November 24 2009 • 7:50 AM
By:
Bob Levine
InDesign by Any Other Name…
Many of you already know that InDesign recently celebrated its tenth birthday. Released in August of 1999 it’s now in its seventh version if you include version 1.5.
While we all know InDesign by its formal name, like almost all other software, it’s assigned code names before its official release. So today we present a little behind the scenes InDesign history- the prerelease code names for all the versions of InDesign:
- Version 1.0: K2
- Version 1.5: Sherpa
- Version 2.0: Annapurna
- CS (version 3.0): Dragontail
- CS2 (version 4.0): Firedrake
- CS3 (version 5.0): Cobalt
- CS4 (version 6.0): Basil
I remember when 1.0 was still in development and word got out about. I was happily plugging away with Pagemaker (ignorance is bliss) and the media gave it another nickname: The Quark Killer. While it hasn’t quite lived up to that billing, it’s certainly come a long way.
And the code name for the next version? stay tuned.
Great List.
Here is a list of the Photoshop Code Names (at least according to wikipedia). Some are missing, but here is what I have so far.
Fast Eddy — Adobe Photoshop 2.0
Brimstone — Adobe Photoshop 2.5 for Windows
Merlin — Adobe Photoshop 2.5 for Mac
Tiger Mountain — Adobe Photoshop 3.0 for Mac
Big Electric Cat — Adobe Photoshop 4.0
Strange Cargo — Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and 5.5
Venus in Furs — Adobe Photoshop 6.0
Liquid Sky — Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Dark Matter — Adobe Photoshop CS
Space Monkey — Adobe Photoshop CS2
Red Pill — Adobe Photoshop CS3
Wasn’t InCopy CS4 called Chive? CS3 was Krypton? I can’t remember the earlier versions. Maybe Anne Marie or some other InCopy guru knows.
You seem to be implying it isn’t killing QuarkXPress? In terms of functionality, execution, or market share?
It’s certainly far from dead…and this is a good thing. The competition between the two is what keeps both sides on their toes.
Photoshop CS4 – Stonehenge (hold CMD and klick the about Photoshop menu item)
I remember seeing a job advertisement for a designer position where one of the programs you needed to know was K2. I had no idea what it was talking about, but it must have been InDesign! (This was a couple of years ago.)
@Phillis: Possibly… though vjoon also makes a publishing product called K2 now (they also make K4).
@Bob: Don’t forget the code names for InDesign CS7 (Pikachu) and CS8 (Sauron). [I can't wait... Years from now someone will come back to this blog post and write, "hey, that's not what they were called!"
]
I thought they were going to use Blatner for CS6 and Concepcion for CS7. Was my leg being pulled?
Well, things have shifted back and forth lately, but there was a while there around when CS3 came out that things looked bad for QuarkXPress. But even now most of the people (me too) that always used Quark in the old days have switched to InDesign, and I haven’t heard of any of them wanting to switch back.
@David Blatner Hey, maybe that it was instead. That’s the only ad I ever saw requesting knowledge of that program. Guess it’s not too popular compared to ID!
@Phyllis – K2 (and K4) are not competitors to InDesign, it is actually a plugin for InDesign. Think of it as InCopy on Steroids with a sprinkle of CMS on top.
What’s Quark?
Well, maybe “buy 1 get 1 free” will get Quark some attention. http://app.info.quark.com/e/es.aspx?s=802&e=131640&elq=211fec1929024a968e2b074daa2c8e7e
I agree with Bob, a strong competitor can only help spur Adobe to innovate. Batman needs the Joker. Jedi need Sith. Snoopy needs the Red Baron. But I digress.
Is this on the test?
Eugene, it’s not on the ACE, but we could come up with a new test of insanely obscure InDesign trivia. If you passed, you could be an ACGEEEE, Adobe Certified Geek Eek Eek Eek.
Or better yet, this stuff would be great for the InDesign Secrets board game.
What a shame it would be a great question for the ACE, imagine missing out on the cert because of that question
Oooh board game. Now you’ve got my interest. I want to be the Car!!!
You guys should perhaps put together an InDesign Trivia something or other for Christmas… that could be fun.
If there is a board game, I want to be the smooth tool.
The Photoshop 4 “Big Electric Cat” is a blast from the past. There was an Easter egg with the About menu that got an alternate product splash screen with — yes — a big electric cat. And some keyboard modifers that you could press to make the cat burp when you clicked on its face.
The PageMaker edition of InDesign CS (v3) was code-named Babushka!
If there is a board game, I am the type tool…no doubt about it!
The name K2 as a codename for InDesign 1.0 was introduced very late in the game. Before that the codename was Shuksan. Apparently Adobe’s marketing folks did not want people to associate a 1.0 release with the actual meaning of shuksan:…
I remember Quark Killer too! I was very happy with PageMaker and hated Quark. I’m now happily using InDesign – wishing I had more time to explore features I don’t regularly use. Thanks for the flashback.