Pages Bridges the 'Post-Renaissance Divide'

Leonardo would use Pages

Rob, from the Third Echo Design design company writes:
I just wanted to finally write and thank you for the wonderful repository for Pages your site has become. Being a web designer who also dabbles in print your resource has been great in helping me utilize Pages as a print solution. Many clients want simple flyers or quick brochures and, to me, Pages is a very easy to use graphic [and] word processor. Thanks to your site I have been able to bound over the hurdles that were in my way in utilizing Pages as a print design program. Awesome job and thanks for sharing all that you know!




Rob's note (thanks for the kind words) made me think once again about the wider meaning of programmes like iWork/Pages.

The great figures of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangello and others were all known to excell in many different fields of human creativity – from arts to literature, from engineering to military craft, from science to politics. In later centuries separation of labour created unsurmountable divides between professions. Writers couldn't understand how scientists work, engineers wouldn't concern themselves with what politicians do with the machines they create. The Renaissance Man has acquired a derogatory meaning – a Jack of all trades, but a master in none.

Which is unfortunate, though of course I am not going so far as to claim that specialisation isn't needed.



Rob is right – there is a serious divide between the skills of designers and typographers, and between writers (content creators) and designers and typographers. It's not always easy to go over that divide, but with iWork/Pages – and a little elbow grease – we can.

And doing that we also bridge the 'post-Renaissance divide' and create a more harmonious world.