13

1982- 1984 1
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Pamcla Pfiffncr
Copyright 2003 by Pamela Pfiffner
This Adobe Press book is published by Peachpit Press.
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No::cv ov R:on:s
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts,
contact permissions@peachpit.com.
No::cv ov L:nu:::v
The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit Press
shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or
alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or
by the computer software and hardware products described in it.
Tunovmnus
Throughout this book trademarked names are used. Rather than put a trademark symbol in
every occurrence of a trademarked name, we state we are using the names only in an edito-
rial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of
the trademark. All trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Logo for IBM is registered IBM; logo for Microsoft Windows 2000 is registered Microsoft
Corporation; logo for Apple Computer is registered Apple Computer.
ISBN 0-321-11564-3
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America
3
In honor of two remarkable partnerships:
Chuck Geschke and John Warnock,
who gave birth to an industry
and
David and Patricia Pfiffner,
who gave birth to me
1982- 1984
a
d
o
b
e
2 0
1982- 1984
I
19821984: Laying the Foundation
17 The Early Years
23 Creating Adobe Systems
33 Steve Jobs and the LaserWriter
19851989: Sparking the Revolution
The Desktop Publishing Revolution Begins
Bringing Type to Market
Forging Alliances
Becoming a Public Company
Introducing Illustrator
The Industry Backlash
19901993: Charting New Directions
Building a Business
Unleashing Photoshop
Images in Motion
Acrobat: The Early Days
19941998: Expanding the Empire
The Era of Acquisitions
Finding the Consumer Market
Working the Web
Regrouping
19992001: Planning the Next Wave
Acrobat Takes Hold
The Return to Page Layout
Building a New Infrastructure
The Changing of the Guard
2002 and Beyond: Into the Third Decade
Everywhere You Look
11
14
44
192
100
146
contents
228
47
56
69
77
80
89
103
117
129
137
149
161
169
183
195
205
213
221
231
6 Foreword
7 Foreword
Fovrvovo
Adobe Systems is a company that came into being out of frustra-
tion. In 1982 we both had great jobs at one of the premier research facili-
ties in the world. We were given state-of-the-art equipment. We worked
alongside some of the worlds best computer science minds, and we were
allowed to work on problems of our own choosing. Our frustration grew
out of a realization that none of our ideas were going to be used in prod-
ucts in the fast-changing world of personal computing. We either had to
be content with research, or leave.
When we started the company, we had the hope of being successful but
no great expectations. After all, we were proposing to solve problems in
an entirely new way. We knew that if we failed, we could both get other
jobs to support our families. What we did not know was that the world
was ready for the inventions and ideas that we had to ofer.
As our frst product, PostScript, started to take hold during 1985, 86
and 87, we began to realize that the world of graphic arts, printing, and
publishing was never going to be the same. e revolution that began as
desktop publishing had fundamentally changed the cost, productivity, and
ef ciency of the entire industry. As Adobe grew, its infuence expanded.
e company had ceased to be a grand personal experiment and was now
a force whose decisions afected the shape of publishing to come.
is unexpected success had a profound efect on us as individuals. We
had been chosen, for better or worse, as primary infuencers of an industry
with 500 years of tradition, aesthetics, and values. We now had the respon-
sibility to the industry to do the right thing. It became our goal to build
a company whose culture and values refected that responsibility. In less
than two decades, Adobe helped transform the world of print communica-
tions from a manual, mechanical process to a fully digital workfow. Today,
as all communication technologies are converting to digital, Adobes prod-
ucts continue to expand the technological frontiers in photography, video
production, animation, digital communication, and the World Wide Web.
8 Foreword
Pamela Pffner, who has reported on our industry and has known Adobe
since its inception, has combined her many interviews with former
employees, people inside the company, and outside industry observers
into a balanced, well-thought-out story.
is book, so ably written by Pffner, tells the story of the individuals
that developed the technologies, marketed the products, and built Adobe
Systems into the successful, vibrant, global organization it is today. As
the founders of Adobe, we recognize that its accomplishments are based
upon the eforts of thousands of past and current employees, the support
of millions of customers around the world, and the cooperation of hun-
dreds of business partners who assisted us in achieving this success. ey
are the real heroes of this story.
Finally, we acknowledge the constant loving support of the two most
important people in our lives, Marva and Nan, to whom these words are
dedicated.
John Warnock & Chuck Geschke
Los Altos, California
June 2002

9 Foreword
10

Introduction
11
I1voouc1io
e history of Adobe Systems is so intertwined with the modern publish-
ing revolution that it is hard to distinguish the two. Without Adobe and
its productsPostScript, Photoshop, Acrobat, to name just a fewpub-
lishing as we know it today would not exist. On an ancillary note, without
Adobe Systems, my career would have looked a whole lot diferent.
is book chronicles Adobes history as it evolved alongside modern pub-
lishing, from print to Web, from systems to desktop applications, from
independent graphic artists to collaborative workgroups. Adobes story is
remarkable because the company led by example. It developed a culture of
design and engineering excellence that set standards for how we produce
information. Other companies have contributed to the publishing revolu-
tion, but if there is one that links the entire story togethertechnology,
design, communication, even computer operating systemsit is Adobe.
e second, more personal point is woven into the words on these pages.
Adobe has been a consistent note in my professional careerand in my
personal life. at Ive now written a book about a company that shaped
my work is either a perverse metaphysical twist or an appropriate coda to
one phase of my career.
My history with Adobe goes back to 1985, when I discovered the Apple
LaserWriter. Id been using a Macintosh and an ImageWriter dot-matrix
printer for almost a year by then, thanks to my roommate, who bought
an original 128 Kbyte Mac at the San Francisco Macys department store
in 1984. But the LaserWriters ability to print crisp type was a revelation,
although I didnt realize PostScripts role at the time. I made the connec-
tion when I started buying Adobe typefaces a year or so later. In 1986,
I borrowed money from my father to buy a Macintosh SE and Aldus
PageMaker 1.0. For my good printouts, I took a foppy disk down to a
local Mac shop where, at the cost of $5 for 15 minutes of LaserWriter
time, I printed my PageMaker fles.
One of the fles I printed (I remember it cost $20, so it must have taken
an hour to print) was my application to the University of California at
Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, which I composed in PageMaker
Introduction
With cheeky aplomb I hung
out my shingle; I had few
customers, but I still called
myself a publisher.
>
>
12
(styled type! two columns! 1-point rules!). After admission, I took advan-
tage of the universitys student purchasing program to buy my own
LaserWriter (I had to petition Apple to do so, as the $7,000 printer wasnt
ofered then to students, on the basis that few could aford it). With
cheeky aplomb I then hung out my shingle as Pixel Press, ofering writing,
design, and printing services. I had few customers, but I still called myself
a publisher. After I received my masters degree in 1988, my experience
with the Mac and DTP landed me a job at MacWEEK, one of the frst
magazines to be produced digitally from start to fnish, with an in-house
Linotype imagesetter, its own infographic artist, and electronic fle trans-
fer to its printing plant in Wisconsin. As a cub reporter I had to work
my way onto the graphics and publishing beat, but soon I was covering
Adobe on a regular basis.
Introduction
To encourage the acceptance
of PostScript in the early 1990s,
Adobe launched an educational
campaign about digital type,
aimed at the design community.
13
Ive been doing this stuf ever since. Indeed my own career follows the
evolution of publishing from print to Web and beyond. After running
several print magazines, I gravitated toward the Internet and then linked
the disciplines together in cross-media projects that involved print and
Web, then Web and television. I currently run Creativepro.com, a Web
site that reports on developments in the graphic design and publishing
industries, in which Adobe is a driving force. Many years after my stint at
MacWEEK, Im still covering Adobe.
In researching and reporting this book, I found one recurring theme:
that Adobes products unleashed peoples creativity in ways they hadnt
thought possible. I can relate. My own discovery of PostScript fonts
stirred an interest in typography and led me to explore its history and
learn letterpress printing. Im not a graphic designer by training, but
thanks to Adobe software I can design and produce my own publication
whether its a magazine prototype or a personal Web site or a playful
experiment. Anytime the urge strikes me I can walk over to my computer
and be creative. We take this for granted now, but think about it: Before
Adobe, Apple, and Aldus gave birth to the desktop publishing revolution,
computers were soulless, number-crunching machines. Today technology
is a major form of personal expression. A large slice of the credit must be
given to Adobe for that astonishing transformation.
Im not alone in this creative conversion. e dozens of designers and
artists interviewed for this book all credit Adobe products with changing
their approach to work and, in some cases, with giving their careers focus.
For instance, before he discovered Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Brad
Johnsons vocation was carpentry. Now he runs the Web design frm
Second Story Interactive. Brads is just one of many stories I heard about
Adobes impact.
Had Adobe just developed a single clever piece of engineering, its story
would be short. Instead, Adobe has grown to be one of the worlds largest
desktop software companies, second only to Microsoft. But what is fasci-
nating to me as a journalist is how the company keeps evolving and how,
in so doing, it shapes our expectations of what it means to communicate
in the 21st century.
e next chapter in the Adobe story is still being written. After the suc-
cesses of PostScript, Photoshop, and Acrobat, I wonder how the company
will top itself. But I have no doubt that whatever happens will be interest-
ing to watch.
Pamela Pffner
Introduction
14 1982- 1984

Laying the Foundation 1982- 1984
1982- 1984 15 Laying the Foundation

1982- 1984
Laying tle
Founoation
Laying tle Laying tle
If tle mooern publisling era began wlen )olannes
Cutenberg oevelopeo movable type in Cermany in tle 1450s,
its successor was tle transformation tlat took root in Silicon
Valley in tle 1980s, wlen )oln Warnock ano Cluck Cesclke
formeo Aoobe Systems. Like Cutenbergs invention, Warnock
ano Cesclkes PostScript teclnology createo a raoical new
approacl to printing marks on paper. Ano just as tle mooern
press liberateo publisling from tle exclusive oomain of
eoucateo scribes cloistereo in monasteries, so too oio PostScript
expano publisling beyono printing presses ano into tle offces
ano lomes of everyoay people. Aoobe is only one of several
companies tlat createo publisling as we know it tooay, but tle
companys inuence is felt in every aspect of low we proouce
communications. It all began witl PostScript.
1
9
8
2
1
9
8
4
We were prototypical
scientists in that we
wanted to have an
impact. We werent in
it for fnancial gain.
Chuck Geschke
>
>
1982 1983
Intel 286 chip
comes out
First Adobe office
on Marine Way in
Mountain View
Adobe Systems founded
December 1982
PostScript developed
Hewlett-Packard standard-
izes on 3.5-inch floppy
drive, the first company
to do so
Adobe revenue: $83,000
Adobe employees: 13
$
First PostScript licens-
ing agreement signed
with Apple Computer
First version of
Microsoft Word
released
1984
$
a
Chuck Geschke leave
Xerox PARC to start
Adobe Systems
1982 1983
$
1984
Apple Macintosh
introduced
Adobe revenue: $2.2 million
Adobe employees: 27
$
First 1-MB RAM chip introduced
Adobe relocates to
Palo Alto office
Apple develops first
LaserWriter prototype
Adobe enters licensing agreement to
develop Type 1 versions of Linotype fonts AAA
a
Tnv Eviv Yvvs
Like most revolutions, tle one tlat clangeo publisling forever lao its
aa
origins in an inoivioualin tlis case two inoivioualswlo wanteo to
aa
clange tle status quo. Ano like many otler revolutionaries, tlese two
aa
men encountereo eacl otler in tle riglt place at tle riglt time, in tlis
aa
case Californias Silicon Valley in tle late 1970s, an era in wlicl scientists
aa
ano engineers founo fertile soil for tle seeos of a raoically oifferent future.
aa
Tle founoers of Aoobe Systems were not your typical raoical subversives,
aa
lowever, altlougl botl sporteo tle bearos of tle antiestablislment. Tley
aa
were tlougltful, almost conventional men wlo lao a oream ano tle
aa
nerve to pursue it.
Upon receiving lis masters oegree in 1964, matlematician )oln E.
aa
Warnock began teacling at tle University of Utal. Simultaneously work-
aa
ing on lis Pl.D., Warnock stuoieo unoer Davio Evans, founoer of Utals
aa
fableo computer science oepartment. Tle sclool, tlen one of only 15 uni-
aa
versities offering a computer science curriculum, eoucateo sucl pioneers
aa
as Alan Kay (oeveloper of tle graplical user interface at Xerox PARC ano
later Apple), )im Clark (a founoer of Silicon Craplics ano Netscape), Eo
Catmull (cofounoer of Pixar Animation Stuoios), Henri Courauo (creator
of tle Courauo 3D-slaoing metloo), ano Bui-Tuong Plong (creator of
tle Plong computer-liglting effect).
Te young teacler marrieo in 1965 ano quickly learneo tlat an acaoemic
salary barely supporteo a growing family. Wlen granteo lis ooctorate
in 1969, Warnock began a succession of computer-relateo jobs tlat took
lim tlrougl Vancouver, Toronto, ano tlen Waslington, D.C., wlere le
workeo at Computer Sciences Corporation in support of tle Coooaro
Technology is like
fsh. If you dont
cook it, it spoils.
aa
>
>
18 1982- 1984

Space Fliglt Center. In 1972 Davio Evans, Warnocks mentor from Utal,
inviteo lim to join lis frm, Evans 8 Sutlerlano, ano to open an om ce at
tle Ames Researcl Center in tle San Francisco Bay Area to work on tle
Illiac IV supercomputer. After two years Evans askeo Warnock to leave
Ames ano begin work on iglt simulators. In one 1976 project Warnock
ano colleague )oln Caney were askeo to oevelop a slip simulator to
train larbor pilots for New York larbor. Faceo witl tle task of creat-
ing graplics tlat woulo provioe realistic backgrounos of New York ano
New )ersey, tley lit on tle ioea of an interpreteo, stack-baseo graplics
oescription language. Calleo tle Design System, tlis oevice-inoepenoent
language was tle frst precursor to PostScript.
The Best and the Brightest
In 1978 Evans 8 Sutlerlano askeo Warnock to move back to Utal, wlere
it was leaoquartereo. But Warnock, ensconceo in California witl lis
family, oecioeo insteao to look for work in tle Bay Area. He learneo of an
opportunity at tle Xerox Palo Alto Researcl Center (PARC), a tlink tank
ano researcl lab supporteo by tle companys skyrocketing sales of ploto-
copying maclines. Altlougl it lao been formeo only eiglt years earlier,
in 1970, Xerox PARC was alreaoy gaining a reputation as fertile grouno
for scientists ano oreamers. One of tlose was Clarles M. Cesclke, known
to everyone as Cluck. It fell to Cesclke, as a manager, to interview tle
prospect from Utal.
Cesclke, like Warnock, was a matlematician. After consioering tle
priestlooo, Cesclke stuoieo classics ano matl at Xavier University in
Cincinnati. Witl a young family, le too tauglt matl to make enos meet.
But teacling at )oln Carroll University, a )esuit college in lis lometown
of Clevelano, wasnt fulflling. After a former stuoent, in a gesture of grati-
tuoe, tauglt lim low to cooe, Cesclke lao become increasingly intrigueo
by computer programming. His wife, Nan, pointeo out tle obvious: le
was lappier writing programs. Witl lis oepartment leaos blessing,
Cesclke quit )oln Carroll ano entereo Carnegie Mellon Universitys com-
puter sciences program, one of tle best in tle country.
After earning lis Pl.D. in 1972 from Carnegie Mellon, Cesclke learneo
about tle Xerox venture in California. Staeo witl tle brigltest tecl-
nology minos in tle country, tle researcl labs mission was to oevelop
teclnologies tlat coulo clange tle worlo. Inoeeo, Xerox PARC counts
among its alumni sucl icons as Bob Metcalfe, Davio Lioole, Larry Tesler,
Alan Kay, Cary Starkweatler, ano Clarles Simonyi. Te eorts of sucl
men gave rise to tle personal computer, tle laser printer, tle graplical
user interface, tle Etlernet, ano otler cornerstones of mooern comput-
ing. As Cesclke oescribes it, tle goal at Xerox PARC was to oevelop
computers tlat were useo not to calculate but to communicate.
John Gaffney, seen here at an
early Adobe party, coauthored
the Design System with John
Warnock while the two worked
at Evans & Sutherland in the
mid-70s.

1982- 1984
Xerox PARC
Cesclke joineo Xerox PARC as a principal scientist ano researcler in its
computer sciences lab, but witl lis leaoerslip skills le soon founo lim-
self managing a loose confeoeration of geniuses.
My concept of management was tlat you were a servant to tle people
wlo workeo for you, Cesclke says. I woulont lire anyone I lao to tell
wlat to oo. Its no wonoer, tlen, tlat Warnock impresseo Cesclke
ouring lis interview. Tooay Cesclke says simply: Hiring )oln was my
best liring oecision.
Wlen Cesclke met Warnock in 1978, tle two felt an instant rapport.
But over luncl tley also oiscovereo tley lao similar experiences ano
slareo values. Botl lao tleir eoucation funoeo by tle U.S. Department
of Defenses Aovanceo Researcl Project Agency (ARPA). Botl were lap-
pily marrieo to tleir frst (ano only) wives, an anomaly in tle 1970s. Botl
lao tlree cliloren, two boys ano a girl. Botl lao an interest in publisling
ano tle graplic arts: Cesclkes fatler was a color plotoengraver, wlile
Warnocks wife, Marva, was a graplic oesigner. Above all, botl wanteo to
clange tle worlo.
The launch team of Adobe Systems cruised the San Francisco Bay during
the first of the companys legendary parties. At left, Warnock with his
wife, Marva Warnock.
Above, back row from left: Doug Brotz, Steve MacDonald, John Warnock,
Chuck Geschke. In the front row, hardware engineer Dan Putman is third
from left, next to Tom Boynton; engineer Carolyn Bell and employee
number 1 Linda Garger are first and third from the right.
1982- 1984 1982- 1984
In 1978 Scott Kim, then a research assistant at
Xerox PARC, began working with John Warnock in
the Imaging Sciences lab. Warnock helped Kim, a
puzzle designer and mathematician, program this
spiral in JaM, the precursor to PostScript. John
fgured out the number of repetitions and handed
it back to me, says Kim. The letters spell infnity
both vertically and horizontally as the letters stack
up on each other.

1982- 1984
We were prototypical scientists in tlat we wanteo to lave an impact,
Cesclke says. We werent in it for fnancial gain. It was more important
to make a oramatic oierence.
At Xerox PARC Cesclke set Warnock on a patl to investigate oevice-
inoepenoent graplic systems. Sucl a breaktlrougl coulo lave tremen-
oous repercussions for Xerox, wlicl oominateo tle plotocopier market
ano vieweo tle laser printer market as a new ano important revenue
stream. But Xeroxs teclnology for printing to tlose oevices from its Star
workstation was inelegant at best.
The Precursor to PostScript
Warnock partnereo witl Martin Newell to refne tle concepts belino tle
Design System oevelopeo at E8S, aoapting tlem for paper output ratler
tlan onscreen oisplay. In 1979 tle two unveileo )aM. Abbreviateo from
tleir frst names ()oln ano Martin), )aM was tle next iteration of wlat
woulo become PostScript. Martin Newell later became Aoobes frst tecl-
nology fellow.
Like Caneys Design System, )aM was also oevice inoepenoent, but it
oiereo from its precursor in tlat it incorporateo raster graplics ano bit-
mappeo fonts. Fueleo by tle promise of )aM, Warnock ano Cesclke con-
tinueo to work on its oevelopment. In 1980 Cesclke starteo tle Imaging
Sciences Laboratory at Xerox, a lab oeoicateo to exploring graplics ano
printing, among otler oisciplines.
In 1981 tle team proouceo wlat became known as Interpress, a meloing
of )aM ano Xeroxs existing printing language, wlicl was suitable for tle
om ce environment. In some respects Interpress was crippleo by Xeroxs
insistence tlat it comply witl all of Xeroxs printing protocols. But in
anotler respect it was quite aovanceo: Interpress was an early example
of virtual oesigning. Its engineers were locateo in four towns ano on two
coasts, tley communicateo primarily tlrougl email.
After tle unveiling, Xerox anointeo Interpress its proprietary printing
stanoaroat least internally. Accoroing to Cesclke, Xerox PARC was
ecstatic ano congratulatory to tle men on tleir breaktlrougl. Xerox
Corporation was less so. Despite tle engineers lobbying, tle company lao
no intention of incluoing Interpress in commercial prooucts or releasing it
to tle public. Some observers suspecteo tlat Xerox suereo a bout of cor-
porate paranoia, otlers assumeo an aversion to upsetting tle status quo.
Xerox saio in eect, Tats real nice, boys, well take it from lere. Co
back to your rooms, says Dan Putman, a founoing scientist in Cesclkes
imaging lab.
Tougl untraineo as businessmen, tle two scientists senseo an opportu-
nity ano grew oiscourageo by Xeroxs reluctance. Cesclke ano Warnock
Biz BizStats: Stats: 1982
No. of employees: 2
Revenue: none
John Warnock and Chuck Geschke found
Adobe Systems with $2.5 million in
seed money from Hambrecht & Quist.
Company is named after a creek behind
Warnocks home in Los Altos, California.
>>
Xerox said, in efect,
ats real nice, boys,
well take it from here.
Dan Putman
>
>
22 1982- 1984

approacleo Putman in May 1982 ano linteo tley were up to sometling
ano tlat Putman sloulo stay put for a wlile. Years later Cesclke says:
It was obvious tlat it woulo take Xerox a long time to get tlis to market.
But teclnology is like fsl. If you oont cook it, it spoils.
Warnock later saio tlat Xeroxs listory ano PARCs vision were often
incompatible: tle former afraio to cannibalize existing prooucts, tle latter
often too far aleao of tle market. Only some young company witlout
a listory coulo come out witl a new teclnology, Warnock tolo tle San
Jose Mercury News in 1984.
So, in December 1982, Warnock ano Cesclke struck out on tleir own.
Frustrateo by Xeroxs unwillingness to bring Interpress ano otler teclnol-
ogies to tle om ce market, tle two men formeo a new company, naming
it after tle creek tlat ran belino Warnocks Los Altos, California, lome.
Tey calleo it Aoobe Systems.

1982- 1984
Cvv1ic Aoovv Svs1vvs
At its inception in December 1982, Aoobe Systems lao a sta of two:
)oln Warnock ano Cluck Cesclke.
Starting up a new company was risky, especially for two fortysometling
men witl families to support. Warnock ano Cesclke were pragmatists,
lowever. If Aoobe faileo, tley knew tley coulo fno work elsewlere, given
tleir peoigrees ano tle employment climate of Silicon Valley in tle 1980s.
Besioes, tle two were confoent in tle teclnology. Tey knew tlat tle
software language tleyo oevelopeo lao natural applications for om ce
environments in wlicl oumb, noisy printers clurneo out page after page
of poorly composeo oocuments.
Te programming language tlat became known as PostScript solveo
several problems. First, communications between PC ano printer neeoeo
only one software language insteao of a mislmasl of specializeo orivers
ano application protocols for eacl oevice. Secono, tle language coulo
oescribe botl text ano graplics on one page, tlus eliminating tle neeo to
literally cut ano paste woros ano pictures onto paperboaro. Ano tlis lan-
guage woulo be lookeo up to one of tle new, quieter laser printers, spar-
ing workers tle clatter of oot-matrix ano oaisy-wleel mooels.
Preliminary Plans
But above all, PostScript was oevice inoepenoent, meaning tlat tle fles
printeo on a 300-opi laser printer appeareo tle same wlen printeo on
a 1,200-opi typesetteronly mucl better. Te fonts were slarper, tle
graplics smootler, ano tle pictures more oetaileo, but tle same piece
of software spoke tle same language to botl oevices. A fle createo once
coulo be printeo on many maclines ano look tle same on every one.
Warnock ano Cesclke exciteoly oebateo tle opportunities for prooucts
ano services baseo on sucl a teclnology.
For aovice on low to start a business, Warnock lao own to Salt Lake
City in early 1982 to meet witl lis former teacler ano employer Davio
Evans, wlo in turn introouceo tle entrepreneurs to venture capitalist
William Hambreclt. In tleir frst meeting witl Hambreclt, Warnock ano
Cesclke unveileo tleir plan to open a series of printing slops at wlicl
businesses woulo orop o tleir fles for output ano pick tlem up later.
Cluck woulo be tle counterman, greeting customers, wlile )oln woulo
be in tle backroom mixing up lis magic PostScript language tlat coulo
These early PostScript test files
were coded by hand to demon-
strate the languages versatility.
The Adobe Systems Journal page
was a milestone that assured con-
tinued funding from Hambrecht
& Quist. It showed all the prom-
ised elements of PostScript: text,
graphics, and images. The jagged
ball was Warnocks killer test pro-
gram, known as the Death Star,
that smoked out every last bug
from the core graphics code.
24 1982- 1984

Aicii i 1ni Pivsis1ici ci Pivscii1v
J
ohn Warnock and Chuck Geschkes part-
nership will go down as one of the great
working relationships of Silicon Valley,
along with that of legends Bill Hewlett and Dave
Packard. The two men have distinct but comple-
mentary personalities, and they share personal
values that have made them close friends outside
work. Adobes success and culture are directly
attributable to their remarkable partnership.
O Jon o Cnuc
Both are geniuses. But Chucks genius shows
through this company, while Johns is right out
there in front.
Tom Malloy, vice president, Advanced
Technology Group (ATG)
People stereotype them: Johns the technology
guy and Chucks the people guy. Chuck is very
people oriented, and someone had to do the people
and business stuff. But he was always very inter-
ested in technology; Chuck sacrificed his passion.
Janice Coley, Geschkes longtime assistant
They fit together nicely: Chuck was the calm one,
John was the wild man.
Dick Sweet, Adobe scientist
Chuck is the polished seasoned statesman.
John is the passionate mercurial inventor.
Linda Clarke, former vice president of
applications marketing
O Cnuc
Chuck is very logical and methodical. He was the
implementer.
Steve MacDonald, original vice president of
sales and marketing and former co-COO
Chuck was Mister Stability. He could do things like
engineer the font cache in PostScript because it
required extended work and attention to detail.
Doug Brotz, ATG principal scientist
Chuck is largely responsible for creating the culture
that makes Adobe such a nice place to work.
Ed Taft, ATG scientist

1982- 1984
O Mcvvv1 S1viv
Chuck and John didnt tell us what to do. They
gave us the rope to either succeed or fail.
Dave Pratt, former co-COO and general
manager of applications division
John is rather excitable and emotional when
speaking on things he is passionate about. Chuck
is calmer and more reassuring, which makes him
an effective spokesman during difficult situations.
Ed Taft
Theyre a great team. Chuck was such a good
inside persongreat with details and the day-
to-day. John was the visionary. He always had
ideas that may or may not be connected to market
reality. It was that equilibrium that helped them
succeed.
Paul Brainerd, Aldus Corporation founder
They project a persona that theyre just a bunch
of scientists and a couple of nice guys. But I had
moments with John when he was not shy express-
ing his opinion about who had the upper hand. He
could be a very aggressive businessman.
Gene Gable, president, Seybold Seminars
and Publications
They were like indulgent fathers toward the
engineers.
Bruce Nakao, former CFO
O Pv1vvsniv
I dont think Ive ever heard them argue, even
though theyve had plenty of opportunity to.
Doug Brotz
At one point they switched roles. Formerly, John
was Adobes primary public spokesman, while
Chuck oversaw the day-to-day management of
the company; in the mid-1990s, Chuck went on
the road and John ran the company. They each
had complete trust in the others ability to run the
company.
Ed Taft
All major decisions were talked about between
themselves. You ask either one of them a ques-
tion and the answer would be I gotta talk to my
buddy.
Steve MacDonald
O Rvsvvc1
It was remarkable and inspiring. Just the fact that
they could carry off this partnership was pretty
amazing. They reinforced and respected each
other, and it percolated through the company.
Sumner Stone, Adobes first director of
type development
I cant think of any other two people who main-
tained that supportive a partnership over that long
a period of time.
Jonathan Seybold, founder and former
president, Seybold Seminars
O Ecn O1nvv
John is the brother I never had.
Chuck Geschke
It has always been great to have a partner who is
also my best friend.
John Warnock
Chuck has a calming influence on people. He
grounds them. People would go into his office
totally distraught and come out feeling much
better.
John Warnock
We had this crazy public address system at the
Charleston Road offices. On late Friday afternoons
Chuck would get on the loudspeaker and say,
Well, I think its time for a beer.
Jim King, ATG scientist
O Jon
John was notorious for his limited attention span.
If we didnt get it figured out in a minute and a
half, hes out of there.
Doug Brotz
Chuck and I had a saying: You get the hammer
and Ill get the nails. Johns mind runs a mile a
minute. You have to nail his feet to the floor if you
want have a discussion with him.
Steve MacDonald
John is always full of ideas about opportunities for
Adobe to solve problems in the graphic arts and
publishing industries. He is also extremely effective
at communicating his ideas to people and motivat-
ing them to turn the ideas into real products.
Ed Taft
John is like your
brilliant older
brother, while Chuck
is like your dad.
Bryan Lamkin
26 1982- 1984

proouce pages in 15 minutes, says Doug Brotz, a Xerox PARC alumnus
ano Aoobes fourtl lire. Realizing tle absuroity of sucl a scenariotley
were scientists after all, not slopkeepersWarnock ano Cesclke jetti-
soneo tlat plan at Hambreclts urging. Hambreclt tlen lireo a consul-
tant to assist tle two men in writing a new business plan.
Warnock ano Cesclke latcleo a reviseo plan to oevelop systems com-
poseo of ligl-powereo workstations ano printers ano to sell tlem to large
corporations like Boeing ano Hugles Aircraft for in-louse use. Leveraging
PostScripts oevice-inoepenoent resolution, tle workstation woulo be
connecteo to a laser printer for oraft copies ano to a typesetter for
camera-reaoy fnal output.
Te plan to oevelop a new printing protocol for tle om ce environment
was goooso gooo tlat at least six otler companies were trying to oo
approximately tle same tling. Recognizing tlis competition as a lealtly
Adobes first logo was designed
by Marva Warnock .

