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.

November, 1999

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.

Desktop Publishing Today — Tool as Fetish?

I was recently in a discussion in which an elaborate workaround was developed to solve a problem involving getting something from one document to print in another document. Finally, I remarked that the job would already be done and forgotten if the person had just gone to the light table with a little wax or rubber cement and pasted it up the old fashioned way!

Have we become obsessed with tools instead of design? Fonts instead of typography? File formats instead of data?

The biggest questions facing a desktop publisher today are largely the same as they were fifteen years ago, when Apple Computer (with the Macintosh and LaserWriter) and Aldus Corporation (with Aldus PageMaker, now owned by Adobe) launched the desktop publishing revolution.

What software should I use? Today there are PageMaker, FrameMaker, QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, and a few others, each with their own features, strengths, and weaknesses.

Why won't my file print? Why won't it open? Why does it look different at the print shop than it does in my office? What font should I use? Should I get a scanner? A digital camera? Clip art? Stock photography?

The current version of PageMaker is 6.5 Plus (6.5.2), which addresses many of the problems desktop publishing professionals have struggled with for years. But there are still features we have been screaming for since the '80s, like footnotes, and gremlins like document corruption and easy exchange of documents and images, which is still more art than science, even between Adobe's own applications. It also fails to take advantage of some cutting edge features of today's operating systems, such as Apple's FontSync.

Add to this mix Adobe's new desktop publishing program called InDesign, which has been viewed alternately as the "Quark Killer" and the "PageMaker Killer." Is it either? Both? That remains to be seen. It has many amazing features, most notably multi-line composition, the best typography engine available, but many holes. For instance, it still does not do footnotes, and it lacks basic features PageMaker users have relied on for years, like "Build Booklet."

But it is the new child, and Adobe is promoting it heavily, to the detriment of PageMaker. Will there be a PageMaker 7? If so, what will be its features? There is still time to be heard on the issues you think are important! Should Hyphenation & Justification (H&J) be overhauled, or should they devote the time to adding a bézier drawing tool? Is there an issue you've been dying to bring to Adobe's attention? Visit Adobe's Customer Feedback page today!

Of course, if you're fed up with computers, PostScript, and the lot, you can still get by with a light table and some wax. You can even buy them on-line, at Charrette's, Rex Art, or Mr. Art.

Book of the Month

PageMaker 6.5 Complete by Rick Wallace PageMaker 6.5 Complete by Rick Wallace and Shamms Mortier

Buy it online!

This is a great book by an outstanding author. When you've moved past PageMaker for Dummies and the manual just won't cut it, you can't go wrong with this one. At 900 pages, you won't want to carry it around with you, but this is both a comprehensive reference book and a PageMaker learning tool with tutorials. From the basics (setting up preferences, master pages, type and paragraph specs) to more advanced issues (scripting, trapping, indexing, prepress), this book covers it all. Even if you already have a good PageMaker 6 reference, you may want to take a look, since this book also covers many of PageMaker 6.5's new features, such as frames and improved web output. For both Mac and Windows users. Highly recommended.

Product of the Month

FRÆMZ PS is a plugin for PageMaker which has been on the market for six years. With Fræmz, you can create borders of all sorts from within PageMaker — no clip art needed! Draw a rectangle of any size, choose from over 400 styles, and get an instant PostScript border, including drop shadow if desired. Very useful if you produce lots of certificates, awards, wanted posters, etc. Download a demo of Fræmz (as well as other PageMaker plug ins, like Arrowz) at the ShadeTree Marketing web site <http://www.borderguys.com>.

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