Publishing in the "What You See Is What You Get" format has long been a primary personal computer sales feature. Whether used by a specialist publisher or by a home money-saver, publishing software has redefined the way people create printed materials.

In application of the term "printed", this article includes all current modes of information display: newspapers and e-books, hardcopy text and HTML displays, cards, brochures, posters, flyers, and even email messages. The family of WYSIWYG publishing software can rightly be applied to any aspect of the work at hand. Some programs may be more custom featured than others, perhaps geared directly to the private authors and small to medium enterprises. Some may be extended to meet the detail orientated needs of the professional book publishing industry. But all versions of publisher software share a certain basic feature. They are designed to help the user create and control the placement of computer generated text, symbols, graphics, and photos.

When relaying any form of printed information, visual imagery can play a major role. For this reason, most email providers have long included basic word processing features in their compilation software. Though powerful in themselves, word processors are not full-featured publishing software. They well fit a limited need, and the average home user may find complete satisfaction through the graphic control features of a word processor, or a greeting card creator, or a basic photo editor.

Employment of publishing professionals is on the rise. The current growth rate exceeds the average for all current occupations, and is expected to remain so through to 2016. Serious page layout and design work has become an in-house project. High performance computers matched to sophisticated publishing software are being pared to top-level professional desktop publishing specialists. The costly, time consuming prepress work of old that was once handled by compositors and typesetters, is now being detailed by qualified desktop publishing professionals.

Publisher software reduces costs and speeds printed material production. The more common desktop publishing software becomes, the cheaper and easier it is to use. Yet in all things, training is pre-eminent. New jobs for digital publishers are emerging in Internet web design, commercial printing, and other publishing establishments. With a median annual earning figure of $34,000, and the increased growth in work-at-home opportunities, a position in publishing may be a premium career goal.

But as we earlier wrote, training is pre-eminent. Accurate knowledge of a given publishing software package is no certainty of employment. One needs to know and understand the basic terms of the business, the scope of which is far greater than this article can cover.