MacPublisher

MacPublisher was the first Desktop Publishing program, introduced in 1984, the year that Apple introduced the Macintosh computer.

MacPublisher was developed by Bob Doyle and distributed by [http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/3/274 Boston Software Publishers] .

MacPublisher introduced WYSIWYG layout for multi-column text and graphics, but it would not have been possible without graphics primitives like QuickDraw that Bill Atkinson had originally developed for the Apple Lisa computer. QuickDraw was incorporated in the PASCAL toolbox for the new Macintosh and was the basis for MacPaint.

The Destop Publishing industry exploded in the year 1985 with the introduction of the Apple LaserWriter printer in January and in July the 512K "Big Mac" and Aldus Corporation's PageMaker, which rapidly became the DTP industry standard software.

It was Paul Brainerd, Aldus' chairman, who gave the industry the name "desktop publishing." MacPublisher had been called "electronic publishing," after the industry then led by Atex Corporation, of which Brainerd had been a vice president.

MacPublisher was the first non-Apple application program to print in color on the ImageWriter II. It introduced spot color to desktop publishing. MacPublisher III was the first DTP program to rotate text and graphics, using a table look-up for the necessary sine functions in one-degree increments.

MacPublisher was sold in 1986 to Esselte Letraset, whose business in press-down dry transfer lettering was evaporating with competition from laser printers, notably Apple's pioneering LaserWriter printer. It was briefly sold as LetraPage, but dropped from the market when Letraset subsequently acquired ReadySetGo from Manhattan Graphics.