PageMaker was one of the first desktop publishing programs, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the then-new Apple Macintosh and in 1987 for PCs running Windows 1.0.

PageMaker was awarded an SPA Excellence in Software Award for Best New Use of a Computer in 1986.

PageMaker relies on Adobe Systems' PostScript page description language, and in 1994 Adobe Systems acquired Aldus and PageMaker.

As an application relying on a graphical user interface, PageMaker helped to popularize the Macintosh platform and the Windows environment.^{[citation needed]}

Version 1.2 for Macintosh was released in 1986 and added support for PostScript fonts built into LaserWriter Plus or downloaded to the memory of other output devices.

Until May 1987 the initial Windows release was bundled with a full version of Windows 1.0.3, after that date a "Windows-runtime" with no task-switching capabilities was included. Thus, users who did not have Windows could run the application from MS-DOS.

Version 3 for Macintosh was shipped in April 1988. PageMaker 3.0 for the PC was shipped in May 1988 and required Windows 2.0, which was bundled as a run-time version. Version 3.01 was available for OS/2 and took extensive advantage of multithreading for improved user responsiveness.