Desktop Publisher

Desktop Publisher is a full function desk top publishing program. It was also sold as Deluxe Desk Top Publisher (complete with EyeQ and The Editor Special Edition).

It was later upgraded and sold as Professional Publisher.

Advertised features include:

Full WSYIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
12 Integral graphic fonts, 8 integral QL text fonts plus 10 non-integral fonts supplied and decorative fonts
All fonts can be adjusted both horizontally and vertically
150 Integral graphic symbols and 160 Integral paint brush shapes
Up to 15x Zoom with separately adjustable X & Y axis magnification and reduction
960 x 800 pixel drawing area (x 2 if you have expanded QL and cut/copy/paste over 21 pages) supporting up to 80 lines and 160 columns
Borders and margins generated form a graphics menu
All positions redefined piexl by pixel
Centre and true descender editing of characters
Merging with AND-OR-XOR
Whole and partial reversion plus Mirror Imaging
Switchable Grid
Stipples, stripes, rotation
Import text and non-text documents from The Editor
Import text documents from any word processor (even Quill)
Import screens, partial screens, compressed screens, part-coloured screens from EyeQ
Import full screens saved by any graphics package
Free-hand drawing of screens with restriction from mixing/overlapping/combining of text and pictures
Full cut and paste facility
Selective save
Hierarchical escape-undo function
Full device independence
Portrait or Landscape Printing facility built-in
UDGs measuring 8x8 and 16x16 pixels with full feature integral font editor
Full feature integral graphics generator
Left, right, centre justification (PIXEL x PIXEL)
Bold, Italics left & Italics Right
Pixel by Pixel or character by character movement
Perfectly usable with a microdrive only system (384K RAM needed)
4 different cursors
4 different underline styles (single / double / plain / stipple)
Cursor dragged user definable boxes
Columns to any width (multiple justifications allowed)
Epson-compatible hard copy output in either A4 or foolscap
Variable line feeds
Fully menu driven
Screen & Window pans and scrolls
Text / Picture within window pans and scrolls
Direct Entry of text with full range of editing and movement commands
Clip art
Caps lock indicator
Horizontal and vertical rulers
Full status reports on-screen
Help facility
Extremely fast
Multiple pass printing (up to 5 passes) and fully configurable printer driver
Alteration by block, line, word, character and pixel

Unfortunately, despite what the advertised features might suggest, the program was only capable of working on one single page layout at a time.

v2.0 of Desktop Publisher (the Special Edition) required more memory (512K minimum), but still could only handle one page at a time.

Title: Desktop Publisher
Language: SuperBASIC Compiled with Turbo + machine code extensions
Author: Andrew Astrand
Publisher: Digital Precision Ltd
Year of Publication: 1987
Platforms Suitable for: All Sinclair QLs and emulators with minimum 384K
Commercial Status: Freeware
Price in July 1987: £69.95 (Deluxe Desktop Publisher - £124.95)
Reviewed: Unknown
Sources Available from: Unknown
Latest Version available from: Sinclair QL Homepage