InDesign Magazine Turns 15
Addison Lalier takes a look back at 15 years of InDesign Magazine, with the people who were there at the beginning.
This article appears in Issue 123 of InDesign Magazine.
When Pam Pfiffner and David Blatner launched InDesign Magazine in 2004, they had no idea it would grow into the publication it is today.
What began as a desire to provide a new resource for users of all levels has been transformed into a reliable source of how-tos, in-depth features, and quick tips on all things InDesign. Essentially, “a hub of professional users writing for professional users,” said Blatner.
Here are some of the notable moments and transformations over the last 15 years of InDesign Magazine.
1999: Adobe Launches InDesign 1.0
Prior to InDesign, the page layout space was primarily owned by PageMaker and QuarkXPress. While both programs delivered much in terms of innovation, some features (and at times, customer service) failed to deliver. The leadership at Adobe saw an opportunity to develop a better alternative—and they did (Figure 1).
Figure 1. InDesign 1.0, with its full collection of panels displayed. Photo: Andrew Keith Strauss
2004: InDesign Magazine Launches Issue #1
Pam Pfiffner had spent most of the 1990s editing magazines such as MacWeek and MacUser. She helped launch CreativePro.com in 1999 and acted as its Editor in Chief. (Fun fact: The site was originally published by Extensis Corporation!) In late 2003, Pfiffner dreamt about expanding the site’s reach toward larger projects that would not only engage her personally, but also serve the community of creative professionals.
“As InDesign’s adoption by high-end designers increased, I realized that there wasn’t a resource for those new to the software. It made sense to me to offer how-tos, tips, and so on for this new audience—many of whom were migrating from QuarkXPress. In addition to the under-the-hood information, I also wanted to showcase the successful designs of people already using the software, a proof-of-concept kind of thing,” said Pfiffner.
She approached David Blatner for the role of Editorial Director, both for his InDesign knowhow and breadth of contacts. Also on the kickoff team was Cindy Samco, who managed the technical back end of the site, and Jeff Lalier, who handled advertising and partnerships.
Believe it or not, the first issue launched in Blatner’s hotel room during a conference they were attending. Even though publishing a PDF doesn’t require more than a click, it was a “momentous occasion” for all those involved in the room, including designer Scott Citron, PDF expert Diane Burns, and InDesign scripting master and author of Real World InDesign Olav Martin Kvern. But it wasn’t that easy.
“David prepped the InDesign file—we were using InDesign CS, I think—and clicked to export to PDF. His Mac froze. Restart! He tried again. Froze again. Restart again!” recalled Pfiffner. “The consensus was there’s something amiss with the file itself.”
Pfiffner described the scene as NASA engineers at Mission Control checking systems before liftoff.
After an internal deep dive into potentially corrupted graphics, settings, and obscure options, Olav Kvern saved it as an INX file (a predecessor to IDML). That solved the problem, paving the way for InDesign Magazine to launch into the world (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Our first issue
2005: The One and Only Print Edition of InDesign Magazine
InDesign Magazine was, from the beginning, published as a downloadable PDF. The reasons for this were entirely practical. First, the publication started on a shoestring budget that simply couldn’t support printing and mailing. (This was ironic because by this time, CreativePro had been sold to Montana-based printing company Printing For Less.) But more importantly, many of the earliest InDesign users and potential readers lived in Australia and Europe. A PDF magazine meant that everyone could get their issue the day it was published.
Nevertheless, there was a great interest in seeing the magazine—even one issue—in print. In 2005, Adobe offered to pay for a special printing of the magazine. Since each issue was (and still is) only available in digital format, a tangible magazine that readers could hold in their hands was a big deal.
Even more exciting, the internationally renowned illustrator Louis Fischauf agreed to design the commemorative cover (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The cover of the only printed issue of InDesign Magazine
This cover was also later used for the trial edition. The issue ended up being printed on heavy glossy stock, making the whole thing feel more like a commemorative program from
a sports event than a magazine.
2005: Terri Stone Becomes Editor in Chief
Sadly, only a few issues into InDesign Magazine’s first year, Pam Pfiffner was lured away to work at Peachpit Press on their Adobe Press imprint. Fortunately, she found a worthy replacement: Terri Stone.
“InDesign Magazine took a quantum leap forward when Terri took over,” said Pfiffner. “She brought on a lot of new designers, some of them well-known, for cover design and other graphic elements. Visually, the magazine had a lot more pep in its step during her tenure as Editor in Chief. She also expanded editorial to include typography and other aspects of design.” (Figure 4)
Figure 4. Terri Stone takes the wheel in Issue #5.
2006: Time for a Redesign
Back in 2004, InDesign Magazine had first been designed by Scott Citron in a portrait layout, with the thought that it should appear like a traditional magazine (Figure 5). Also the team widely believed that most readers would print out their copies after downloading the PDF.
Figure 5. A traditional print magazine format was used for the first 14 issues.
“But, as people became accustomed to reading longer-form content on the web, and—crucially—the PDF format evolved from being purely for print to incorporating features aimed for interactive onscreen use, David and I decided it was time to change to a horizontal layout that was better suited to onscreen reading,” said Stone.
