My own short answer to the question of "What is desktop publishing?" is that it is, "the process of using the computer and specific types of software to combine text and graphics to produce documents such as newsletters, brochures, books, etc." That etc. includes scrapbooks. (Although it doesn't affect this discussion of desktop publishing, this newer definition of desktop publishing expands the term to encompass more than traditional print design.)
Graphics Software Guide Sue Chastain defines digital scrapbooking as "the art of using graphics software to create layouts that display photographs and other memories (such as newspaper clippings, hospital bracelets, certificates, etc) for the purpose of preserving the moment."
While Sue specifies using graphics software, you can use many other types of software for scrapbooking on the computer. Any desktop publishing page layout program from The Print Shop to QuarkXPress can produce layouts for scrapbook pages. There are also software programs designed specifically for digital scrapbooking, such as Art Explosion Scrapbook Factory that come with templates and clip art specifically created for scrapbook pages.
If you want to further explore the connection between digital scrapbooking and desktop publishing, consider that:
- Desktop publishing uses the computer to produce documents that were once (and in some cases still are) created manually using a variety of non-computer techniques.
- Digital scrapbooking uses the computer to produce scrapbooks that were once (and still are) created manually using a variety of craft supplies.
Further more, projects like some books, iron-on transfers, greeting cards, scrapbooks, and other documents and crafts may utilize both computer software and other non-computer techniques. In a guest article at About.com Scrapbooking, Michelle Shefveland writes, "A large majority of traditional scrapbookers are having fun creating word art and journaling for their traditional pages with computer software, which is really a form of digital scrapbooking. Some just take it a level further and create their entire pages on the computer."
