DTP software ripens at 25!
anno 1985...

History of Desktop Publishing or DTP software
Aldus, Adobe, Macromedia and Quark - 25 years in the making...
--- Timeline of DTP ---

• 1985 - Aldus Corp releases PageMaker for the Macintosh in July 1985, and relied on Adobe's PostScript page description language.
• 1986 - This year sees PageMaker PC come out; Mac is by then de-facto standard in Desktop Publishing.
• 1987 - QuarkXPress jumps into the page-layout scene in 1987!
• 1987 - In 1987 Adobe Illustrator is brought on the scene.
• 1990 - This year sees Adobe's Photoshop spring to life (Wow, 20 year anniversary for .psd!).
• 1990(?) - FreeHand is created by Altsys and licensed to Aldus and brought to illustrators around the globe!
• 1990's - The 90's see Quark becoming the most used application in DTP, helped by their partners program for XTension developers, like Markzware, one of the longest standing still operating today.
• 1993 – PDF 1.0 and Acrobat 1.0 comes from Adobe.(see)
• 1994 - September 1994 sees Aldus merging with Adobe and PageMaker get's new wings, but largely stays caged.
• 1995 - '95 sees Patrick Marchese and Ronald Crandall launching FlightCheck at Seybold S.F.
• 1996 - In 1996 QuarkXPress v 3.3 released, with stable handling of Adobe's Postscript fonts as well as with Apple's TrueType fonts, makes Quark the undisputed king of desktop publishing of that era.
• Quark had 90% market share in the 1990s, but was highly criticized for not innovating enough (Believe it or not, the users wanted MORE Upgrades!).
• 1997 - November 24, 1997, Markzware files for and is granted US Patent # 5,963,641 for Preflighting.
• 1999 - "K2" is released by Adobe as InDesign v1.0 in 1999!
• 2001 - In April of 2001, PDF/X-1 and PDF/X-1a become ISO standards internationally.
• 2002 -  We see a Quark conflict with Apple and the release of Adobe InDesign 2.0, working smoothly.
• 2005 - December 3, 2005 Adobe gobbles up competitor Macromedia, solidifying the new standard in graphic arts software.
• 2005 - Version 3.0 of InDesign included in Creative Suite (CS) by Adobe with Photoshop, Illustrator and Adobe PDF Acrobat.
• 2007 - In 2007 we see InDesign CS3 and Creative Suite 3 come to market. Many say, including myself from the number of CS3 files we get in, that CS3 is still the most widely used software in DTP today.
• 2008 - QuarkXPress v8.0 comes out in 2008, but the masses are rapidly switching to InDesign.
• 2008 - CS4 and Adobe InDesign CS4 released into a rough economy.
• 2010 - ???
  Sources: [FreeHand] [Aldus] [QuarkXPress] [Macromedia] [Adobe] [PDF] [PDF/X] [FlightCheck] [preflight] - Note: If you have any corrections or additions, please comment below and let us know!

  
  

So, is Quark the Aldus of today?  DTP 25 years in the making; no surprise thus that the Macintosh Computer is 26 years old, now is it...

Johannes Gutenberg would be amazed how easy a layout is to make these days, but perhaps disgusted on how many printing-problems can arise from "using software" as well! Thanks Willy for the comment which promoted this post!

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