Hello trid users,
some times ago i installed an older Aldus PageMaker software. The documents
and templates are files with file name extensions like PM4 PM5 PM6 P65 PT3
PT6 T65.
When i run TrID on PM5 examples these are identified as "Aldus PageMaker
document (v5)" by pm5-pagemaker.trid.xml. The PM4 samples are identified as
"Aldus PageMaker document (v4)" by pm4-pagemaker.trid.xml.
Unfortunately the older PT3 examples are often described wrong as "Visual
XBase form/screen" by ww.trid.xml with 2 byte extension WW. (see appended
v5/output/trid-v-old.txt v4/output/trid-v-old.txt v3/output/trid-v-old.txt).
When running file command (newest version > 5.41) on such documents all are
described correctly as "Aldus PageMaker document" with correct version
number like ", version 5" (See appended v5/output/file.txt
v4/output/file.txt v3/output/file.txt).
With that information i found a page about PageMaker on web site file
formats archive team with some file format information. So this is expressed
in new version 3 variant by line like:
<RefURL>
http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/PageMaker</RefURL>
According to that site for templates other file name extensions are
used. The version 5 template have 3 byte extension PT5 instead of PM5 and
for version 4 PT4 instead of PM4 is used. For version 3 templates PT3
instead PM3 is used. That information is also shown by file command with
--extension option (See appended v5/output/file-extension.txt
v4/output/file-extension.txt v3/output/file-extension.txt). Unfortunately i
myself found no such templates for version 4 and 5, but the 2 possible
extensions are now expressed in updated pm5-pagemaker.trid.xml by line like:
<Ext>PM5/PT5</Ext>
And in pm4-pagemaker.trid.xml the updated line now looks like:
<Ext>PM4/PT4</Ext>
And in new pm3-pagemaker.trid.xml the line looks like:
<Ext>PM3/PT3</Ext>
For version 3 i found only templates but no real documents.
For newer PageMaker document (See pagemaker-generic.trid.xml
pagemaker-pm65.trid.xml pagemaker-pm6.trid.xml) TrID use the mime type
application/x-pagemaker, but DROID identifying tools use another mime type
application/vnd.pagemaker according to PUID fmt/876. That is is also shown
by file command with --mime-type option (See appended v5/output/file-i.txt
v4/output/file-i.txt v3/output/file-i.txt). So i replace in older Pager
Maker definitions the generic mime type application/octet-stream by the used
defined one from DROID. That is expressed by line like:
<Mime>application/vnd.pagemaker</Mime>
So i generate definition pm3-pagemaker.trid.xml by running tridscan. So
then i check what is different from other versions . The starting phrase
looks similar. That was expressed by XML construct like:
<Bytes>0000FF990D</Bytes>
<Pos>4</Pos>
In other definitions this characteristic pattern looks like:
<Bytes>000000000000FF99</Bytes>
<Pos>0</Pos>
So the first bytes are not zero in version 3. To become similar to other
version i delete the last byte of first pattern. So first XML construct now
becomes like:
<Bytes>0000FF99</Bytes>
<Pos>4</Pos>
The trid definition is based only on about a dozen of examples. So probably
by lucky circumstances i get many short nil patterns like:
<Bytes>00</Bytes>
<Pos>25</Pos>
...
<Bytes>00</Bytes>
<Pos>2013</Pos>
So i delete such patterns.
But where in newer versions the version is stored as integer in version 3
there is nil. That is expressed by XML construct like:
<Bytes>0002000100010000000100000001000000010000000100000001000000
<Pos>111</Pos>
But maybe the version is here stored at another position. Then the only
possible solution is expressed by XML construct like:
<Bytes>000300</Bytes>
<Pos>65</Pos>
Unfortunately the documentation is neither official nor complete. So the
above observations are only estimated assumptions.
Then in global string section i find lines that are also found in newer
pagemaker-pm65.trid.xml. That are lines like:
<String>BLACK</String>
<String>..--__</String>
So i keep these.
Then there lines that are obviously related to font and printing like:
<String>COURIER''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''1
<String>SYMBOL'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''R
<String>LETTER</String>
<String>PAPER</String>
Then there short pattern there are generated by font related keywords like
charpath, Charter, Bitstream or Helvetica. This are expressed by lines like:
<String>CHAR</String>
<String>HELV</String>
<String>STRE</String>
<String>TICA</String>
These are things are typical standard fonts. I do not know if it possible to
generate PM3 examples using other fonts. So i keep the above lines.
Then there are 2 lines like:
<String>REGISTRATION</String>
<String>TMS RMN</String>
I do not know what these words are used for. So i also keep these lines.
Most of my inspected samples are little endian, but i least i was
able to extract one big endian example part Templates-3-BE.pt3. There
byte order is changed. So this example is still misidentified "TTComp
archive compressed (bin-2K)" by ark-ttcomp-bin-2k.trid.xml.
With the 2 updated and 1 new TrID definitions all of my inspected little
endian PageMaker examples are now described correctly as "Aldus PageMaker
document" with version 5, 4 or 3 (see appended v5/output/trid-v-new.txt
v4/output/trid-v-new.txt v3/output/trid-v-new.txt).
TrID definitions, some examples and output are stored in archive
PageMaker.zip. I was not able to attach this archive. So i will try to send
it later. I hope that the XML files can be used in future version of
triddefs.
If i understand the documentation right then there must exist big endian
variants of PageMaker documents for version 4 and 5, but i do not find such
examples. But one can generate TrID definitions by just swapping bytes in
patterns of the little endian variants.
With best wishes
Jörg Jenderek
