The now-defunct Pages Software Inc. described Pages/WebPages as an ObjectBased Document Processing application. WebPages enables the user to create Web documents with a simple, drag-and-drop interface -- and without having to learn page design or a complicated publishing system. Instead, its Design Models handle the design work. These define the styles and rules for using fonts, body text, headings, graphics, and many other types of design elements.

Since expert graphic designers created the Design Models, the documents have a professional look. As Esther Dyson wrote in Release 1.0, "What you see is what you really wanted.... Pages is one of the best arguments for NEXTSTEP."

Indeed, although we are migrating to GliNUx, we will retain one NEXTSTEP machine to use WebPages. Its object-oriented, Display-PostScript environment is appropriate for drag-and-drop publishing.

We have also used WebPages to test which typefaces show up best at low resolution (i.e, on the screen) because it makes switching between typeface families rather easy. We find that Times is the most legible for text. Bodoni Book, Century Old Style, New Century Schoolbook, and Palatino are not as crisp, but they are quite usable. We suggest that the reader choose from these.

WebPages exports the headlines as GIF files, so the reader cannot change their typefaces. We find that Helvetica, Peignot, and Tekton make the best headlines (depending on the design model). Also appealing are Avant Garde Gothic, Barmeno, Bauhaus, and Copperplate Gothic. (We use PostScript typefaces from Adobe.)

The traditional Helvetica-Times combination is often the most attractive.