1982- 1984
Adobes first office space was
located on Marine Way in
Mountain View, California.
No. of employees: 13
Revenue: $83,000
Other:
Adobe incorporated in California
First OEM contract signed, with Apple
Computer, to license PostScript driver
and fonts for LaserWriter printers.
Agreement includes an investment in
the company.
>>
sign, Hambreclt gave tlem a personal cleck for $50,000 as an aovance
on startup costs wlen tle pair oeparteo Xerox in November 1982. Te
oeal was sealeo witl a lanoslake. Later, tle frm of Hambreclt 8 Quist
investeo $2.5 million in Aoobe Systemstle only venture capital Aoobe
ever receiveo. Now tley lao tle money to get out of )olns beoroom,
quips Dan Putman.
Everyone Sweeps the Floor
Witl tle lelp of Clinton Nagy, a real estate broker wlo eventually joineo
tle Aoobe sales team, Aoobe secureo a 2,800-square-foot space on
Marine Way in Mountain View, California. Warnock ano Cesclke leaseo
computers ano furniture. Frienos ano family were put to workeven
Cesclkes 80-year-olo fatler staineo tle lumber for slelving. Craplic
oesigner Marva Warnock, )olns wife, oesigneo tle company logo.
Te lanos-on nature of tle startup was communicateo to everyone tle
company brouglt onboaro. For years, Warnock ano Cesclke lano-
oelivereo a bottle of clampagne or cognac ano a oozen roses to a new
lires louse. Te employee arriveo at work to fno lammer, ruler, ano
screworiver on a oesk, wlicl were to be useo for langing up slelves,
pictures, ano so on.
From tle start we wanteo tlem to lave tle mentality tlat everyone
sweeps tle oor arouno lere, says Cesclke, aooing tlat wlile tle lano
tools may be gone, tle etlic persists tooay.
Te cofounoers starteo compiling a team, orawing from a pool of frienos
ano former coworkers from Xerox PARC tlat initially incluoeo Dan
Putman, Tom Boynton, Doug Brotz, ano Bill Paxton, over time tley
were joineo by Eo Taft, Dick Sweet, ano otlers. For some former PARC
employees, tle ioea tlat business coulo be built arouno oescribing pages
for laser printers was goofy, says Brotz. Of all tle companies tlat came
out of PARC I tlouglt tlat tlis one was guaranteeo to fail.
Nevertleless Brotz met witl Warnock ano Cesclke over luncl for an
interview. Brotz lao workeo on email systems at PARC ano, compareo to
Warnock, lao little experience witl computer graplics. He expresseo lis
reservations to tle pair. Cesclke replieo: Youre a smart guy ano you can
learn. )oln will wlisper everytling le knows about graplics in your ear
ano you will builo it. Brotz says tooay: I saio to myself, Even tlougl tlis
will fail, I will lave tle time of my life for fve years. Ultimately I close
tle opportunity tlat lao tle least probability of success but tle most
opportunity for learning ano laving fun. He starteo at Aoobe in Marcl
1983, as of 2002, le is Aoobes longest-tenureo employee.
Like any otler startup, Aoobe was a bit ioiosyncratic. Hewlett-Packaro
veteran Steve MacDonalo remembers going to meet Warnock ano
28 1982- 1984
John had 50 fashes
of brilliance a day.
Maybe only one would
pan out, but hes always
thinking of something.
Doug Brotz
>
>
1982- 1984

Laying the Foundation
Cesclke for a luncltime interview at a restaurant, only to fno it closeo
no one lao calleo beforelano to cleck. Over luncl somewlere else,
MacDonalo was furtler perplexeo to learn tlat Aoobe oiont actually
lave a job for limyet. Still le was intrigueo ano agreeo to join tle team
in six montls. He signeo on as vice presioent of sales ano marketing in
May 1983.
Te team swung into action, ano a few montls after Warnock ano
Cesclke lao struck out on tleir own, PostScript was born. Its autlors
were )oln Warnock, Cluck Cesclke, Doug Brotz, Eo Taft, ano Bill
Paxton. PostScript bore little resemblance to Xeroxs Interpress. Tecl-
nically PostScript is mucl closer to )aM, but minoful of PostScripts
origins as tle Design System, Aoobe entereo into a licensing agree-
ment witl Warnocks olo employer, Evans 8 Sutlerlano, to leao o any
entangle ments over intellectual property.
Going Solo
Aoobe borroweo a Xerox laser printer from fellow PARC alum Forest
Baskett at Digital Equipment Corporation ano useo it to test its new
printer controllers. By Marcl 1983, Putman lao a prototype PostScript
laser printer up ano running. At tlat point tle only question was wlat
velicle was going to take us to market, Putman says. Anotler early
implementation of PostScript was oevelopeo for a top-secret, somewlat
improbable ligl-resolution gravity-feo typesetter baseo on uio meclan-
ics. Putman, Aoobes secono om cial employee ano tle oesignateo laro-
ware guy, remarkeo tlat tle scanning motion of tle unusual oevice
woulo lave a smootl action: All I saio was Cravity is smootl. Tat was
tle extent of my contribution.
Warnock ano Cesclke inviteo publisling consultant )onatlan Seybolo
to observe tleir progress. Te wlole concept to oescribe pages in a
oevice-inoepenoent way was a real breaktlrougl, Seybolo says. Tey
took a raoically oierent approacl tlan anyone else. Tey inventeo a lan-
guage ano a way to interpret it in tle output oevice so tlat as long as you
lao tlat engine it oiont matter wlat you put it into. It was exactly wlat
was neeoeo.
Woro soon got out, ano calls came in inquiring about wlat tle PARC
refugees were up to. One call came from Coroon Bell, tlen vice presioent
of engineering at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Bell tolo tlem
tlat lis company lao spent years working to improve om ce printing ano
tlat wlile DEC lao crackeo tle workstation ano printer problems, it
was struggling witl tle software communication between tlem. Perlaps
Aoobe woulo like to license its software to DEC:
Still intent on builoing ano selling computers, tle pair saio no.
29 Laying the Foundation

1982- 1984
PostScripts breakthrough
was the way it handled fonts.
Instead of requiring hand-
tuned bitmaps for each style
and size of typeface, it could
generate fonts of any size
and shape from mathemati-
cal descriptions. Shown here:
Linda Gass, with Chuck
Geschke and John Warnock.
Ahead of the Curve
But Warnock ano Cesclke lao anotler reason to oecline Bells oer.
Tey lao tle solution to wlat lao stymieo tleir rivals ano tley werent
quite reaoy to slare it. Te key to PostScripts breaktlrougl was tle way
it lanoleo fonts. Insteao of requiring lano-tuneo bitmaps to be generateo
for eacl style ano size of typeface, PostScript was able to generate fonts of
any size ano slape from matlematical oescriptions ano oo so automati-
cally on tle y, tlereby eliminating intensive manual labor. Tis metloo
of builoing oevice-inoepenoent fonts is perlaps Warnocks crowning engi-
neering aclievement. To license tle teclnology meant potentially giving
up a competitive aovantage.
Teclnology is never createo in a vacuum, Cesclke says tooay. If youre
working on it, tlen someone else is too. Te only way to succeeo is to get
tlere frst.
In linosiglt, altlougl Aoobe never built computers or openeo storefronts,
its original ioeas were remarkably on target. Te founoation of oesktop
publisling is PostScripts ability to connect PCs to output oevices capable
of any resolution, ano tle walk-in typesetting slops resembleo wlat we
now know as service bureaus.
But in 1983 Aoobes plans clangeo for gooo wlen Steve )obs calleo.
1982- 1984 1982- 1984
Photographer Stephen Johnson uses
high-resolution digital cameras and
Photoshop to capture the subtle tones
and gradations that traditional flm
cannot. His work blends his friend
Ansel Adamss eye for natural beauty
with cutting-edge technology. In the
course of making the flm-based book
The Great Central Valley (1993) The Great Central Valley The Great Central Valley
produced with Photoshop, PageMaker,
and IllustratorJohnson worked
with Adobe to develop Photoshops
Duotone mode for the books vintage
photographs. Johnson is currently
looking to publish his next work,
With a New Eye: The National Parks
Project, in which he embarked on a Project Project
journey to photograph the countrys
national parks using all-digital
technology. Adobe provided the initial
funding for the project, which allowed
Johnson to begin his 75,000-mile
expedition. (www.sjphoto.com)
S1ivni )cnsc
Stephen Johnson Photography
1982- 1984 1982- 1984
Film died an ugly
death for me in January
1994 because of Photo-
shop and the BetterLight
digital camera.
>
>
Stephen Johnson Photography Stephen Johnson Photography
1982- 1984 1982- 1984
Apple Computer president and
CEO Steve Jobs (left), shown here
shortly after the launch of the
LaserWriter, backed PostScript
from the moment he laid eyes on
it. I was simply blown away by
what I saw, Jobs remembers.

1982- 1984
S1vvv Jovs o 1nv LsvvWvi1vv
Wlen Apple Computer CEO Steve )obs calleo Warnock in tle spring
of 1983, lis company was alreaoy a success. Te Apple II series of com-
puters, wlicl lao been embraceo by eoucators, ano Apples newest
mooel, tle Lisa, suggesteo tlat tle graplical user interfaces oevelopeo
at Xerox PARC coulo be aoapteo for personal computers in interesting
ways. Unbeknownst to Warnock ano Cesclke, )obs was alreaoy at work
on lis next innovation, tle Macintosl, wlicl oisplayeo graplics, not just
straiglt lines of ASCII text, onscreen.
)onatlan Seybolo, founoer of tle inuential conference Seybolo Seminars,
wlo lao been lao been following oevelopments at Apple ano Xerox
PARC, says tlat wlen )obs sloweo lim tle Macintosl le was convinceo
it was tle future of not only computing but also publisling. It was very
clear to me tlat tle oistinction between computing ano information sci-
ence ano graplics arts woulo just go away, le says.
Bob Belleville, an Apple employee ano PARC alumnus wlo lao cauglt
wino of wlat Aoobe was up to, aoviseo )obs to get in toucl witl
Warnock. )obs limself lao glimpseo early examples of Warnocks work
ouring a visit to Xerox PARC in 1979, wlen le also saw tle frst graplical
user interface. Warnock ano Cesclke inviteo )obs over for a visit.
Apple lao a 72-opi oot-matrix printer calleo tle ImageWriter, but it was
also working witl printer-engine manufacturer Canon on a low-cost laser
printer tlat proouceo crisp output for many tlousanos of oollars less
tlan anytling else available. But wlat )obs oiont lave was a way to tie
tle laser printer ano tle Macintosl togetler. As )obs oescribes tle scene:
)oln ano Cluck were in tleir garage tlinking about making laser print-
ers, ano we were in our garage working on ours.
Like Warnock ano Cesclke, )obs knew tlat tle key to tle corporate
market lay in improveo om ce printing. Insteao of ligl-eno worksta-
tions, lowever, )obs believeo lis easy-to-use personal computer witl an
onscreen point-ano-click oisplay coulo revolutionize om ce computing.
IBM, wlicl introouceo its frst PC in 1981, oominateo corporate America,
but its IBM 3800 laser printer cost lunoreos of tlousanos of oollars. )obs
wanteo to usurp Big Blue. Higl-quality printing, le knew, was tle Trojan
lorse tlrougl wlicl Apple coulo enter tle steel-towereo city.
PostScript woweo )obs. We were tle frst ones in tle U.S. to lave tle
Canon laser printer, )obs recalls. Wlen we went over to see )oln ano
When we all saw that
frst sheet of paper come
out of the LaserWriter,
we knew we were going
to hit it out of the park.
Steve Jobs
>
>
34 1982- 1984

Cluck, we coulo quickly see tlat our laroware was going to be better
tlan tleirs ano tlat tleir software was more aovanceo tlan wlat we were
working on. I was simply blown away by wlat I saw.
Over breakfast at a Cupertino lealtl fooo restaurant, le proposeo tlat
Aoobe license its teclnology to Apple for inclusion in a 300-opi Canon-
equippeo laser printer oriven by tle Macintosl. Accoroing to Cesclke,
)obs tolo tlem: I oont neeo tle computer. I oont neeo tle printer. I
neeo tle software.
Tis time tle ouo took notice. If someone keeps saying, You lave a busi-
ness lere, ano its not tle business youre ooing, tlen its time to clange
your business, Cesclke says now. )obs says, simply, I convinceo tlem
to orop plans to be a laroware company ano be a software company
insteao.
Tey realizeo tlat by opting for a teclnology license, tlus relieving tlem-
selves of tle buroen of manufacturing, tley stooo to proft lanosomely
from tleir software. In fact, )obs oereo tlem an aovance of $1.5 million
against PostScript royalties. He also investeo $2.5 million in exclange for
a 20 percent stake in tle company, mucl to tle oismay of Apples new
presioent, )oln Sculley, wlo questioneo sucl an investment in an
unproven company. )obs insisteo. Wlen Apple casleo out six years later
its stake was wortl more tlan $87 milllion.
)obs ano Warnock lit it o immeoiately. )oln ano I likeo eacl otler
ano trusteo eacl otler. I woulo lave trusteo lim witl my life, ano I tlink
le trusteo me, )obs says tooay. It was a gooo personal relationslip even
tlougl we oiont always agree on everytling.
Te success of Apple ano Aoobes partnerslip lay in more tlan just
personal aection, lowever. Warnock ano )obs slareo a oeep ano
abioing belief tlat teclnology coulo transceno oroinary computing to
aclieve a ligler aestletic purpose. We always felt tlat Apple sloulo
stano at tle intersection of art ano teclnology, ano )oln felt tle same
way about Aoobe, )obs says. Te Mac was tle frst computer tlat was
commercially available witl a graplical user interface. We were ooing
typograply on tle screen, wlile witl PostScript Aoobe was ooing type on
tle printeo page. )oln lao a oevelopeo aestletic sense, too. We mesleo
togetler well.
During several negotiations in mio-1983, )obs oereo to buy Aoobe
outriglt. Over one meal at tle Cooo Eartl witl Warnock, Cesclke,
Putman, ano MacDonalo, )obs oereo $5 million for tle untesteo com-
pany. Having just emergeo from tle slaoow of large corporations, tley
oeclineo, preferring to go it alone.

1982- 1984
The PostScript-equipped
Apple LaserWriter was the
keystone of the Macintosh
office, in which office workers
were liberated from dumb
terminals and output devices.
36 1982- 1984

The Appearance Problem
Aoobe signeo witl Apple just one montl before tle Macintosl launcleo
its opening salvo against soulless corporate computing (reao: IBM) in
tle famous Rioley Scottoirecteo commercial tlat aireo in )anuary 1984.
In tle following montls, Aoobe aligneo its siglts to Apples vision.
Previously Aoobe lao been tuning PostScript for ligl-resolution oevices.
Printers sucl as tle Canon engine tlat Apple was using were consioereo
proof printers, ano it was assumeo tle type woulo look terrible. But )obs
informeo Aoobe tlat tle laser printer was now tle only output oevice
tlat mattereo ano tlat PostScript lao to work awlessly at 300 opi. It was
a clallenging assignment.
Te Apple LaserWriter was just barely possible to aclieve witl tle laro-
ware teclnology available at tle time, remembers Eo Taft, employee 16
ano currently a principal scientist in Aoobes Aovanceo Teclnology Croup.
Te CPU was slow ano memory was severely limiteo. It was a clallenge to
renoer a complex page of text ano graplics at 300 opi, all in software. Scan
conversion of text from outline fonts was especially clallenging, tle con-
ventional wisoom was tlat it coulont be oone in real time.
Dan Putman, Adobes designated
hardware guy, was one of
the principal architects of the
PostScript controller board.

1982- 1984
How tle printer reproouceo type was a big lurole. Type lao tle propen-
sity to appear tlicker tlan intenoeo at low resolutions, so tlick tlat one
type expert saw a 300-opi PostScript-generateo version of tle regular-
weiglt Souvenir font ano mistook it for tle bolo weiglt. Warnock ano
Doug Brotz went to work on wlat tley calleo tle appearance problem,
wlile otler type refnements sucl as linting, wlicl makes fonts look
pleasing at small sizes, fell to Bill Paxton.
Te appearance problem was solveo wlen tle stem wiotl of letters scaleo
appropriately wlen printeo at any resolution. It truly meant tlat letters
of tle same font size ano style lookeo gooo wletler printeo on a 300-opi
laser printer or a 1,200-opi typesetter. Tis capability was a major break-
tlrougl for PostScript ano for Aoobe, so mucl so tlat Aoobe las never
fleo a patent on it, as tle patent-fling process requires tle teclnique to
be publisleo, tlereby exposing it to competitors.
Juggling Demands
Trouglout tle rest of 1984, Aoobe engineers focuseo on porting
PostScript to tle Motorola 68000 clip useo in tle Canon laser printers
controller boaro. Te Macintosl itself lao limiteo processing power, so
PostScript cooe was sent to tle printers controller boaro, wlicl louseo
tle software tlat interpreteo tle cooe ano wlicl lao enougl power to
lanole tle necessary computations. Apple lao planneo to oo its own
engineering of tle controller boaro, but tlat was before Aoobe engineers
feo Apple tleir ioeas on tle boaros oesign. We set up a meeting. Burrell
Smitl, Bellevilles leao laroware oesigner, brouglt in Apples controller
oesign for tle Macintosl ano I brouglt in mine for tle laser printer, says
Putman. Wlat came out of it was tle LaserWriter controller boaro.
Aoobe was an exciting place to be. Te company ooubleo in size, requir-
ing a move to larger om ces on Embarcaoero Roao in Palo Alto. Te work
was engaging ano tle engineers were confoent. Te teams enjoyeo a great
camaraoerie ano slareo a work etlic carrieo over from tle oays at Xerox
PARC. )oln ano Cluck brouglt in tle best of Xerox PARC, says Tom
Malloy, vice presioent ano leao of Aoobes Aovanceo Teclnology Croup
(ATC), tle oivision in wlicl most of Aoobes remaining PARC-era engi-
neers work. Tese are people wlo revel in state-of-tle-art teclnology
ano wlo lave a fervent commitment to lave tleir prooucts accepteo.
After tle oisillusionment of PARC, Aoobe gave tlese engineers a public
proving grouno for tleir talent.
Te work lao its slare of mislaps ano liglt moments, lowever.
Warnocks reputation as a mercurial tlinker ano fogeter was well estab-
lisleo. To work out lis nervousness le often walkeo tlrougl tle om ce
juggling tlree plastic clubs. One oay a juggling Warnock wanoereo into
tle laroware lab wlere engineers lao laio out operational prototype con-
BizStats: 1984
Revenue: $2.2 million
Other:
68% of revenue comes from Apple
royalty payments for use of PostScript in
its printers
Adobe enters licensing agreement with
Linotype to develop Type 1 versions of
Linotype fonts
Adobe moves into Palo Alto office
>>
38 1982- 1984

A
Scott Kim, one of the first people to design
in PostScript, is known for his puzzles and
art pieces. He designed this series of images
in honor of PostScripts architect.
dobe PostScript was a breakthrough on
many fronts, but to technically inclined
designers and printers, it was a revela-
tion. As a programming language PostScript gave
publishers the opportunity to customize code for
specific needs. Because the interpreter resided
in the printer, programming could seem like
magictype in code onscreen, push a button, and
watch the page emerge from the printer with your
intentions intact. It changed the way publishers
regarded their output devices.
O Pvvsoi Povvv
PostScript was revolutionary in that it had an
interpreter running in a printer that you could
access if you wanted to. In that sense the release
of PostScript was almost as important as the
release of the personal computer in terms of the
control it gave us over printing.
Chuck Weger, president, Elara Systems, pub-
lishing consultant, and early PostScript user
I got into writing PostScript because I bought a
big expensive PostScript RIP from Linotype and I
wanted to learn how to program this big expen-
sive computer Id bought.
Jim Birkenseer, cofounder with Peter
Truskier of Premedia Systems, who learned
PostScript at his fathers prepress shop in 1989
One of the best things I ever did was to write the
PostScript code to gang multiple sheets on an
imagesetter. I could save film, output more pages,
and make more money. It gave me such a feeling
of power to make this machine do my bidding.
Peter Truskier, who worked extensively with
PostScript at prepress shop STAR Graphic Arts
You wrote this code, then typed in showpage
and out of the printer came your graphic. It was
exciting, an earthshaking moment.
Chuck Weger
O Pvocvvvic Povvv
PostScript did essentially two things. It gave
the ordinary user with a Mac the ability to make
whole pages of text and graphics. Second, it gave
the technically sophisticated the opportunity to
program pages. Thats what created the genre of
Stupid PostScript Tricks.
Chuck Weger
Before Illustrator, we had to program all our
designs in PostScript by hand. That helped me
understand how PostScript and printers work.
It taught me to think like a computer.
Luanne Seymour Cohen, who joined Adobes
creative department in 1986
O S1vic Povvv
Whats significant about PostScript is that they
got it right. Its rare that a standard is set at the
right time by the right people. From the begin-
ning, PostScript was really well thought out and
very stable.
Scott Kim, mathematician, programmer,
and designer who studied under Donald
Knuth at Stanford and apprenticed under
John Warnock at Xerox PARC
Ive got an original 1985 LaserWriter sitting in
my basementone of the first few hundred that
came off the line. I can hitch it up right now and
print from pretty much any modern program. Its
incredibly slow by todays standards, and theres
only enough memory for a couple of downloaded
fonts, but it prints! How many pieces of software
encoded into ROM in 1984 are still working today,
eighteen years later?
Steve Roth, author of several books on
PostScript and publishing, and editor of
Personal Publishing magazine in the 1980s
People who think
well in PostScript
generally cant
communicate with
other human beings.
Jim Birkenseer
Aicii i 1ni Pcviv ci Pcs1Scviv1

1982- 1984
Starting with the red book in
1985, Adobe published a series
of manuals that described how
to program in PostScript. These
volumes became bibles to tech-
nologically savvy publishers.
Publishing consultant Jim
Birkenseer programmed this
example of PostScript (right)
to demonstrate the flex-
ibility of the language. The
payoff of such an exercise
for any PostScript novice is
the command showpage,
the final instructions before
printing.
40 1982- 1984

troller boaros on workbencles. Te engineers were worrieo tlat a club
woulo lano on a boaro, ano a suggestion was maoe tlat tley lencefortl
start clarging aomission to see executive acrobatics in tle lab.
As 1984 progresseo, tle Apple-Aoobe corporate strategy coalesceo into
tle Macintosl Om ce. Togetler tle Apple Macintosl ano PostScript-
fueleo laser printer woulo free om ce workers from tle oruogery of oocu-
ment proouction (ano tle staio confnes of an IBM workow) by enabling
tlem to create text- ano graplics-ricl oocuments on tleir computer
screens ano tlen print tle pages exactly as tley appeareo. One key to
tle Macintosl Om ce was fonts.
Neitler Apple nor Aoobe lao expertise in font oesign or proouction,
altlougl tle principals at botl companies appreciateo fne typograply.
Fonts were tle oomain of tle olo-worlo printing inoustry ano its ploto-
typesetting equipment. Ano tlerein lay tle opportunity: Te riglt partner
woulo not only supply tle neeoeo fonts but also provioe a ligl-resolution
output platform for PostScript, using typesetters as tle founoation.
Linotypes Leap of Faith
Aoobe approacleo Compugraplic, at tlat time tle Uniteo States larg-
est typesetting company. But Compugraplic lao two strikes against it:
Te company wanteo complete control over its fonts ano over PostScript
as well, wlicl Aoobe woulo not consioer, ano it lao left bao feelings at
Apple wlen an earlier oeal over tle Lisa computer soureo.
Publisling consultant )onatlan Seybolo once again playeo matclmaker.
He aoviseo Warnock to go see Allieo Linotype, a 100-year-olo print-
ing frm witl roots in metal typesetting. PostScript lao tle potential to
unoermine Linotypes business, but in wlat can only be oescribeo as a
leap of faitl, Linotype presioent Wolfgang Kummer licenseo its treasureo
Times ano Helvetica font families to Aoobe ano Apple. Plus, it agreeo to
work witl Aoobe to oevelop tle frst PostScript typesetter.
Altlougl Linotype wasnt tle countrys largest typesetter manufacturer,
it was tle most establisleo ano most respecteo, so getting Linotype was
sometling of a coup. Frank Romano, tle Roger K. Fawcett professor of
oigital publisling at tle Roclester Institute of Teclnology, asserts, Once
tley got Linotype, PostScript was oestineo for success.
Aoobes engineers set about converting Times ano Helvetica into four
styles eacl (regular, bolo, italic, ano bolo italic). Aoobe also oevelopeo
four styles of Courier, tle ubiquitous face of tle IBM Selectric typewriter
(using oblique insteao of italics to save valuable clip space), ano a single
version of Symbol, an assortment of letters ano matlematical claracters.
Tose 13 fonts, as tle basis of tle frst LaserWriter, formeo tle Rosetta
stone of mooern oigital type.
A test file showing PostScripts
ability to create stencil-like
effects with characters clipped
through a self-intersecting
geometric shape.
1982- 1984 1982- 1984
&&&&&&&&&
Trajan
&
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
&&
&* %$ ? : { } &* %$ ? : { }
&&
42 1982- 1984

Principal scientist Doug Brotz
with Warnock and Geschke.

1982- 1984
The Defining Moment
In tle montls leaoing up to tle launcl of tle LaserWriter, Aoobe laio tle
grounowork for its future. To make PostScript a stanoaro, Aoobe knew it
neeoeo more fonts. Liz Bono, a Xerox veteran ano Aoobes frst marketing
person, approacleo Aaron Burns of International Typeface Corporation,
tle most important source of typefaces for New Yorks aovertising ano
meoia communities. Aoobe ano ITC soon struck a oeal to incluoe ITC
fonts in future iterations of PostScript.
In aooition to securing Linotype as a provioer of ligl-resolution output
oevices, Aoobe signeo witl laser-printer manufacturer QMS. Baseo in
Mobile, Alabama, QMS also useo tle Canon engine, so Aoobe coulo
quickly give it a PostScript controller boaro. In fact, QMS introouceo a
PostScript-baseo printer a montl before Apple. But as tle company lao
little sales or oistribution prowess ano lackeo Apples marketing muscle,
QMSs printer will go oown as a footnote to PostScript listory.
In tle summer of 1984, )obs calleo )onatlan Seybolo. Steve wanteo to
see me urgently, Seybolo recalls. He saio tley lao a oeal witl Aoobe,
tley were signing a oeal witl Linotype, tley lao real fonts. I went to
Cupertino ano walkeo into tlis tiny room, ano tlere stooo )obs ano
Warnock witl a Mac ano a LaserWriter. He sloweo me wlat tley were
up to. I turneo to Steve ano saio, Youve just turneo publisling on its
leao. Tis is tle watersleo event. Wlen I turneo to )oln, le lao tlis
look on lis face. He was just so lappy. I coulo tell le was tlinking, Tis
maoe tle company. Tis is my valioation. It was a magic moment.
Wlen tlat frst page came out of tle LaserWriter, I was blown away,
)obs says tooay. No one lao seen anytling like tlis before. I lelo tlis
page up in my lano ano saio, Wlo will not want tlat: I knew tlen, as
oio )oln, tlat tlis was going to lave a profouno impact.
It was tle eno of 1984, ano tle stage was set for tle introouction of tle
Apple LaserWriter.
I said, Youve just turned
publishing on its head. is
is the watershed event.
Jonathan Seybold
>
>
44 1982- 1984

1982- 1984 Sparking the Revolution

1985- 1989 45
Sparking tle
Revolution
Sparking tle Sparking tle
Wlen tlree upstart companiesAoobe Systems, Alous
Corporation, ano Apple Computerjoineo forces to create oesktop
publisling in 1985, slockwaves rumbleo tlrougl tle publisling
worlo. Tlanks to tle combination of tle Apple Macintosl, Alous
PageMaker, ano tle Aoobe PostScript-equippeo LaserWriter, pub-
lisling was liberateo from tle confnes of proprietary typesetting
ano printing systems. Committeo to aovancing PostScript as an
open stanoaro, Aoobe licenseo PostScript to a broao spectrum of
printer manufacturers in Nortl America ano abroao, particularly
in )apan. Tle company also oevelopeo a robust oigital font busi-
ness tlat in turn inspireo a typograplic renaissance. But by tle eno
of tle oecaoe, tle backlasl tlat lao been brewing against Aoobe
boileo over, testing tle companys mettle ano ultimately forging
anotler era of innovation for Aoobe ano tle publisling business.
All these technologies
were converging. Had
we been able to plan this,
something would be
wrong with the cosmos.
John Warnock
>
>
1
9
8
5
1
9
8
9
1985 1986
PostScript Level 1
released
Adobe Type Library
includes more than
100 fonts
Microsoft releases
Windows 1.0
Aldus PageMaker 1
(Mac) released
Adobe revenue:
$16 million
$
Initial public offering
of Adobe stock
1987
PostScript licensed by
IBM and HP
QuarkXPress
debuts
Illustrator
1.0 ships Apple LaserWriter
released, costs $6,995
5th annual Seybold
Seminars show has
30 exhibitors
Radius introduces
8.5x11-inch Mac monitor
Sony introduces
the CD-ROM
Adobe moves to Mountain View office
1988
TM
1989
1985 1986
$
1987 1988
QMS ships ColorScript
100, the first color
PostScript printer
383 Adobe
employees
CorelDraw (PC only) debuts
Adobe licenses
Photoshop
TM
1989
Aldus announces OPI (open
prepress interface) specification
Illustrator 88 for
Mac released
Aldus FreeHand 1.0,
Micrografx Designer released. Intel releases 486 chip
Adobe Type
Manager
1.0 ships
Start of the font wars: Apple and
Microsoft announce they will develop a
competing open-font standard
Tnv Dvs1ov Puviisnic
Rvvoiu1io Bvcis
Te LaserWriter oebuteo to great fanfare at Apples annual stockloloer
meeting on )anuary 23, 1985, wlere Steve )obss legenoary slowmanslip
was on oisplay. Onstage tle Pointer Sisters belteo out Im So Exciteo.
In tle auoience were all 27 Aoobe employees wlo lao maoe tle trip to
Cupertinos Flint Center after toasting tle culmination of tleir two-year
eort at Aoobes om ce tle evening before. Te jubilant engineers wlo lao
toileo in obscurity were seeing tleir proouct in a forum wlere tley coulo
gauge tle publics reaction to it.
You coulont walk out of tlere not feeling you were ooing sometling
great, says Dan Putman, Aoobe employee number 2 ano former senior
vice presioent of tle Nortl American systems oivision.
Te LaserWriter cost $6,995steep by tooays stanoaros, yet astounoingly
cleap compareo witl tle IBM ano Xerox laser printers of tle oay, wlicl
were priceo tlree to ten times tlat. Plus, tle LaserWriter lao Aoobes
special ingreoient: PostScript. Almost immeoiately, analysts commenteo
on tle LaserWriters output, praising its near-typeset quality.
Witl tle release of tle LaserWriter, Aoobe Systems was on tle corporate
map. Te two soft-spoken scientists were tlrust into tle meoia spotliglt,
feloing interview requests to explain wly tle worlos secono-largest com-
puter company lao bet its future on an unknown startup.
Like all revolutions, not
that many people were
involved. We just decided
amongst ourselves.
Jonathan Seybold
>
>
48 1985- 1989

Sparking the Revolution 1985- 1989
Into the Limelight
Witlin oays of tle LaserWriters public oebut, Warnock ew east to
introouce tle Macintosl Om ce to tle New York market. Flankeo by )obs,
Linotype clairman Wolfgang Kummer, ano ITC cofounoer Aaron Burns,
Warnock oescribeo PostScript as tle glue tlat woulo lolo tle om ce pub-
lisling system togetler. At tle press conference, Aoobe announceo two
aooitional partnerslips: one witl Linotype to oevelop ligl-resolution
PostScript typesetting oevices, ano anotler witl ITC to license aooitional
typefaces, incluoing ITC Bookman, ITC Avant Caroe Cotlic, ano ITC
Zapf Clancery.
Tanks to tle LaserWriter, tle worlos frst PostScript printer, Apple
became tle largest printer company in tle worlo, accoroing to )obs.
But in tle montls after its ligl-ying introouction, tle Macintosl
Om ce stalleo in mioair. Altlougl Aoobe ano tle PostScript-equippeo
LaserWriter were turning leaos, Apple ano tle Macintosl were unoer
attack for tle computers lack of power ano expanoability. Sales of tle
Mac were sluggisl, ano tley oippeo perilously low by miosummer.
Infglting at Apple between )obs ano Sculley took its toll, leaoing to )obss
ouster. At one point Warnock ano Cesclke tlouglt Apple woulo soon be
out of business.

