Post #816217

2026-03-28 00:00 UTC

🪨 Aldus PageMaker on the Apple Macintosh 🛠️ It wasn&#39;t the first desktop publishing app, but it was the first of importance. I use it to rebuild the 40-year defunct #OMNI Magazine, resurrect a 40-year defunct software rivalry, and examine how the effects of the publishing revolution trickled through the public sector. This post comes with a free gift! #retrocomputing #mac #pagemaker https://stonetools.ghost.io/pagemaker-mac

Replies (11)

@oscarfalcon@mastodon.social 2026-03-28 00:06

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social Ha, I have an early iMac with system 9 and still runs Aldus Pagemaker (the before adobe acquisition Pagemaker).

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@oscarfalcon@mastodon.social 2026-03-28 00:16

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social Thank you for the font, been wanting that font for ages and I thought I had it installed but alas no and then boom, gift! Thanks!

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@paulmcaleer@mastodon.social 2026-03-28 00:21

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social Hell yeah, this is tremendous. Thank you. PageMaker was the first DTP program I ever used (but geoPublish was my home because I was a hardcore Commodore head), and you captured the fever pitch on the desktop publishing revolution well. We lost something along the way though.

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@the5thColumnist@mstdn.ca 2026-03-28 02:51

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social I remember using Ventura Publisher. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventura_Publisher

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@raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie 2026-03-28 09:36

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social It's a pity they were devoured by Adobe.

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@storiesofapple@bitbang.social 2026-03-28 12:31

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social that picture of John Warnock at Seybold is 🔥

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@Magicmix1@mastodon.social 2026-03-28 12:42

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social Excellent article! Thank you.

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@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social 2026-03-29 00:20

@Mimi@oldbytes.space Someone else in the same industry told me their nickname for it was PageF*cker.

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@europlus@social.europlus.zone 2026-03-29 12:04

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social I’m looking forward to reading this – I think PM5 was the version that fixed a bug I reported to Aldus when it was being developed which had been at least in v4/4.2, and possibly earlier (I’d have to check). Apparently the devs named the bug after me internally, but I’ve never had (nor seen), proof of that. I’ll share the story, but not tonight (I may have to write it up).

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@pronoiac@mefi.social 2026-04-03 04:28

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social about the Omni font, and requests for improvements: Have you already scoured the scans at the Internet Archive? What kind of DPI are you looking for? Have you posted a list of what you've already looked at?

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@Mimi@oldbytes.space 2026-03-28 23:54

@stonetoolsblog@mastodon.social I worked in commercial printing and electronic prepress and we called it Ragemaker. It made … choices. QuarkXPress destroyed it

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