The Washington Apple Pi Journal has evolved over the years, as has the user group itself. In The Beginning, there was the Apple II. Many people didn't have disk drives, or printers, and desktop publishing hadn't been invented. So the first editions of the Journal were typed. Gradually the Journal became more sophisticated until...
The introduction of the Macintosh in January, 1984, not only transformed the computer world, it also transformed Washington Apple Pi and the Journal. The Macintosh sparked the idea of desktop publishing, and this technology was applied, naturally, to the Journal. The world, the Pi, and the Journal were forever transformed.
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February 1979: Vol. 1, No. 1, page 1. A reconstruction of the first issue of the Journal. Because this issue is so rare, and the condition of the remaining copies so poor, this reconstruction was done from a photocopy. The original issue was typed on a typewriter, then photocopied for distribution. The difficulties encountered in reconstructing the issue are covered in the next block. No cover price shown. (Select the image for a full-size view). |
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February 1979: Vol. 1, No. 1, page 2. Because even photocopies of the original tend to be in poor shape, the text was retyped, complete with original spelling and typographical errors, in Word 98. Word 98 insisted on automatically correcting all spelling and typographical errors, and in auto-reformatting everything; trying to get Word 98 to act like a manual typewriter was not easy. The text was then imported into Illustrator 7, line endings were checked against the original, and the text was "scrunched" a bit to make up for the fact that the original was typed well into the margins. Then the Illustrator EPS image was imported into Photoshop 4.0 to produce the JPG-compressed image seen here. Electronic forgery isn't as easy as you might think. (Select the image for a full-size view.) |
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September 1979: A typical early Journal, produced on a typewriter with some art added by hand. The paper was probably white, before age took its toll. No cover price shown. (Select the image for a full-size view.) |
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February 1984: A special effort was made to greet the introduction of the Macintosh with a Journal cover matching the color scheme of the Mac's shipping box, manual and promotional artwork. Many in the computer world (and in the Pi) had doubts that this funny little machine would amount to much. No cover price shown. (Select the image for a full-size view.) |
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November 1986: More than two years after the Mac's introduction, the capabilities of desktop publishing were beginning to show up on the Journal cover. Lime green text, however, proved to be a less popular innovation. Cover price: $2.50 (Select the image for a full-size view.) |
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July 1989: Desktop publishing brought with it more than the ability to exactly place text on paper. New programs allowed users to distort text, create shadows, and do other tricks, not all of them useful. Cover price: $2.95. The Washington Apple Pi Board of Directors "forgot" about the cover price for almost ten years. Finally prompted by complaints that this "price" would barely cover mailing, not to mention production and printing, the cover price was raised to $4.95 in September 1998. (Select image for a full-size view.) |
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September 1989: After a dramatic redesign, the Journal emerges with a new banner across the top and a nice balance between utility and flair. Few computer user group magazines have featured a gorilla on the cover. Cover price: $2.95. (Select image for a full-size view.) |
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January 1993: Another dramatic redesign results in an even newer banner. This design, still "current" after six years, gives the editor great flexibility in laying out the cover elements. It also helps eliminate confusion: few people see the banner and think "Seattle." Cover price: $2.95. (Select image for a full-size view.) |
Scanned images provided by David Harris.
Revised October 12, 1998 Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi
URL: http://www.wap.org/journal/