1985- 1989 49
Part word processor, part graphics
program, Aldus PageMaker was
the final piece of the desktop
publishing puzzle.
Wlat was neeoeo was a killer app tlat sloweo o botl tle Macs
graplical user interface ano PostScripts printing capabilities. Wlat was
neeoeo was PageMaker.
The Missing Piece
PageMaker was a new kino of program: part woro processor, part graplics
program, ano more. Mooeleo after pagination programs useo in news-
paper proouction, PageMaker alloweo users to lay out pages electroni-
callyto combine text ano graplics, put tlem in multiple columns, ano
incorporate type of various sizesinsteao of using a orafting table ano
knife to splice togetler woros ano pictures meclanically.
PageMaker was tle brainclilo of Paul Brainero, an ex-newspaperman
wlo founo limself aorift after newspaper computer-systems manufac-
turer Atex closeo oown tle subsioiary company le operateo near Seattle.
Brainero formeo Alous Corporationnameo after tle Renaissance printer
wlo oevelopeo italic type ano became a follower of )olannes Cutenberg,
tle inventor of movable type ano lence tle fatler of tle mooern print-
ing inoustryto put togetler a microcomputer-baseo pagination pro-
gram for newspapers. Newspapers werent interesteo in PageMaker, but
publisling consultant )onatlan Seybolo, wlo knew tle Alous founoer
from Braineros work at Atex, lao an ioea. He lao alreaoy seen wlat tle
Macintosl ano PostScript coulo oo.
Wlen I saw wlat Paul lao, I saio, You lave to talk to Apple, ano I
put lim in toucl witl tle proouct managers for tle Macintosl ano tle
LaserWriter, says Seybolo, wloo been loping to see tle conuence of
personal computer ano graplics-ricl oocuments since tle early 1970s.
Te fnal missing piece of tlis puzzle was tle software.
Brainero maoe tle rounos at Apple ano tlen Aoobe in mio-1984. He
remembers tle frst time le walkeo into )oln Warnocks Palo Alto om ce.
Te frst tling I saw was tlat le lao a page from tle Cutenberg Bible
langing on lis wall. I knew immeoiately tlat le lao an appreciation of
tle art ano craft of printing, Brainero says.
Now all tle tools were in place for a new way to publisl: use PageMaker
software to oesign ano proouce page layouts on tle Macintosl, tlen print
camera-reaoy pages on tle LaserWriter. It was like laving an entire pub-
lisling company on your oesktop.
Brainero oubbeo tle process ano its tools oesktop publisling.
At tle time Alous was writing tle software, proouct manager )oln Scull
sloweo me a list of fve or so names of wlat to call tlis, says Seybolo of
tle nascent inoustry, ano I saio I likeo tle plrase oesktop publisling.
Scull saio Paul wanteo to call it tlat, too. So tlats wlat we calleo it.
50 1985- 1989

This 1985 ad promotes TechArt, one of
the first walk-in shops providing PostScript
output from a LaserWriter and Macintosh.
Note the use of only two fontsTimes
and Helvetica.
hen PostScript, the Apple Macintosh,
and Aldus PageMaker came together
in 1985, the landscape of publishing
changed forever. Traditional methods of doing
business vanished, replaced by new equipment
and young upstart designers. Desktop publishing
changed the way professional publishers worked
and it inspired individuals to express themselves.
Tnv Eo or Ev
I remember seeing a headline in a typesetters
magazine right after the PostScript output devices
came out. The headline screamed WAR! Within
five years there were no typesetters left.
Frank Romano, former publisher of
TypeWorld and, later, TypeWorld TypeWorld Electronic Publishing
It was the Dark Ages. The technology seems so
primitive now. You had to use a typositor to set
headlines, then paste them up with rubber cement
and X-Acto knives. All you had were black-and-
white stats, so you comped color with marker
overlays. If you went to work on a magazine
layout, youd slice up your galleys and a couple of
days later youd get it back. Days intervened. It
took weeks just to get type set and revisions back.
Louis Fishauf, illustrator and designer
At a Seybold conference shortly after the
LaserWriter was announced, I was cornered by a
guy who made typesetting equipment. He almost
assaulted me. You have ruined my business, he
shouted. You pushed PostScript and you ruined
my business.
Jonathan Seybold, founder,
Seybold Seminars
Typesetting and color separations were the
biggest expenses at a publication. Phototype
headlines were on the order of $2 per word. Color
separations were so expensive that you couldnt
afford to have color on every page. But when desk-
top systems and software came out, color became
cheap. Every page went to color.
Roger Black, publication designer
and chairman of Danilo Black USA
Avvivs Cncic Roiv
When we all saw that first sheet of paper come out
of the LaserWriter, we knew we were going to hit
it out of the park. It was just a matter of how long
it would take. You could sense the inevitability
because it was so cool.
Steve Jobs, Apple CEO
I had been working for Apple for a time. When I
saw what this cute, clunky little thing could do,
I had a flash that the Mac was where things were
heading.
Luanne Seymour Cohen,
author and designer
In the beginning desktop publishing equaled
newsletter. If you drank the Kool-Aid, then DTP
was good for office communications but not much
else. The view inside Apple was that the software
would sell Macs.
Clement Mok, former creative
director at Apple
Aicii i 1ni Liiiv1ic ci PLiiisniG
W

1985- 1989 51
In the fall of 1985 Apple was thinking about can-
celing the whole thing. What saved us was that
we had negotiated the deal with Linotype.
John Warnock
Cvv1ivv Fvvvoov
Adobe and Apple and PostScript and DTP cre-
ated my whole career. I was moonlighting as a
designer while working at the New York Times and
Newsweek. What prevented me from opening a
studio was money. Id need a stat machine, a type-
setting machine, and so on. Desktop publishing
allowed me to open my own place.
Roger Black
I started my own company with a color Mac, a
LaserWriter and layout software. I could compete
with larger studios with better finished comps in
less time. And for a lot less.
Clement Mok
Dvsic Ivvc1
PageMaker and QuarkXPress automated produc-
tion but they didnt automate design.
Roger Black
Typesetting shops used to be the keeper of the
standards. Now theres a lot more bad typesetting.
Digital type and desktop systems put more respon-
sibility on the graphic communicator to maintain
high quality.
Allan Haley, formerly of ITC, now with
Agfa Monotype
The mainstreaming of graphics and type has given
design a broader audience. Thats a good thing.
But design is a commodity because the practi-
tioners are not well trained and the work can be
mediocre. The highs arent as high and the lows
are still low.
Clement Mok
Adobe and Apple changed the landscape entirely.
Todays design and publishing are built on
PostScript. I cant imagine a designer working in
North America or Europe without a computer or an
Adobe product. The methodology has changed. Its
much more fluid. Everything is accessible to you.
Control is in the hands of the designers.
Louis Fishauf
The best thing this revolution brought about is
the change in the way the graphic designer does
his work. Adobe brought design into the modern
world. You could argue whether better stuff is
being done today. Certainly more stuff is created
and its easier to create it.
Russell Brown, Adobe senior
creative director
It created a new group of people who aspired to be
like designers. They bought the whole nine yards.
Clement Mok
Tnv Povvv or 1nv Pvvss
After the launch of the LaserWriter we started get-
ting unsolicited testimonials from people. I had a
vision of people publishing about noble acts, like
Greenpeace. The first note we got was from these
ladies who told us how excited they were to be
able to publish their magazine. It was a lesbian
newsletter, kind of pornographic in nature. The
second newsletter that arrived was from a funda-
mentalist Christian sect. It wasnt exactly what we
had in mind, but we gave them the voice to present
their point of view.
Dan Putman, Adobe employee number 2
During the coup in Moscow all the presses had
been shut down. Boris Yeltsin commandeered an
HP printer, a PC, and a copy machine. There were
pictures of Yeltsin surrounded by people with their
hands outreached, trying to get copies of docu-
ments that were all produced in PageMaker. Its
really a powerful image. It made me very proud.
Paul Brainerd, former Aldus CEO
Democracy? Hell, were talking revolution. From
1985 to 1990, the typesetting market virtually
disappeared. The creative professional became
the driver of the printing process. America needed
freedom before it could have democracy. Adobe
technology gave us freedom.
Frank Romano
No customer had asked for PostScript. The market
we were going after had five entrenched compa-
nies. There were 250,000 graphic artists then. Now
there are at least 6 million.
John Warnock
I knew that bad
design would happen.
Look, if you give people
13 or 35 fonts, theyll
use all of them on every
page. New technology
brings down design.
e typesetters were
horrifed.
John Warnock
52 1985- 1989

Adobe sent this 1985 calendar, printed
entirely on the new LaserWriter, to
Diane Burns at TechArt, one of the frst
shops specializing in PostScript output
in San Francisco.

1985- 1989 53
Tats low tlese tlings were oecioeo in tlose oays, le aoos. Like
all revolutions, not tlat many people were involveo. We just oecioeo
amongst ourselves.
Now Apple lao a marketable concept. But accoroing to Brainero, Apple
unoer tle leaoerslip of Sculley was reluctant to put signifcant money
belino tle LaserWriter, claiming tle printer was too laro to sell ano too
expensive compareo witl Hewlett-Packaros new Laser)et printer. (Te
Laser)et, altlougl it lackeo mucl of PostScripts functionality, was posi-
tioneo by HP as a competitor to tle LaserWriter ano priceo at several
tlousano oollars less.) Plus, Apple saw publisling as a limiteo, ano risky,
business opportunity tlat it coulont aoro to focus on at tle time. It
woulo soon be proven wrong.
The Sum of Its Parts
PageMaker was tle perfect application to slow o tle potential of tle
Macintosl as a publisling tool ano tle power of PostScript as a new
printing paraoigm. Using PageMaker, a oesigner coulo enter text ano
graplics, immeoiately see tle results on tle Macintosl screen, tlen lit
tle Print button ano see tle same oocument come out of tle LaserWriter
as an entire page, witl all tle text ano graplics in place as oesigneo. It
maoe for a compelling story, especially witl PostScript.
Prior to tle LaserWriter, printers were passive maclines, simply ooing
wlat tle lost computer tolo tlem to oo. Because computers lao limiteo
memory ano power, lines of text were all it coulo lanole. Craplics were
too big ano too memory intensive for any computer except computer-
graplic workstations to process, so plotograpls ano line art were repro-
ouceo conventionally witl stat cameras.
But PostScript maoe printers smart. Insteao of oumb printers tlat lao
to accept simple lines of type, PostScript put intelligence into tle printer
itself, so tlat complicateo fles containing botl text ano graplics coulo be
printeo on a single page. Eectively, it vieweo tle printer as a companion
computer ano om oaoeo tle buroen of computation from tle terminal to
tle printer itself. Aoobe accomplisleo tlis by oesigning computer con-
troller boaros (for tle printer) tlat containeo clipsets embeooeo witl
PostScript software. Tese brains interpreteo instructions on tle y,
transforming cooe into type, lines, ano circles, ano executing instruc-
tions to scale a font or rotate a graplic. Hanoling so many computations
requireo a robust processor. In fact tle LaserWriter was so powerful tlat
for a time it lao more computing muscle tlan tle Macintosl.
Finally, Apple agreeo to piece togetler a $1 million buoget to promote
tle concept of oesktop publisling. In early 1985, Warnock, Cesclke,
ano Brainero lit tle roao to proselytize on belalf of PageMaker, tle
BizStats: 1985
Revenue: $4.6 million
Product releases:
PostScript Level 1
Other:
Red book (PostScript Language
Reference Manual) published
First PostScript LaserWriter
introduced, for $6,995
Clement Mok, former creative
director at Apple, designed
this early guide to desktop
publishing.
>>
54 1985- 1989

Macintosl, ano PostScript. Because tle software was still in oevelopment,
pages were carefully cobbleo togetler in MacPaint ano MacDraw to slow
analysts, tle meoia, ano prospective clients wlat a PageMaker layout
lookeo like.
PageMaker was releaseo to tle public in )uly 1985. Overniglt, an inoustry
was bornwitl Alous as a major playerbreatling new life into Apple
ano placing Aoobe clearly at tle forefront of a revolution. Two years later
tle oesktop publisling inoustry was a multimillion-oollar business.
We never expecteo it, Warnock says. Tis was a matter of being in
tle riglt place at tle riglt time. All tlese teclnologies were converging.
Hao we been able to plan tlis, tlen sometling woulo be wrong witl tle
cosmos.
It took some interesting people to oo tlis: It took )oln ano Cluck,
because PostScript was a tremenoous breaktlrougl, it took Steve )obs,
wlo las an aestletic vision, ano it took someone like Paul, wlo coulo
see a raoically oierent way of ooing tlings, says Seybolo, wlo now
consults on converging-meoia projects. As a result, we transformeo tle
way people communicate ano we transformeo tle wlole visual part of
communication. Witl PostScript, raster output oevices, ano programs
like PageMaker, you coulo oo tlings you lao never oone before, not just
ouplicate wlat you lao oone witl knives ano wax. It very quickly moveo
beyono tlat.
Getting Good
Even as sales of PageMaker ano tle LaserWriter took o, lowever, com-
mercial printers ano publislers scoeo. Te Macintosl wasnt powerful
enougl, tle print quality not gooo enougl. Te LaserWriters output
was oeemeo aoequate for comps or oraftsironically, wlat Aoobe lao
planneo in tle frst placebut its quality was certainly not near typeset
or camera reaoy. Nor oio tle new oesktop systems oer tle variety of
typefaces reaoily available in tle worlo of professional printing.
Te sobriquet clurcl newsletter was useo frequently by tlose wlo
oisparageo tle caliber of early oesktop publications. But several events
silenceo tle oetractors.
Aoobes partnerslip witl Linotype came to fruition in tle spring of 1985
witl tle introouction of tle PostScript-baseo Linotronic 100 ano 300
typesetters, wlicl oereo resolutions of 1,270 opi ano 2,540 opi, respec-
tively. Now output foelity compareo favorably witl tlat of existing type-
setting teclnology.
Tat early ability to compete witl traoitional typesetting was key to
Aoobes success, believes Frank Romano, an inoustry observer ano now
One of the first to recognize
the impact desktop publishing
would have on the industry,
Jonathan Seybold launched what
has become digital publishings
best-known trade show and
seminar series.

1985- 1989 55
With PostScript, raster
output devices, and
PageMaker, you could do
more than just duplicate
what you had done with
knives and wax. You
could do things you had
never done before.
Jonathan Seybold
>
>
tle Roger K. Fawcett professor of oigital publisling at RIT. Wlat maoe
Aoobe successful was tlat it operateo on tle ligl eno, ano once you con-
trol tle ligl eno you control everytling below it, Romano says. Wlen
youre on tle low eno, its mucl laroer to go up.
PostScripts impact on commercial printing was as revolutionary as its
impact on om ce or personal laser printing, if not more so. Te typesetting
business was an entrencleo, closeo inoustry in wlicl a few venoors jeal-
ously guaroeo tleir teclnologies. Teir proprietary systems consisteo of
oeoicateo terminals into wlicl operators entereo strings of binary cooe.
Eacl typesetter manufacturer lao its own typeface library specifc to tlat
macline. Equipment from one venoor oio not work witl tlat of anotler.
A client bouglt into a system ano stuck witl it. To upgraoe a typesetting
oevice meant buying a new ano expensive workstation tlat controlleo it.
It was a lucrative ano fercely competitive business witl its roots in lun-
oreos of years of traoition, ano Aoobe was a tlreat to tle status quo. Te
majority of typesetter manufacturers oiont want to pay attention to us,
says former Aoobe sales ano marketing vice presioent Steve MacDonalo.
Linotype saw tle vision ano took tle risk.
Opening Closed Doors
Te PostScript-equippeo Linotronic blew tle ooors o a closeo inoustry.
Because of PostScripts ability to print text ano graplics on tle same page,
tle maclines were no longer calleo typesetters but imagesetters. A raster
image processor (RIP)tle brains of tle imagesetterturneo bitmappeo,
or rasterizeo, information into curves, acting like a giant printer con-
troller boaro. Ano like its oesktop sibling, an imagesetter was connecteo
to a Macintosl, not a proprietary workstation terminal. Over time, sucl
a setup meant tlat customers coulo mix ano matcl computers ano
imagesetters. Upgraoing systems meant oownloaoing new software to tle
RIP, not buying a wlole new macline.
Tese open systems, coupleo witl oevice-inoepenoent output, formeo
tle backbone of tle oesktop publisling revolution. Te Macintosl repre-
senteo tle ioea of using computers for communicating, not just calculat-
ing, ano PageMaker alloweo tle creation of visually ricl oocuments, but
PostScript lelo it all togetler. It was, as Warnock ano Cesclke frequently
oescribeo it, tle glue of oesktop publisling. PostScript witlout tle
otlers woulo lave been tle riglt tling to oo anyway, says Seybolo. But
PostScript was necessary for tle otler two.
But ligl-resolution printing was only one avenue tlrougl wlicl Aoobe
maoe its case tlat PostScript coulo matcl or even outoo traoitional pub-
lisling systems. Aoobe was in tle process of builoing a type library tlat
woulo soon rival tlat of any font founory in tle worlo.
B
1985- 1989
Bvicic Tvvv 1o Mvv1
One knock against tle new plenomenon of oesktop publisling was its
BB
paucity of fonts. Te LaserWriter oerings paleo in comparison witl wlat
BB
was available in traoitional typesetting systems. But PostScripts oevice-
BB
inoepenoent font lanoling was tle key to Aoobes unique accomplisl-
BB
ment. Warnock ano Cesclke knew tlat to sell PostScript, tley neeoeo
BB
more PostScript type. So, concurrent witl its work on tle LaserWriter in
BB
1984, Aoobe began compiling a type library, frst tlrougl licensing ano
BB
tlen tlrougl original type oevelopment. In time, Aoobes type library
BB
woulo become tle largest of its kino anywlere.
BB
Te agreement witl Linotype for tle frst LaserWriter fonts laio tle foun-
BB
oation of Aoobes type eorts. But Aoobe soon brouglt in type oesigner
BB
Sumner Stone. )oln ano Cluck lao alreaoy lineo up Linotype by tle
BB
time I got tlere, wlicl impresseo me, Stone says of lis arrival in tle
BB
summer of 1984. Lino was so oim cult to oeal witl tlat it must lave been
BB
very impresseo witl wlat Aoobe sloweo it.
BB
Times ano Helvetica lao alreaoy been oigitizeoseveral timesby tle
BB
time Stone went to Aoobes Palo Alto om ces. At frst )oln ano Cluck
BB
tlouglt tley woulo lire tle wives of frienos to oigitize tle typefaces,
BB
Stone remembers, cluckling. Tey tlouglt oigitizing was a relatively
BB
minor issue tlat coulo be oone by intelligent people wlo oiont lave
BB
training in typograply. Early results soon oisabuseo tlem of tlat ioea.
BB
Aoobe also entereo into negotiations witl tle International Typeface
Corporation (ITC), tle primary type supplier to tle New York aovertis-
ing ano meoia communities. Accoroing to Allan Haley, ITCs executive
vice presioent at tle time, ITC lao also been searcling for inroaos into
tle lucrative business market. Wlen Aoobe came looking for fonts for its
next laser printer, ITC was lappy to oblige. At tle time it was a gamble
for ITC, as 90 percent of tle companys sales were for proprietary typeset-
ting systems like tlose from Linotype ano Compugraplic. By tle 1990s,
lowever, 99 percent of ITC revenues came from oigital fonts.
It was all very low key, Haley remembers of tle 1984 negotiations
between Aoobe ano ITC. No one knew tlis was going to go anywlere.
A Legacy of 35 Fonts
Te secono laser printer from Apple, tle LaserWriter Plus introouceo in
1986, containeo more fonts from Linotype ano ITC, bringing tle number
of core PostScript fonts to 35tle stanoaro for PostScript printers ever
We had the idea of
fonts not as derivatives
of what had gone before,
but as something fresh
and new designed just
for this technology.
BB
>
>
B
Sparking the Revolution

1985- 1989 57
Members of the Adobe type
team, from left: Jim Wasco,
Robert Slimbach, Carol Twombly,
and Fred Brady.
1985- 1989
Adobe Garamond
gggggggg
Designed as the frst Adobe Originals
typeface by Robert Slimbach in
1989, Adobe Garamond proved that
PostScript fonts could honor tradition
even as it turned typesetting on its
head. My hope was that PostScript
fonts would take off and be important
works that stood the test of time,
says Slimbach, who researched Claude
Garamonds designs at the Plantin-
Moretus Museum in Belgium.

1985- 1989 59
g
since. Te LaserWriter 35, as tle set is sometimes known, aooeo 22
fonts to tle original 13, tle typefaces incluoeo ITCs Avant Caroe Cotlic,
Bookman, ano Zapf Clancery as well as Linotypes Palatino. Botl Palatino
ano ITC Zapf Clancery were oesigneo by tle legenoary Hermann Zapf,
wlose association witl tle unoertaking lent PostScript fonts legitimacy in
tle type ano publisling communities.
Civen tlat tle 35 fonts are a major element in tle era of PostScript type,
tle cloice of tlose typefaces was curious. Te oecisions were arbitrary
ano political ratler tlan maoe witl an eye towaro oefning late-20tl-
century typograply. No one knew low important tlis oecision was going
to be, says Stone.
Accoroing to Haley ano Stone, Steve )obs lanopickeo some of tle type-
faces unoer tle guioance of ITCs Aaron Burns, wlo took a fatlerly inter-
est in tle young )obs. At one point )obs wanteo ITC Corilla, a rounoeo
serif tlat lookeo a bit like a boloer, rougler ITC Souvenir, a wiloly
popular font at tle time. It was a free-for-all, Stone says tooay. Wlen
)obs got involveo, le lao lis opinions. He wanteo to incluoe Corilla, but
insteao we wouno up witl Zapf Clancery, wlicl was consioereo to be a
fun typeface. Bookman was a political compromise, as was Avant Caroe,
botl of wlicl were pusleo by ITC as sometling tley wanteo for anotler
serif ano sans serif to supplement Linotypes Times ano Helvetica. Stone
limself lobbieo for Palatino, wlicl le consioereo more mooern tlan tle
otler oerings. Helvetica Narrow, like Courier, was a software construct
ratler tlan a oigitizeo typeface, oone to save precious memory.
Te quickest way to builo a type library, of course, was to take existing
oesigns ano convert tlem. Aoobe frst oeepeneo its relationslip witl
Linotype ano ITC. Te companies sent Aoobe its fonts as oigital oata,
wlicl Aoobe converteo to PostScript. PostScript fonts consisteo of two
pieces: a bitmap screen representation for oisplay ano a PostScript outline
version for printing. Aoobes Bill Paxton oevelopeo a tool tlat converteo
tle oigital oata to PostScript outlines ano applieo teclnical attributes
unique to PostScript, sucl as linting, wlicl makes typefaces look gooo
at small sizes ano lower resolutions. Te oata from some font founories
wasnt necessarily precise, so Aoobes sta lao tle peculiar role of act-
ing as an interpreter between computer scientists ano type oesigners, as
Stone oescribes it. Tere was a lot of lanowork in tle beginning.
The Stone Age
But Stone lao maoe it clear wlen le signeo on as oirector of typograply
tlat le was to be able to oo original oesign. Botl Cluck ano )oln placeo
a ligl value on innovation ano creativity, so tley were fne witl tlat, le
says. To signal to tle rest of tle company tlat typeface oevelopment was
more art tlan science, le installeo a orafting table in lis om ce.
Revenue: $16 million
Stock price range: $11 (IPO)
Other:
IPO on August 20 (Nasdaq: ADBE)
84% of Adobe revenues from Apple
Digital Equipment licenses PostScript for
its printers
Adobe Type Library includes more than
100 fonts
Robert Slimbach at his Adobe
office today.
>>
60 1985- 1989

onts were key to the early success of
PostScript. Not only did fonts demonstrate
the technical accomplishment that was
PostScript, but they also signaled the end of
typesetting with proprietary systems. Along the
way PostScript fonts created new opportunities
for hundreds of young designers who can now
create their own typefaces. Today, everywhere you
lookfrom magazines to billboardsyou see a
PostScript font in use.
Tnv Bvciic
Adobe had the tiger by the tail. They thought they
had a pussycat, when in fact they had the whole
goddamn typesetting industry.
Matthew Carter, type designer, cofounder
of Bitstream
Getting the fonts from Linotype was the most
important part of it. Had it only been Geneva and
the Apple look-alike fonts, the graphics arts mar-
kets wouldnt have accepted it.
John Warnock
Warnock knew that licensing ITC fonts would help
establish Adobes credibility. He saw the value in
the intellectual property.
Allan Haley, formerly of ITC, now with
Agfa Monotype
The Mac taught people the word font.
Scott Kim, designer
Its possible that on your Mac today the oldest file
date is 1986, and that would be a font.
Roger Black, chairman, Danilo Black USA
Type has supported the PostScript religion. Adobe
wouldnt have had the success it had without the
type program.
Matthew Carter
Tvvovniivs
John loved books and typography, so as type
became a business for him, it was an enabler for
his love of type. We were all romantics at that
time. We would do dumb things for the love of it.
Allan Haley
John is an avid book collector. Periodically hed
bring in an acquisition and show it to those of us
in the type department. One day he brought in a
Kelmscott Chaucer, which was pretty amazing. We
pored over it for hours.
David Lemon, manager of type development
John and Chuck are very conscious of quality.
Theyre very proud people who wont accept
anything shoddy. One reason John went into the
world of computer graphics because his wife was
a designer. That personal interest was a positive
force about keeping this on track.
Sumner Stone, Adobes first director of
typography
Dvsic Cniivcvs
Adobe was new to type-making, so their fonts
were not of the best quality in the beginning
especially their digitizations of Times and
Helvetica.
Matthew Carter
Adobe had to cross-check fonts on every applica-
tion, every printer, every platform. They had
to sandpaper the Bzierssmooth out the
curvesto keep the control points down so the
fonts would print.
Roger Black
Making the design work on a bunch of different
output devices was a requirement we had to keep
in mind. It was a serious challenge.
Carol Twombly, Adobe type designer
Min Wang designed this book jacket
using Carol Twomblys Trajan, a premier
example of the clean design for which
Adobe became known.
Aicii i 1ni RiViVi ci Fii TvvcGvvnv
F
By 1990 it felt like
we had all the fonts.
By 1993 there were
10,000 PostScript
fonts. By now it
must be 100,000.
Roger Black

1985- 1989 61
Tnv Tvvv Dvvv1vv1
So many talented type designers got together
at Adobe. We were isolated from the rest of the
organization. It was a great think tank for type
ideas and design.
Min Wang, graphic artist
It was an exciting time. We had the resources, and
Adobe type was a big hit.
Sumner Stone
Of course then this huge company grew up around
us. The oak tree got dwarfed by the redwoods.
Dan Mills, former type development director
We were the weird type people in the corner.
Robert Slimbach
Type was Adobes great gift to the publishing
world. We sold it too cheaply. Why were all fonts
the same price? We didnt have a well-thought-out
strategy on pricing.
Sumner Stone
Dvsicic Oviciis
Robert and Carol are two of the best designers
of the 90s. They made designs that we consider
timeless. People will still want to use Myriad and
Minion and Adobe Caslon 20 years from now.
People will use the other foundries when they
want to achieve a 90s look.
David Lemon
Weve stuck to our guns, sticking to classical prin-
ciples of legibility and functionality of design. We
havent got wrapped up in outrageous design.
Robert Slimbach
Adobes fonts were too intellectual. As a designer
it was immensely frustrating: the fonts were too
good, it took too long to make them, and the
results were too nice. They never looked rough
and ready. Designers wanted a Target division,
not just Neiman Marcus.
Roger Black
Biv1n or Ious1vv
PostScript laid the foundation for the democrati-
zation of type design.
David Lemon
When the Type 1 format was released and Altsys
revised Fontographer, the playing field was lev-
eled for other foundries. There developed a fasci-
nation with typography that led to tabletop type
foundries. Everyone got interested in fonts.
Matthew Carter
With the success of Adobe many new foundries
have sprung up. The computer has given design-
ers the opportunity to digitize their alphabets.
Theres been a flood of type in the past decade.
Robert Slimbach
Our attitude toward other foundries was, Thats
great. The stranglehold of a few companies mak-
ing type was loosened.
Sumner Stone
Adobe was seen as the establishment by the new
designers, which is ironic given its short history.
But we werent a bunch of graybeards running
around in tweed jackets. We just werent as post-
modern and avant-garde as they were.
Dan Mills
Tnv Ivvc1 or
Pos1Scviv1 Tvvv
In the early 90s there was a new enthusiasm for
type design. Its always been the most arcane of
professions, with painful initiations and monastic
orders. There had been a priesthood, but now
there was a laity as well.
Matthew Carter
Adobes impact is incalculable. I studied graphic
design. When I told my adviser I wanted to design
fonts, he told me that no one made a living that
way. Thanks to Adobe that is now untrue.
David Lemon
For most of types history, the people who
designed and made type were the samethey
were called punchcutters. That changed in the
1860s, when type was manufactured in factories,
and the making and the designing of type were
separated. PostScript put them back together. That
reuniting is hugely important to me.
Matthew Carter
Type is always important. It has a significant posi-
tion in the history of communication. There will
always be people who understand that and those
who dont see it. I knew wed take out Letraset and
that Monotype and Linotypes typesetting busi-
ness would go down. But we had a responsibility
to replace that with something better and to keep
the values high.
John Warnock
Robert Slimbach and Fred Brady at the
PlantinMoretus Museum in Belgium.
62 1985- 1989

Almost immeoiately le began working on tle eponymous Stone, tle frst
commercial typeface createo from scratcl in PostScript. Publisleo in
1987, Stone consisteo of tlree oesignsSerif, Sans, ano Informalano
was later licenseo back to ITC. A lallmark of ITC Stone, wlicl was
oesigneo to take aovantage of PostScripts oevice inoepenoence, was tlat
it lelo up well at low resolutions ano small sizes. Above all, it was a slot
across tle bow for olo-sclool type founories.
It was a new typeface for tle computer worlo, oesigneo for a new envi-
ronment, not just tle oigitizing of olo faces, Stone says. It was also one of
Aoobes frst typefaces solo not as part of a printer or an operating system
but as a stano-alone retail package (otler fonts in tle package were tle
22 aooeo to tle LaserWriter Plus). On its own, one Stone oesign witl
six styles solo for $275. Compareo witl traoitional typesetting, in wlicl
a single font weiglt cost $180, PostScript was a bargain. But for oesktop
publislers useo to getting tleir fonts as part of a computer or printer,
buying a typeface on its own was a new experience.
We lao a pretty strong awareness tlat we lao to oo eoucation about
type. We lao to promote tlat tlis was a craft ano tlat craftsmanslip was
important, says Stone. Aoobe proouceo posters ano pampllets about
type, supplementeo by a quarterly catalog calleo Font & Function ano
elaborate type-specimen books. Te campaigns workeo. We were sur-
priseo by low quickly tle fonts solo. Tey solo like lotcakes, Stone says.
Fresh New Faces
Spurreo by tlis success, Stone amasseo a team of oesigners ano teclni-
cians to oevelop original typefaces. Among tlem were Robert Slimbacl,
witl wlom le lao workeo at Autologic, ano Carol Twombly, a graouate
of Clarles Bigelows type program at Stanforo. Slimbacl ano Twombly
began as freelance oigitizers in 1987 ano 1988, respectively, ano went on
to oesign some of tle most popular typefaces in tle Aoobe Originals pro-
gram, unoer Freo Braoy. Aoobe also commissioneo outsioe oesigners to
create Aoobe Originals. One of tlem, Davio Siegel, oesigneo tle popular
Tekton, basing it on tle lettering in arclitectural blueprints.
We lao tle ioea of fonts not as oerivatives of wlat lao gone before
but as sometling fresl ano new oesigneo just for tlis teclnology,
says Twombly, wlose oesigns incluoe Aoobe Caslon, Trajan, Litlos,
Clapparal, ano (witl Slimbacl) Myriao, tle last of wlicl is now one of
Aoobes corporate typefaces.
Our aim was to give oigital type oesign creoibility to professional typog-
raplers, says Slimbacl, wlo oesigneo Aoobe Caramono, Utopia, Minion,
)enson, ano otlers. At tle time tlere were purist typograplers wlo were
still setting type by lano. Many lao a wait-ano-see attituoe.
Our aim was to give
digital type design
more credibility to
professional typographers.
Many purists had a
wait-and-see attitude.
Robert Slimbach
>
>
Sumner Stone, Adobes first
director of typography, at his
drafting table in 1986.

