Ceneca Communications Inc. developed the original PageMill and SiteMill products.[1] During open beta testing, Adobe acquired the company and rebranded the product with their own logo.[citation needed] Adobe released PageMill 1.0 in late 1995.[2] It was considered revolutionary at the time, as it was the first HTML editor that was considered user-friendly, cited as the "PageMaker of the WWW".[3][4] This first version, however, was also criticized for lacking items such as a spell-checker and support for creating HTML tables.[3][5] Adobe acquired Ceneca in October 1995 for US$15 million.[6]
Adobe PageMill 2.0, which was introduced in early 1997, corrected these issues with a package that, according to one review, "adds more features than I have fingers and toes… PageMill with its tables, frames, graphics, and support for form interfaces, makes it easy to lay out a page".[7] PageMill 2.0 was also the first version for Microsoft Windows.[8]
Adobe PageMill 3.0, released in early 1999, supported embedded font commands and a site-management feature.[9] It was discontinued in February 2000, due to the acquisition and promotion of Adobe GoLive.[10][11] A later patch, still available from Adobe, fixed a problem with FTP upload.[12]
PageMill was often bundled with other products such as scanners or promotional CD-ROMs, rather than sold as a stand-alone product.
^"Pipeline". InfoWorld. Vol. 17, no. 45. InfoWorld Media Group. November 6, 1995. p. 58. ISSN0199-6649. Adobe began shipping PageMill for the Macintosh priced at $99.
