Planning a desktop publishing office: a purchasing guide for managers

Managers need to consider personnel issues as well as cost/benefit factors when choosing (or not choosing) desktop publishing. This paper is based on research done in setting up a desktop publishing office and on the problems-and satisfactions-connected with equipment and software, as well as some of the staff concerns encountered. The authors try to help the readers decide if desktop publishing is the right technology for their needs and, if it is, to give them some basic guidelines for evaluating equipment choices. The reader should assess his or her needs, the staff's capabilities and interest, equipment constraints, time and money, as well as some intangible costs and benefits. Next the authors review hardware and software choices. They discuss MS-DOS and Macintosh computers, PostScript and non-PostScript printers, ways to connect computers to each other and to the printer(s), and scanners. They also suggest some features to look for when choosing software for page layout, word processing, graphics, and crash recovery.<>