1985- 1989 63
To strengtlen Aoobes stance as a serious type founory, Stone also con-
veneo a type aovisory boaro tlat incluoeo publication oesigner Roger
Black, Yale University Design Sclool clair Alvin Eisenman, stone carver
ano letterer Steplen Harvaro, ano letterpress printer )ack Stauacler.
International type oesigners sucl as Ceraro Unger ano Erik Spiekermann
often joineo in. Aoobe even proouceo packages of type for oierent uses,
closen by Black, Haley, Spiekermann, ano otlers.
Barbarians at the Gates
As PostScript fonts took o, Aoobe scrambleo to get more typefaces into
tle marketplace, eventually licensing type-creation tools to font suppliers
so tley coulo oigitize ano convert tleir own fonts unoer Aoobes watclful
eye. Olo-worlo type founories tlat lao oismisseo PostScript realizeo tlat
tley neeoeo to aoapt. Soon typesetters like Agfa, Monotype, ano Bertlolo
agreeo to convert tleir formioable libraries to PostScript.
PostScript was like tle barbarians at tle gate, says Davio Lemon, wlo
joineo Aoobe in 1986 ano wlo still works as Aoobes manager of type
oevelopment. It was tle eno of tle exclusive type market. Tey lao to
join in or get out of business.
Not only oio establisleo type founories join in, but a new breeo of small
inoepenoent type louses also sprang up. Te release of a tliro-party
proouct calleo Altsys Fontograpler (now owneo by Macromeoia) enableo
even laypeople to oesign PostScript fonts. An international boom in
PostScript type oesign ano oevelopment ensueo.
Not since tle age of metal type lao tlere been sucl a prolifc perioo of
type oevelopmentano tle oigital-type era quickly surpasseo even tlat in
terms of tle number of fonts proouceo ano tle number of people oesign-
ing tlem. Aoobes library alone contains more tlan 3,000 typefaces.
Coming Full Circle
Aoobes oominant position soon came unoer attack as upstart oesign-
ers proouceo eogier, less refneo faces ano as a raft of knocko fonts
appeareo on tle market ano pusleo oown prices. Lax copyriglt laws
governing typeface oesign alloweo small companies to oigitize entire font
libraries ano to sell tle imposter fonts for pennies a typeface. (Aoobe
was able to secure protection for PostScript fonts as software programs
tlrougl a 1999 court case.) Prices erooeo furtler wlen Apple ano
Microsoft oooeo tle market witl tleir rival font format, TrueType.
Wlile oemano for PostScript fonts lao never been ligler, type as a
sustainable business was waning. In 1992 Aoobe, continuing to look
for ways to promote PostScript fonts, oevelopeo an innovative format
calleo Multiple Master. Multiple Masters gave users more control over
tle appearance of tleir typefaces ano reviveo sucl lonoreo typograplic
Advisory board member Stephen
Harvard provided an impor-
tant early critique of Robert
Slimbachs Adobe Garamond
typeface.
Stock price range: $2 to $15 (2-for-1 split
in March)
Product release:
Illustrator 1.0, Adobes first desktop
application
Other:
IBM and HP license PostScript for their
laser printers
49% of Adobe revenues from Apple
400 applications support PostScript
Linotype licenses PostScript to develop
Type 1 versions of its Mergenthaler Type
Library, which contains more than 1,700
typefaces
Adobe moves into Charleston Road
offices in Mountain View
>>
1985- 1989 1985- 1989
Jeff Schewe is an advertising photographer
whose early advocacy of Photoshop made him
a pioneer in digital imaging. His experiments
with Photoshop have led to the development
of several key features in the program. It was
Schewes work on the image Hands and Globe,
seen here, that inspired Mark Hamburg to create
the History palette. Schewe was then asked
to design the splash screen for Photoshop 5.0,
code-named Strange Cargo, below (note the
Photoshop eye in the sun, which came from a
portrait Schewe did of Hamburg). Bird Lady
(1993) exemplifes one of the frst uses of
Schewes cloning from Snapshot and Saved,
which eventually led to the Hands and
Globe technique and the History feature.
(www.schewephoto.com)
)iii Scnivi

1985- 1989 65
teclniques as optical scaling. Te fonts were awkwaro to create ano relieo
leavily on lost applications, lowever. Multiple Master never lao gooo
support in applications, aomits Davio Lemon, wlo lelpeo write tle
specifcations for tle format. You lao to manually aojust it. It lookeo too
scary to people.
In 1996 Aoobe joineo witl Microsoft to oevelop a next-generation font
teclnology. Calleo OpenType, tle format combines aspects of PostScript
ano TrueType to create fonts tlat can be useo in print ano on tle Web
ano tlat can support extenoeo claracter sets sucl as tlose in non-Latin
alplabets. Aoobe plans to convert its entire library to tle OpenType for-
mat ano all Aoobe applications support OpenType fonts.
Weve come full circle, says Lemon, wlo spearleaos tle OpenType
conversion. In tle beginning type oevelopment at Aoobe starteo as a way
to explain tle value of PostScript. Now tle focus is on low type can aoo
value to tle Aoobe story. )ust as fonts sloweo o wlat PostScript can oo,
so are tley a way to slow o wlat tle applications can oo.
Tooay its oim cult to compreleno tle impact of PostScript fonts on
mooern publisling ano on Aoobes success. Trouglout tle late 1980s
ano early 1990s, type orove tle sales of PostScript printers to inoiviouals.
But Aoobe lao its siglts set on a bigger target: tle printer manufacturers
tlemselves. Aoobes sales team lit tle roao to persuaoe tlose manufac-
turers to license PostScript for tleir output oevices.
Adobes Type Advisory Board
circa 1988: from top right, clock-
wise, Stephen Harvard, Alvin
Eisenman, Sumner Stone, Jack
Stauffacher, Lance Hidy, and
Roger Black.
1985- 1989 1985- 1989
Yale University graphic design
student Min Wang went to Adobe
as an intern in 1986 to draw
kanji characters for Adobes new
Japanese type library. He soon
alternated his time between
lecturing at Yale and working at
Adobe, where he designed pieces
for the type department. Later
senior art director and design
manager at Adobe, Wang is now
design director at Square Two
Design. Shown here are posters
designed to promote Adobe
Originals typefaces, for which he
created the logo based on the
a from Robert Slimbachs Adobe
Garamond. (www.square2.com)
Mi WG
1985- 1989 1985- 1989
Adobe was a great
think tank for type
ideas and design.

>
>
Mi WG
1985- 1989 1985- 1989
PostScript software engineer Bob
Chansler presses ROM chips into
a Linotronic controller board.

1985- 1989 69
Fovcic Aiiicvs
Before tle LaserWriter was introouceo, Aoobe maoe tle rounos of printer
manufacturers ano software oevelopers, trying to persuaoe tlem to aoopt
PostScript. Contractually prolibiteo from talking about tle oeal witl
Apple, tle team of Cesclke, Warnock, ano Steve MacDonalo coulo oo little
more tlan promote tle teclnology on its own merits. But tlat approacl
lao two strikes against it: putting computer intelligence insioe a printer
was a foreign concept, ano tlere was no proof of market acceptance.
Te software oevelopers wanteo to know wlat printers supporteo it, ano
tle printer oevelopers wanteo to know wlicl software prooucts woulo
support it, says MacDonalo. It was a clicken-ano-egg tling. Ano as
tlere were no printers, tlere was no lurry to sign.
Once tle LaserWriter slippeo ano Aoobe coulo talk about its relation-
slips witl Apple ano Linotype, tle company vigorously pursueo licenses
witl otler printer manufacturers. Wlen tle LaserWriter came out, it
was a lot easier to get tlose meetings, MacDonalo says. Tere was a
slift from talking about tle teclnology to talking about tle business.
Te oeal witl Apple gave Aoobe a strong fnancial founoation. Aoobe
was paio 5 percent of tle $6,995 list price of tle LaserWriter, or $350, for
eacl unit solo. In 1984 ano 1985 almost all of Aoobes revenues were roy-
alties from Apple (Apple later renegotiateo tle oeal so tlat fees were paio
on volume slippeo). Apples precipitous mioyear fall in 1985 woulo lave
been enougl impetus for Aoobe to expano its client base. But more tlan
revenue oiversifcation was belino Aoobes orive to broaoen its base of
licensees. Te company wanteo to position PostScript as tle stanoaro for
printing across tle boaro ano arouno tle worlo.
Steve )obs, for one, applauoeo Aoobes eorts to brancl out, even tlougl
it miglt unoermine Apples lock on tle PostScript printer market. Wlen
I askeo )oln to be a software company insteao of a wlole printer com-
pany, lis retort to tlat was, Well, OK, as long we can make it an inous-
try stanoaro, )obs says. He convinceo me it was in our best interest to
make it an inoustry stanoaro, because tlen we woulo see PostScript in
typesetters ano in all sorts of otler printers tlat Apple woulo never make.
Our customers woulo beneft from tlat more tlan we woulo lose from
laving some competition witl tle printers we oio make. I bouglt in to
tlat. For every printer tlat was competing witl us, we woulo lave tlree
or so tlat were tlings we woulo never oo tlat were great for us.
John convinced me
that it was in our
best interest to make
PostScript an
industry standard.
Steve Jobs
>
>
70 1985- 1989

Stalking the OEM
Aoobe went lunting for bigger game, setting its siglts on IBM ano
Hewlett-Packaro, botl of wlicl lao robust printer businesses. It also eyeo
tle )apanese market. Apple ano IBM lao tleir oevices manufactureo in
)apan. We knew tlat eitler we signeo tlem up witl PostScript or tleyo
come up witl a solution tlemselves, says Cesclke. Te risk was not only
tlat Aoobe woulo lose tle )apanese market but also tlat it woulo be just
a matter of time before tle )apanese solo tlat teclnology back to tle U.S.,
tlus cutting Aoobe out of tle loop.
Two companies were alreaoy attempting to siplon o business in Nortl
America: Imagen, wlicl itself licenseo teclnology to Hewlett-Packaro for
use as tle printing protocol in HPs Laser)et printers, ano Xerox, wlicl
ironically ousteo o Warnock ano Cesclkes olo program Interpress to
position it as a competitor to PostScript. Xerox even tlreateneo Aoobe
witl legal action, claiming tlat PostScript was actually Interpress ano tlat
Warnock ano Cesclke lao appropriateo it wlen tley left PARC. Aoobe,
wlicl lao its license for tle Design System from Evans 8 Sutlerlano,
quickly convinceo Xerox otlerwise.
Aoobe knew tlat its teclnology was superior, but it oiont take tle com-
petition ligltly. Warnock ano Cesclke vieweo it as a clallenge. Te pair
set up a frienoly wager witl MacDonalo. As MacDonalo lao workeo at
HP, ano tle cofounoers at Xerox, tle bet was to see wlo coulo frst sign
up tleir former employer as a licensee. It took me 57 meetings over
seven years to sign HP as a venoor, but I oio it, says MacDonalo, wlo
won a sports car for lis eorts.
But otler teclnologies werent Aoobes only competition. Against tle
backorop of tle oesktop publisling boom, printing was now a lucrative
business. Companies wlo oiont want to pay Aoobes licensing fees but
wlo wanteo a piece of tle action began oeveloping PostScript imitations.
Tese so-calleo clone manufacturers useo Aoobes publisleo specifca-
tions as well as some reverse-engineering savvy in an eort to ouplicate
PostScript. At one point in 1986 I orew up a list of 40 companies tlat
were alreaoy oeveloping or were planning to oevelop PostScript clones,
says MacDonalo. Wlile some companies aclieveo success witl tleir
imposter languages, few coulo matcl tle elegance of Aoobes implementa-
tion. Aoobe PostScript was tle golo stanoaro. No one else coulo measure
up, says Dan Putman. We lelpeo a lot of startups go out of business.
Even as Aoobe compileo a growing list of printer-venoor clients, tle
young company lao to work laro to prove it lao legs. As a conoition
of some oeals, more-establisleo companies askeo for source escrow,
in wlicl a tliro party lelo on to tle pertinent source cooe as insurance
against Aoobes going out of business. Tat way, if Aoobe faileo, tle client
Adobes 1987 deal with IBM was
a turning point. It not only gave
Adobe clout in the market but
also gave PC users access to
Adobe PostScript Type 1 fonts.

1985- 1989 71
Tni EVciL1ic ci Pcs1Scviv1
ostScript set the publishing world on its
head in 1985, and it formed a basis for
PDF in 1993. In between, it continued to
evolve. And while Adobes attention was increas-
ingly focused on breakthrough products like
Photoshop, PostScript remained critical to Adobes
technological and financial strength.
PostScript put Adobe on the map because it
allowed output devices of all resolutions to use
the same data to render a page. Professional
publishers in particular benefited from being able
to print a draft on an Apple LaserWriteror, by
1988, on a composite thermal-transfer printer, the
QMS ColorScript 100and then send the same file
to an Agfa or Linotronic imagesetter to produce
black-and-white film of the cyan, magenta, yel-
low, and black plates for a four-color press run.
PostScript is one of the few examples where
thoughtful computer science has turned into a
significant product line, says Jim King, a principal
scientist in the Advanced Technology Group.
A M)ov Lvv Fovvvo
PostScript Level 2, which came out in 1990,
offered several advances. The two most impor-
tant features worked hand in glove: First, Adobe
built in support for advanced color management.
Second, it supported four-color separations inside
the final PostScript output device. A PostScript
interpreter could receive a composite color file,
such as an Adobe Illustrator file, separate it into
the four process-color components, and apply
screening parameters. Separations no longer had
to be created independently as an extra step in
the production workflow.
In addition, Adobe improved PostScripts speed
and reliability by optimizing the code, improv-
ing its memory management, and introducing
compression/decompression filters to enable files
containing large images to be smaller, thus reduc-
ing transmission time. There were other new fea-
tures as well, but the support for separations and
the improved performance are what set PostScript
Level 2 ahead.
Those advances, combined with a critical mass
of applications that supported PostScript by the
early 1990s and the ongoing speed and processing
improvements in hardware CPUs, led to another
dramatic change for publishers: The so-called
black boxesdedicated, hardware-based raster
image processors (RIPs) that crunched PostScript
codegave way to software-based RIPs that
were less expensive and were more flexible. So
while PostScript 1 was revolutionary in how it
brought the processing of pages to the actual out-
put device, PostScript Level 2 brought the process-
ing out into the open, into software.
Fuv1nvv Rvrivvv1s
In 1998 Adobe released PostScript 3dropping
the word Level from the technologys name. Adobe
expanded PostScripts color space so that it could
create separations for special orders like duotones
or spot-color blends; enhanced PostScripts font
capabilities; offered more gray levels and smooth
shading to reduce banding in high-resolution out-
put devices; and added support for in-RIP trapping
to complement in-RIP separations.
In a sense, PostScript 3 was icing on the cake
after all, PostScript Level 2 had already become an
industry-standard page-description language, and
the core technology of PostScript formed the foun-
dation on which Acrobat, Adobe PDF, and Adobes
entire e-paper initiative was based.
The Adobe imaging model is the bedrock of
both PDF and PostScript, but there are many
more things in PDF than in PostScript, says Tom
Malloy, head of the Advanced Technology Group.
PostScript was developed to describe printed
pages, while PDF was developed as electronic
paper, with all that goes along with it.
Those last six words carry weight. Adobe is betting
that all that goes along with PDFincluding
digital signatures, online annotations, and e-forms
and e-transactionswill drive the company well
into the 21st century. The technology that brought
Geschke and Warnock 20 years of success appears
to be the kernel for Adobes future achievements.
P
PostScript is one
of the few examples
where thoughtful
computer science has
turned into a signif-
cant product line.
Jim King
72 1985- 1989

lao access to tle teclnical information it neeoeo to upoate its prooucts. lao access to tle teclnical information it neeoeo to upoate its prooucts.
Clinton Nagy, wlo lelpeo negotiate most of Aoobes Nortl American Clinton Nagy, wlo lelpeo negotiate most of Aoobes Nortl American
contracts, says it wasnt until Aoobes revenue exceeoeo $40 million tlat contracts, says it wasnt until Aoobes revenue exceeoeo $40 million tlat
tle requests for source escrow ceaseo. tle requests for source escrow ceaseo.
Te enoless meetings, too, seemeo oesigneo to test tle spirit of tle young
company. During tle meetings witl Xerox, Io lave tle feeling tlat if I
got up to take a restroom break ano came back seven years later, it woulo
be tle same meeting, says Putman, wlo attenoeo negotiations to answer
any laroware questions tlat came up. Nagy recalls one meeting witl IBM
lelo in tle winoowless room typical of many security-conscious inoustry
giants. Halfway tlrougl tle meeting, tle IBM negotiators calleo for a 20-
minute breakano oiont return for tlree lours. Te IBM representatives
lao been waylaio by an internal oebate, but to Nagy ano Cesclke tleir
oeparture was unsettling.
In 1987, Adobe sent a team to Japan
to persuade Japanese typesetting
companies to adopt PostScript
technology for their fonts. Its contract
with Morisawa not only allowed
Adobe to create PostScript versions
of Japanese fonts (most of which
contain 10,000 or more characters) but
also opened the door for PostScript
printer licenses.
Jvvsv Fo1s

1985- 1989 73
Sumner Stone created this new
years card for his Japanese col-
leagues. The text refers to the fact
that there was a new emperor
and therefore a new era, sug-
gesting that the acceptance of
PostScript might grow in Japan.
Te signing of IBM in Marcl 1987 was to become a major catalyst
for Aoobe in securing aooitional licensees. Te IBM oeal gave us tle
strengtl to carry on, says Nagy, wlo lelpeo to negotiate it. On tle oay
tle agreement was to be signeo, Nagy was supposeo to meet Cesclke
at IBMs Coloraoo om ces, but a snowstorm preventeo Cesclkes arrival.
Nagy was left to feno for limself. After botl parties signeo tle contract,
le ew to California ano tlen orove straiglt to tle Aoobe om ces, arriv-
ing well after 5 p.m. I walkeo oown tle lallway ano everybooy crowoeo
arouno me, saying, Let me see it, let me see it, Nagy says. Te signeo
IBM contract lao talismanic power.
Witl Big Blue backing PostScript, it was laro for otler companies to say
no. Less tlan 24 lours after IBM signeo, HP calleo, MacDonalo remem-
bers, altlougl it woulo take anotler couple of years for tle terms of HPs
agreement to be lammereo out ano prooucts releaseo into tle felo. Te
battle lao been won, Nagy aoos. Craoually it became more tlat if you
wanteo to be in tle printer business, you lao to lave PostScript.
An ao for Aoobe in tle November 4, 1987, Wall Street Journal croweo
about tle companys licensing successes. After acknowleoging Apples
role as PostScripts frst licensee, tle ao continueo: One by one tle rest
of tle inoustry aoopteo PostScript, making it tle frst ano only stanoaro
enoorseo by virtually every major company in tle computer inoustry.
Te roster of licensees incluoeo Agfa-Cevaert, Apple, Apollo Computing,
AST Researcl, Dataprooucts, Diconix, Digital (DEC), IBM, Linotype,
Mass Micro Systems, NBI, NEC, NeXT, Quaoran, QMS, Qume, Texas
Instruments, Varityper, ano Wang.
(Te ao concluoeo by saying, Wlats next: Display PostScript. We cre-
ateo tle one ano only stanoaro in tle inoustry ano its just tle start.
Display PostScript, wlicl was intenoeo to bring tle oevice-inoepenoent
mooel to monitors, never aclieveo tle success of its printer sibling, ano
its oevelopment was eventually scuttleo.)
A Foothold in Japan
Aoobes success witl original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) wasnt
limiteo to Nortl America. Making PostScript a worlowioe stanoaro
requireo an expansion into )apan ano Europe. As most printer engines
were maoe in )apan, tlat was tle place to start.
In 1987, typograply oirector Sumner Stone maoe tle frst foray in
Aoobes eort to establisl PostScript licenses for )apanese fonts. Witl
eacl font containing 10,000 claracters or more, tle )apanese market for
type lelo luge potential. Te )apanese typesetting inoustry was ruleo by
two oynasties: Slaken in Tokyo ano Morisawa in Osaka. Slaken woulo
not be persuaoeo, but Morisawa coulo.
74 1985- 1989

Aoobe licenseo Morisawas typefaces ano in return gave Morisawa tle
tools to oigitize tle fonts. PostScript was oesigneo to lolo only 256 clar-
acters, so mooifcations to tle cooe were necessary. It was a big engi-
neering aooition to PostScript to accommooate so many glypls, Stone
acknowleoges.
Te Morisawa contract openeo tle ooor for PostScript ano set tle stage
for print-engine licenses. Fonts lelpeo orive tle aooption of PostScript
in )apan, says Stone. Cesclke, Warnock, MacDonalo, Doug Brotz, ano
otlers trekkeo to )apan to line up printer-engine manufacturers, incluo-
ing Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic, Ricol, ano Sony. Many of
tleir )apanese counterparts were alreaoy familiar witl Aoobe wlen tle
Californians arriveo. Tey lao seen tle oesktop publisling explosion on
tleir business trips to Nortl America.
Business at Banquets
For tle men from Aoobe, negotiating )apanese style was an unusual expe-
rience in tle 1980s. Meetings followeo tle same two-oay pattern: one
oay of speecl-making by company functionaries in an overleateo room,
punctuateo by an elaborate meal wasleo oown witl plenty of beer ano
sake. Te next oay, camaraoerie laving been establisleo over numerous
toasts tle niglt before, oeal-making began in earnest.
Eacl )apanese company trieo to outoo tle otler in lospitality, especially
regaroing fooo unfamiliar to American palates. We wanteo to slow tlem
we were tougl, tlat we coulo take wlatever tley tlrew at us, says Brotz,
wlo went along to provioe input on PostScript teclnology. Cesclke, as
company presioent, was particularly lonoreo. He was feo sucl oelicacies
as fsl leaos ano sake infuseo witl turtle blooo. Wlat we woulont oo to
get a oeal signeo, Cesclke says now, slaking lis leao.
Courtesy ano cast-iron stomacls paio o. We inkeo every oeal, Brotz
says. A ligl point came in 1987 wlen NEC ano Fujitsu announceo tleir
support for PostScript. Tat tle two largest computer makers in )apan
sloulo simultaneously aoopt PostScriptano make a joint announce-
mentwas unpreceoenteo. It was tle culmination of two solio weeks of
negotiating for Aoobe.
Witl Aoobes contracts, Apples )apanese-language Macintosl, ano a
localizeo version of PageMaker, oesktop publisling came to )apan in
1987, altlougl PostScript printers oiont materialize for anotler year or
so. Aoobe coulo claim upwaros of 50 PostScript OEM printer licensees
by tle 1990s, but tle perioo of 1985 tlrougl 1987 secureo Aoobes most
important contracts ano set tle stage for tle companys public oebut in
tle stock market.
Diane Burns, cofounder of
TechArt, went to Japan in
1987 on behalf of Apple. Her
Japanese students called her
DTP no haha (mother of desk-
top publishing). This page was
produced on one of the first
PostScript LaserWriters for the
Japanese market.

1985- 1989 75
Adobe commissioned graphics to
showcase the potential of PostScript
in Japan. The kimono was drawn in
Illustrator 88 by David Smith.
76 1985- 1989

Post-IPO, Adobe hired its first
bona fide sales force.

1985- 1989 77
Bvcovic Puviic Covvv
Aoobes initial public stock oering in 1986 in many ways reecteo tle Aoobes initial public stock oering in 1986 in many ways reecteo tle Aoobes initial public stock oering in 1986 in many ways reecteo tle
strategy of tle company itself: start small, keep focuseo, proouce a gooo strategy of tle company itself: start small, keep focuseo, proouce a gooo strategy of tle company itself: start small, keep focuseo, proouce a gooo
proouct, tlen watcl it take o. Wlat lao begun as a relatively limiteo proouct, tlen watcl it take o. Wlat lao begun as a relatively limiteo proouct, tlen watcl it take o. Wlat lao begun as a relatively limiteo
oering unoerwritten by one frm very soon attracteo loroes of investors, oering unoerwritten by one frm very soon attracteo loroes of investors, oering unoerwritten by one frm very soon attracteo loroes of investors,
botl institutional ano inoivioual. Te companys stock gatlereo momen- botl institutional ano inoivioual. Te companys stock gatlereo momen- botl institutional ano inoivioual. Te companys stock gatlereo momen-
tum so quickly tlat it quaorupleo its value in less tlan 18 montls, making tum so quickly tlat it quaorupleo its value in less tlan 18 montls, making tum so quickly tlat it quaorupleo its value in less tlan 18 montls, making
a lot of investors ano Aoobe employees very lappy. a lot of investors ano Aoobe employees very lappy. a lot of investors ano Aoobe employees very lappy.
Aoobes IPO wasnt typical of many young startups. Witl tle success of Aoobes IPO wasnt typical of many young startups. Witl tle success of Aoobes IPO wasnt typical of many young startups. Witl tle success of
tle LaserWriter ano tle signifcant revenue stream it proouceo, Aoobe tle LaserWriter ano tle signifcant revenue stream it proouceo, Aoobe tle LaserWriter ano tle signifcant revenue stream it proouceo, Aoobe
oiont neeo to raise capital to keep going. But in oroer to project a fnan-
cial stability tlat woulo enable it to secure aooitional licenses botl at
lome ano abroao, tle company oecioeo to go public.
Earlier tlat year, Warnock ano Cesclke lao revieweo wlat was requireo
to take tle company public. Te fnance oepartment at tle time consisteo
of an accounting manager plus tle two founoers, wlo lano-wrote tle
company clecks tlemselves. A publicly lelo company clearly neeoeo a
more structureo fnancial operation.
In tle frst week I was tlere, tle accounting manager went on mater-
nity leave, tle beta accounting software we were using oieo, ano tle
Macintosl computer on wlicl it ran lost its laro orive, remembers
Bruce Nakao, wlo was lireo in May 1986 as clief fnancial om cer to
sleplero tle IPO process. Nakao oiont know mucl about fonts or
graplics, but le was impresseo by low oown-to-eartl ano lonest tle
Aoobe employees seemeo to beano le intervieweo witl all 40 or so on
sta at tle time. Tere was a lot of stu for me to learn. We lao to put
in tle fnancial infrastructure for a mucl larger company.
Developing tlat infrastructure woulo lave to wait, lowever, as tle very
real oemanos of tle IPO took preceoence.
Wooing Investors
Te IPO process lao been put in motion by tle time Nakao arriveo.
Hambreclt 8 Quist, tle venture capital frm tlat gave Aoobe its frst
$2.5 million, was tle oerings sole unoerwriter, wlicl spareo Aoobe tle
ritual courting of investment bankers. But as part of tle normal IPO pro-
cess, Warnock, Cesclke, ano Nakao lit tle roao, going from boaroroom
to boaroroom to tell tle Aoobe story to mutual funo managers, fnancial
analysts, ano otler institutional investors.
e initial public ofering
was a wonderful stamp of
approval from the industry
that we were a viable entity.
Clinton Nagy
>
>
78 1985- 1989

Nakao laio out tle fnancial opportunity wlile Warnock talkeo about
tle teclnology ano future oevelopments. Wlile by now tley were accus-
tomeo to selling tle teclnology to printer venoors, explaining tle value
of PostScript to tle investment community wasnt easy at frst. Wlen
)oln starteo talking, le seemeo sligltly nervous ano lis voice wavereo.
But as le warmeo to lis subject, lis passion ano entlusiasm surfaceo, ano
investors loveo lis story. He just lao a tremenoous amount of creoibility
wlen talking about tle company ano tle teclnology, Nakao says.
Te Aoobe story struck a cloro witl investors. Witlin fve oays, tle book
of interesteo investors was oversubscribeo, inoicating tlat tle IPO was
going to meet, if not surpass, expectations.
Altlougl tle IPO process went smootlly in general, tlere were a few
bumps in tle roao. At one point Aoobe came unoer SEC scrutiny as one
of tle frst companies to be lit by a ruling regaroing tle issue of cleap
stock before an IPO. Aoobe lao been very generous to its employees
witl its options, incluoing tlose granteo witlin a few montls before tle
IPO, says Colleen Pouliot. (Aoobes attorney at tle time, Pouliot serveo
as its in-louse counsel from 1988 to 2001.) Te SEC tlouglt we were
giving employees cleap stock wlile clarging more to tle public. An
agreement was reacleo in wlicl Aoobe amenoeo its fnancial statements
to reect compensation clarges for some of tle pre-IPO options issueo.
Te IPO was an exciting time, Pouliot says. I got to come to tle com-
pany ano tell tlem wlat tleir obligations were wlen tley lelo options.
Engineers were really exciteo. People lao workeo very laro ano tlis was
tle payo.
Public Approval
Finally, on August 20, 1986, Aoobe Systems issueo 550,000 slares of
stock, representing just 10 percent of tle company ano a market capital-
ization of approximately $6 million. Traoing for tle frst time as ADBE
on tle Nasoaq stock exclange, tle stock openeo at $11. Demano for tle
available slares was ligl ano tle price climbeo tlrouglout tle oay. Steve
)obs ano Bill Cates reporteoly wanteo to buy all outstanoing slares. Te
stock closeo at $14 ano clange.
Clampagne corks poppeo at tle Palo Alto om ces. Te laro work lao
paio oliterally. Aoobe employees, many of wlom lao been issueo
options at $1 per slare, enoeo tle oay fnancially mucl better o tlan
wlen tley began it. But tle markets entlusiastic reception meant more
tlan extra clange in tle pocket.
Te initial public oering was a wonoerful stamp of approval from tle
inoustry tlat we were a viable entity, says Clinton Nagy. Remember, we
were simple teclnologists. Tis wasnt tle leaoy oot-com era.
Bruce Nakao, Adobes first
chief financial officer, took the
company through its initial
public offering.

