Digital Page Publishers, Ltd. evolved from a print-based publishing enterprise into an electronic-only publisher in 1994.

The founder of DPPL, Dr. Thomas West, entered print publishing by setting up one of the first desk-top-publishing ventures in Europe, with the help of Apple Europe. The difficulties of printing in English and other languages in France, where composers were still rekeying copy on Linotronic machines that had just replaced their hot metal ancestors, made the move to the desktop solution imperative. Once set up with a few Macs - with and without hard drives - with Photoshop 1.5 and Director 1.1, the next stop was the electronic kiosk and the CD-ROM.

Mixing CDs and books, CD-ROMs and books, which West did as multimedia director at Callaway Editions in New York City, brought to light an essential lesson, namely that each medium has its unique strengths; and mixing them can be as perilous as it can be rewarding. If the strength of print is its permanence and its collectability, the strength of electronic media is its evanescence and immediacy.

For this reason Digital Page Publishers, Ltd. focused, from the outset, on database design, transactional Internet applications and network solutions that united hitherto unconnected groups of people, on the Internet, on intranets, on bulletin boards, in databases and knowledge resources.

Today, several tech wrecks later, the Internet remains the essential motor of cost-saving and money-making, a tool of socialization and group awareness and of change. DPPL has been exclusively occupied with this technology since 1994. Today, based in Manhattan with affiliate offices in New Jersey and in Belgium, the company is profitable, conservatively managed and debt-free - and continues to enjoy a steady rate of growth.