Desktop Publishing is the process of using computer and specific type of software to combine text and artwork to produce documents properly formatted for print, web or mobile devices such as newsletters, brochures, books, business cards, web pages, greeting cards, letterhead, packaging, etc. Desktop Publishing can encompass everything from initial designing to printing and delivery of finished product. The core parts of desktop publishing is page layout, text composition and the prepress or digital file preparation tasks.

Desktop Publishers use publishing software to create page layouts for print or electronic publication. They typically gather existing material or work with designers and writers to create new artwork or text, find and edit graphics, such as photographs or illustrations, use scanners to turn drawings and other materials into digital images, import text and graphics into desktop publishing software programs, position artwork and text on the page layout, select formatting properties, such as text size, column width and spacing, check proofs or preliminary layouts, for errors and make corrections, finalize formatted documents for printing or electronic publication and send final files to a commercial printer or print the documents on a high-resolution printer.