1985- 1989 79
Keeping Their Feet on the Ground
In Marcl 1987, on tle leels of Aoobes oeal witl IBM ano just seven
montls after tle IPO, tle stock lao its frst two-for-one split. Ten
montls later, in )anuary 1988, it split again. Tat was just tle beginning:
In its frst four years, Aoobe rouglly ooubleo its business eacl year, from
$2.5 million in 1984 to $4.4 million in 1985, $16 million in 1986, $39 mil-
lion in 1987, ano $80 million in 1988.
Being a newly public company was exciting ano frustrating at tle same
time, as tle company came unoer tle very oemanoing scrutiny of inves-
tors, reects Nakao on Aoobes meteoric rise. But wlile we were exciteo
about low tle stock acteo, we workeo laro to keep our leaos oown ano
concentrate on tle business. Tis coulo be oim cult at times because tlere
were oays wlen I lao to felo 25 to 50 plone calls from sometimes wor-
rieo or, at tle least, inquisitive analysts ano investors from Wall Street.
Tere was no ooubt tlat tle company ano its founoers lao arriveo.
But even as Aoobe was on its way to becoming a mooern success story,
Warnock for one oiont succumb to tle excesses of tle newly prosperous.
For a long time le was perfectly content to orive an aging Alfa Romeo.
Nakao recalls tlat not long after tle IPO, )oln came into lis om ce. He
was really exciteo ano saio, You lave to come see my car! I tlouglt,
Creat, le fnally got rio of tlat piece of junk. I went outsioe to tle park-
ing lot ano le saio, Look, I painteo tle looo!
Aoobes reception in tle lalls of fnance not only valioateo tle companys
mission but sparkeo new innovation as well as expansion. In less tlan
a year Aoobe relocateo again, tlis time to more generous quarters on
Clarleston Roao in Mountain View. Te company was growing ano tle
company lustleo to keep pace witl its own success. In tle absence of a
oeoicateo IT sta, Aoobes brilliant ano opinionateo engineers steppeo in.
Te engineers were our IT sta, Nakao says, remembering arguments
over tle twisteo-pair wiring ano coaxial cables running oown tle lalls. It
was a belt-ano-suspenoers strategy.
But tle quarter in wlicl Aoobe went public was a perioo of great pro-
ouctivity, ano it set tle stage for new oirections. In a few slort montls
tle company releaseo a proouct tlat clangeo its course forever: Aoobe
Illustrator.
After its successful IPO, Adobe
expanded into new office space
in Mountain View. Software engi-
neers helped run the wiring.
80 1985- 1989

I1vooucic Iiius1v1ov
Te proouct tlat launcleo a new era for Aoobe began as a labor of love.
Over tle years Warnock lao watcleo as lis wife, Marva, a graplic art-
ist, workeo witl pen, curve, ano knife. He saw parallels between wlat sle
orew witl pen on paper ano wlat PostScript printeo witl oots on paper.
Existing computer graplics ano orawing applications were clumsy, ano
tley proouceo jaggeo lines wlen printeo. Warnock saw in PostScripts
Bzier curves tle sinuous lines ano precise corners requireo in expert
illustration. Wly not create an application to bring PostScript out of tle
printer ano onto tle screen:
Warnock nabbeo PostScript consulting engineer Mike Scluster to work
on a orawing package le calleo Illustrator. Not only was it an interesting
intellectual problem, but sucl an application coulo also lelp sell more
printers by making tle magic of PostScript visible. Like fonts before it,
tlis new application woulo make a connection between wlat users oio
onscreen ano wlat came out of tle printer.
Scluster workeo alonebut witl plenty of engineering assistance from
Warnock ano oesign input from tle in-louse creative team. )oln was
very inuential in tle oesign of Illustrator, says Russell Preston Brown,
Aoobes frst art oirector ano now its senior creative oirector. But
Warnocks approacl was tlat of a scientist. Brown ano lis team quickly
exerteo tleir own inuence.
Drawing with Code
Brown lao frst been exposeo to PostScript wlen as a freelance oesigner
at Apple le printeo a MacDraft fle on a LaserWriter. I was stunneo ano
tlrown on tle oor by tlis, le says. I coulo oraw a circle, ano wlen it
printeo it oiont lave jaggeo eoges. It was wlole new era. Brown went to
work as Aoobes only in-louse oesigner in April 1985.
Browns job was to come up witl interesting graplics tlat promoteo
PostScripts capabilities. I lao to create pages tlat sloweo o PostScript:
text, images, ano graplics all on one page, Brown says. Because tlis was
pre-Illustrator, all text ano graplics were cooeo by lano. Brown proouceo
Aoobes frst marketing piece tlis way. I programmeo Colophon line for
line in PostScript ano printeo it on a Linotype macline. It took oays ano
oays, le says.
Te frst Colophon, an eiglt-page tabloio oateo October 1986, is a
remarkable oocument. It contains bitmap images, line art, multiple
Using the Pen tool
was something only
John could do.
Chuck Geschke
>
>

1985- 1989 81
Russell Preston Brown, Adobes
first art director.
82 1985- 1989

PostScript fonts, coloreo type, rotateo graplics, ano inoivioual page ele-
ments from PageMaker, Microsoft Woro, ano otler applicationsall
mergeo into one PostScript fle. Io use a scanner tle size of a foot-
ball felo to bring in images, take tle raw oata, ano encapsulate it in
PostScript, Brown says. You lao to type in operators for slaoing, scal-
ing, etc. You never got to see wlat youo proouceo until you saio Print.
Ano if you printeo it ano it was too oark, tlen you lao to go back ano
reenter tle operators, ano print again.
But if Brown ano lis small team of oesigners coulo proouce complex
pages using raw PostScript, tle ioea of making an application tlat alloweo
oesigners to create PostScript graplics more intuitively seemeo a natural
extension of Aoobes teclnology.
Warnock workeo on all aspects of tle program, incluoing its color com-
ponents. As an engineer, le lao a scientists view of color, wlicl oiont
always translate to tle way oesigners ano illustrators work. One oay, le
sloweo graplic oesigner Luanne Seymour Colen low to specify color.
You lao to type in tlis long string of numbers, like to tle sixtl oecimal
point, sle remembers. I tolo lim no oesigner workeo tlat way. We use

1985- 1989 83
Russell Brown programmed early
marketing materials by hand in
PostScript.
CMYK ano Pantone percentages. Tooay Colen slakes ler leao at ler
auoacitysle was talking back to tle leao of tle company, after allbut
Warnock, always sensitive to tle neeos of graplic oesigners, clangeo it.
(Color oio not make it into tle frst version of Illustrator, lowever.)
Tat byplay between engineer ano oesigner, Warnock ano sta, was an
important part of tle Aoobe culture. Brown remembers asking Warnock
if tle corporate logo coulo be reoone, forgetting tlat it lao been oesigneo
by )olns wife, Marva Warnock. Warnock replieo by asking wletler
Brown likeo working at Aoobe, Brown recalls. Wlen I replieo yes, le
saio, You neeo to work at Aoobe, ano I neeo to live witl ler. I oiont
reoesign tle logo.
As work on Illustrator progresseo, tle program grew from a programming
clallenge to a proouct witl public appeal. If customers bouglt PostScript
fonts, wly woulont tley buy a truly unique proouct like Illustrator: From
a business perspective, brancling out into retail software also gave tle
company anotler revenue stream. Prospective customers incluoeo map-
makers, manufacturers, scientifc illustratorsanyone witl a neeo for
precise orawing. Freo Mitclell, in clarge of proouct management, opera-
tions, ano sales for tle young company ano now vice presioent for Aoobe
Ventures, recalls tlat tle events leaoing up tle launcl of Illustrator were
full of Eureka! moments as tle team lit proouct milestones. Being part
of tle Illustrator eort was just increoibly stimulating, le says.
Making a Splash
Aoobe sloweo o Illustrator at tle )anuary 1987 Macworlo Expo in San
Francisco. It was tle buzz of tle slow, astounoing oesigners ano illustra-
tors previously skeptical of computer graplics ano fueling tle oemano for
oesktop publisling software ano, of course, PostScript printers.
Te frst version of Illustrator was a spare black-ano-wlite program. Te
ability to oo color was embeooeo in tle program, tlougl it was not yet
available to tle eno user. But it was tle Pen tool tlat turneo leaos. Witl
tle Pen tool an illustrator coulo oraw Bzier curves onscreen, tlen scale
ano transform orawn objects into myriao sizes ano slapes. Tere were
some limitationsone lao to oraw eacl piece separately ano tlen click
Preview to see tle complete illustrationbut a single leaf turneo into a
tlicket witl a few clicks of tle mouse.
Aoobe slippeo Illustrator on Marcl 1, 1987. It cost $495, tlousanos of
oollars less tlan tle teclnical-orawing software previously available. Te
proouct package sloweo a lissome Botticelli Venus renoereo in PostScript
against a pixelateo grouno, putting in stark relief tle transition from
olo-style computer graplics to PostScripts new worlo. Package oesigner
Colen says sle close an image wlose classical, timeless quality resonateo
84 1985- 1989

Luanne Seymour Cohen chose Botticellis Venus as the
emblem of Illustrator because of its resonance with fine
art and because the flowing locks were a showcase for
Illustrators curves. As Illustrator evolved, so did Venus.
His1ovv or Vvus
Aicii i 1ni Ei ci 1ni X-Ac1c Kiii
he tools of the illustration artists trade
could be instruments of torture in the
wrong hands. Knives, overlays, inks, and
brushes had to be wielded with consummate skill
lest wasted hours be spent at the drawing board.
With Illustrator, Adobe gave artists the freedom to
express themselves onscreen, unencumbered by
mechanics. By harnessing the power of PostScript
and its Bzier curves, Illustrator changed drawing
and line art forever.
Fivs1 Ivvvvssios
When I first saw Illustrator, I thought, It looks like
an illustrator designed this.
David Biedny, author, consultant, teacher
The Pen tool scared the hell out of me.
Sandee Cohen, author, teacher, and
Illustrator expert
Illustrator blew my mind when I saw my first out-
put. I was impressed with the cool Bzier curves
onscreen, but when I saw my first Illustrator piece
on Linotronic outputthe crisp lines, the hairline
rulesit just blew me away.
Louis Fishauf, illustrator and designer
Eviv Dvs
They took me into this corner room where they
were working on a drawing program in PostScript.
I thought it was a very clean design program. You
saw it had the potential to do some pretty great
things. But it was only black and white, and Undo
wasnt working.
Ron Chan, illustrator and early beta tester
I upgraded to Illustrator 88 but I only had a black-
and-white Mac, so I used printed color charts to
apply color values. I had to take my disk down to
the local Mac shop to see what it looked like on a
color monitor.
Sharon Steuer, digital artist and author
The dumbest thing they did was to name it
Illustrator 88 instead of 2.0.
Frank Romano, Rochester Institute of
Technology
Rvvicic Ruvvii1n
Illustrator gave me the ability to create the clean
vectors I used to draw with a Rapidograph and
clean up with Pro-White. It was so much faster
to use Illustrator. I could create as much detail
as I wanted and then shrink it down as much as
I wanted, yet preserve the detail and integrity. I
once made a drawing of a Mac Plus into a tiny dot.
It added 20 minutes to the processing time on a
Linotronic 300but to able to do that!
Bert Monroy, digital artist
No marketing person would believe in it. With
Illustrator we set out to replace technical pens and
Rubylith and French curves. At the time maybe
20,000 people did illustrations. A teeny market.
John Warnock
Art departments were not receptive to computer
illustrations. Older guys thought it was a flash in
the pan, that it wasnt real art.
Gordon Studer, illustrator
Find a designer who doesnt use Illustrator.
Frank Romano
T

1985- 1989 85
illustration comes from those tools. I never con-
sidered myself an illustrator in those days. Maybe
Id do a logo, but if I needed an illustration I
called someone in. Suddenly I had those tools
available to me. I had the capability to create
illustrations myself.
Louis Fishauf
Bvv-Bvv, Pixvis
At the San Francisco Chronicle we were using
PixelPaint. Drawing smooth lines in Illustrator was
a pretty big revelation because everything else was
chunky pixels.
Ron Chan
Illustrator changed everything. Before then
everything was made of dots. Illustrator gave us
beautiful curves. When Illustrator came out it never
occurred to anybody that books and magazines and
posters were going to come out of the Macintosh.
You didnt think you could do anything professional-
looking out of that little box on your desk.
Sharon Steuer
Illustrator is crystal clear, precise, and mathemati-
cal. At Newsweek we used to scan things in and Newsweek Newsweek
then trace them in Illustrator. The scanner had
no halftones, so wed trace over stock photos in
Illustrator. We very quickly understood that we
could use it to make logos.
Tnv Cvv1ivv Fiov
If the computer and Illustrator didnt exist, you
couldnt put down two flat panes of color. It was
literally impossible to put color down without
getting out the paintbrush or doing overlays. Then
it became more about your skill with the X-Acto
blade than about drawing. Now you dont feel
bound by the process or the technical aspect of it.
Ron Chan
I dont touch traditional media anymore. With
Photoshop and Illustrator I can get more detail,
I can change my mind, I can change colors. Its
enhanced my workflow. I dont have to clean tools
and mix paints. My imagination just flows; its not
hindered by tools. I would lose the feeling for an
image after changing colors and cleaning tools.
But here, onscreen, mixing paint is limitless. Here,
paint is forever. I wont run out of paint.
Bert Monroy
With Illustrator I worry about how things look
instead of how to get there.
Ron Chan
Illustrator 6 was the most feature-rich upgrade
Id ever seen, with filters and pathfinders. The
upgrade to 6 is the gold standard.
Sandee Cohen
Bziers revolution-
ized my drawing.
ats when I broke
away from pixels.
Bert Monroy
86 1985- 1989

witl traoitional artists. Plus, sle notes, Venuss owing locks were an
ioeal slowcase for PostScripts uio lines.
Because Illustrator was unlike any program before it, Aoobe knew it lao
to eoucate its customers. Tere was oefnitely a learning curve, Brown
says. Taking a cue from Apple, wlicl slippeo an explanatory auoiocas-
sette witl tle Macintosl, Aoobe proouceo a vioeotape tutorial in wlicl
Warnock limself sloweo low to use tle software. In tle vioeo, Warnock
sits in front of a black-ano-wlite Macintosl SE ano goes tlrougl tle
steps of orawing a ower. Legeno las it tlat Warnock was tle only one
wlo lao useo Illustrator enougl to oemonstrate tle prooucts features,
wlicl were awkwaro. Using tle Pen tool was sometling only )oln coulo
oo, Cesclke says wryly. Among Aoobe afcionaoos, tle tape is a collec-
tors item.
To promote Illustrator, Aoobe began a grassroots eort tlat establisleo
tle company not only as a oeveloper but also as a practitioner of proo-
ucts for oesign professionals. Traoitional artists remaineo skeptical tlat
orawing on tle computer coulo proouce results as fne as tley createo by
lano. Art oirector Brown ano lis sta were clargeo witl making promo-
tional materials witl IllustratorT-slirts, posters, mugs, bottle labels, you
name itas a way of slowing wlat Aoobe applications coulo oo. Along
tle way tley became experts in tle program tlemselves, uncovering new
tips ano teclniques tlat unleasleo tle power of PostScript orawing. Tey
went to traoe slows to oemonstrate tle proouct, tley tauglt classes, tley
conoucteo seminarsanytling to preacl tle gospel.
Tey ploweo tleir knowleoge back into tle company ano into Illustrator.
Engineers became accustomeo to requests for improvements from tle
in-louse art sta. Tey listeneo, ano Warnock ano Cesclke listeneo.
Ultimately tlis exclange between engineer ano oesigner leo to a proouct
synergy tlat guioes oevelopment even now.
Continuing Growth
Onscreen color ano a lost of new tools sucl as blenoing ano freelano
orawing were key features of Illustrators secono version. Wlile a teclni-
cal success, Illustrator 88 will forever be perceiveo as a marketing gae.
Nameo for tle year in wlicl it was introouceo, Illustrator 88 barely
slippeo before 1989 ano tlen was not upoateo until 1990, a full two years
later. Cooo-natureo fnger-pointing continues to tlis oay as to wlo really
approveo tlat name.
As Aoobes frst software application ano one tlat oirectly leverages
tle power of PostScript, Illustrator las been releaseo for six operating
systems. Witl tle LaserWriter ano tle frst two releases of Illustrator,
Aoobes fate lao been intertwineo witl tle Apple Macintosl. But in 1989,
When Illustrator shipped in
1987, the package included
a videotape of John Warnock
demonstrating how to use
Illustrator and its innovative
and maddeningPen tool.
Ted Alspach, group product
manager for Illustrator.

1985- 1989 87
Fine artist Bert Monroy latched
on to Illustrator as soon as it
came out. This 1987 drawing is
among his first. Hidden in it is a
tiny Macintosh that can be mag-
nified many times over without
losing detaila testament to
PostScript technology.
WHUBNEY M
A
B
e rt Mo n
y
ro
BROOKLYN
N.Y.
B
e rt Mo n
y
ro
BROOKLYN
N.Y.
C
A
S
I
U
S
Macintosh Plus
T H X
system by releasing a Winoows version of Illustrator. In 1990, versions for
UNIX ano tle NeXT operating systems came out, followeo by releases for
Silicon Craplics ano Sun SPARC workstations.
Illustrators success was not uncontesteo, lowever, as competitive proo-
ucts like CorelDraw ano, most notably, FreeHano came onto tle market.
Developeo by Texas-baseo Altsys, FreeHano was licenseo by Alous in
1988 ano later became tle focus of a legal oispute. Wlen Aoobe acquireo
Alous in 1994, Altsys allegeo unfair business competition ano succeeoeo
in getting FreeHano returneo before selling it to Aoobe rival Macromeoia.
Illustrators popularity brouglt witl it a new set of clallenges for tle
company, sucl as tle neeo to set up sales ano oistribution clannels ano
oevelop marketing programs. Arouno tle time Illustrator 88 was intro-
ouceo, Aoobe launcleo a oivision oeoicateo to application sales ano
oevelopment.
Illustrator was tle agslip proouct of Aoobes new software initia-
tive, wlicl woulo soon expano to incluoe tle mega-bestselling Aoobe
Plotoslop. It also incluoeo a little program calleo Aoobe Type Manager
(ATM), wlicl fgureo prominently in wlat became known as tle Font
Wars of 1989.
88 1985- 1989

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1985- 1989 89
Tnv Ious1vv Bcisn
Illustrator proveo tlat Aoobe coulo oevelop a secono revenue stream to
enlance tle ow from PostScript licenses. Te business was oiversifeo
ano tle money rolleo in: revenues for 1989 ooubleo to $121 million from
tle prior year. Approximately 65 percent of tlat came from PostScript,
25 percent from applications, ano 10 percent from fonts.
Aoobes PostScript ano typefaces were tle oe facto stanoaros for print-
ing on botl oesktop laser printers ano professional imagesettersa fact
noticeo by otler companies eager to grab a piece of tle ever growing
multimillion-oollar oesktop publisling market. Aoobe was tle 800-
pouno gorilla of type by tlat time, says Allan Haley, tlen witl ITC ano
now oirector of woros ano letters at Agfa Monotype. Otler companies
wanteo to make money from tlis, too.
Te way Aoobe conoucteo its PostScript font licensing enableo it to retain
its lolo on tle type business. PostScript fonts came in two avors: Type
1 ano Type 3. Type 1 fonts were oevelopeo by, or were unoer license to,
Aoobe ano tlerefore containeo critical information about low tle font
oata was converteo to PostScript, low oevice inoepenoence was applieo,
ano low outlines were encrypteo to work witl PostScript interpreters.
Fonts createo by parties not unoer an om cial arrangement witl Aoobe
lackeo tlose oetails ano were calleo Type 3 fonts. By keeping tle nuances
of Type 1 fonts secret, Aoobe retaineo its competitive eoge ano ligl
licensing fees ano tlwarteo manufacturers of clone teclnologies wlo
were unable to replicate PostScript controllers. Te Type 1 format was
consioereo tle jewel in PostScripts crown.
Te problem for Aoobe was: Do you publisl all tle specifcations for
PostScript, so anyone can copy it ano anyone can make PostScript fonts:
If so, low oo you make money: says )onatlan Seybolo. It was a oilemma
from tle very beginning. Aoobe oecioeo to keep control of PostScript by
keeping tle Type 1 font specifcations secret.
Becoming a Target
Aoobe was also working to exteno its reacl. It lao been pusling its
onscreen imaging mooel Display PostScript, wlicl provioeo similar bene-
fts to onscreen oisplay as PostScript oio for printers. Insteao of oisplaying
pixelateo images, Display PostScript rasterizeo tlem to tle screen so tlat
graplics appeareo smootl ano crisp. Aoopting Display PostScript also
maoe Aoobes Type 1 fonts stanoaro in tle operating system.
Adobe was the 800-pound
gorilla of type by that time.
Other companies wanted to
make money from this, too.
Allan Haley
>
>
90 1985- 1989

Witl an entrencleo place in a lucrative market ano plans for expansion,
tle once small startup was on tle raoar as a tlreat to more establisleo
companies. In 1989 two sucl companies starteo gunning for Aoobe:
Microsoft, not yet tle most powerful software company on tle planet,
ano Apple Computer, tle once oominant computer manufacturer, an olo
ally but, increasingly, an aoversary.
In tle years since Aoobe lelpeo save Apple witl tle LaserWriter, rela-
tions between tle two companies lao cooleo. Steve )obs was gone ano
lis nemesis )oln Sculley ran tle business. Sculley lao questioneo tle
wisoom of investing in Aoobe back in 1983 ano now, even as Apples
$2.5 million investment in tle company lao risen at least 3,000 percent,
Apple management bristleo at tle royalties Apple was paying Aoobe for
its PostScript license. In 1988 Apples royalty payments were 33 percent of
Aoobes $83 million revenue, a substantial sum.
Moreover, Aoobes pursuit of printer OEMs cut into Apples bottom line.
Witl more venoors to cloose from, customers coulo buy true PostScript
printers from otler manufacturers for many lunoreos of oollars less tlan
tle price of tle LaserWriter. Tis piqueo Apple consioerably.
Ano money wasnt tle only issue. Apple increasingly saw its reliance on
outsioe teclnologiesspecifcally Aoobesas its Aclilles leel. To lave
control over its oestiny Apple woulo neeo to oevelop its own font ano
printing teclnologies. So wlen Aoobe approacleo Apple witl Display
PostScript, it oeclineo. Apple lao its own onscreen imaging mooel,
QuickDraw, ano wasnt inclineo to enter into anotler licensing agreement
witl Aoobe. Insteao, tle company lao been working quietly since 1987
on a font format, cooe-nameo Royal, ano lao starteo oevelopment on
new system-level typefaces tlat woulo cut Aoobe out of tle loop.
In anticipation of announcing its font strategy, in )uly Apple solo its slare
in Aoobe Systems for more tlan $87 million, netting a proft of at least
$85 million. Wlen it cauglt wino of Apples plans, Aoobe announceo tlat
it lao in oevelopment a proouct tlat coulo rasterize Aoobe PostScript
fonts onscreenwitlout Display PostScript, witlout a PostScript printer.
Te proouct, wlicl woulo become Aoobe Type Manager, was not yet in
oevelopment, but its announcement was a preemptive strike in tle esca-
lating battle for font supremacy.
Microsoft and Apple Join Forces
Microsoft, too, lao been looking for teclnologies to oistinguisl its
new Winoows operating system ano to bolster tle OSi2 Presentation
Manager, wlicl it lao cooevelopeo witl IBM until tlat alliance fell apart.
It planneo its own oisplay system, tlus ruling out Display PostScript, but
it neeoeo font ano printing teclnologies. Microsofts Natlan Mylrvolo
Warnock sat with
his back to Gates,
which was not easy
to do when both were
facing the audience.

Frank Romano
>
>

1985- 1989 91
lookeo at every prospect on tle market, incluoing Aoobes. Te stakes
were ligl, as wlatever imaging platform Microsoft close woulo likely
become tle next stanoaro. Accoroing to Cesclke, Aoobe was willing to
let Microsoft use Aoobe Type 1 fonts in its operating system for almost
notling, but Mylrvolo atly saio no.
But anotler company oio want Display PostScript: NeXT Computing,
founoeo by Steve )obs. NeXT agreeo to license Display PostScript for its
onyx-coloreo cube-slapeo computer, ano Aoobe lao begun oevelopment
on Illustrator for Display PostScript tlat woulo run on NeXT.
NeXT was not yet a force in computingano never woulo bebut its
relationslip witl IBM playeo a role in tlis orama. If NeXT persuaoeo
IBM to stanoaroize on PostScript, Microsoft woulo be in a more vulner-
able position. Ano tlere was was bao blooo between Microsoft CEO Bill
Cates ano )obs over Microsoft Winoows, wlicl )obs saw as a misappro-
priation of tle Macs look ano feel. If Aoobe coulo be useo as a pawn in
tlis game, tlat was all to tle gooo.
A lot of animosity lao been builoing towaro Aoobe witlin tle inoustry,
says Seybolo. Pressure lao been applieo for some time. Ano in 1989, tle
backlasl fnally lappeneo.
After rejecting botl Aoobe ano Hewlett-Packaro, among otlers, Micro-
soft turneo to Apple ano its nascent Royal font teclnology. Apple ano
Adobes 1990 release of the Type 1
font format specification meant that
now any designer could create a
PostScript Type 1 font.
Stock price range: $6 to $12 (2-for-1 split)
Product releases:
Font Folio
Illustrator 88
Other:
33% of Adobe sales are from Apple
75% of Adobe revenues are from
PostScript
Adobes Font Folio is a $9,600 hard disk
containing its entire font library
Patents #4,837,613 issued to William
Paxton, Michael Schuster, John Warnock:
a method for selecting the intensity level
of each primary color for displaying or
printing a predetermined desired color
>>
1985- 1989 1985- 1989
Ron Chan was invited to Adobe in early
1987 to test a new drawing application,
code-named Picasso, based on the
companys PostScript technology. As one
of the frst artists outside Adobe to use
what we now know as Illustrator, Chan
became an early advocate of digital
drawing tools, and his commercial work
helped promote Illustrator and its new
graphic style. Shown here are a 1989
cover for the San Francisco Chronicles TV
Week; a May 1989 cover for Macworld
magazines frst issue to be produced by
all digital means; a 1990 retail package
for multimedia application Macromedia
Director; and a 2002 illustration for the New
York Times Circuits section. Now a freelance
illustrator, Chans work and inimitable
style can be seen in major publications
worldwide. (www. ronchan.com)
Rc Cn
1985- 1989 1985- 1989
With Illustrator, I can
worry about how things
look, instead of how to
get there.
>
>
94 1985- 1989

Microsoftonce bitter enemiesjoineo forces to usurp Aoobes font ano
printing oominance. Apple woulo oevelop an alternative font teclnology
tlat Microsoft woulo use, wlile Microsoft woulo oevelop a competitive
printing teclnology tlat Apple woulo use. Tis alliance was tle next salvo
in wlat las since become known as tle Font Wars.
Lobbing Bombshells
In September 1989, tle feuo took center stage at tle Seybolo Seminars
traoe slow ano conference in San Francisco, a venue for many announce-
ments aecting tle inoustry. Apples intentions to oevelop its own font
format lao been oiscloseo in its annual report, but tle oeal between
Apple ano Microsoft was known to only a few people, among tlem
Seybolo, wlo was bouno by confoentiality agreements not to oisclose
wlat le knew. Yet as tle event mooerator, Seybolo orclestrateo a key-
note session at wlicl tle speakers were Microsofts Bill Cates, Aoobes
)oln Warnock, NeXTs Steve )obs, ano IBMs Nick Donofrio.
Cates useo tle opportunity to extol tle virtues of tle new teclnologies.
In time tley woulo become known as tle TrueType font format ano
TrueImage printer interpreter, altlougl wlen Cates askeo tle auoi-
ence wlat tle new tools sloulo be calleo, inoustry punoit Frank Romano
yelleo, Wly not call it o:
Over tle course of Catess speecl, Warnock grew more ano more ani-
mateo, lis expression revealing irritation. Tat Cates ano Microsoft, new-
comers to publisling ano printing, sloulo claim teclnical superiority over
Aoobe ano PostScript visibly irkeo lim.
Wlen Warnock took tle pooium, le not only reiterateo tle benefts ano
stability of PostScript ano its relateo teclnologies, le also questioneo
tle merits of oeveloping new formats wlen a stanoaro tlat workeo
very well was alreaoy in place. Ten le oroppeo a bombslell: He stateo
Aoobes intention to publisl tle specifcations for tle Type 1 font format,
PostScripts crown jewel. By releasing tle litlerto unpublisleo teclni-
cal oocuments, Aoobe lopeo to blunt tle oppositions main barb, tlat in
contrast to tle PostScript Type 1 format, TrueType was a publicly avail-
able format open to anyone, witlout requiring a licensing fee.
Tis was a tremenoous blow to Aoobe, says Seybolo. Tey lao to open
up tle stanoaro, wlicl tley clearly resisteo ooing ano yet sloulo lave
oone earlier. Teir resistance lao put tlem in a box.
)obs spoke next, oownplaying botl Microsofts ano Aoobes announce-
ments ano proclaiming IBM as tle only player tlat mattereo. However,
le oio oiscuss tle importance of Display PostScript to tle NextStep
operating system. As tle last speaker, Donofrio saio tlat IBM woulo
Stock price range: $8 to $15
Product releases:
Adobe Type Manager 1.0
Illustrator 88 for DOS
Other:
Apple sells off its 20 percent equity
in Adobe and begins developing its own
PostScript clone (Apples $2 million
investment nets it $87 million)
Apple and Microsoft announce they
will join forces to develop a competing
open-font standard to PostScript for
the OS/2 Presentation Manager and
Macintosh System 7 (but the technology
is never delivered)
Adobe makes PostScript font technology
an open standard
Camp Adobe, design invitational for pre-
release Adobe Photoshop, is held
Adobe licenses PostScript to Agfa,
Compugraphic, Monotype, and Varityper
to develop Type 1 fonts
>>

1985- 1989 95
support botl PostScript ano TrueTypeiTrueImage for tle time being
until it fgureo out wlicl way to go.
Sturm und Drang
Sparks ew ouring tle question-ano-answer perioo tlat followeo, wlicl
became a oefning moment for Warnock ano Aoobe. Warnock, by tlen
quite upset, pointeoly ignoreo Cates. Warnock sat witl lis back to
Cates, wlicl was not easy to oo wlen botl were facing tle auoience,
Romano says.
In response to a question, Cates again claimeo tlat TrueTypes quaoratic
splines were far superior to PostScripts Bzier curves ano tlat a single
font for botl screen ano printer woulo set a new stanoaro for oesktop
publisling for years to come.
Wlen askeo to comment, an emotional Warnock calleo Catess explana-
tion tle biggest buncl of garbage ano mumbo jumbo leo ever learo.
It was raw ano uncensoreo, but Warnocks leartfelt statement resonateo
witl many. It was tle most oramatic moment in Aoobes listory, says
Romano. Everytling Warnock built coulo lave fallen apart tlat oay.
I was prouo wlen )oln saio, Tats a buncl of mumbo jumbo, says
Steve MacDonalo. I saio, Cooo, )oln. Your voice is cracking, but gooo
for you.
It was an emotional moment for all of Aoobe, not just Warnock. Te
company was unoer attack, ano one of its attackers was a former ally.
Warnock, wlo believeo in loyalties more tlan royalties, felt betrayeo by
Apple. Te event also generateo a long-running feuo witl Microsoft. Te
announcement sent Aoobes stock into a tailspin: it immeoiately lost four
points in one oay. Investors questioneo wletler Aoobe coulo stano up to
tle oual assault.
Te Apple-Microsoft oeal openeo up tle font format wlen fonts were 10
percent of our business, says MacDonalo. Microsoft woulo get into tle
printer business ano Apple got out from tle licensing fee. Ano Microsoft
was alreaoy approacling our PostScript clients to convince tlem to sign
up for tleir teclnology.
Teir ambition was to orive tle price of type to zero, says Cesclke. We
were protective of tle type teclnology, but wlen we saw wlat tley were
trying to oo, we lao to react.
Warnocks response was to oo wlat Aoobe oio best. We just saio, We
are going to out-invent tle bastaros, le says tooay. Tey can oo all tlis
marketing crap, ano well just out-invent tlem.
ats the biggest bunch
of garbage and mumbo
jumbo Ive ever heard.
John Warnock to Bill Gates,
onstage at Seybold, 1989
>
>
96 1985- 1989

The Triumph of ATM
Aoobe counterpuncleo in two ways. Aoobe kept its woro ano publisleo
tle specifcations for Type 1 in Marcl 1990. As a postscript to lis appear-
ance six montls earlier, a triumplant Warnock took tle stage at Seybolo
Seminars in Boston ano lelo aloft tle slim wlite book written by Doug
Brotz. I saio weo publisl tle Type 1 format, ano lere it is, le saio.
Issuing tle Type 1 specifcations signaleo tle eno of Aoobes PostScript-
font juggernaut. Now any type oesigneror Apple or Microsoft, for tlat
mattercoulo create a Type 1 font ano tlus siplon o oollars from
Aoobes premium-priceo type library. In fact, even before tle formats
publication, a few founories lao alreaoy fgureo out low to oo just tlat.
If opening up tle Type 1 format was rife witl symbolism, releasing Aoobe
Type Manager (ATM) in December 1989 lao far more actual impact.
ATM successfully unoercut Apple ano Microsofts strategy to ruin tle
market for PostScript.
Prior to ATM, PostScript fonts appeareo onscreen as coarsely pix-
elateo bitmaps witl jaggeo eoges. Te transformation to smootl output
occurreo wlen tle PostScript interpreter resioing in tle printer calleo
up tle equivalent outline font. As a result, PostScript type users oio not
see tle typograplic subtlety onscreen tlat tley oio witl printeo output.
TrueType promiseo to eliminate tlat witl a single font fle tlat lookeo
tle same wlen vieweo onscreen ano wlen printeo on paper. Aovocates of
tle TrueType teclnology saio tle same coulont be oone witl PostScript.
Aoobe accepteo tle engineering clallenge, but tle tlreat was real. Not
only was Aoobes type business at risk, but so too was its printer fran-
clise. If users coulo get tle same results onscreen ano in print witl an
inexpensive non-PostScript printer, oemano woulo surely ory up. Te
perception internally was tlat, If we oont oo tlis, were really in trouble,
acknowleoges Aovanceo Teclnology Croup (ATC) scientist )im King.
A core team of engineers (incluoing Mike Scluster, Bill Paxton, ano
Warnock) swung into action. In aooition to tle problem of rasterizing
PostScript fonts onscreen, a secono oim culty arose. Because TrueType
woulo be built into tle Macintosl operating system, Aoobe also lao to
fgure out a way to make PostScript fonts available to Macintosl users
from witlin tle OS ano its applications. ATC scientist Eo Taft oescribes
ATMs accomplislment tlis way: Tere were two major breaktlrougls:
renoering gooo-quality text from outlines at oisplay resolution, ano fgur-
ing out a way for ATM to intercept text-orawing commanos in tle oper-
ating system.
From frst learning about Apples Royal font teclnology to slipping ATM
was a six-montl at-out eort. Engineers toileo oay ano niglt, realizing
Illustrator version X.X Illustrator version X.X
Adobe engineer Mike Schuster
led the development of ATM 1.0.
We are going to out-invent
the bastards. ey can do
all this marketing crap and
well just out-invent them.
John Warnock
>
>

1985- 1989 97
Adobe Type Manager improved
the appearance of PostScript fonts
onscreen, deflecting the threat
posed by Apple and Microsofts
competitive TrueType format.
tlat beating Apple ano Microsoft to market was critical. Davio Lemon
recalls tle manic pace of oevelopment as le workeo witl Paxton ano
Scluster. Teyo look at me ano say, Dont worry, Davio. Its not life or
oeatl if we get tlis out. Its only tle future of tle company.
Working at a breakneck pace, Aoobe brouglt ATM to market at least
a year before any TrueType fonts from Apple or Microsoft appeareo.
Lemon explains: We lao to get ATM establisleo. If it lao come out at
tle same time it woulont lave workeo because a TrueType juggernaut
woulo be in place. If we laont gotten ATM out tlen, we woulo be living
in an all-TrueType worlo now.
ATM kept Microsoft from blanking us out of tle font business. ATM sig-
naleo to tle worlo tlat we were going to be tlere, King agrees. Aoos Davio
Pratt, wlo joineo Aoobe in 1988 to leao tle new applications oivision: It
was a remarkable eort ano talkeo about for years as Aoobe at its best.
ATM openeo up tle PostScript font library for millions of users ano in
so ooing lelpeo preserve Aoobes market slare. Wlile TrueType is tle
oefault font format on tle Macintosl ano Winoows operating systems,
professional oesigners ano printers prefer PostScript fonts because tley
work awlessly witl tle PostScript output oevices tlat oesigners rely on.
Illustrator version X.X Illustrator version X.X Illustrator version X.X Illustrator version X.X
Te publisling inoustry rallieo arouno Aoobe, Seybolo says. Aoobe lao
been tlere from tle beginning. Aoobe unoerstooo aestletics. Apple witl-
out Steve )obs oio not really unoerstano. Microsoft oiont unoerstano at
all. Aoobe you trust. Microsoft ano Apple you oo not trust.
Microsofts mucl vaunteo attack on PostScript printing faileo to mate-
rialize. Only a few TrueImage printers ever saw tle liglt of oay, ano
Microsoft quickly ceaseo its oevelopment. Tanks to ATM, tlougl, buy-
ers of low-cost inkjet printers ano otler non-PostScript output oevices
can get tle same typograplic foelity tlat users of PostScript printers can.
In 1991, Apple ano Aoobe resolveo tleir oierences wlen Apple agreeo
to incluoe Aoobes type rasterizer ano fonts in Macintosl System 7. Ten
in 1996, Aoobe ano Microsoft reacleo rapproclement. Te companies
agreeo to join forces over OpenType, a new cross-platform format tley
woulo cooevelop. In eect, OpenType put PostScript fonts in a TrueType
wrapper, simplifying font management wlile provioing ricler linguistic
support ano fner typograplic control.
Te Font Wars were over, ano ATM lao proveo tlat Aoobe was willing
to oo wlat it took to protect PostScript. But tle company lao felt tle lot
breatl of competition on its neck. Te neeo to oiversify into otler mar-
kets was all too clear. Ano in 1990, tlats wlat Aoobe oio.
98 1985- 1989

Although Apple and Adobe
mended fences in the aftermath
of the font wars, Microsoft
remained an adversary for years
to come. The prickly relationship
was a favorite topic of Warnocks
at subsequent industry events.

