Better known under his nickname “Jongware”, our brilliant and famous colleague Theunis de Jong died on November 28 at the age of 54.
Everyone in this forum—and especially the older generation I belong to—will surely understand what this death means to the InDesign community. I invite the Adobe team, moderators, persons in charge… to create a dedicated tribute page. As Theunis had many many friends here (Peter, Uwe, Gregor… well! I won't mention you all, buddies!), it would be really attentive to give them a space of collective memory.
I have posted a more personal—and written—tribute on my website (I would be very touched if you read it, of course). It contains a quote that I think justified to share here with you anyway. A month ago, as he knew his days were numbered, Theunis wrote to me:
“I am really happy to have been a member of that community for so many, many years, and having been able to teach people the occasional tidbits about design, layout, and typography, InDesign in general and scripting specifically.” —Theunis de Jong, Oct. 7, 2020.
Marc, that's really sad news that you shared. I am shocked beyond belief, this reminds us of the fickleness of life. Jongware was among the few people on this forum I looked up to, amazed by his depth of knowledge across many areas. I learned a lot from him, and to see him helping all with the same patience was very inspiring. Whenever a tricky one was asked on the forum, I always was assured that among the few geniuses we have Jongware would come and shed some new light on the problem and in the process dazzle us with some gems of his vast knowledge. He will be hugely missed, this place would never be the same without him being around.
I'm shocked by loss of Theunis de Jong. Although we never met, I was well aware of his contribution to InDesign and the scripting community. As Jongware he was a huge and generous figure who will be greatly missed.
Je viens d'apprendre, et de lire ton très belle homage mes plus sincere condoleance à sa famille et à ces amis, la comunoté viens de perdre un moument, merci pour tous, merci pour le très beau texte, cela ma fais plaisir de voir que nous avions presque le même parcoure à des niveau bien different, et la même pence pour FrameMaker, merci Marc. Merci Theunis et bon voyage tu vas nous manque.
Devasted to learn this news. He was such a kind and generous person with his time and his knowledge. He helped me out on plenty of occasions and never asked for anything in return. I could reach out to him anytime and he'd always have time to get back to me and help.
Very sad news. Marc, thank you for sharing this information and for the tribute you posted here and on your website. I've been aware of Theunis' contributions over the years and, like many here, have benefited from them. He's the first (I believe) to have posted the scripting DOM documentation online, which was an important contribution to the scripting community. Sorry to hear of his too early passing.
For me, Jongware was synonymous with InDesign scripting since, as just noted, he was the first to put the API online. Just an invaluable contributor to this community. My condolences.
This news is so sad. The community has lost an amazing contributor and person. If you've been on these forums for even a short amount of time, you've probably been helped by Theunis either directly or by one of the scripts that he wrote. He will be greatly missed!
Thank you so much for letting us know. Like the rest of the community, I am greatly saddened by his loss. We never met in person, but he reached out to help me on multiple occasions and for that, I will be forever grateful. His legacy will live on and will continue to touch people's lives through his scripts, resources and myriad creative solutions.
I was so sorry to hear of Jongware's passing, and I deeply appreciate and resonate with the words that Marc has written.
Theun and I exchanged emails for over a decade, and he was always a generous, kind, and thoughtful friend and member of the InDesign community.
I remember of our earliest exchanges, when I mixed him up with another "de Jong," who was also an early scripter. He wrote:
"Theunis 'Teus' de Jong is a former colleague of mine, when we used to work for the same publisher in Amsterdam. He, being from the north of Holland, prefers the short form "Teus", whereas I, based more southern, prefer 'Theun'. It's merely coincidental we're both InDesign power users."
How amazing that two people with the same name could be so great.
Jongware's extraordinary IndyFont continues to be an astonishing accomplishment, and his hundreds of other smaller scripts that he gave away for free to help people have made a huge difference in people's productivity and happiness.
I did not know Theunis personally but knew him from his many posts to the community pages. He was always very generous with his time and skill. He will be missed.
David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
This is shocking and heartbreaking. Unbelievably sad.
My first interactions with Theunis were on the Typophile forums, about fifteen years ago, before I even started to seriously use InDesign. I think my introduction to him was a conversation about Korean compounds. When I started using InDesign more and doing more book layouts and eventually joined the forums here, I soon noticed the breadth and depth of his knowledge – though it was some time until I realised he was the same person I knew from Typophile (he was Theunis there and Jongware here, if memory serves). Every interaction I had with him since then taught me something new, always in his patient, friendly fashion.
I shall miss Theunis. Although it seems this had been some time coming for him, I hope he went peacefully and painlessly.
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