# Printing a Pagemaker file without Pagemaker? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-a-pagemaker-file-without-pagemaker/294221 "2005-03-12T19:14:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-a-pagemaker-file-without-pagemaker/294221/1 "2005-03-12T19:14:14Z")
The title basically sums it up - I’ve got a Painmaker file and I don’t have access to the program (I’m on Windows, and have access to Linux). Is there any way of opening it, even read-only? The minimum I need to do is print it to Acrobat. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-a-pagemaker-file-without-pagemaker/294221/2 "2005-03-12T20:15:31Z")
It is going to depend on the version of pagemaker that created it and how it was saved. I would not be surprised if recent versions of pagemaker use PDF as their native file format now. This is what Illustrator does. If you take an Illustrator 10 (.AI) file and rename it to .PDF, it’s a perfectly valid PDF file. It’s worth a try. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-a-pagemaker-file-without-pagemaker/294221/3 "2005-03-12T20:27:22Z")
Nice idea, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I have just realised that there’s a trial version of Pagemaker available - if that doesn’t allow me to save or print, I’ll be back to this thread. Otherwise, consider the problem solved! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-a-pagemaker-file-without-pagemaker/294221/4 "2005-03-12T21:43:17Z")
You could go to Kinkos or some graphics shop and get them to print out the file. Most commercial printers have production departments that uses Pagemaker or Quark. It’ll run you a few bucks, but a new Pagemaker disk will run you about $700 last time I checked. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-a-pagemaker-file-without-pagemaker/294221/5 "2005-03-13T03:49:55Z")
Adobe InDesign will open a Pagemangler doc, and is available on Mac and PC. You might have to tweak some line breaks and check for overset text boxes, but it’s pretty good. Ask all your pals if they have PM or ID. They can save it out as a pdf. Heck, look for an email from me if your addy is in your profile…