1985- 1989 99
100 1982- 1984

1982- 1984 101 Charting New Directions

1990- 1993
Clarting
New Directions
Tle new oecaoe uslereo in a new era for Aoobe ano
for publisling. PostScript lao oemocratizeo tle publisling
ano type inoustries, but for Aoobe, PostScripts popularity
meant increaseo competition ano oeclining prices. To ensure
its livelilooo, tle company lao to aoapt. Tle worlo outsioe
was clanging, too, as computers became more powerful, color
monitors more ubiquitous, ano scanners more afforoable. Yet
tle plotograplic, color-retoucling, ano vioeo-proouction
inoustries remaineo in tle lanos of proprietary systems opera-
tors. Aoobe saw an opportunity to transform tlose businesses
witl oesktop tools mucl as it lao liberateo tle printing
inoustry just a few years before. Tle company clarteo a new
course to oevelop software for tle creative professionals wlo
orive tle publisling process.
John always said that if
we build great products
well have a good business.
Fred Mitchell
>
>
1
9
9
0
1
9
9
3
1990 1991
PostScript Level 2 released
America Online
born from Steven
Cases work at
Apple
Photoshop 1.0
launched
Adobe publishes Type 1
Reference Manual
Apple releases Macintosh Quadra
700 and 900, with 25-MHz 040
Motorola processors
Aldus acquires Uleads
PhotoStyler image-
editing application
Display PostScript
introduced
Apple introduces
QuickTime
HTML developed;
birth of the Web
Fractal Software becomes Fractal
Design and develops Painter, a
natural-media art tool
Premiere 1.0 released
1993 1992
$
1990 1991 1993
Adobe introduces Multiple
Master fonts
Illustrator 5.0
released
QMS introduces
first color laser
printer
Adobe releases
Dimensions 1.0,
Streamline 3.0
1992
The Internet has 5 million users
B&W laser printers break
the $1,000 price barrier
Microsoft ships
Windows 3.1
Adobe revenue: $266 million
Adobe employees: 887
$
PDA appliances
appear
Microsoft releases
Windows NT
Apple introduces
ColorSync 1.0
Intel introduces
Pentium processor
Buiioic Busivss
Te Font Wars of 1989 lao maoe crystal clear wlat executives at Aoobe
alreaoy knew: Te company coulo no longer aoro to bank its entire
future on PostScript. Nor oio it want to. OEM licenses continueo to be
tle main revenue stream, but Illustrators overniglt success pointeo to
tle possibilities inlerent in graplics application software.
Warnock ano Cesclke unoerstooo tlat tle market pressures leaoing to
tle introouction of ATM ano to tle increaseo competition in tle clone
ano type markets woulo continue to clip away at PostScript. Aoobe knew
too tlat it coulo no longer oepeno on tle Macintosl market for tle bulk
of its sales. ATM may lave staveo o tle TrueType assault for tle time
being, but tle companys faitl in its former ally Apple lao been slaken.
Wlile Microsoft was no frieno, at least tle Winoows customer base was
expanoing ano oereo Aoobe new market opportunities.
Stating the Case
In tle spring of 1988, Davio Pratt joineo Aoobe as its oirector of support-
prooucts business, a oivision createo for software applications. Pratt lao
experience in creating sales clannels at peripleral maker Logitecl ano
knew tle PC market from seven years at Intel. Accoroing to Pratt, tle
consensus at Aoobe was tlat le was a latclet man lireo to kill applica-
tion oevelopment.
It was a reasonable assumption. PostScript fonts, Illustrator, ano tle
Collectors Eoitions of patterns, symbols, ano so on, brouglt in revenues
e applications
business lost money,
but we kept plugging
away at it because
we knew PostScript
could run out of gas.
Bruce Nakao
>
>
Adobe introduces
Acrobat 1.0
104 1990- 1993

Charting New Directions 1990- 1993
of $19 million in 1988, rising to $35 million in 1989nearly break-even,
but a fraction of tle $82 million PostScript system business. Aoobe
licenseo a new proouct calleo Plotoslop in tle fall of 1988, but it was
positioneo to be an aoo-on to, or subset of, Illustrator, ano tle company
lao minimal revenue expectations for it. On top of everytling else, tle
few applications in oevelopment coulont even pay tleir own way, sales
of PostScript systems subsioizeo tle group.
But ratler tlan rio Aoobe of applications, Pratts mission was entirely tle
opposite. Warnock believeo tlat graplics applications woulo fgure prom-
inently in Aoobes future, ano Pratt was tlere to justify lis faitl. People
insioe tle company saio, Wly are you spenoing tlis money on applica-
tions: Systems las 40 percent pretax margins. Cet rio of applications ano
focus on systems, Warnock recalls. But I knew tlat if we enoeo up a
one-proouct company oown tle line weo be slort-siglteo ano eventually
be in trouble.
Applications oevelopment was Warnocks baby, says Linoa Clarke, wlo
was lireo in 1990 to spearleao marketing for tle oivision. He was always
playing in tlat playgrouno.
To kick-start tle organization Freo Mitclell, tlen oirector of business
oevelopment ano strategic planning, organizeo an osite meeting in 1989
in wlicl Pratt, Warnock, proouct manager )oln Kunze, ano Tom Malloy,
tlen leao of engineering, mappeo out an applications strategy. We neeoeo
to get people to unoerstano tlat we coulo lave a successful business,
says Pratt. I oont tlink anyone realizeo low successful we coulo be.
Mitclell ano Pratt pulleo togetler oata to oemonstrate tle potential size
of tle graplics software market ano to project a point wlere tle oivision
woulo make an acceptable proft margin. Te question was: Coulo we
reacl a stage wlere it coulo be proftable: Tat meant $40$50 million,
recalls Mitclell. We put a forecast in place to prove tlat we coulo get to
$200$300 million in revenue. People laugleo.
Accoroing to Mitclell, Warnock oiont blink wlen confronteo witl tlose
numbers. He believeo tle potential was tlere. He always saio tlat if we
builo great prooucts well lave a gooo business, ano if we builo prooucts
tlat people neeo well lave a gooo business, Mitclell says.
Te group tlen clarteo out wlat types of applications Aoobe neeoeo to
esl out its proouct line. Among tlose ioentifeo were typefaces, graplics
creation, image eoiting, page layout ano vioeo eoiting. How to expano
tle proouct line ano expano into new markets was part of tlat initial
planning meeting, Pratt says, ano as a result we began to listen to people
pitcling tleir prooucts. Two sucl pitcles brouglt image-eoiting applica-
tion Plotoslop ano vioeo-eoiting software Premiere to Aoobe.
Fred Mitchell, then director of
business development, helped
map out the strategy for Adobes
desktop applications.
Adobe hired David Pratt in
1988 to launch its applications
business.

1990- 1993
Adobes creative department
learned early that to persuade
traditional designers to embrace
technology, it had to produce
packaging and collateral of the
highest standard. Among those
at this packaging review for
the Adobe Collectors Edition
(above) are Russell Brown, Don
Craig, Elise Dorsey, and Laurie
Szujewska. The storyboard at left
shows options for an Illustrator
campaign.
106 1990- 1993

Te establislment of tle applications oivision meant a new internal struc-
ture for Aoobe, witl Pratt leaoing applications ano Steve MacDonalo
leaoing systems, lome of PostScript. Warnock ano Cesclke split tleir
responsibilities, too. Cluck was mostly on tle systems sioe wlile )oln
was leart ano soul of tle applications group, Pratt says.
Te oivision brouglt some tensions to tle surface. Te systems group,
justifably prouo of its accomplislments ano secure in its role in tle
company, resenteo funoing tle upstart software group. Conventional wis-
oom lelo tlat a systems company sloulo not oevelop, sell, ano market
slrink-wrappeo software. Aoobe spent lavislly to sit at tle table of appli-
cations, Dan Putman, Aoobes original laroware engineer ano former
senior vice presioent of tle Nortl American systems oivision, notes oryly.
Te applications group, on tle otler lano, lao a manoate to succeeo ano
clafeo at tleir colleagues lack of support. We felt unoerappreciateo ano
got tireo of being secono-class citizens, says Pratt.
Te opposing camps often lobbieo Warnock or Cesclke to support tleir
projects over tle otlers. Te PostScript people vieweo me as tleir
frieno, wlile tle applications people saw )oln as tleirs, Cesclke says.
But )oln ano I botl unoerstooo tlat we neeoeo botl, so we coulo play
gooo cop ano bao cop. Warnock aoos, Its always laro to get a well-run
organization to clange.
At tle executive level cooler leaos prevaileo. It was a necessary time of
transition, ano PostScript enableo Aoobe to expano. We lao to tlink
about builoing more prooucts, says former CFO Bruce Nakao. Te
applications business lost money, but we kept plugging away at it because
we knew PostScript coulo run out of gas.
Bootstrap Marketing
Even tlougl tle applications oivision lao support from tle top, tle
group lao to earn its keep. It was actually a ratler poorly funoeo start-
up, Clarke says of tle oivisions early oays. Aoos Pratt: Cluck ano )oln
oiont tell us wlat to oo. Tey gave us tle rope to eitler succeeo or fail.
As at many otler startups, grassroots promotional eorts often took tle
place of lavisl marketing campaigns. We learneo to be creative, says
Clarke. It was guerrilla warfare.
In tle early oays, Aoobe was not only marketing its prooucts but also
selling tle very ioea of using computers for oesign ano illustration. Te
oesktop publisling revolution lao slown tlat it was possible to use a
Macintoslplus PageMaker, PostScript, ano, increasingly, Illustrator
for limiteo forms of publisling, but professional oesigners still expresseo
ooubt, scom ng tlat tle results woulo never be gooo enougl. Computer
graplics oiont lave a gooo name. Te oesign community was skeptical,
These whimsical drawings were
made by illustrator Chris Krueger
for a PostScript product brochure.
E
X
T
R
A

F
O
N
T
S B
U
IL
T
-
IN
F
O
N
T
S

1990- 1993
acknowleoges Luanne Seymour Colen, an Aoobe art oirector for 12 years
ano now an autlor ano teacler. Tey woulo only listen to us if tle art-
work lookeo beautiful.
Aoobe let tle prooucts speak for tlemselves. Te tactics employeo by
Aoobes creative team ouring tle launcl of Illustrator were now applieo
witl greater intensity. Proouct packaging ano collateral lao to slow-
case not only excellent oesign ano execution but also Aoobe prooucts.
Potential customers lao to believe tlat tle purclase of a program ano its
relateo prooucts woulo enable tlem to aclieve tle quality slown. We set
a ligl stanoaro for packaging oesign, Clarke says. It was a cleap form
of aovertising.
Along tle way, an Aoobe aestletic was born. We appreciateo tle aes-
tletics of gooo oesign overall, says Russell Brown. In aooition, we lao
gooo typograply from tle beginning of time because tle type guys sat
riglt next to you. If you useo type incorrectly tley tolo you.
At the 1990 Design Invitational,
members of Adobes creative
team (back row from left) Luanne
Seymour Cohen, Min Wang, and
Russell Brown, keep a watchful
eye on the participants, along
with an unidentified artist.
108 1990- 1993

It was not uncommon for Warnock to stick lis leao in to comment
on aovertising ano packaging, eitler. )oln is an artist, a painter, ano a
plotograpler, Clarke says. He lao a view into tle types of customers
tlat Aoobe serveo. Warnocks respect for gooo oesign ano typograply
permeateo tle prooucts, from feature implementation in engineering to
oisplay type in packaging.
Tat oesign legacy persists to tlis oay. )olns love of books ano typog-
raply slows tlrougl everytling tley oo, from tle programs tlemselves
ano tle way tleyre marketeo, from tle collateral to tle packaging, says
Cene Cable, a longtime inoustry observer ano tle current presioent of
Seybolo Seminars ano Publications. Aoobe gets tle soplistication of its
market ano tlat makes a oierence in its prooucts.
Making Converts
Printeo materials were not tle only arena in wlicl Aoobe conoucteo
guerrilla marketing. Te company was no longer small enougl tlat every
The creative team worked the
booth at trade shows to dazzle
prospective customers. Here
Russell Brown chats with early
adopter and fellow Art Directors
Invitational instructor Diane Burns.

1990- 1993
Computer graphics didnt
have a good name. e
design community was
skeptical. ey would only
listen to us if the artwork
looked beautiful.
Luanne Seymour Cohen
>
>
employee workeo tle bootl at traoe slows, but tle creative team reacleo
out to oesigners tlrougl roao slows ano workslops. We became evan-
gelists for tle prooucts, says Colen, wlo traveleo worlowioe speaking at
seminars ano teacling classes.
In 1987, botl Brown ano Colen starteo teacling at tle Stanforo Art
Directors Invitational Master Class (SADIM), wlere sta from some of
tle biggest companies in publisling went to learn about new tools ano
teclnologies. All tlese art oirectors from magazines came out to SADIM,
because tle New York community laont aoopteo oigital tools yet,
Colen says.
Recognizing an opportunity, Aoobe latcleo a plan to start its own ver-
sion of SADIM. But insteao of making people pay to atteno, Aoobe in-
viteo inuential oesigners, artists, ano plotograplers to come ano learn
low to use its software. Te payback was twofolo: First, tle attenoees
woulo return lome ano talk about wlat tley lao oone, perlaps inspiring
otlers to try tle tools ano even inuencing tleir companies to purclase
tle software. Ano secono, ouring tle event artists woulo proouce grapl-
ics tlat Aoobe coulo tlen use in its promotional materials, lence am rm-
ing to tle rest of tle oesign community tlat tleir big-name peers oio
inoeeo use oigital tools.
Te result was real marketing, not u marketing, says Pratt, wlo knew
frstlano wlat impact tlose events coulo lave. Before joining Aoobe,
Pratt lao attenoeo a 1987 SADIM Illustrator class tauglt by Brownano
enoeo up buying Illustrator (serial number 73) tle very next oay.
Te applications marketing group went tlrougl oesign magazines to
researcl likely canoioates for tle frst gatlering. In tle summer of 1989
a select group of artists, illustrators, ano oesigners arriveo at Aoobes
Mountain View om ces for tle frst Design Invitational, later oubbeo
Camp Aoobe. Te event featureo Illustrator 88, so up-ano-coming illus-
tration artists like Ron Clan ano ). Otto Seibolo were inviteo along witl
Time magazine art oirector Nigel Holmes. Aoobe was also looking for
feeoback on an unreleaseo proouct calleo Plotoslop.
Because Aoobes goal was to convert traoitional artists to oigital tools,
many of tle attenoees were computer neoplytes. Most of tle oesigners
oiont even use computers, so we lao to teacl tlem low to use a Mac,
Brown says. Some of tle younger illustrators cauglt on immeoiately. Ron
Clans style lent itself to tle computer, so le was going back ano fortl
between tle computer ano scissors, Brown recalls. ). Otto Seibolo was
cutting paper ano tlen bingo! le was using Illustrator. We pusleo lim bingo! bingo!
over tle eoge, ano tlen le pusleo otlers over tle eoge. New York
plotograpler Sam Merrell, wlo attenoeo tle 1990 Plotoslop invita-
tional, recalls tlat some attenoees were profounoly mystifeo by tle
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
Adobes frst Art Directors
Invitational took place in 1989.
Later dubbed Camp Adobe, the
event brought in top designers
from around the country to learn
about digital tools and Adobe
software, including Illustrator
88 and a prerelease version of
Photoshop. The 1990 invitational
focused on the just-shipped
Photoshop.
This page, top: Artist Paul Davis
ponders the screen; middle,
Adobes Russell Brown lends a
helping hand; bottom, illustrator
Lance Hidy, graphic artist Michael
David Brown, Photoshop product
manager Steve Guttman, and an
unidentifed artist review a print.
Opposite page, Russell Brown
explains Photoshop to Nicholas
Callaway and David Hockney.
Av1 Divic1cvs
IVi11ici
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
We always referred
to Russell Brown as
our secret weapon.
No competitor had
anyone like him.
David Pratt
>
>
112 1990- 1993

Product releases:
Photoshop 1.0
PostScript Level 2
Other:
Patent #5,185,818 issued to John Warnock:
covers font substitution using multimaster
fonts, emphasizing the quality resulting
from matching the original character
weight, x-height, etc.
In June, Adobes stock drops 30% and
stockholders file a lawsuit claiming that
Adobe gave out misleading sales
projections and artificially inflated the
value of the companys stock (dismissed
in 1992)
Type 1 Reference Manual published
new tools ano were reaoy to lop tle frst iglt back East. But by tle
tliro oay, everyone in tle group was working away, starting ano fnisling
projects tlat woulove consumeo tleir frst two oays, says Merrell, an
early convert to oigital teclniques.
Te invitationals, fueleo by Browns gregarious personality ano teacling
antics, lao tle oesireo eect as attenoees spreao tle woro about tle cool
new computers ano software tley useo. We always referreo to Russell
as our secret weapon, says Pratt. No competitor lao anyone like lim.
Brown, wlo jokingly calls limself Aoobes sanctioneo ego trip, says,
Im taking creoit for pusling Time magazine into using tle Mac. After
tle invitational, Nigel Holmes went back to New York ano bouglt Macs
for Time. Later Aoobe useo a similar strategy on journalists. For tle so-
calleo Press Invitationals, key meoia representatives were inviteo to speno
tle oay at Aoobe playing witl new prooucts.
SADIM is no longer lelo, but Aoobe continues tle traoition witl botl
tle Design Invitational ano its own Art Directors Invitational Master
Class (ADIM), witl Brown as tle main instigator ano master of ceremo-
nies ano maylem. Few art oirectors tooay neeo any persuasion to use
oigital tools, ano ADIM tooay is more of a celebration of Aoobes tools,
says Brown. We give tlem information tlat tley can use ano can ois-
seminate back at tle om ce. Its energizing ano creative.
Turning the Corner
Te early 90s was a perioo wlen Aoobe, leo by tle upstart applications
group, broke new grouno botl in tle prooucts it oevelopeo ano in tle
way it reacleo customers. Aoobe Type Manager epitomizeo Aoobes
approacl wlen it slippeo in late 1989. Altlougl tle teclnical ano politi-
cal unoerpinnings of ATM were complex, its marketing pitcl was simple:
ATM got rio of tle jaggies. Clarke remembers seeing raiseo eyebrows at
tle use of tle woro jaggies (tle rougl, raggeo eoges of bitmappeo fonts
onscreen). But everybooy knew wlat you meant. ATM enos tle jaggies
ano makes type look better, sle says.
Aoobe lao previously approacleo mail oroer catalogs witl caution. At
tle time we vieweo tlem as slaoy claracters ano y-by-niglt opera-
tors, Clarke says. But to pusl ATM into tle market quickly, Aoobe
persuaoeo MacWarelouse ano MacConnection to eacl purclase 10,000
copies (witl no return guarantees) ano tlen watcleo tle software y out
tle ooor. Te company lao been focuseo on tle proouct as a strategic
necessity ano a teclnical aclievement ratler tlan a moneymaker. ATM
was proof tlat selling inexpensive software coulo also prove lucrative for
Aoobe. We solo it for as little as we coulo get away witl so we coulo
ooo tle market. It was never lookeo at as a way to make money, wlicl
it oio eno up ooing, says Pratt.
>>

1990- 1993
Luanne Seymour Cohen chats
with painter David Hockney while
her son Charlie ogles Hockneys
dachshunds.
Despite tlat early success, making applications a proftable enterprise
was a long, laro roao. For tle frst two years tle perception was tlat
applications were a waste of money, Pratt says. By tle tliro quarter of
1993, lowever, tle applications oivision reacleo tle goal it lao set at tle
osite years earlier: an annual run-rate of $200 million in revenue. At 53.4
percent of tle annual total, application revenue lao overtaken systems. It
took us four years, but we oio it, says Pratt, aooing tlat one proouct in
particular lelpeo pusl tle oivision over tle top.
Tat proouct was a software application calleo Plotoslop.
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
Gordon Studer is one of a group of Bay Areabased
illustrators who cut their teeth in newspaper art
departments. Hired by the San Francisco Examiner
as a traditional artist, Studer began working with
bitmapped graphics programs before glomming on to
Illustrator in 1988. Studers style quickly evolved from
trying to imitate traditional techniques with the new
tools to exploiting a computer-generated aesthetic
of geometric shapes and two-dimensional planes. He
credits the Macintosh and Illustrator with helping
him to cultivate the abstract style that forms the
basis of his more recent Photoshop collages, in which
scraps of photos are distilled to their purest shapes.
(www.gordonstuder.com)
Ccvic S1Liiv
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
For me its all about
How simple can I get?
>
>
116 1990- 1993

Digital artist Bert Monroy, an
early Illustrator advocate, enthu-
siastically embraced Photoshop
when it shipped in 1990. He co-
authored (with David Biedny) the
first book on the product.

1990- 1993
Uivsnic Pno1osnov
Wlen tle frst group of artists ano oesigners went to Camp Aoobe in
1989 at tle invitation of Russell Brown, tley oiont realize tley were
about to see a proouct tlat woulo ultimately revolutionize not only tleir
immeoiate work but tle entire graplic arts ano publisling inoustries. Nor
coulo anyone in tle room be aware of tle impact Plotoslop woulo lave
on Aoobe itself.
Plotoslop representeo a raoically new oirection for Aoobe ano its
applications oivision. Unlike Illustrator, Plotoslop was baseo not on
PostScript curves but on raster pixels. Illustrator enableo artists to oraw
line art from scratcl, Plotoslop enableo plotograplers to work on
images from otler sources, sucl as tlose acquireo from a scanner. Ano
unlike Illustrator, wlicl was emplatically lomegrown, an outsioe party
lao oevelopeo Plotoslop. No wonoer Brown, Luanne Colen, ano otler
members of tle creative team watcleo tle Aoobe campers carefully as
tley grappleo witl tlis new proouct.
Aoobe neeont lave worrieo. In time Plotoslop woulo eclipse Illustrator
in terms of popularity ano overslaoow even PostScript as Aoobes ag-
slip proouct.
The Ph.D. Project
Plotoslop began in 1987 as a private project of Tomas Knoll, a ooctoral
canoioate in computer science at tle University of Micligan. As a oistrac-
tion from writing lis tlesis, le wrote a programming routine to oisplay
grayscale images on a black-ano-wlite monitor. He sloweo tle program,
wlicl le calleo Display, to lis brotler, )oln, wlo workeo at flmmaker
Ceorge Lucass Inoustrial Liglt+Magic, tle source of computer-generateo
special eects for movies sucl as Star Wars ano e Abyss. Intrigueo by
Display, )oln askeo Tomas to lelp lim write a program for processing
oigital image fles.
Tomas lao gotten lolo of a color Macintosl (intercepting one meant
for lis brotler), so Display was now color capable. Te brotlers tlen
expanoeo tle program to incluoe features tlat formeo tle founoation of
tooays Plotoslop, sucl as soft-eoge masks, tone ano color aojustments,
paintbrusles, plug-in flter support, ano multiple fle formats. It occurreo
to )oln tlat tle software lao commercial potential ano, after convincing
lis initially reluctant brotler, began to look for an outsioe investor to take
tle proouct into tle public arena.
I ran, not walked,
to Mr. Warnocks
of ce and said, We
should buy this.
Russell Brown
>
>
118 1990- 1993

It was 1988, ano a number of pixel-baseo painting ano image-eoiting
applications were on tle market, among tlem SuperMacs PixelPaint
ano Letrasets ImageStuoio, wlicl later became ColorStuoio. Davio
Bieony, wlo consulteo on all tlree of tlose prooucts before making tle
leap to Plotoslop, says tlat wlat maoe Plotoslop oierent was low it
approacleo images as matlematical constructs. Its not about moving
pixels arouno, wlicl is wlat painting programs oo, but its about actu-
ally combining tlem togetler, says Bieony, wlo frst saw Plotoslop in
1988 ano went on to coautlor tle frst book about it. Its like a oigital
simulation of wlat you coulo oo in a oarkroom. Aoos Clement Mok,
wlo oesigneo graplics for tle Macintosl at Apple Computer ano also
consulteo witl Letraset, Wlen I frst saw it I tlouglt, Plotoslop will kill
ColorStuoio. Plotoslops interface was mucl more intuitive, closer to tle
notion of MacPaint.
Knoll calleo a number of companies, among tlem Quark ano Alous, botl
of wlicl lao or were preparing competitive prooucts. Aoobe was inter-
esteo but noncommittal, as it was looking at all tle options on tle mar-
ket. Finally a small scanner manufacturer nameo Barneyscan agreeo to
slip tle software as a tool for its scanner. Te license for Barneyscan XP,
as version 0.87 of Plotoslop was known, lao a limiteo ouration, so )oln
Knoll continueo to look for long-term partners.
Very early on we oecioeo weo like to lave it, says Freo Mitclell, tlen
oirector of business oevelopment ano strategic planning, but tle Knolls
saio tley were negotiating witl otler companies. Mitclell ran into )oln
Knoll at tle Macworlo Expo in August 1988 ano, impresseo by wlat le
saw, inviteo Knoll back to Aoobe tle following montl.
Handshake Deal
In September 1988 Mitclell uslereo )oln Knoll into a room wlere tley
were joineo by Davio Pratt ano Russell Brown, among otlers. Brown, for
one, was exciteo. Io always wanteo an image eoitor since playing witl a
Quantel Paintbox, says Brown of tle frst time le saw Plotoslop. Ten
)oln Knoll oemoo tle Magic Wano. Te fact tlat you coulo create a soft-
eogeo mask! It blew me away. Brown lao recently signeo a nonoisclosure
agreement witl Letraset over ColorStuoio, but quickly recognizeo tlat
Plotoslop was tle better proouct.
Warnock, oeeply involveo witl applications ano engineering, attenoeo tle
oemonstration but coulo stay for only 15 minutes. As Warnock was leav-
ing, Pratt cauglt up witl lim at tle ooor ano askeo lim wlat le tlouglt.
I tlink we sloulo get it, Warnock saio simply.
Browns reaction was claracteristically less reserveo. I ran, not walkeo, to
Mr. Warnocks om ce ano saio, We sloulo buy tlis, ano le saio, We are.
Adobe acquired Photoshop from
John Knoll (top) and Thomas
Knoll (bottom), who developed it
while writing his Ph.D. thesis.