In 2006, they hired Swiss/Italian designer Rufus Deuchler to revamp the publication in a horizontal and interactive format (Figure 6). Today Deuchler is Adobe’s Principal Manager of Creative Cloud Evangelism.
Figure 6. Issue #15, the landscape format debuts
“What needed to be done was to create a system that could be easily used by a non-designer to lay out the magazine, month after month. So I developed the grid system, stylesheets, the interactive navigation, and a new logo!” said Deuchler.
“It was super exciting for me because I got to play with the new interactive features of InDesign and was able to create a navigation system that would help readers of the interactive PDF.”
Though the landscape format proved popular, many readers still liked to print their own copy of each issue. This led to publishing a “2-up-for-print” version for those readers, many of whom still keep a binder of printed issues as a handy reference (Figure 7).
Figure 7. The 2-up version remains popular with subscribers who like to print their own copy of each issue.
2007: A New Logo Takes Flight
From the earliest days of InDesign, Adobe used a butterfly in InDesign’s branding. A butterfly appeared in every splash screen and virtually all marketing materials from 1999 up until the release of version CS3 in 2007 (Figure 8).
Figure 8. The butterfly was synonymous with InDesign for many years.
However, InDesign Magazine still used the butterfly in its logo and software reviews long after Adobe dropped it. But, why?
“I’d say about 30% nostalgia, 10% brand recognition, and 60% inertia! It’s hard to change a logo,” said Blatner. “But by the time we redesigned the magazine again, in late 2017, we knew we had to do it.” (Figure 9)
Figure 9. The evolution of the InDesign Magazine logo
2010: The InDesign Magazine App Released
In 2010, when the first Apple iPad was released, Adobe jumped on the bandwagon and created a tool to create apps called Adobe DPS, or, Digital Publishing System. This allowed publishers to quickly convert their publications for tablet devices. The first app created with DPS was WIRED magazine, for Condé Nast publishers.
Adobe knew they would need to convince designers to try the new system, and what better way than to showcase a magazine InDesign users were already reading! Adobe worked with Stone and Blatner to build an InDesign Magazine app for the iPad. The app allowed readers access to a digital, tablet version of the magazine.
However, the team quickly realized that the magazine design was hard to read on a small tablet screen. Terri asked Jennifer Wills to gently rework the page design. These changes to make the magazine “screen ready,” such as larger text and fewer columns, were launched in Issue #38.
Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that creating a DPS app in addition to publishing the PDF was going to be too costly, both in time and money. So while the tablet app was not sustainable, it did influence a new reader-friendly layout of the magazine.
2012: A New Editor in Chief Arrives
In the Spring of 2012, Adobe launched InDesign CS6—the last version before Creative Cloud—and Terri Stone left the magazine for an awesome gig at Adobe. (She now edits the inspirational Create site and ’zine.) Taking her place was InDesign expert and author Mike Rankin. Since that time, Mike has overseen the production of 77 issues. And until recently Mike also handled the design and layout work—and authored 20 articles for the magazine (Figure 10). Yes, he drinks a lot of coffee.
Figure 10. Issue #47 marked the arrival of a new version of InDesign and a new Editor in Chief
Printing for Less owned InDesign Magazine from its launch in July 2004 until March 2013. At that time, Publishing Secrets, owned by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción, bought the publication along with the CreativePro.com site. (In February 2015, Publishing Secrets became the Creative Publishing Network, and in January 2018, became the CreativePro Network, or CPN.)
For the magazine’s first ten years, it was published every other month. Then, in February 2014, as the magazine was brought under the umbrella of an annual membership at InDesignSecrets.com, it changed to a monthly schedule.
By 2017, though, the magazine’s design was feeling a bit outdated, and CPN hired graphic designer Pam Sparks to give it a new lease on life. (See Issue #106 to learn the many font, color, and readability decisions that went into the redesign of the magazine and logo.)
2019: Looking Back on 15 Years
Early on, Blatner and Pfiffner set the tone that InDesign Magazine would be a trusted resource for users who wanted to share the cool stuff they’ve learned in InDesign. This resonated with those people who either were looking for help, wanting to help, or hoping to explore new features, all with the same goal of becoming more efficient in their work.
But InDesign Magazine has a deeper mission, too: “The more you learn about these tools, the more fun it is to use them,” said Blatner. And over the past 15 years, InDesign Magazine has helped thousands of users have more fun in their work.
As Pam Pfiffner recently told me, over the last 15 years “the content has vastly improved. As InDesign itself has evolved, so too has the technical content. David is indeed an InDesign expert, and he has deep connections with the InDesign community. He’s run articles about workarounds for problems I didn’t even know existed. The level of expertise running through the pages of InDesign Magazine astonishes me. David and current editor-in-chief Mike Rankin are like two peas in a pod. Both are tremendously smart and creative and know InDesign inside and out,” concluded Pfiffner.
Today, InDesign Magazine still has many subscribers who have been reading since Issue #1. We’ve literally grown up together, as InDesign itself has grown up (Figure 11). The magazine shows no sign of slowing down—we can’t wait to see what the future will bring!
Figure 11. Today we cover InDesign from all angles, including how the program integrates with other software, the people who use it, and its place in the wider world.
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This article was last modified on November 14, 2025
This article was first published on July 18, 2019
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