Before computer technology was developed the making of posters, books and newspapers involved the typesetting and printing processes in some way.
The wooden blocks, or type, (shown in the image here) come from a printing firm in York. The blocks have the letters of the alphabet (and numbers) in different styles called typefaces. The letters are also carved as mirror images so that the correct letter is produced during printing.

The job of the typesetter was to place the type in the correct order so that the words for the poster or book could be printed. The type was then covered in ink and pressed onto paper.
This was a labourious and skilled job. It was also messy and required the use of an expensive, large printing press.

If you wanted a picture in your book or newspaper then the whole printing process became more expensive. To print a picture a block with the mirror image of the picture would have to be cut by an artist. The picture block would then be placed in with the type blocks before being covered in ink and put in the printing press.

Originally, printing images were made by carving wood (called a woodcut). Then the process called etching was invented allowing more detailed pictures to be made. This involved painting the picture in acid on a sheet of metal. The acid reacted with the metal, dissolving it only where the artist painted it.

The word processor is a tool for handling text, and it offers a number of benefits:

• It allows the user to check the layout of their writing before it is printed
• There are spell-checking and grammar-checking tools available
• Many copies of the same document can be printed
• It is easy to store copies of a document for later use
• Modern word processing software enables you to use different font styles, sizes and colours all in the same document
• Word processors are now relatively affordable and easy to use

Not long ago, though, if you wanted to mix images and text (or even use different fonts) you had to use a specialised piece of software called a Desktop Publisher. Now, though, the distinction between word processors and desktop publishing software is becoming less marked.

However, good DTP software will:

• help you to combine text and graphics in the same document
• provide tools for lining up text and pictures on the page
• let you view the finished document before printing it
• provide tools for shading and layering objects within a document