Hermann Zapf designed Aldus for the Stempel foundry in 1954 as a companion to his Palatino typefaces. Originally designed as a display typeface, Palatino gained popularity as a text typeface as well. Believing Palatino to be too bold for settings at small point sizes, Zapf designed the lighter weight Aldus to better suit text settings.

The typeface is named for Aldus Manutius, the innovative fifteenth-century Italian printer/publisher.