Aldus Corporation

Aldus Corporation
IndustrySoftware
FoundedFebruary 1984 (1984-02)
Founders
DefunctNovember 1994 (1994-11)
FateMerged
SuccessorAdobe Systems
Headquarters
Seattle
ProductsPageMaker

Aldus Corporation was an American software company best known for its pioneering desktop publishing software. PageMaker, the company's most well-known product, ushered in the modern era of desktop computers such as the Macintosh seeing widespread use in the publishing industry.[1] Paul Brainerd, the company's co-founder, coined the term desktop publishing to describe this paradigm.[2][3] The company also originated the Tag Image File Format (TIFF) file format, widely used in the digital graphics profession.[4][5][6]

Aldus was founded by Brainerd (who also served as chairman of the company's board), Jeremy Jaech, Mark Sundstrom, Mike Templeman, and Dave Walter.[7] It was founded in Seattle, in 1984 and was acquired by Adobe Systems a decade later.

The company was named after 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius.

  1. ^ Fox, John (July 27, 2015). "30 Years Ago, Aldus PageMaker Changed Life on Planet Earth". The Huffington Post. AOL Inc. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020.
  2. ^ Stiff, Paul; Petra Cerne Oven (2004). "The Stafford papers". The optimism of modernity: recovering modern reasoning in typography. Art & Humanities Research Council. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
  3. ^ Gardner, Howard (2010). Responsibility at Work: How Leading Professionals Act (or Don't Act) Responsibly. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118047507 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Sanchez, Julio; Maria P. Canton (2003). The PC Graphics Handbook. CRC Press. p. 422. ISBN 9780203010532 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Kasdorf, William E., ed. (2003). The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing. Columbia University Press. p. 253. ISBN 9780231124997 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Horne, Robin E. N.; Stephen J. Sangwine, eds. (2012). The Colour Image Processing Handbook. Springer. p. 138. ISBN 9781461557791 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Kvern, Olav Martin; Roth, Stephen (1990). Real World Pagemaker 4. Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-34874-4.