A key component that led to PageMaker's success was its native support forAdobe Systems'PostScript page description language. After Adobe purchased the majority of Aldus's assets (includingFreeHand,PressWise, PageMaker, etc.) in 1994 and subsequently phased out the Aldus name, version 6 was released. The program remained a major force in the high-end DTP market through the early 1990s, but new features were slow in coming. By the mid-1990s, it faced increasing competition fromQuarkXPress on the Mac, and to a lesser degree,Ventura on the PC, and by the end of the decade it was no longer a major force. Quark proposed buying the product and canceling it, but instead, in 1999 Adobe released their "Quark Killer",Adobe InDesign. The last major release of PageMaker came in 2001, and customers were offered InDesign licenses at a lower cost.
Aldus PageMaker 1.0 was released in July 1985 for the Macintosh and in December 1986 for the IBM PC.[5][6]
Aldus PageMaker 1.2 for Macintosh was released in 1986 and added support for PostScript fonts built intoLaserWriter Plus or downloaded to the memory of other output devices.[7] PageMaker was awarded aCodie award forBest New Use of a Computer in 1986. In October 1986, a version of PageMaker was made available forHewlett-Packard'sHP Vectra computers. In 1987, PageMaker was available onDigital Equipment'sVAXstation computers.[6]
Aldus PageMaker 2.0 was released in 1987. Until May 1987, the initial Windows release was bundled with a full version of Windows 1.0.3; after that date, a "Windows-runtime" without task-switching capabilities was included.[8][9] Thus, users who did not have Windows could run the application fromMS-DOS.
Aldus PageMaker 3.0 for Macintosh was shipped in April 1988.[10] PageMaker 3.0 for the PC was shipped in May 1988[11] and requiredWindows 2.0,[12] which was bundled as a run-time version.[13] Version 3.01 was available forOS/2 and took extensive advantage ofmultithreading for improved user responsiveness.
Aldus PageMaker 4.0 for Macintosh was released in 1990 and offered new word-processing capabilities, expanded typographic controls, and enhanced features for handling long documents.[14] A version for the PC was available by 1991.
Aldus PageMaker 5.0 was released in January 1993.[6]
Adobe PageMaker 6.0 was released in 1995, a year after Adobe Systems acquired Aldus Corporation.
Adobe PageMaker 6.5 was released in 1996. Support for versions 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, and 6.5 is no longer offered through the official Adobe support system. Due to Aldus' use of closed, proprietary data formats, this posessubstantial problems for users who have works authored in these legacy versions.
Adobe PageMaker 7.0 was the final version made available. It was released 9 July 2001, though updates have been released for the two supported platforms since. The Macintosh version runs only inMac OS 9 or earlier; there is no native support forMac OS X,[15] and it does not run on Intel-based Macs withoutSheepShaver. It does not run well underClassic, and Adobe recommends that customers use an older Macintosh capable of booting into Mac OS 9. The Windows version supportsWindows XP, but according to Adobe, "PageMaker 7.x does not install or run on Windows Vista."[16]
The box cover for theInDesign 2 upgrade from PageMaker. This software was the successor to PageMaker.
Development of PageMaker had flagged in the later years at Aldus and, by 1998, PageMaker had lost almost the entire professional market[17] to the comparativelyfeature-richQuarkXPress 3.3, released in 1992, and 4.0, released in 1996. Quark stated its intention to buy out Adobe and to divest the combined company of PageMaker to avoid anti-trust issues. Adobe rebuffed the offer and instead continued to work on a new page layout application code-named "Shuksan" (later "K2"), originally started by Aldus, openly planned and positioned as a "Quark killer". This was released asAdobe InDesign 1.0 in 1999.[18][19]
The last major release of PageMaker was 7.0 in 2001, after which the product was seen as "languishing on life support".[20] Adobe ceased all development of PageMaker in 2004 and "strongly encouraged" users to migrate to InDesign, initially through special "InDesign PageMaker Edition" and "PageMaker Plug-in" versions, which added PageMaker's data merge, bullet, and numbering features to InDesign, and provided PageMaker-oriented help topics, complimentaryMyriad Pro fonts, and templates.[21] From 2005, these features were bundled into InDesign CS2, which was offered at half-price to existing PageMaker customers.[22][23]
No new major versions of Adobe PageMaker have been released since, and it does not ship alongside Adobe InDesign.
Comparing PageMaker's importance to that ofVisiCalc andLotus 1-2-3,InfoWorld in September 1985 said that the software was superior to competitors such asReady, Set, Go! andMacPublisher, easy to learn, powerful, and fast. Stating that "Its powers virtually demand a Laserwriter", the magazine concluded that "if your group owns a Laserwriter, you've got to own Page Maker".[24]
BYTE in 1989 listed PageMaker 3.0 as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards, stating that it "is the program that showed many of us how to use the Macintosh to its full potential".[25]
Adobe PageMaker file formats use variousfilename extensions, including PMD, PM3, PM4, PM5, PM6 and P65; these should be readable by the applicationsCollabora Online,LibreOffice orApache OpenOffice, they can then be saved into the OpenDocument format or other file formats.
^Michael J. Miller:First Look. In:InfoWorld Volume 9, Issue 9, 2 March 1987.ISSN0199-6649. - Short comparison of PageMaker,Ventura Publisher and Harvard Professional Publisher, a modified version of Superpage by Bestinfo.
^Aldus Corp. Ships PageMaker 3.0 for the Macintosh. BusinessWire, 24 March 1988.
^Aldus Ships PC Version of PageMaker 3.0. Businesswire, 19 May 1988.
^The precise Windows version required was 2.03, which is the exact version number of the first publicly available Windows 2 release. cf.Windows Version History. Microsoft Knowledge Base, Document No. 32905. Last access date 22 July 2010.
