Apple Desktop Publishing

Apple's branding (and Pi's coverage theme) for the integrated Mac + LaserWriter + page-layout-software workflow that emerged 1985-1987. The combination became the first widely successful Mac killer-app workflow and the foundation for the Apple-as-creative-platform identity that persists today.

Component stack

• Macintosh (1984) — bitmap display + WYSIWYG paradigm
• LaserWriter / LaserWriter Plus (1985-1986) — 300 DPI PostScript output
• Adobe PostScript — device-independent page-description language
• PageMaker (Aldus, 1985) — first major page-layout app
• Quark XPress (1987) — competing layout app, later dominant
• Microsoft Word + MacWrite — word processors feeding into layout
• Adobe Illustrator (1987) — vector drawing
• MacPaint + Canvas — bitmap + hybrid drawing

Pi coverage timeline

• 1986-02 — V08 N02 — Mac Plus + LaserWriter Plus launch
• 1986-03 — V08 N03 — ★★ DTP arrives in force at Pi: Apple II DTP (Rowell) + Here Comes DTP (Kuhn) + dPub SIG column launches (J Condren)
• 1986-04 — V08 N04 — Inside Mac/LaserWriter/AppleTalk trilogy (Trusal)
• 1986-06 — V08 N06 — Tom Piwowar takes dPub SIG; The New LaserWriter Plus (Douglas)
• 1987-04 — V09 N04 — Desktop Publishing To Go (Yagers); GraphicWorks (DeMay)
• 1987-08 — V09 N08 — ★ Quark XPress reviewed at launch
• 1987-10 — V09 N10 — Boston MacExpo (Sicard + Milrod) — DTP center stage
• 1987-11 — V09 N11 — Laser Printing and Mac Typesetting (Trusal)
• Through 1988-1990s — dPub SIG continues; Canvas, Illustrator, FreeHand all reviewed at Pi

Significance

Apple Desktop Publishing was the first Mac use case that justified the Mac's premium pricing over IBM PCs. For Pi members in publishing/journalism/government communications (a large constituency), DTP was the entry into Mac ownership.

Connections

• Mac Plus Launch
• LaserWriter Plus
• dPub SIG
• Quark XPress
• PageMaker
• Adobe Illustrator