CPSC547 Project Overview Page

There are a large number of electronic typography and publishing tools currently available. They can be categorized into four main categories: desktop publishing applications, portable document software, hyptertext publishing, and markup languages. Desktop publishing applications provide us with the tools necessary for the document creation process-- from idea generation to layout and separation. Portable document software allows us to convert documents into a format that can be distributed to a variety of diverse platforms, independent of the applications, fonts, and graphics used in the original document, while maintaining the visual integrity. Hypertext publishing is a set of tools that allow us to collect and structure free-form information from multiple sources for the creation of master documents. Finally, markup languages such as HTML and SGML provide us with a set standard to describe the structure and content of a digital document.

Although these tools are designed as solutions to specific problems, their common goal is to create publications that can effectively communicate information. Therefore, traditional issues of typography and layout are just as important. However, the use of computer technology has changed the rules of typography and layout. The monitors by which information is displayed is generally of lower resolution and size than the paper medium traditionally used. Furthermore, a diverse set of standards in computer hardware and software does not assure that an effective document designed for a specific computer platform will be effective on another computer platform. There are issues that need to be addressed to insure the success of the electronic distribution of documents.

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