Aldus Corporation
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1984 in Seattle, United States |
| Founder | Paul Brainerd, Jeremy Jaech, Mark Sundstrom, Mike Templeman, Dave Walter |
| Fate | Acquired by Adobe Systems in 1994 |
| Headquarters | Seattle , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Paul Brainerd (Chairman and co-founder) |
| Products | PageMaker, FreeHand, ColorCentral, PressWise, PrintCentral, TrapWise, Gallery Effects, Persuasion, PhotoStyler, TextureMaker, SuperPaint, Intellidraw, After Effects, Hitchcock, Fetch, Digital Darkroom, Personal Press, DateBook Pro, IntelliDraw, Super3D, SuperCard, TouchBase Pro |
| Parent | Adobe Systems (from 1994) |
Aldus Corporation was a prominent American software company recognized for its groundbreaking contributions to desktop publishing software. Its leading product, PageMaker, transformed the publishing sector by facilitating the extensive adoption of desktop computers such as the Macintosh. The term desktop publishing was introduced by co-founder Paul Brainerd to define this innovative concept. Additionally, the firm played a significant role in creating the Tag Image File Format (TIFF), which became a widely accepted standard in digital imaging.
Established in 1984 in Seattle by Brainerd (who acted as chairman), Jeremy Jaech, Mark Sundstrom, Mike Templeman, and Dave Walter, Aldus was purchased by Adobe Systems in 1994. The company’s name pays tribute to Aldus Manutius, a Venetian printer from the 15th century.
History
The debut of PageMaker occurred in July 1985, utilizing Adobe’s PostScript page description language alongside the Apple LaserWriter printer. A version compatible with PCs was released in 1986.
In 1988, Aldus introduced FreeHand, an illustration application licensed from Altsys, positioned as a competitor to Adobe Illustrator. Although Adobe acquired Aldus in 1994, FreeHand remained independent until Adobe obtained it through Macromedia in 2005. The last Adobe iteration was FreeHand MX, which is no longer available or maintained.
At the start of 1990, Aldus purchased Silicon Beach Software, gaining access to consumer Macintosh software including SuperPaint, Digital Darkroom, SuperCard, Super3D, and Personal Press (later renamed Adobe Home Publisher). Silicon Beach was integrated as Aldus’s Consumer Division.
In 1993, Aldus further expanded by acquiring After Hours Software—bringing TouchBase Pro and DateBook Pro into its Consumer Division—and also took ownership of the Company of Science and Art (CoSA).
Adobe completed its acquisition of Aldus in September 1994 for $446 million. At that time, PageMaker was losing ground to QuarkXPress; Adobe would later introduce its own desktop publishing solution, InDesign, five years afterward. PageMaker was phased out in 2001 following two releases under Adobe’s management, with users encouraged to switch to InDesign.
Aldus contributed substantially to industry standards such as TIFF and OPI. It is notable that three founders of Visio Corporation left Aldus in 1990 to establish what would become Microsoft Office Visio.
Company name
The designation Aldus Corporation was chosen by Paul Brainerd and his partners as an homage to Aldus Pius Manutius, a Venetian publisher from the fifteenth century renowned for standardizing punctuation and introducing various typefaces including the first italic font. Manutius also founded the Aldine Press, regarded as the earliest modern publishing establishment.
Print publishing
- PageMaker — An early groundbreaking desktop publishing application
Prepress
- ColorCentral — OPI server solution
- PressWise — Software for digital imposition
- PrintCentral — Spooling software for print output
- TrapWise — Digital trapping tool
Graphics
- FreeHand — Vector graphic design software
- Gallery Effects
- Persuasion — Presentation creation software
- PhotoStyler — Bitmap image editing tool
- TextureMaker — Tool for generating textures and patterns
- SuperPaint — Application combining painting and vector drawing features
- Intellidraw — Intuitive drawing software
Aldus Interactive Publishing/CoSA
- After Effects — Software designed for digital motion graphics creation and compositing
- Hitchcock — Advanced non-linear video editing tool featuring titling and audio/video transitions
- Fetch — Solution for multimedia database management
Aldus Consumer Division
(previously known as Silicon Beach Software and After Hours Software)
- Digital Darkroom — Software for photo enhancement
- Personal Press — Desktop publishing software aimed at consumers
- DateBook Pro — Tool for managing calendars
- IntelliDraw — Program for vector-based drawing
- Super3D — Software dedicated to 3D modeling
- SuperCard — Multimedia authoring platform
- TouchBase Pro — Application designed for contact management