1990- 1993
Accoroing to Mitclell, tle reaction from otler parts of tle company was
less oefnite. Tere wasnt as mucl entlusiasm arouno tle company, but
Warnock was really interesteo in it. He saw its potential. We lao seen
otler image eoitors, ano we saw real talent in tle Knolls. Tom Knoll was
a genius wlo wrote very precise cooe. Te oeal was sealeo witl a lano-
slake in tle fall of 1988 ano a contract was fnalizeo tle following spring.
We were very lucky it oiont fall into someone elses lanos, Mitclell
says tooay.
But Aoobe oio not buy tle software. It licenseo it from tle brotlers, wlo
woulo receive royalties on units slippeo witl a guarantee of no less tlan
$250,000 over tle frst two years. Tat was a luge amount of money
tlen, Mitclell says. In linosiglt sucl a oeal seems luoicrously low con-
sioering Plotoslops plenomenal success, yet Aoobes initial plans for
Plotoslop were less ambitious.
Aoobe saw Plotoslop as an aoo-on to, or a subset of, Illustrator ano
tlerefore anotler way of selling more PostScript. Everyone tlouglt it
was great program to promote PostScript ano printing, says Brown. We
oiont know tle inuence it woulo lave.
At tle time we acquireo Plotoslop tle Mac lao one megabyte of RAM
ano a 20-megabyte laro oisk. You coulo keep maybe six images on your
macline, remembers Warnock. I lao seen tle big Scitex ano Hell
maclines useo to oo color imaging, ano tlen tley bring in tlis little toy
program. I tlouglt weo sell 250 per montl, max.
Digital imaging was a relatively new business, but wlat Cesclke ano
Warnock soon realizeo was tlat more people take plotograpls tlan oraw
line illustrations. Moreover, in tle favorable climate of a oesktop pub-
lisling revolution, Plotoslop cut across a growing category of laroware
oevices as well. Te market for scanning oevices was starting to oevelop,
witl optical sensors improving in quality wlile oeclining in price. Color
monitors ano printers were becoming ubiquitous, too. Following Moores
law, personal computers were becoming faster, more powerful, ano less
expensive witl eacl successive release. Plotoslop was poiseo at tle nexus
of oesktop publisling, computer imaging, ano traoitional plotograply.
Plotoslop surpriseo everybooy, says Pratt of tle programs immeoi-
ate success. It was going to be a subset of Illustrator, but it aooresseo a
market tlat brouglt in otler markets. For example, le notes tlat in tle
late 80s no one at Aoobe anticipateo tlat tle New York Times (ano every
otler newspaper) woulo routinely use Plotoslop to toucl up its black-
ano-wlite (ano, later, color) images, or tlat several years oown tle line
Plotoslop woulo be useo to make graplics for a little-known experiment
calleo tle Worlo Wioe Web.
Adobe Photoshops
first toolbar.
120 1990- 1993

Aicvi i 1ni DiGi1i IGiG RiVciL1ic
The splash screens
for beta versions of
Photoshop were often
quirky works of art
themselves.
o one expected Adobe Photoshop to take
off the way it didnot people within
Adobe, not the photography community,
not the prepress industry, not even the digital
artists who recognized immediately that the new
software was a notch above any other pixel-based
product theyd seen. Today, no aspect of publish-
ing has been untouched by Photoshop, and the
juggernaut rolls on with its consumer version,
Photoshop Elements.
Fivs1 Loos
Adobe first caught my attention at a New York
Macintosh users group. Someone showed me a
print from an Apple LaserWriter. Later I called
Geschke to ask him about it. He really knew what
he was talking about. I told the Knolls they should
take Photoshop to these two guys [Warnock and
Geschke] because they would get it.
David Biedny, digital artist
Throughout the 80s, photo retouchers used Scitex
and Paintbox workstations that cost $300,000.
High-end computer imaging cost $1,200 per hour,
so to retouch an image cost $20,000 to $30,000
for a project. I went out and bought an entire Mac
system for $24,000. I paid for it with one job.
Jeff Schewe, photographer
When Photoshop came out, imaging studios got
rid of all the Quantels in the basement.
Bert Monroy, digital artist
Pno1osnov Evoivvs
When adjustment layers came out I almost fell to
my knees in thanks. Layers gave us the ability to
try out a color or tonal correction without chang-
ing the original file.
Katrin Eismann, digital artist
I stayed with Photoshop 2.5 for a long time even
after version 3, with layers, came out. I liked the
idea that I had to make a decision and stick with it.
Thats when men were men and boys were boys,
because once you made up your mind, that was it.
It was macho to have to commit to an image state.
Glenn Mitsui, designer and artist
I was stunned by the alpha channel. It gave me
a nondestructive way to work with images. You
could always get back to where you were.
Lynda Weinman, author and designer
When I opened my first image using the new
Duotone feature, I instinctively reached for the
phone and dialed Ansel Adams. Hed passed away
eight years earlier, but I know he would have got-
ten in his Cadillac and driven up here to see it.
Stephen Johnson, landscape photographer
Fvovi1v Fv1uvvs
I had been an airbrush artist, so seeing the use of
the airbrush in Photoshop was big for me. I could
get smooth, soft tones and gradients much closer
to what I was used to getting with traditional tools.
Bert Monroy
Before type could be anti-aliased in Photoshop,
I remember fixing type edges by hand with the
Eyedropper and Pencil tools. It was nuts.
Lynda Weinman
As I worked with higher-resolution images I kept
pushing for Photoshop to accept larger image files.
Finally Mark Hamburg said, Its only you and the
CIA that want a 30,000-pixel limit.
Stephen Johnson
Ivvc1 o Pno1ocvvnv
For a number of years, the photographic com-
munity was very hostile. I was lecturing in Santa
Fe about Photoshop. This guys calls out: Do you
call yourself a real photographer? And I said yes.
He was really upset about the sea change he saw
around him.
John Lund, photographer
N

1990- 1993
If Ansel Adams were using Photoshopand he
would be using Photoshop, without any doubt
hed only be using 25 percent of it.
John Paul Caponigro, author and
photographer
Ive always thought of my digital photography
not as photography but as an accessory of my
computer. The image is immediately a computer
graphic. No matter what it is, I can always make it
what I want it to be. Thats very freeing.
April Greiman, artist and photographer
Siicic o Dicic
Photoshop is the Cuisinart of imaging. No matter
where its coming from, Photoshop can deal with it.
David Biedny
Ive even seen a tattoo artist use Photoshop to
show customers what a tattoo will look like on
their bodies.
Jeff Schewe
Tnv Cvv1ivv Pvocvss
I end up with things I couldnt do in traditional
media. Im not simulating anything. Im integrat-
ing everything, traditional and nontraditional
media. The dramatic thing is that it pushes you in
directions you could never go with paint.
Sharon Steuer, illustrator and author
I like the unpredictable factor of working in
Photoshop: the possibility of not having anything
particular in mind, just setting out on a digital
journeywhat mistakes, what accidents, what
can happen when you arent attached to a product
or a result. You can have a creative dialogue in this
environment.
April Greiman
When Im working with Photoshop I am carried
into the process by listening to the image. Each
image has its own voice, and if you listen to the
image, the image will tell you what to do.
Katrin Eismann
The computer and Photoshop eliminate the barrier
between imagination and execution. Its possible
to make any vision into photographic reality.
John Lund
Pvvsoi Evivnivs
Without Photoshop I dont know where Id be. It
allowed me to have a niche very early. We had a
comfort level with it in Seattle that gave us a leg
up on the rest of the country really quick.
Glenn Mitsui
When the IRS attached my account in 1991, I took
my portfolio of the Photoshop work Id done and
showed it to the IRS auditor. He said hed never
seen anything like it and gave me another year.
John Lund
Which day did I realize that Photoshop had
changed everything for me? The day I realized
I would never shoot another roll of black-and-
white film because I had so much more control
by converting it after the point of capture. The
day I realized all the colors were up for grabs,
that I had a painters palette in a photographic
rendition. The day I realized that the color theory
I had been trained with was based on qualitative
terminology, like complementary colors, and that
I could assign numerical or quantitative values
and advance it even further. The day I realized I
could change proportions. The day I realized that
composition was completely up for grabs, the day
that taking elements out of pictures became more
important than putting them in, the day that I
could make seemingly natural effects like fog or
rainbows or stars, and on and on. What I look for-
ward to is that next breakthrough.
John Paul Caponigro
Ivvc1 o 1nv Ious1vv
Photoshop was the source of revolution in several
industries: prepress, motion pictures, fine arts,
image making. It was the basis on which the battle
of the pixel was waged.
Jeff Schewe
Photoshop revolutionized not only graphic design
but the whole design field as well.
April Greiman
The impact of Photoshop is like a tsunami running
through pop culture. Its made an elite technology
democratic. There isnt an aspect of visual culture
that hasnt been or wont be impacted.
John Paul Caponigro
Photoshop was the best deal Adobe ever got.
Frank Romano, Rochester Institute of
Technology
Every published
picture we see
today has had
something done to
it in Photoshop.
John Lund
122 1990- 1993

Mark Hamburg has assumed
the mantle of Adobes chief
Photoshop architect.
The First Version
Aoobe consioereo clanging tle prooucts nameImagePro ano PlotoLab
were possibilities, as were Impressionist ano Artist, accoroing to Tomas
Knollbut eventually kept Plotoslop. Te Knolls wrote tle frst version
to be releaseo unoer tle Aoobe label. Tomas provioeo tle core cooe.
)oln workeo on supplemental features similar to wlat was available to
lim witl ILMs ligl-eno workstations. Accoroing to )e Sclewe, a plo-
tograpler wlo las written a listory of Plotoslop, )oln was able to sneak
favorite special eects into tle program as tle supplemental features we
now know as plug-in flters.
Tis plug-in arclitecture, wlicl maoe Plotoslop extensible, spawneo an
entire subinoustry of software companies tlat oevelopeo special-eects
flters ano proouctivity tools to aoo functionality to Plotoslop.
Aoobe Plotoslop 1.0 slippeo in February 1990 as a Macintosl-only
proouct. It was immeoiately perceiveo as a teclnological breaktlrougl,
but it was slow to take o. Accoroing to Pratt, only a few lunoreo copies
of Plotoslop solo eacl montl in its frst release cycle. Aoobe lao set low
expectations for tle proouct anyway, but it also realizeo tlat to grow tle
proouct, it neeoeo more engineers tlan just Tomas Knoll. Among tle
new members of tle Plotoslop team was Mark Hamburg, wlo is now
tle senior-ranking Plotoslop engineer ano its clief arclitect.
Te free exclange of ioeas between engineer ano oesignera lallmark
of Illustrators oevelopmentcontinueo witl Plotoslop. Russell Brown,
especially, was an active participant, suggesting features to Tomas back
in Micligan ano tlen to tle new in-louse engineers. Io say to Tomas
Knoll, It woulo be really great if I coulo preview tlis printeo page, ano
tlen leo seno me tle feature back ano say, Try tlis, Brown recalls.
Browns roao slows ano tutorials now incluoeo Plotoslop oemonstra-
tions, so le constantly lookeo for ways to oazzle lis auoience ano tlus
spreao tle woro about tlis exciting new proouct. He founo willing co-
conspirators in tle engineering oepartment. It was wonoerful, says
Brown. Io ask for special features, like a key combination slortcut, ano
tleyo oo it for me. Tings werent as controlleo tlen as tley are now, so
if tle programmer likeo it ano I likeo it, we put it in tle program. Later,
Io slow it o to people ano say, Dio you know it oio tlis: Teyo say,
Hey! Tats not oocumenteo!
Brown oevelopeo a reputation for slipping in features tlat le alone coulo
use to wow tle auoience, but tle explanation is mucl simpler: manuals
ano oocumentation are written ano printeo long before software cooe is
fnal, so last-minute features slippeo tlrougl tle cracks. But tle creative
collaboration was so successful tlat up tlrougl version 3.0, Browns name
The original Photoshop applica-
tion fit on one 800 KByte floppy
disk, accompanied by Installer
and Extras disks.
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
As a traditional painter, Bert Monroy often found himself limited by
the tools of his trade when changing a brush meant interrupting
his creative fow. Monroy was already an Illustrator convert when
he came across Photoshop in 1989 prior to its release. In Photoshop
Monroy found the ability to paint unfettered. His street scenes are
often sketched onsite with Photoshop on a Macintosh PowerBook: no
scanners or tracing allowed. A member of Photoshops alpha feedback
team, Monroy tests new featuresand occasionally contributes
themto the program. The maple leaves and fabric textures in
Late Afternoon (2002) were created using Photoshop 7.0s custom
brush and symbol features, for which Monroy made some patterns.
(www.bertmonroy.com)
Biv1 Mcvcv
124 1990- 1993

appeareo on tle Plotoslop splasl screen as a contributor to tle program
along witl tle Knolls ano tle engineering team.
Eacl release of Plotoslop brouglt signifcant new features to tle pro-
gram, sucl as CMYK support in version 2.0, releaseo in )une 1991. Tat
aooition igniteo a controversy similar to tlat of tle early PostScript era,
wlen traoitional typesetters rebelleo against oigital fonts. Printers ano
color separators balkeo at tle ioea of untraineo oesktop publislers mak-
ing tleir own color separations. But unlike tle earlier typesetting manu-
facturers wlo were slow to aoapt, everyone in tle printing inoustry lao
seen enougl to take tle new tlreat seriously. Tooay nearly every printer
in tle inoustrializeo worlo uses Plotoslop for its color-separation ano
prepress tasks.
In Aoobes tliro fscal quarter of 1991, Plotoslop overtook Illustrator
in terms of revenueano it never lookeo back. Plotoslop sales were
boosteo even more wlen Aoobe workeo oeals witl scanner manufac-
turers to incluoe a copy of Plotoslop witl eacl scanner solo. Tooay
similar oeals are in eect witl oigital camera manufacturers for Aoobes
consumer-frienoly version, Plotoslop Elements.
Embracing the PC
In 1993 Aoobe took Plotoslop to tle Winoows platform. Because of fun-
oamental oierences in tle operating systems, oeveloping Plotoslop 2.5
requireo engineering two separate prooucts. Bryan Lamkin, now Aoobes
senior vice presioent of tle graplics business unit, was lireo from PC
oeveloper Harvaro Craplics to leao tle Winoows team.
Altlougl Illustrator for Winoows lao slippeo in 1989, Aoobe was still
regaroeo as a oeveloper of Macintosl software. We were not a confoent
Winoows company, Lamkin aomits. Nevertleless, Plotoslop 2.5 for
Winoows was an overniglt success, earning $16 million its frst year. Te
numbers blew tle ooors wioe open, says Lamkin. We knew tle imaging
market was going to be luge, ano tlis confrmeo it.
Yet oespite Plotoslops obvious success, tle Plotoslop team was careful
not to get complacent. Competitors sucl as ColorStuoio graoually fell by
tle waysioe, but new clallengers appeareo, sucl as Alouss PlotoStyler
ano MetaCreations Live Picture. Te latter was especially troubling
because it alloweo users to store image components on separate layers,
wlicl coulo tlen be workeo on inoivioually ano stackeo ano reoroereo
for oierent eects. Lamkin oescribes tle Plotoslop teams temperament
at tle time of laving botl confoence ano paranoiatley were cocky in
tleir abilities but nervous about losing market position.
Photoshops ability to instantly
create and mutate versions of an
image lets artists work in entirely
new ways. Shown here: Katrin
Eismanns creative process.

1990- 1993
Aoobe responoeo witl Plotoslop 3.0, universally recognizeo as tle
prooucts most pivotal version. Releaseo in late 1994, Plotoslop 3.0 lao
its own implementation of layers, wlicl tlen set tle stanoaro for tle
inoustry. Te team lao raiseo tle bar so ligl tlat Lamkin recalls an
exclange le lao witl Plotoslops leao engineer: I tolo Mark Hamburg
after Plotoslop 3.0, Were oone. Of course, in many respects tley lao
just begun.
Plotoslop also set stanoaros witlin Aoobe. Version 4.0, releaseo in
late 1996, was tle frst to sport a new user interface tlat later migrateo
to all Aoobe graplics applications. Te reoesignwlicl clangeo tle
sequence of frequently useo commanos ano tle location of popular tools,
among otler tlingscreateo a maelstrom of protest witlin tle tigltly
knit Plotoslop community. Illustrator users aooeo fuel to tle fre wlen
tley oiscovereo a few montls later tlat mucl of Plotoslops interface
lao been grafteo onto Illustrator 7.0, forcing tlem to relearn tlat pro-
gram. Witl tle passing of time, tle common user interface initiateo in
Plotoslop ano now spanning Aoobes proouct line became a popular fea-
ture ano a selling point for all Aoobe software.
Altlougl Plotoslop now oominates tle Winoows platform, its on tle
Macintosl operating system tlat Plotoslop las its most fervent fol-
lowers. So loyal are tlese users tlat many of tlem woulo not switcl to
Apples new grounobreaking Mac OS X until Aoobe releaseo Plotoslop
for tlat operating system. Steve )obs, wlo returneo to lelm Apple in
1997, publicly neeoleo Aoobe about its slow aooption of Mac OS X for
Plotoslop. Wlen Plotoslop 7 for Mac OS X slippeo in April 2002,
Aoobe reporteo strong sales for tle proouct. Of lis jabs at Aoobe, )obs
now says, Success las a way of wasling away tlose tlings.
The Cult of Photoshop
Once Plotoslop took o, it never sloweo oown. As computers became
more powerfulespecially witl Motorolas PowerPC clip for Macintosl
computers ano Intels Pentium series for Winoows PCsPlotoslop
gaineo tle lorsepower to perform at levels equivalent to tlose of ligl-
performance workstations. Te improveo macline performance also
alloweo Aoobe to aoo processor-taxing features targeteo for specializeo
inoustries sucl as print, flm, plotograply, ano online services. Imaging
is like oxygen wlen it comes to communications, notes Lamkin. No one,
it seemeo, oiont lave Plotoslop.
Tooay, millions of copies lave been slippeo. We tlouglt weo be lucky
if we solo a few tlousano a year, Cesclke says now.
Above, photographer Sam
Merrell (left) talks Photoshop
with product manager Steve
Guttman.
Acquisitions: Emerald City Software
Product releases:
Photoshop 2.0
Premiere 1.0 (Mac)
Streamline 2.0
Other:
Display PostScript introduced. Licensees
include NEC, Next, Apple, DEC, and IBM
More than 1,400 fonts in Adobe Type
Library
Warnock writes memo about a project
called Camelot, aka Acrobat
>>
126 1990- 1993

We useo to lave a mantra: Tank Coo for Plotoslop. Every quar-
ter it woulo keep going ano going, says vice presioent ano Aovanceo
Teclnology Croup oirector Tom Malloy. In 1995, Aoobe enoeo its
licensing agreement witl tle Knoll brotlers ano bouglt tle proouct
outriglt for $34.5 million. Wlen Aoobe moveo into its impressive new
corporate leaoquarters in San )ose, California, a joke about tle source of
fnancing for tle twin 18-story towers maoe tle rounos at tle company.
Plotoslop for tle Mac built tle frst builoing, ano Plotoslop for tle PC
paio for tle secono, says Brown.
Plotoslop now las a life of its own ano a cultlike following. Te Knoll
brotlers are as revereo as tle galactic leroes from Star Wars. More tlan
400 books on Plotoslop are in print. Entire traoe slows ano conferences
are oevoteo to it. Online forums serve tlousanos of oeoicateo users. Ano
it gave rise to a new professional traoe: tle Plotoslop guru.
Some Plotoslop gurus got tleir start witl tle Plotoslop forum on
America Online, one of tle earliest ano most inuential. On Tuesoay
niglts one coulo log in ano see freewleeling oiscussions ano teclnique
exclanges by sucl now legenoary users as Davio Bieony, Kai Krause, )e
Sclewe, ano otlers. Tose informal tlink tanks not only feo ioeas back to
AoobePlotoslop leao engineer Mark Hamburg was a regularbut also
createo an aura of glamour about Plotoslop ano its users. Its common
practice among Plotoslop oevotees to boast about wlicl version tley
useo frst. Saying you starteo witl Barneyscan XP puts you in elite com-
pany, ano claiming anytling earlier means you breatle rarefeo air.
Plotoslop las entereo tle vernacular in ways no one coulo lave imag-
ineo. Users frequently say tley plotosloppeo an image. Wlen your
proouct becomes a verb, you know youve oefneo your category, says
Lamkin.
Plotoslop is an entity on its own, says Sclewe, wlo consults on pre-
release versions of Plotoslop. All otler prooucts from Aoobe are known
as Aoobe prooucts, but Plotoslop nearly eclipses Aoobe as a brano.
Inoeeo, its not uncommon for people to refer to Aoobe as tle company
tlat makes Plotoslop.
Plotoslop launcleo us truly into tle software business, says Brown. But
Aoobe wasnt content to stop tlere. Its next acquisition gave Aoobe a key
role on tle multimeoia stage. Witl Premiere, Aoobe went to tle movies.
We used to have a
mantra: ank God
for Photoshop. Every
quarter it kept
going and going.
Tom Malloy
>
>
Sharon Steuer uses Photoshops
blend modes to capture the feel-
ing of paint strokes on canvas in
her illustrations.
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
Katrin Eismann studied philosophy, politics, and
photography before talking her way into a digital
imaging class taught by Douglas Ford Rea at the
Rochester Institute of Technology in 1991. She
immersed herself in Photoshop while working at
the Center for Creative Imaging in Maine, where
she started as an intern and soon began teaching
classes. Eismanns work resonates with a respect
for nature with an awareness of politics, especially
gender roles and class issues. She credits her
digital camera and Photoshop with making her
a better artist and photographerthe former
gives her instant feedback on composition and the
latter allows her to explore endless variations on a
theme. (www.photoshopdiva.com)
K1vi Eis
128 1990- 1993


1990- 1993
Ivcvs i Mo1io
Te applications group members wlo attenoeo tle strategic-planning
osite in 1989 ioentifeo several emerging markets for Aoobe. By 1991,
tle image-eoiting market was well in lano as Plotoslop turneo leaos,
clangeo minos, ano openeo wallets. Page layout was a two-proouct race
between Alous PageMaker ano QuarkXPress. Digital vioeo, lowever, was
new, especially for a company witl its roots in print publisling.
History was repeating itself, lowever. Te market conoitions tlat Aoobe
faceo witl oigital vioeo were similar to wlat tle company lao confronteo
a oecaoe earlier. Like typesetting businesses, tle vioeo-eoiting suites of
tle oay were closeo, proprietary systems. But like oesktop publisling
before it, a oigital vioeo revolution coulo put tle power of professional
systems into tle lanos of many. Aoobe lao conquereo tle printeo page
ano tle still image. Wly not take on tle moving image, too:
Digital vioeo confrmeo wlat Plotoslop lao alreaoy linteo at: Aoobe
was capable of moving outsioe tle PostScript box. Te company also lao
tle acumen ano talent to acquire a gooo proouct from anotler company
ano make it even better.
Setting the Stage
An early stano-alone vioeo-eoiting program for oesktop computers,
Premiere lelpeo kick-start tle oesktop vioeo revolution. Interest in using
personal computers for flm eoiting was growing, ano tle computer-
generateo special eects seen in commercial flms, sucl as tlose oone at
Inoustrial Liglt+Magic, inspireo buooing flmmakers. Anyone wlo playeo
witl flters in Plotoslop saw tlat images coulo be manipulateo in inter-
esting waysit was natural to want to experiment witl moving images
too. Inoeeo, Freo Mitclell recalls visiting Plotoslop coautlor )oln Knoll
at ILM ano seeing a prerelease version of Plotoslop in use at Lucasflms
special-eects stuoio.
At tlat time, oigital vioeo eoiting was tle oomain of ligl-eno worksta-
tions ano proprietary software from companies like Avio Teclnology. Te
fnisleo proouct was output to vioeotape. Te laroware ano software,
solo as a complete system, cost anywlere from $20,000 to as mucl as
$200,000, well beyono tle reacl of almost anyone but well-funoeo flm-
making stuoios.
In )une 1991 Apple unveileo its QuickTime teclnology, wlicl integrateo
multimeoia capabilities into tle operating system ano let customers
e day John Warnock
signed the agreement
for Premiere he said,
Im going to sign this,
but this business is
still some years away.
Fred Mitchell
>
>
130 1990- 1993

play vioeo on tleir Macs. In response, laroware ano software com-
panies oevelopeo companion prooucts for tle creation ano playback
of QuickTime movies. Eoiting clips ano playing movies leavily taxeo
computer performance, so personal computers neeoeo to gain speeo
ano power. Computer ano peripleral makers tackleo tle problem witl
faster processors, vioeo accelerator caros, ano speeoier storage oevices.
To brioge tle gap between analog vioeo sources ano oigital vioeo eoit-
ing, oevelopers createo vioeo-capture caros, wlicl alloweo customers to
import vioeo from a VCR or Higl-8 camera into a personal computer,
convert it to oigital oata, ano play it back at ligl speeo.
One of tlose companies oeveloping prooucts for tlis emerging market
was SuperMac Teclnology, wlicl solo several aoo-on processor boaros
tlat accelerateo functions critical to oigital vioeo ano tlat captureo vioeo
frames from external sources. SuperMac also maoe software prooucts
Plotoslop competitor PixelPaint Professional among tlemano lao in
oevelopment a nonlinear vioeo-eoiting application as an aojunct to its
flm-capture caros. Calleo ReelTime, tle software lao been oemonstrateo
publicly to great acclaim.
Like many otler companies stretcleo too tlin, SuperMac soon oecioeo
to oisbano its software oivision to focus on ligl-margin laroware sales.
For most of 1991 SuperMac lookeo for a prospective buyer for ReelTime,
talking to Aoobe, Alous, ano Microsoft. In late summer Aoobe not only
purclaseo tle software but also persuaoeo Ranoy Ubillos, its engineer ano
creator, to continue oeveloping tle software by coming to work at Aoobe.
Freo Mitclell negotiateo tle oeal. Te oay )oln [Warnock] signeo tle
agreement for Premiere le saio, Im going to sign tlis, but tlis business is
some years away. Ano le was riglt, Mitclell says now.
Desktop Video Revolution
Aoobe rusleo ReelTime, now calleo Aoobe Premiere, onto tle market. As
tle proouct lao been almost reaoy to slip unoer tle SuperMac label, few
substantive clanges were maoe to tle program prior to its release.
Like Alous PageMaker in tle print arena, Premiere was lauoeo for put-
ting an easy-to-use interface on wlat can be a complex process. Witl
PageMaker, publislers placeo text ano graplics into a spatially organizeo
page layout, in Premiere flmmakers combineo images ano souno into a
time-baseo movie. Tat Premiere ran on oesktop equipment available to
anyone lelpeo create a new generation of vioeo artists for wlom tle cost
of conventional systems was prolibitive. All tlat was neeoeo was a Mac,
Premiere, QuickTime, a vioeo camera, ano a vioeo-capture caro.
For users new to vioeo eoiting, Premiere maoe tle process accessible.
Using a timeline as a metaplor, tle eoitor assembleo vioeo clips in tle

1990- 1993
oesireo sequence, marking start ano eno points, attacling a sounotrack,
ano applying oissolves, wipes, ano otler transition eects. Films coulo
be previeweo instantly witl onscreen playback. Making a clange was as
simple as oragging it to a new location on tle timeline.
Wlat oistinguisleo Premiere from otler vioeo-eoiting applications com-
ing onto tle market, lowever, was its ability to use Plotoslop special-
eects plug-in flters, like tle ones )oln Knoll sneakeo into tle program
ouring its early oevelopment at ILM ano wlicl Mitclell saw ouring lis
visit tlere. Witl tle ability to aoo special eects to images, Premiere
became more tlan just a vioeo-eoiting program. Aooing a graplical com-
ponent maoe it as mucl a creative application as a proouction tool. Te
cross-fertilization between tle two prooucts also signaleo Aoobes com-
mitment to an extensible software arclitecture tlat inviteo plug-in oevel-
opment by tliro parties. Like Plotoslop before it, Premiere soon lao an
active community of plug-in oevelopers.
In marketing Premiere, Aoobe faceo a conunorum. Its previous work witl
Illustrator ano Plotoslop lao maoe Aoobe ano its prooucts acceptable in
graplic oesign circles. But its customer base was not composeo of vioeo
artists. Te company lopeo tlat its market of oesigners ano graplic art-
ists, alreaoy open to moving from typograply to plotograply prooucts,
woulo be aoventurous enougl to try oigital vioeoif it came from Aoobe.
Back in Sync
But if Premiere was a revelation to amateur eoitors, professionals lao
a oierent reaction. Te proouct impresseo tlem, but tle software lao
a few teclnical glitcles tlat betrayeo its origins in tle oesktop worlo.
Professional flmmakers may eoit on a computer, but tle fnal proouct
is still output to tape. Te proouct seemeo to lave been oesigneo more
for computer playback tlan tape output, tley believeo. Premiere always
oemoo really well, says Freo Mitclell, but it was years before it was
useo in proouction.
Premiere 1.0 was an engineers program more tlan a vioeo eoitors
program, says Davio Pratt. Te engineers tlouglt tle vioeo playback
rate was 30 fps [frames per secono]. Turns out it was 29.97 fps, so after
a few minutes tle souno ano vioeo got out of sync. We learneo a lot
about vioeo ooing Premiere. It took a few versions before tle auoio sync
problem was fnally resolveo, but eacl version of Premiere sloweo steaoy
improvement in performance ano capabilities. By version 4.2, Premiere
lao come into its own as a complete vioeo-eoiting tool.
Te traoitional vioeo-eoiting companies took notice. Avio, wlicl saw tlat
oesktop applications were making leaoway against its proprietary systems,
launcleo its own software to run on o-tle-slelf oesktop laroware. Many
Produced by DV artist Glen
Janssens, this promotional video
emphasized Premieres ability
to create special effects using
Photoshop filters.
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
In the brief history of digital design few people are already
legendsApril Greiman is one of them. She developed an
instant affinity with the Macintosh in 1984 and was one of
the first professional graphic designers to use PageMaker.
She has been using digital tools exclusively ever since. Her
early work exploited the chunky pixelated look of early
bitmap programs, but she quickly latched on to Photoshop
shortly after its release. Ever changing and evolving,
Greiman now uses Adobe After Effects in her multimedia
pieces such as light is always looking for a body, shown
at the 2001 Aspen Design Conference. She often uses
Photoshop and Illustrator to design environmental works
such as these murals for the Amgen Corporations caf in
Thousand Oaks, California. On a smaller scale, she recently
designed the book Something from Nothing (text by Aris
Janigian and published by Rotovision) with Photoshop,
Illustrator, and PageMaker.
Avvii Cvii
1990- 1993 1990- 1993
I like the unpredictable
factor of Photoshop:
the possibility of
just setting out on
a digital journey.
>
>
134 1990- 1993

professional vioeo eoitors wlo wanteo to use oesktop tools but wanteo a
familiar experience opteo for Avios software ratler tlan Premiere.
Otler competition came from Aoobes own backyaro: Premieres original
engineer, Ranoy Ubillos, left Aoobe for rival software maker Macromeoia,
wlere le was to oevelop a proouct to compete witl Premiere. Ultimately
Apple acquireo tle riglts to Ubilloss in-oevelopment vioeo proouct, ano
le went to Apple to fnisl wlat is now known as Final Cut Pro. On tle
Macintosl platform, Final Cut Pro currently outsells Premiere.
In 1993 Aoobe releaseo Premiere for tle Winoows operating system.
Premiere 6.0 for Winoows is now tle market leaoer on tlat platform.
Premiere las also been very successful in sclool settings wlere its price
point ano accessible interface make it an obvious cloice for stuoents.
Aoobe aooeo anotler tool to its oigital vioeo belt wlen it gaineo After
Eects tlrougl its acquisition of Alous in 1994. A postproouction vioeo
eects application oevelopeo by tle Company of Science ano Art (CoSA),
After Eects is like Plotoslop for tle vioeo worlo, ano like Plotoslop it
oemocratizeo an inoustry oominateo by ligl-eno equipment ano an elite
caore of practitioners.
Witl After Eects, vioeo artists can layer moving images to make vioeo
collages ano aoo special typograplic eects tlat make title sequences
come alive. As tle software grew in soplistication, it migrateo from aoo-
ing spice to oesktop projects to loloing its own in commercial flms. Many
of tle opening titles ano closing creoits useo in Hollywooo movies tooay
are createo in After Eects. Like Plotoslop, too, After Eects incluoes fl-
ters for applying aovanceo visual eects so tlat objects can slatter or melt
over time. After Eects las proven useful for meoia otler tlan flm. Its
also useo extensively in Web proouction as a means of animating graplics.
An immeoiate lit wlen it was releaseo, After Eects rules tle roost for
oesktop vioeo eects.
Warnocks insiglt wlen signing tle Premiere contract proveo to be riglt,
lowever. Desktop vioeo oio not replicate tle plenomenal growtl of
oesktop publisling. For all tle teclnical breaktlrougls ano eoucational
eorts, oigital vioeo seemeo too complicateo to most users. Te costs
associateo witl it were still ligl, too. It requireo costly specializeo laro-
ware, expensive vioeo cameras, aooitional software components, ano so
on. It wasnt convenient to slare or oistribute lomemaoe vioeos, eitler.
Te fles were too big to email, tle CD-ROM playback quality was appall-
ing, ano vioeotapes were cumbersome to mail. Many of tle companies
tlat lao stakeo tleir future on oigital vioeo were absorbeo into otler
companies or went out of business. Premiere preoateo tle Internet,
so tlere were a limiteo number of output options for it, says Mitclell.
But witl tle Internet, tlere are lot more options for low vioeo is useo
Acquisitions: OCR Systems, Nonlinear Technologies
Product releases:
Dimensions 1.0
Illustrator 4.0
Premiere 2.0 (Mac)
Streamline 3.0
Other:
Geschke held for five days by kidnappers >>

1990- 1993
ano oistributeo. Tooay, too, all personal computers are vioeo savvy, ano
many are equippeo witl orives to play ano recoro vioeo in tle DVD for-
mat. Vioeo playback can be onscreen, over tle Internet, or on television.
Digital vioeo cameras ano ligl-speeo connections sucl as FireWire make
it easy to bring lome movies into tle computer.
Tooay, our vioeo applications are our fastest-growing graplics proouct
line, says Bryan Lamkin, senior vice presioent of Aoobes graplics busi-
ness unit.
Premiere was an example of Aoobes being aleao of its time. It was not
tle last time Aoobe lao to wait for tle market to catcl up to its vision.
But notling trieo tle companys patience as mucl as a suite of tools ano
teclnologies it calleo Acrobat.
Lynda Weinmans career continues to evolve,
from learning the ropes in traditional
flm to establishing herself as pioneer in
Web graphics to creating a mini-empire
in educational materials and instructional
courses about Photoshop, After Effects,
and other creative tools. As the author of
the groundbreaking book Designing Web
Graphics, Weinman was an early advocate
of using Photoshop in conjunction with the
World Wide Web. These images from her
personal portfolio were created in After
Effects. (www.lynda.com)
Lvi Wii
136 1990- 1993

b. Caption/Black 20th has a
16 point baseline shift for con-
sistency in vertical placement.
Position textbox at the base of
the artwork/artbox.

