6 ms·

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1981-08 https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1981-08

galaxyLogic 7y ago
Looking at these old BYTE magazines makes me think that magazines these days simply look much better. Graphics design has has simply gotten better. Not sure if this is just my subjective opinion but somehow I believe there must be some truth to that.
- pault 7y ago
  Graphic design was done by hand in those days. They literally cut and pasted images and text for the pages. My parents were both graphic designers and I watched them do this as a child before computers took over the industry. You can imagine how digital publishing tools made this process easier to iterate on.
  - vidarh 7y ago
    Case in point, Letraset sheets was a big thing for decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letraset https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letraset
- NikkiA 7y ago
  DTP was a major revolution, even if it's rarely called DTP these days.
  - munificent 7y ago
    They don't call it desktop publishing anymore because all publishing is digital. It would be like if we still referred to cars as "horseless carriages".
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - JasonFruit 7y ago
      Which I would, by the way, totally love to do. It's kind of like the fad among some early- to mid-20th Century writers of using only words of Germanic derivation. I love quirky, old-fashioned language.
- ddingus 7y ago
  They do look better, but I must say BYTE and friends packed one hell of a punch. I've almost zero interest in magazines today, but I would still subscribe to BYTE, COMPUTE and a couple others, given their editorial focus was similar to what made them great then.
  - pmarin 7y ago
    The first year of BYTE is amazing but over time in all of those computer magazines there is a shift from hobbyists and doers to just consumers.
    - ddingus 7y ago
      That is why I wrote, "what made them great", and that was true of BYTE for more than a year. Adding consumer material did not displace enough great material for a while.
- tomcam 7y ago
  You’re absolutely right, although I believe the information density in today’s magazines is quite a bit lower.
- Arcanum-XIII 7y ago
  What amaze me the most is that half of it is ad. Those and the content seem to have a very similar production value, which did muddle the reading a bit... I don’t miss this.
  - chadcmulligan 7y ago
    I used to buy it half for the adds - this was one of the few places you could find that stuff. Edit: Actually, I remember buying the digital logic books on page 144, probably not from this issue.
    - BeetleB 7y ago
      This should be a reminder to everyone that regardless of how annoying ads are, they did serve a very useful purpose!
  - tjoff 7y ago
    Ads of today are much more invasive. And even the articles themselves today are often ads in disguise or direct copies of press releases. Haven't read a computer magazine in at least a decade, but this I would read.
    - aj7 7y ago
      The laser magazines, Laser Focus World, and Photonics Spectra, were historically and are today plagued by the “ads in disguise” problem. They have gotten a little better.
- blackhaz 7y ago
  Holy cow, I like this old BYTE more. Like Computer Chronicles. I like how direct and no-bullshit the layout and all the graphics are. Ads are creative and fun, and the content is rich in ideas. Modern magazines often lack substance and soul, including graphics design. What modern computing magazine can compare, is there a single example? Looking at this BYTE mag pretty much confirms to me the old adage that the Earth's population is increasing but the IQ levels are staying the same.
  - aj7 7y ago
    You are right. Think about publishing that thing in one month, rinse, and repeat. No time for bs, cutesiness.
- JasonFruit 7y ago
  On page 158 of the linked issue, it points out that they just started using digital typesetting. (I totally disagree with you, by the way; I like my content front and center, and my design well to the rear, which I think BYTE does very well indeed.)
behnamoh 7y ago
This number has 2x495 pages! Is it just me or did this really seem normal for its time?
- rwmj 7y ago
  In its glory days Byte magazine was a good 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick (and printed on very thin paper). It was also densely packed with information.
  - NikkiA 7y ago
    80s "Personal Computer World" was pretty much the european equivalent to byte, and it was usually around 900 pages and 3/4" thick too - although most of that was adverts, naturally.
- cantcomplain 7y ago
  People had more time to read I guess (or maybe now we do all our reading on the internet)
  - cpach 7y ago
    Also there weren’t so many alternatives back then for getting articles and ads out. So the release schedule probably made sense and it was possible to make some profit off magazines. (Not that much though I think.) These days the dynamics have changed a lot. Today many ads an articles would be outdated if they were written many months before being published.
- hollerith 7y ago
  It was not normal. The demand for advertisements targeting readers interested in personal computers grew very quickly in 1979 and the early 1980s. Byte was able to capture much of the quickly growing advertising revenue because it took years for high-growth-capable competitors to Byte to get off the ground. (Byte was mostly ads back then.) PC Magazine started in Feb 1982. Its issues quickly became as thick or almost as thick and ad-filled as Byte's. There were other magazines in the same market in the 1970s, e.g., Dr Dobb's Journal, but for some reason they never expanded their "portfolio" (terminology?) of advertisers the way that Byte did. I guess the mainstream magazine publishers considered (probably rightly so at that stage of the industry) personal computers too niche to be worth their while. PC Magazine for example was started by an enthusiast, not a mainstream publisher.

