WHAT HAVE I LEARNT

ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES

FROM THE PROCESS OF

CREATING THIS

PRODUCT?

Rachel Jones

Before the use of desktop publishing there were many

people employed in many different jobs within a

magazine company but now magazine publishing uses

desktop publishing fewer people are needed to create a

magazine. The method of hot metal printing was used

before desktop publishing which took a lot more time

than desktop publishing as each letter had to be laid out

to write the prints and write out the articles. Meaning that

it takes minutes to do what would have taken hours

when hot metal printing was used.

Hot Metal Printing - “A typesetting technique in

which type is newly made each time from

molten metal, cast by a composing machine”

The fact that people used to have to cast each

letter/word separately for each print would

have meant that a single newspaper or

magazine issue would have taken a large

amount of time to be created and so now

faster methods have been created it allows

faster production.

The use of desktop publishing means that you need to employ fewer people in fewer jobs to produce a magazine as a number of these jobs can be done quickly and easily by just one person on the desktop publishing software. As oppose to when people had to physically cast each letter for the magazine. This also means that the company can work to a shorter deadline as they are waiting on less people to do their share of the work so can depend less on separate people for each different aspect of the magazine.

During the production of my own magazine, I

have taken on the roles of; Photographer,

Journalist, Graphic Designer, Designer, Layout

Editor and Sub Editor.

This shows how Desktop publishing can allow

just one person to pretty much make a

magazine on their own, meaning there is less

need to employ lots of people as a

professional magazine could be easily

produced by a small group of people.

Throughout the production of my magazine I

have learnt many skills. On Photoshop I have

learnt how to cut out the background from

images and place them on different

backgrounds to make the cover of my

magazine different. On Photoshop I also learnt

how to make a font into a unique one and how

to edit it accordingly.

I also improved my Quark skills as is a

relatively new programme to me apart from the

preliminary exercise practice I got using it. I

learnt how to correctly insert and layout a

contents page and double page spread setup

and ensure everything was in the correct

places on my setups.