When computers were new to the world, people talked of 'killer applications' - programs so useful that they helped sell the PCs they were designed for. Word processors, spreadsheets and databases were the original killer applications but in the late Eighties and early Nineties they were eclipsed by desktop publishing software.

Why this software proved popular isn't hard to understand. Previously professional publishing involved lining up lead typefaces and dowsing them with ink. With DTP software, designing a page was as simple as moving a mouse around the screen. Combined with the growth in popularity of the laser printer, DTP became unstoppable.

Publishing and design houses jumped on the bandwagon. The first professional DTP program was Quark XPress and even now, over 10 years later, it's still king of the hill. This is because designers are trained in Xpress early in their careers and are generally a conservative bunch. Quark Xpress also makes what should be a complex and difficult task very easy and it's not without justice that it's heralded as the supreme DTP program.

The DTP market has slowed down recently, largely because Quark has such an unshakeable hold at the top end of the market whilst at the bottom word processors have eaten into the domestic market.

In this test we attempt to look at a representative sample, both of home, office and professional level DTP software, but the marginalisation of the DTP market has lead to some high prices. It's worth point out that for basic DTP tasks a word processor like Microsoft Word is actually fairly capable.

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