Arbortext Publishing Engine publishing supports both synchronous and asynchronous publishing operations. Most operations are synchronous, meaning the inner layer of the publishing framework calls the Client Composer, which in turn does its job, awaits a response from the Arbortext PE server, and returns to the publishing framework in a single thread of execution. While awaiting a response from the server, Arbortext Editor is blocked; the user is prevented from doing work.

However, preview and print composed operations are asynchronous, unless the user specifies print composed wait or preview wait (then the operation is synchronous). The Client Composer creates a background task to perform the publishing operation, then returns to the publishing framework instantly. For an asynchronous operation, Arbortext Editor does not wait for the Arbortext PE server to respond. Instead, the user can continue working as if the operation succeeded. After some time passes, the Preview window will open or the printer will start printing.