The technological challenge: capabilities,compatibilities, and cost-effectiveness of electronic publishing

The rapid decline in the price of computer hardware and the steady increase in the power of computer software are making it harder for corporate service centers like word processing, graphic arts, and technical publications to justify the costs of, and even the need for, their services. Word processing could once be done only on expensive equipment that was economical only for trained specialists. Now virtually anyone can have word-processing capability, and the same is becoming true for graphics and document-production services. This article outlines the dimensions of the problem this technological revolution is creating and describes the technological aspects of a strategy we have devised to deal with it.