Design philosophy: all information in this web site should be accessible to the intended audience regardless of platform, browser, or size of screen. Graphics are kept to a minimum to reduce download times. If you see a frame or an animated GIF, feel free to flame me mercilessly.

This site uses fully compliant cascading style sheets (CSS). Older browsers should display text in their default fonts, while more recent browsers will all display fully formatted text. (However, the styles sheets will look best viewed in Internet Explorer 4.0 or above.) The site also complies with major accessibility standards.

Colophon

The base font for this page is Trebuchet MS, a free font from Microsoft designed for on-screen readability at small point sizes. The headlines are 32 pt Times bold italic, combining elegance, classical proportions, and compactness.

The logo is variation on the original logo from Aldus PageMaker and depicts Aldus Manutius, a student of Johannes Gutenberg and inventor of italics. This is to echo the roots of desktop publishing, both in the 1450s and the 1980s. The logo uses Courier from ITC to evoke the feel of metal type and Poetica from Adobe Systems to evoke the era of hand lettering.

Made on a Macintosh using Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia DreamWeaver.

February, 2000

You have reached the home page of the PAGEMAKR mailing list, an internet resource for desktop publishers, particularly users of Adobe PageMaker software. Our subscription base varies in size from 1,000-2,000, with a core of wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful members. Mail messages can be received as they are posted or once daily as a digest. You will find subscription instructions on the subscription help page, or you can write to a listowner at pagemakr-request@listserv.iupui.edu.

PageMaker 7.0?

Last year in my Seybold Boston report, I reported gushingly on InDesign and GoLive, and labeled Quark a "loser." (For details, see my write-up of Seybold Boston 1999.) OK, I was the loser. Quark is doing just fine, thank you, and Dreamweaver, already better in many ways than GoLive, announced a major upgrade to 3.0. So right off the bat I was 0 for 2. Then I wrote a "so what" mention of PageMaker 6.5 Plus and wondered about the future of PageMaker. Nowadays, all Adobe wants to talk about are InDesign and PDF. (See my report on Seybold Boston 2000 for more.)

Much has been written over the last year about Adobe's indifference to PageMaker, but little has changed. PageMaker 6.5.2, long the state of the art before "Plus," hasn't had a single update since last year's conference, and despite numerous pleas from users, Mighty Adobe remains steadfastly mute on the subject. So Rick Dumont and I loaded up our rubber band guns to go have it out with them.

First, we wandered around for a few minutes, looking lost, and finally innocently asked where the PageMaker pod was. "Gee, I don't think we have one this year," said the startled Adobe rep. I said I needed to ask a technical question about PageMaker, so she referred me to the InDesign pod, because "they're both in the layout group." So we listened for about five minutes as the InDesign rep put it through its paces -- exactly the same demo as last year, by the way -- and asked if PageMaker would be Carbon compliant for Mac OS X. No, he replied, PageMaker was not Carbon compliant, but he suspected "a rev will take care of that." Startled, Rick and I glanced at each other and asked, "A 6.6 rev or a 7.0 rev?" He guessed 7.0, but said he didn't know and recommended we ask at the front for a PageMaker expert. After a little searching, a product manager approached us and looked stone faced as we spoke, then said Adobe didn't comment on unannounced products.

"But," we said, "Adobe did comment last week, when it announced that all its Mac products were going to be Carbon compliant."

"Was there a list of products?" he asked. I admitted I had never seen a list, but reminded him that PageMaker was one of their Mac products.

"So what makes you think PageMaker wasn't included?"

We replied that Adobe had been disconcertingly quiet about the fate of PageMaker, and that rumors abounded that, because of the age and complexity of the code base, PageMaker was too difficult to update, and that Adobe might even discontinue it.

"Adobe has no plans to discontinue PageMaker," he replied.

"That means PageMaker will continue to be a Mac product, and since all Adobe's Mac products will be Carbon compliant, there must be a new version of PageMaker in the works," I said.

"Sounds logical to me," said Rick.

"OK," he said, grinning slightly.

"So there's a new verion of PageMaker coming?" we asked.

"Adobe doesn't comment on unannounced products," he said.

Knowing when to give up, we left, feeling a little frustrated but very hopeful. Take from this what you will, but if I were you, I'd keep an eye out on the Adobe home page, especially around the time of Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference, held in San Jose May 15-19, where Apple is expected to hand out Mac OS X beta CDs to developers and announce a ship date. Numerous developers will likely be on hand to announce their products for OS X, and maybe Adobe will be there with PageMaker 7......

Book of the Month

The Complete Guide to Eco-Friendly Design by Poppy Evans (North Light Books, $29.99)

Buy it online!

This is a great book if you buy or create publishing materials and have any concern for the environment. Although brief, at 144 pages (including title page, TOC, and index!), it covers a lot. The $29.99 price tag may seem a little steep, but it's a high quality hardcover and full color throughout. Poppy, former managing editor of HOW magazine a frequent contributor to Print, Publish, and Step By Step, showcases the work of numerous designers and describes how they approached the designs for minimal environmental impact, as well as giving you information and resources to make similar decisions in your work. Among the topics are:

Environmentally friendly paper (recycled, kenaf, tree-free, non-deinked, etc.)
Responsible use of ink, including non-petroleum inks, recycled ink, and Pantone colors with toxic ingredients such as copper and barium
Green prepress, including PhotoCD and efficient use of paper
Alternative methods such as letterpress and environmentally friendly dryography
Listings of printers who use ecologically friendly materials and suppliers of tree free papers, soy inks, recycled packaging, etc.

My only complaints are quibbles. For instance, the book itself was printed in China on non-recycled paper, and the section on energy savings is skimpy and even a little misleading. But overall, it's a four-star book, and one that I, tree hugger that I am, believe should be on the bookshelf of every designer and printer.

(Used with permission)

Product of the Month

PageMaker 7.0, and it hasn't even been announced yet! But in case you still have PageMaker 6.0 or some competing product, such as QuarkXpress of Microsoft Publisher, check out the next best thing to PageMaker 7.0: PageMaker 6.5 Plus, the latest version of the best application for desktop publishers. See PageMaker 6.5 products at Amazon!

Thanks to an idiotic bug in Adobe GoLive a rant on this very subject will appear soon on this page!), the link to "See Photoshop 5.5 products at Amazon!" broke. My apologies—try this one instead.

STEPPS -- Stop Tax Exempt Private Property Sprawl -- Framingham