0 came out in 2008, but the masses were switching to InDesign.
2008 – Adobe released, into a rough economy, CS4 with Adobe InDesign CS4.
201o – Adobe released Apple iPad on April 3rd. Will Adobe make an iPad app?
2010 – Adobe released CS5 on April 30th.
2011 – Quark released QuarkXPress 9 on February 23, 2011.
2011 – Adobe released Creative Suite 5.5 (CS5.5), among much debate about it being a chargeable Upgrade.
2011 – Adobe released in May first iPad or mobile apps and now has several. No DTP app from Adobe.
2011 – Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, passed away on October 5th.
2012 – Adobe released Adobe InDesign CS6 with Creative Cloud (NEW subscription based model) on May 5th.
2012 – Markzware released PDF2DTP for CS6 or QuarkXPress 9. This introduced advanced PDF editing within native Desktop Publishing applications!
2012 – November, Quark released the first DTP design app for the Apple iPad, called Quark DesignPad.
2012 – Adobe Systems, (ADBE) this December turns 30. Founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Chuck Geschke to create PostScript, it was the roots of print-media and thus DTP!
2013 – ?
Note: If you have any additions, please comment below and let us know!

With DTP 25 years old, it’s no surprise that the
Macintosh Computer is 26 years old, now is it?

It is so easy to make a layout today that it would amaze Johannes Gutenberg. And that is not even mentioning Steve Jobs’ Apple iPad revolution. The number of printing problems that arise from “using software” can be disgusting. Some companies hire freelance graphic artists, although they have permanent graphic artists! Thanks for the comment which prompted this post!