What is "aldus"

Aldus Corporation was a software company that developed desktop publishing (DTP) software. It is known for developing PageMaker, an early product in the desktop publishing field. The company is named after 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, and was founded by Jeremy Jaech, Mark Sundstrom, Mike Templeman, Dave Walter, and chairman Paul Brainerd. Aldus Corporation was based in Seattle, Washington.

Aldus is an old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf in 1954. It is named for Aldus Manutius, the famous fifteenth-century Venetian printer.

Aldus was designed as a book weight text face companion for Palatino, which Zapf considered to be a display typeface. Aldus (which Zapf wished to be called Palatino Book) is designed to complement Palatino, but with a lighter stroke weight, more open counters, and better suited for text in smaller point sizes. Aldus has a non-kerning roman and italic f, allowing the typographer to avoid ligatures.