Create a Real World 8 Page Zine on macOS - PagePacker

     

Back in the early 2000s there was this intense focus on productivity apps. I think it started with the book Getting Things Done which was published around 2001.

There were so many todo apps released. Things, Emacs Org mode, Jira, even Trello was released around that time. Like how everyone was trying to release a social network before it, and everyone is trying to release an AI company now… it was a fever dream of productivity apps.

Around the same time there was a group of people who were a bit anti-tech. Similar to how some Gen-Zers are eschewing technology today. Back in the early 2000s they were called Hipsters. They listened to vinyl records, played analog instruments, read physical books, and used paper notebooks.

This slight history lesson is to lay the ground work for this little application I revived off an old hard drive that some people might remember called PagePacker. PagePacker was marketed as “The Hipster PDA”, the DIY Planner or The Pocket Mod… oh I should have mentioned PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant… sort of Want-to-be AI Agents before AI Agents.

The application lets you design and print out (yeah with a printer) an 8 page book that you can carry around in your pocket. It’s great for writing notes, doing some drawings, or making a little study guide while avoiding your phone.

This process can also be used to make zines (tiny self published magazines). I’ve started seeing these pop up in cafés around New Zealand, and I really enjoy seeing people making physical media again.

I’ve used the application back in the day to make a study guide when I was studying for my HSK test, I’ve used it to track workouts, and at one point we used it to make a flyer for a web conference.

The application was originally made by a company called Big Nerd Ranch which was a wonderful resource back in the day to learn Objective-C programming on macOS. Thankfully Aaron Hillegass, the original author, released PagePacker under the BSD License before Big Nerd Ranch was sold and I happen to have found an old copy on an old hard drive.

I’ve updated the application to the latest version of Xcode and to run on M series Macs. The code is available on GitHub, and if you don’t want to compile it yourself, you can purchase a binary here.

An example of how to fold the notebook / zine after printing: How To Fold