Looking at these old BYTE magazines makes me think that magazines these days simply look much better. Graphics design has has simply gotten better. Not sure if this is just my subjective opinion but somehow I believe there must be some truth to that.

pault 7y ago
Graphic design was done by hand in those days. They literally cut and pasted images and text for the pages. My parents were both graphic designers and I watched them do this as a child before computers took over the industry. You can imagine how digital publishing tools made this process easier to iterate on.
- vidarh 7y ago
  Case in point, Letraset sheets was a big thing for decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letraset https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letraset
NikkiA 7y ago
DTP was a major revolution, even if it's rarely called DTP these days.
- munificent 7y ago
  They don't call it desktop publishing anymore because all publishing is digital. It would be like if we still referred to cars as "horseless carriages".
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - JasonFruit 7y ago
    Which I would, by the way, totally love to do. It's kind of like the fad among some early- to mid-20th Century writers of using only words of Germanic derivation. I love quirky, old-fashioned language.
ddingus 7y ago
They do look better, but I must say BYTE and friends packed one hell of a punch. I've almost zero interest in magazines today, but I would still subscribe to BYTE, COMPUTE and a couple others, given their editorial focus was similar to what made them great then.
- pmarin 7y ago
  The first year of BYTE is amazing but over time in all of those computer magazines there is a shift from hobbyists and doers to just consumers.
  - ddingus 7y ago
    That is why I wrote, "what made them great", and that was true of BYTE for more than a year. Adding consumer material did not displace enough great material for a while.
tomcam 7y ago
You’re absolutely right, although I believe the information density in today’s magazines is quite a bit lower.
Arcanum-XIII 7y ago
What amaze me the most is that half of it is ad. Those and the content seem to have a very similar production value, which did muddle the reading a bit... I don’t miss this.
- chadcmulligan 7y ago
  I used to buy it half for the adds - this was one of the few places you could find that stuff. Edit: Actually, I remember buying the digital logic books on page 144, probably not from this issue.
  - BeetleB 7y ago
    This should be a reminder to everyone that regardless of how annoying ads are, they did serve a very useful purpose!
- tjoff 7y ago
  Ads of today are much more invasive. And even the articles themselves today are often ads in disguise or direct copies of press releases. Haven't read a computer magazine in at least a decade, but this I would read.
  - aj7 7y ago
    The laser magazines, Laser Focus World, and Photonics Spectra, were historically and are today plagued by the “ads in disguise” problem. They have gotten a little better.
blackhaz 7y ago
Holy cow, I like this old BYTE more. Like Computer Chronicles. I like how direct and no-bullshit the layout and all the graphics are. Ads are creative and fun, and the content is rich in ideas. Modern magazines often lack substance and soul, including graphics design. What modern computing magazine can compare, is there a single example? Looking at this BYTE mag pretty much confirms to me the old adage that the Earth's population is increasing but the IQ levels are staying the same.
- aj7 7y ago
  You are right. Think about publishing that thing in one month, rinse, and repeat. No time for bs, cutesiness.
JasonFruit 7y ago
On page 158 of the linked issue, it points out that they just started using digital typesetting. (I totally disagree with you, by the way; I like my content front and center, and my design well to the rear, which I think BYTE does very well indeed.)

behnamoh 7y ago

This number has 2x495 pages! Is it just me or did this really seem normal for its time?

rwmj 7y ago
In its glory days Byte magazine was a good 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick (and printed on very thin paper). It was also densely packed with information.
- NikkiA 7y ago
  80s "Personal Computer World" was pretty much the european equivalent to byte, and it was usually around 900 pages and 3/4" thick too - although most of that was adverts, naturally.
cantcomplain 7y ago
People had more time to read I guess (or maybe now we do all our reading on the internet)
- cpach 7y ago
  Also there weren’t so many alternatives back then for getting articles and ads out. So the release schedule probably made sense and it was possible to make some profit off magazines. (Not that much though I think.) These days the dynamics have changed a lot. Today many ads an articles would be outdated if they were written many months before being published.
hollerith 7y ago
It was not normal. The demand for advertisements targeting readers interested in personal computers grew very quickly in 1979 and the early 1980s. Byte was able to capture much of the quickly growing advertising revenue because it took years for high-growth-capable competitors to Byte to get off the ground. (Byte was mostly ads back then.) PC Magazine started in Feb 1982. Its issues quickly became as thick or almost as thick and ad-filled as Byte's. There were other magazines in the same market in the 1970s, e.g., Dr Dobb's Journal, but for some reason they never expanded their "portfolio" (terminology?) of advertisers the way that Byte did. I guess the mainstream magazine publishers considered (probably rightly so at that stage of the industry) personal computers too niche to be worth their while. PC Magazine for example was started by an enthusiast, not a mainstream publisher.