1990- 1993
Acvov1: Tnv Eviv Dvs
In 1993 Aoobe releaseo a proouct tlat signaleo even more clanges aleao
for tle company. Aoobes early era revolveo arouno PostScript ano tle
systems oivision. Its current growtl stemmeo from applications sucl as
Plotoslop ano Premiere. But its future lay witl Acrobat ano PDF.
Acrobat is a suite of applications for creating ano viewing oocuments in
an Aoobe-oevelopeo fle format calleo PDF (Portable Document Format).
It woulo take fve years to gain momentum, but Acrobat, like PostScript ano
Plotoslop, became a signifcant proouct ano teclnology platform for Aoobe
ano for tle publisling inoustry. Civen its less-tlan-auspicious start, no one at
tle time coulo lave believeo tlat Acrobat woulo play sucl an important
role in Aoobes futureno one, tlat is, except )oln Warnock.
Imagining Camelot
In 1991, Warnock wrote a memo tlat outlineo a teclnology enabling
tle exclange ano oelivery of oocuments, anytime, anywlere, ano on any
oevice. Te project, tlen calleo Camelot, set out to eliminate tle oim culties
lampering our ability to communicate visual material between oierent com-
puter applications ano systems.
Unlike common text fles, wlicl can be passeo arouno via woro-process-
ing applications, tle oocuments Warnock envisioneo were visually ricl,
composeo pages. Like PostScript, Camelot alloweo complex layouts con-
taining botl text ano graplics to be presenteo in a oevice-inoepenoent
manner. But witl Camelot tle focus was not on printing to an output
oevice but on oisplaying pages on any screen ano on any platform. Te
similarity to PostScript was not accioental, of course. Tis new oocument
format was, in fact, oeriveo from tle way PostScript renoers text ano
graplics onscreen.
Warnock calleo tlis teclnology Interclange PostScript (IPS). IPS will
primarily contain tle graplics ano imaging operators of PostScript,
le wrote. Te language will be oefneo so tlat any IPS fle is a valio
PostScript fle. Te fle will lave tle appropriate baggage so tlat it is a
valio EPS fle. IPS fles will print on PostScript printers ano will be able to
be useo by applications tlat accept EPS fles. He went on to say tlat IPS
fles woulo not neeo a full PostScript interpreter, only pieces of it. Te
riglt way to tlink about IPS is as it relates to Englisl. No person in tle
worlo knows every Englisl woro, but a small subset of tle Englisl woros,
ano certain usage patterns enable people to consistently communicate.
Todays paper-based
information is hampered
by the physical media.
Acrobat technology
liberates information
and the fow of ideas.
John Warnock
>
>
138 1990- 1993


1990- 1993
Calling tle new teclnology a variation on PostScript was teclnically
truetley slareo tle same imaging mooelbut it was also misleaoing.
PostScript is a programming language tlat oescribes tle attributes of a
page ano relies on an interpreter to place page elements in tle proper
position wlen tle page is printeo. PDF is not a language but a fle format
tlat contains a stylizeo PostScript font ano graplics oescriptions tlat can
be referenceo from any part of tle fle. Te programming elements are
eliminateo, but tle graplical elements remain, so tlat an original oocu-
ment can be perfectly replicateo. A PDF fle can be sent across networks
ano platforms witl its visual integrity intact, regaroless of tle recipients
operating system or even wletler tle riglt fonts are installeo on tle
viewing macline.
Anotler key teclnical oistinction is tlat PostScript is oesigneo for tle
linear process of printing. Even if you only want to print page 79 out of
80, tle PostScript interpreter las to walk tlrougl tle fle page by page
in sequence until it reacles tle page in question. Acrobat, on tle otler
lano, proouces PDF fles optimizeo for ranoom access. If you want to
reao or print page 79, Acrobat takes you riglt to it. Compareo witl
PostScript fles, wlicl can be large ano unwieloy, PDF fles are compact
ano reaoily available. Sucl a fle structure lenos itself to storage in oata-
bases ano to em cient transmission via telecommunications.
My frame of mino was tlat we lao tons of PostScript fles out tlere, but
tley requireo too big of a macline for wioespreao oistribution, Warnock
says. I tlouglt it woulo be great if we coulo print tlese fles reliably
anywlere even witlout tle fonts. Witl PostScript if you oiont lave tle
fonts, youo lave to slip tlem witl tle fle, making it even bigger. We
oevelopeo automatic font substitution ano tlat workeo like a clamp.
Te Camelot-IPS concept lao its public oebut unoer tle cooe name
Carousel in tle fall of 1991 at Seybolo Seminars in San )ose. Less tlan a
year later, Aoobe unveileo PDF. In 1993, tle tools for creating ano view-
ing PDF fles were releaseo, now bearing tle name Acrobat.
The Paperless Office
For a company tlat up until tlen lao stakeo its fortune on printing marks
on paper, Aoobes positioning of PDF as a means to tle paperless om ce
seemeo ooo to some followers. Te book-loving Warnock knew tlat
Acrobat coulo never entirely replace paper in peoples lives, but for oocu-
ment-centric organizations sucl as large corporations, accounting frms,
ano government agencies, Acrobat was an em cient ano cost-eective
means of communicating information.
One comparison Aoobe maoe to tout tle merits of tle Acrobat solution
was to faxeo oocuments. Fax maclines were oeoicateo oevices tlat useo
Adobe published the PDF refer-
ence manual in 1993, as part of
its campaign to encourage devel-
opers to adopt the technology. A
companion book spelled out the
virtues of electronic paper for
laypeople.
140 1990- 1993

a slow communications protocol in tle plone line. Te form of a faxeo
oocument remaineo true to tle original, but tle quality was poor ano tle
appearance oegraoeo over time. By contrast, electronic Acrobat fles were
ligl-quality, visually ricl oocuments transportable via email or otler
network options. As Warnock saio in a 1993 press release for Acrobats
formal unveiling, Tooays paper-baseo information is lampereo by tle
plysical meoia. Acrobat teclnology liberates information ano tle ow of
ioeas ano allows it to enter tle electronic age.
By laving an electronic fle tlat coulo be passeo from user to user, from
platform to platform, ano across mixeo networks, corporations coulo
eliminate tle paper memos pileo in in-boxes ano on oesks. Of course,
many Winoows users believeo tley lao sucl a solution in Microsoft
Woro, wlose sleer ubiquity in tle om ce environment ensureo tlat any-
one witl a PC coulo open a .ooc fle. But using woro processors as a fle-
exclange meclanism was like operating witlin a proprietary system: tle
recipient lao to lave tle entire application installeo, lope tlat it was tle
riglt version, ano lave tle correct fonts available or else resort to stano-
bys like Times or Arial.
Like PostScript, wlicl liberateo publications from tle closeo printing
ano typesetting inoustries, Acrobat freeo oocuments from tle constraints
of venoor-specifc applications ano fle formats. We oesigneo Acrobat
These examples show the
breadth of the market
Adobe was trying to reach
with Acrobat, and the versa-
tility of the PDF format.
Acvov1ic PDF Fiivs

1990- 1993
so tlat it grabbeo tle PostScript print stream, wlicl meant tlat any
application tlat coulo write PostScriptPageMaker, Microsoft Woro,
PowerPointcoulo be captureo as PDF, explains Warnock. Witl
Acrobat, anyone coulo seno banowiotl-em cient fles via email to anyone
else. For a printeo copy, all tle viewer lao to oo was press tle Print key
in tle PDF reaoer application. Tis way, you transfer tle cost of paper
printing to you ano me, says Cluck Cesclke. Te fnancial upsioe for
companies coulo be luge. By using PDF fles for external communica-
tion, tle senoer communicateo a visually ricl message wlile cutting out
tle costs associateo witl printing ano mailing. Using Acrobat for internal
communications lao an even greater upsioe. Aoobe manoateo early on
tlat its own internal oocuments be proouceo as PDF fles. After its frst
year of using Acrobat exclusively, Aoobe saio it lao saveo more tlan
$1 million in printing costs.
PDF fles lao anotler compelling aovantage: because PDFs are essentially
images of tle original oocument, PDFs were uneoitable. Tey coulo be
annotateo but not materially clangeo, making tlem suitable for security-
conscious institutions. A prime canoioate for PDF woulo be sometling
like a tax form. In fact, Warnock las saio tlat le got tle ioea for PDF
wlen lano-programming a feoeral tax-return form in PostScript back in
1984. By using a PostScript teclnique calleo grapl bino Warnock was
142 1990- 1993

able to reouce tle print time of tle fle from more tlan two minutes to
just 22 seconos. Many years later, tle IRS woulo become Aoobes biggest
client by converting its paper forms into PDF fles.
Market Contortions
Insioe Aoobe, Acrobat was a great ioea ano an exciting new oirection for
tle company. Outsioe Aoobe, it was anotler story. Aoobes freewleeling
graplic arts customers were somewlat bam eo by tle companys embrace
of corporate oocument management. Tere was notling creative or sexy
or imaginative about making an accounting form, no matter low gooo
tle graplics or font foelity. Acrobat just oiont ft tle graplics mooe,
says Freo Mitclell.
Aoobe lopeo tlat aooption by corporate customers woulo leao to accep-
tance by its traoitional customer base, but Aoobes proouct line ano pric-
ing structure initially oeterreo inoiviouals from purclasing Acrobat. Te
suite of applications compriseo tlree components, eacl priceo separately:
Acrobat Exclange, useo for creating ano viewing PDF fles, cost $195 for
a single-user license, Acrobat Reaoer, for viewing PDF fles, cost $50 for
a single-user license, ano Acrobat Distiller, for converting PostScript fles
to PDF, cost $695 for a single-user license. Volume licenses were more
cost-eective, of course. But even tlose inoivioual users wlo coulo aoro
Acrobat wonoereo wly tley sloulo botler. As tlere was negligible con-
tent available in PDF format, tlere was little neeo to purclase an applica-
tion to reao it.
But if Acrobat oiont ft tle graplics mooe, Aoobe oiont ft tle business
molo. Aoobe oiont lave an organization tlat calleo on tle business
market, says Steve MacDonalo. Up until tlen, tle Aoobe sales force
eitler solo PostScript licenses to OEMs or plieo tle retail ano mail-oroer
sales clannel witl graplics arts software. Aoobe oio make some sales
to large corporations, but tley were to tle information teclnology (IT)
oepartment in clarge of buying printers. Enterprise publisling sales were
anotler matter entirely.
Te people we were useo to calling on werent tle people we neeoeo to
be calling on, says Clinton Nagy, wlo left tle PostScript sales oivision to
leao up Acrobat sales to tle enterprise market. It wasnt tle IT oepart-
ment we sloulo lave been talking to but tle publisling oepartment. But
wlen Aoobe founo its way to tle riglt people, it often lit anotler wall.
Te enterprise tlouglt we were a graplic applications company. We
spent a lot of time eoucating tlem, Nagy aoos.
To say it was slow going woulo be an unoerstatement. We faileo to meet
revenue expectations every quarter, Nagy says of Acrobats frst tlree
years. Internal oebate rageo about wletler tle proouct sloulo be killeo,
I thought everybody
would get Acrobat
immediately. I didnt think
it would take 10 years.
John Warnock
>
>

1990- 1993
yet tle sales team ooggeoly pursueo customers. No one ever saio, You
guys arent ooing your job. We lao tle funoing ano tle internal support,
so we lao tle confoence to go forwaro.
Acrobats biggest supporter, of course, was Warnock limself. I tlouglt
everybooy woulo get Acrobat immeoiately, le says. I oiont tlink it
woulo take 10 years. His insistence tlat Acrobat continue was tle main
reason tle proouct surviveo.
Equal Citizens
However slowly, progress was being maoe. Aoobes mooel for Acrobat
witlin tle corporation revolveo arouno in-louse communicationstle
central storage ano wioespreao oistribution of critical fles via Acrobat.
Many companies saw tle beneft of sucl a strategy but oiont yet see tle
oemano for it. Ten witl Acrobat Capture, wlicl enables paper oocu-
ments to be scanneo ano converteo into PDFs, Aoobe lit on anotler
approacl. Weo tell tlem we coulo preserve tle claracter of tleir oocu-
mentsnot only tlose createo tooay but tle ones createo yesteroay. Weo
tell tlem to scan tleir olo fles: Co back to tle paper fles stasleo away in
caroboaro boxes. Make your legacy paper oocs equal citizens of your elec-
tronic fles, says Nagy. Tat concept struck a cloro.
As customers graoually signeo on, tle Aoobe team trieo to use tlose early
aoopters to leverage new prospects. But some customers balkeo, refus-
ing to aovertise tleir use of Acrobat ano PDF because tley consioereo it
proprietary information or a secret weapon in corporate one-upmanslip.
Eventually woro got out.
To tlose insioe Aoobe, Acrobats slow aooption was perplexing. New
prooucts were rarely overniglt litsbut to a company tlat lao lao a
string of successes, Acrobat lao tle wli of failure. Warnock persevereo,
insisting tlat Acrobat was a souno ioea. Te company continueo to pour
more money into its oevelopment, raising more tlan one eyebrow. All
tlese antibooies wanteo to kill it internally, says Cesclke.
Warnock ano Cesclke presenteo a uniteo front to protect Acrobat. By
now we lao an listorical preceoent, says Warnock. Applications oiont
pay for tlemselves, tley lao to be supporteo by systems. Now we wanteo
applications to support Acrobat. We were making an obscene amount
of money on Plotoslop, so wly were we spenoing 200 man-lours on
Acrobat: Because its like tle applications business. Itll take longer tlan
we tlouglt.
In 1994 Aoobe releaseo Acrobat 2.0, wlicl incluoeo interactive features
like tle ability to embeo multimeoia elements ano to link to external
fles. Aoobe also maoe clanges to tle proouct lineup, ano confusingly
aooeo two more packages: Acrobat Pro, wlicl containeo Exclange 2.0
Acquisitions: After Hours Software, CoSA
(Company of Science & Art)
Product releases:
Acrobat 1.0
Illustrator 5.0 (Mac)
Photoshop 2.5
Premiere 3.0 (Mac) and 1.0 (Windows)
Other:
Adobe licenses PostScript software to printer
manufacturers
2-for-1 stock split on August 11, 1993
>>
144 1990- 1993

ano Distiller, ano Acrobat for Workgroups, wlicl containeo Exclange,
Distiller, ano a new Catalog proouct for network environments.
Most important, Aoobe oecioeo to oistribute tle Acrobat Reaoer free
of clarge. Tis was a signifcant policy slift. Our attituoe was tlat we
oont give away elegant teclnology, says Nagy. But tle impetus insioe
tle company ano witl fnancial analysts was tlat we neeoeo to oo tlat.
External pressure was strong. Competitive prooucts oio not clarge for
reaoing meclanisms, tlus putting Acrobat at a oisaovantage because
Aoobe clargeo a fee to botl create ano reao PDF fles.
Aoobe realizeo it was necessary to sacrifce revenue in oroer to establisl
Acrobat as a stanoaro. It was a clicken-ano-egg situation. We neeoeo
to get tle reaoer out tlere, but we neeoeo to lave great content to reao.
Clarging for tle reaoer only maoe it worse, Mitclell says. Making tle
reaoer free meant it was oownloaoeo in ligler volumes but still tlere was
limiteo content. We lao to lave a ubiquitous reaoer ano valuable content.
Witl tle free reaoer available in several ways, sucl as bunoleo witl otler
Aoobe prooucts or oownloaoeo from online services, tle impeoiment to
content creation was removeo, ano Acrobat starteo to gain traction.
But tlere was still tle issue of PDF oistribution. Te concept of Acrobat
was to transfer a oocument all over tle place wlile retaining its format-
ting, says Steve MacDonalo, but low oio you get it to anyone:
Te answer came in 1993. At tle University of Illinois a college kio by tle
name of Marc Anoreessen lao tle ioea to create a graplical user inter-
face for tle Internet, tle global information network useo primarily by
eoucators ano tle military. As tle frst browser for tle Worlo Wioe Web,
Mosaic gave form to tle vast amounts of oata. In mio-1994 Anoreessen
joineo witl Silicon Valley veteran )im Clark to start Netscape, a com-
pany baseo on tle Netscape Navigator Web browser, formerly known as
Mosaic. Back at Aoobe, Warnock began talking about tle Internet, pon-
oering its applicability to Aoobe ano specifcally to Acrobat.
Nagy recalls sitting witl Warnock at Seybolo Seminars in 1994 as Sun
Microsystems teclnologist )oln Cage talkeo about Mosaic ano its impact
on tle way information was publisleo. Cage fnisleo ano Warnock saio,
Its tle Internet ano tlats tle future. Te ligltbulb went o. Te Net
became tle transportation meclanism for Acrobat.
Acrobat still neeoeo a few more years to reacl its potential, but Aoobe
lao more immeoiate concerns. At tlat same Seybolo Seminars in
September 1994, Warnock ano Cesclke lao just announceo tle biggest
oeal of tle companys existence: Aoobe agreeo to merge witl olo frieno ano
occasional foe Alous Corporation.
Our attitude was that
we dont give away
elegant technology
Clinton Nagy
>
>

1990- 1993
Aicvi Hciis I1s Bvi1n
dobes period of prosperity and calm was
horribly interrupted on May 26,1992,
when cofounder Chuck Geschke was
kidnapped from the parking lot of the Charleston
Road offices. Spurred by media reports of Adobes
corporate and Geschkes personal financial success,
two men who claimed to have ties to terrorist
organizations held Geschke bound and blindfolded
for five days in exchange for $650,000.
During his incarceration, few people outside
Geschkes family and local and federal authorities
knew what had happened. John Warnock was
the first person Geschkes wife Nan informed. She
feared that Warnock would suffer a similar fate,
but it was more than that: The two men and their
families are extremely close, and the Warnocks
formed a tight circle around the Geschkes for the
duration of the ordeal.
After the FBI eliminated the possibility that the
kidnappers had come from within Adobe, Warnock
informed six members of the executive team,
who were sworn to secrecy lest any leaks jeopar-
dize the negotiations with the kidnappers. The
company had to appear as if it were business as
usual. Adobe general counsel Colleen Pouliot had
to remind anyone who knew about the kidnap-
ping that they could not trade stock in case it was
perceived as insider information. That part was
very surreal, recalls Pouliot. It was just a horrible
time. You had to act as if everything was fine, but
all the time worrying if he was OK.
John was worried and preoccupied but he knew
he couldnt show it, so he kept his calendar but
stayed close to the phone, remembers Janice
Coley, Geschkes assistant and one of the first to
know that something was wrong when Geschke
didnt appear at the office.
The FBI rescued Geschke and arrested his kidnap-
pers on Saturday, May 30, but the operation didnt
go exactly as planned. I thought wed lost him,
says Warnock, still critical of the FBIs handling
of the recovery. Geschke returned home to find
a welcoming committee composed of family,
friends, and colleagues. The first thing he did
when he saw me was to apologize, says Coley.
It was typical Chuck. He was apologizing that Id
been inconvenienced by his kidnapping.
Taking care of his immediate family came first, but
then only two days after his safe return Geschke
appeared before the entire company. He wanted
to tell us what had happened so we wouldnt just
read about it in the newspapers, says Dick Sweet,
who has worked with Geschke at Xerox PARC
and Adobe. As far as he was concerned, Adobe
employees were his family, too. Adds Coley: He
knew that people needed to see him. It was an
emotional gathering. It was fabulous seeing
him, says Pouliot. We were bawling with a mix-
ture of relief and concern and shock.
I had to tell people. Its part of the companys
history, Geschke says now. After his appearance
at Adobes offices, Geschke retreated to his vaca-
tion home for a month to recuperate, although he
participated in board meetings by phone. He soon
resumed his normal schedule.
While still deeply affected by the events of 1992,
Geschke has willed his life to return to normal. He
characteristically downplays the events of a decade
ago. Friends say he is quieter and more aware of
his surroundings than before the kidnapping, but
Geschke has vowed to live his life on his terms.
You cant let people take your life away, he says.
A
You cant let people
take your life away.
Chuck Geschke
Nan and Chuck Geschke
Expanoing
tle Empire
e Aldus acquisition was
a huge turning point for
the company. It changed
the nature of Adobe.
Linda Clarke
>
>
1
9
9
4
1
9
9
8
Tle mio-1990s was a perioo of growtl ano clange
for botl Aoobe ano tle publisling inoustry. Aoobe actively
souglt out ano successfully completeo acquisitions of several
key companies, foremost among tlem its 1994 merger witl
Alous Corporation, creator of tle revolutionary page-layout
program PageMaker. Tlat oeal alone catapulteo Aoobe into tle
upper tiers of personal software companies in terms of revenue.
But increaseo revenue wasnt Aoobes only means of expansion.
Publisling itself was unoergoing a sea clange, from paper-baseo
proouction to online content oistribution. Aoobe testeo new
markets for its software, oipping a toe into tle consumer arena
ano tlen waoing into tle tsunami tlat was tle Worlo Wioe
Web. As tle company grew in botl market slare ano influence,
lowever, a raft of new clallenges appeareo.
1994 1995
Adobe acquires Aldus
Industry consolidation: Fractal
Design buys Ray Dream;
Macromedia buys Altsys and Fauve
Aldus After Effects 1.0 released
Adobe employees: 2,222
Steve Jobs returns
to Apple, which
then acquires NeXT
Apple ships
PowerPC Mac
$
Adobe
acquires Frame
Technology
1996
The Internet has
25 million users;
Netscape, Yahoo,
launched
Adobe releases
Acrobat 3.0,
PhotoDeluxe 1.0
WWW has 18 million pages
Sun develops Java Adobe releases
PageMaker 6.0,
Photoshop 3.0,
PageMill 1.0
Adobe moves into
San Jose world
headquarters
Microsoft releases Windows 95,
NT 4.0, and Internet Explorer
Acrobat integrated
into Netscape browser
1998
1997
1994 1995
$
1996 1998
Adobes Windows application
revenue overtakes Mac
application revenue
Adobe releases Illustrator 7.0,
with Photoshop-like interface
G3 Mac debuts
1997
Macromedia releases Flash
Adobe releases
ImageReady 1.0,
PostScript 3
WWW has
351 million pages
Agfa Apogee, first
PDF-based prepress
system, debuts
Adobe expands
into East Tower
Adobe reorganization;
Quark attempts
takeover
DVD technology introduced
XML standard proposed
Apple unveils
the iMac
Tnv Ev or AcQuisi1ios
Te September 1994 Seybolo Seminars in San Francisco was a celebra-
tion for Aoobe. A few weeks before, tle company lao successfully com-
pleteo its merger witl Alous Corporation, tle creator of PageMaker ano
one-tliro of tle alliance tlat lao revolutionizeo publisling in 1985. Te
combineo companyjoineo unoer tle Aoobe Systems namewas tle
fftl-largest personal software company in tle worlo, occupying turf lelo
by om ce applications companies like Microsoft ano Novell.
Te Alous merger was a turning point for Aoobe, but it was just one of
several mergers ano acquisitions Aoobe unoertook in tle mio-1990s. As it
gatlereo companies ano expanoeo its prooucts ano services, Aoobe grew
in inuence, stature, ano revenue. At tle close of tle 20tl century, Aoobe
Systems was one of tle worlos largest personal software companies,
secono only to Microsoft.
Te Alous merger, ano tle Frame Teclnology acquisition tlat followeo,
lao a oeeper signifcance for Aoobe. Te companyonce an intimate
family of a oozen people wlose numbers Warnock swore woulo never
exceeo 50nearly ooubleo in size from 1,000 to 2,000 people, altering
Aoobes culture ano forcing tle secono layo in tle companys listory.
As it acquireo software, Aoobe also wrestleo witl proouct integration ano
market oevelopment. Nowlere were tlose issues more pronounceo tlan
in Aoobes union witl its former co-revolutionary, Alous.
It was a merger of
equals. Aldus had as
much to give in this
deal as Adobe did.
We had products
that flled in gaps.
Paul Brainerd
>
>
ALDUS
150 1994- 1998

Expanding the Empire 1994- 1998
Collision Course
Since 1985, tle alliance tlat lao createo oesktop publisling pulleo apart,
as Aoobe, Alous, ano Apple eacl pursueo inoivioual agenoas. Proving it
coulo not be narrowly oefneo as a systems company, Aoobe acquireo ano
oevelopeo software in emerging markets. Alous, similarly oetermineo not
to be a one-trick company, expanoeo its proouct line beyono PageMaker
to otler graplic arts software applications. Apple continueo to reel from
management clangesparticularly tle ouster of )obss replacement, )oln
Sculley, ano tle uncertain leaoerslip of Miclael Spinolerano confusing
proouct plans. Te Aoobe-Apple relationslip, alreaoy frayeo by tle events
of 1989, lao been patcleo up unoer a new font-teclnology cross-licens-
ing agreement, but tle two former partners were no longer oepenoent on
eacl otler for tleir livelilooo.
Aoobe ano Alous, on tle otler lano, lao been on a collision course
for several years. Botl companies lao prooucts tlat oirectly competeo
witl tle otlers. In 1988 Alous licenseo a PostScript orawing program
from Texas-baseo Altsys Corporation. Calleo FreeHano, tle program
was lockeo in a ferce battle for market slare witl Aoobes favorite son,
Illustrator. Wlile Aoobe oevelopeo Plotoslop for tle Mac, in 1991 Alous
acquireo PlotoStyler, a pixel-baseo image-eoiting program for Winoows,
ano Aoobe responoeo by releasing Plotoslop for Winoows in 1993.
Also in 1993, Alous acquireo After Eects along witl its oeveloper CoSA
(Company of Science ano Art). After Eects, a postproouction special-
eects package for moving images, was positioneo as Alouss entry into
tle vioeo marketassuming a role similar to tlat playeo by Premiere for
Aoobe. Alous lao prooucts tlat oiont compete witl Aoobe, too, sucl
as tle om ce presentation program Persuasion, a lanoful of consumer-
orienteo packages, ano of course tle granooaooy, PageMaker.
But wlereas Aoobe was prospering, Alous was struggling. Its top two
moneymakersPageMaker ano FreeHanowere secono in tleir respec-
tive categories. QuarkXPress, oevelopeo by Denver-baseo Quark Inc., lao
overtaken PageMaker in tle professional oesign market, ano Illustrator
was well aleao of FreeHano. Recent proouct ano teclnology acquisitions
like tle purclase of After Hours Software, tle oeveloper of aooress book
ano calenoar software, straineo Alouss resources. Te companys proft
margins were wafer-tlin. For tle 1992 fscal year, Alous reporteo rev-
enues of $174 million but profts of just $6.8 million.
Paul Brainero, wlo founoeo Alous in 1984 witl $100,000 of lis own
money, was tiring of tle constant pressure. I lao been ooing tle annual
upoate to our strategic plan as well as tle tlree-year projections, ano
I coulo see tlat tle inoustry was clanging, says Alouss former presi-
oent ano CEO. Te smaller nicle players were struggling, tle margins
slrinking, tle oistribution clannels consolioating. Plus, I was ooing less
Aldus had recently acquired
After Effects from CoSA, which
bolstered Adobes desktop video
efforts.
Alduss culture was
more like Apples
freewheeling and loose.
Adobe was much
more conservative.
Linda Clarke
>
>
1994- 1998 151 Expanding the Empire

1994- 1998
dobes vice president of venture develop-
ment, Fred Mitchell, reckons hes seen
thousands of companies since 1987,
when he was frst given the assignment of scout-
ing new products and technologies. Some compa-
nies came to Adobe seeking an investment; others
were ripe for acquisition. Mitchell decided which
candidates made the cut to show John Warnock.
Wed been doing this a long time, John and I. He
relied on my ability to do the early evaluation on
these ideas, and he trusted me to not miss too
many things, Mitchell says. Ive followed up on
hundreds of opportunities and would show John
two to fve a month.
Warnock was a quick study. He was adept at syn-
thesizing the ideas and reducing the technology to
its simplest terms, Mitchell says. In each meeting
he challenged himself to understand the product
at a conceptual level. For entrepreneurs, making
the pilgrimage to Adobe was akin to journeying to
the gleaming city for an audience with the great
and powerful Warnock. It was hard to show him
something really new, Mitchell says. Chances
were, Warnock had already thought of it.
Heres a list of companies that Adobe acquired.
Aicii i 1ni Av1 ci AcQLisi1ic
A
1991 Emerald City Software (TypeAlign font-
manipulation software)
1992 OCR Systems (technology for Acrobat
Capture)
1992 Nonlinear Technologies (handwriting-
recognition software)
1993 After Hours Software (TouchBase and
DateBook personal-information managers,
acquired by Aldus)
1993 The Company of Science and Art
(After Effects postproduction video software,
acquired by Aldus)
1994 Aldus (PageMaker, Persuasion,
FreeHand, PhotoStyler, TrapWise, PressWise,
and more)
1994 LaserTools (font-scaling technology for
non-PostScript printers; became PrintGear)
1994 Compumation (Color Central prepress
software, acquired by Aldus)
1995 Frame Technology (FrameMaker)
1995 Ceneca Communications (PageMill
and SiteMill Web sitecreation software)
1995 Visualware
1995 Hyphen (printer software)
1996 Ares Software (font-scaling software)
1996 Swell Software (Web server software)
1997 DigiDox (personalized PDF-creation
software )
1997 Sandcastle (two-way Internet
communication technology)
1997 FinePoint (Web graphics software
for ImageReady)
1999 GoLive (Web design software)
1999 Attitude Software (3D technologies)
1999 Photomerge (photostitching software
for panoramic images)
2000 Glassbook (software for creating,
reading, and deploying e-books)
2001 Fotiva (image-management and
image-sharing software)
2002 Accelio (electronic forms solutions)
Just as we were
starting to catch
our breath, Frame
happened.
Linda Clarke
I followed up
on hundreds
of opportunities.
Fred Mitchell
152 1994- 1998

of tle tlings I like to oocustomer relations ano proouct oevelopment
because I was spenoing too mucl time witl stock analysts ano attorneys.
As early as 1991, Brainero tolo lis boaro of oirectors tlat le wanteo to
relinquisl tle reins of tle company wlen it reacleo its 10-year anni-
versary. Alous retaineo an executive recruiter to fno a successor for
Brainero, but replacing tle founoer of a company is always oim cult ano
no viable canoioate lao appeareo by 1993. Te companys oeclining
profts oiont lelp tle searcl, ano by tle fall of 1993 Brainero oecioeo to
look at selling or merging tle company. I went back to tle boaro witl a
list of potentials. One of tlem was Aoobe, Brainero says. I arrangeo to
lave breakfast witl )oln Warnock.
Merging Traffic
On tle surface tle merger was a gooo ft. Alouss prooucts aimeo at
print publisling, interactive publisling, graplics, ano proouction-service
provioers oovetaileo witl Aoobes. Alouss prepress software mesleo
nicely witl Aoobes PostScript systems oivision. Aoobe wasnt terribly
interesteo in Alouss consumer prooucts, but tle low-eno page-layout
ano graplics applications, sucl as Home Publisler, SuperPaint, ano
IntelliDraw, provioeo steaoy if unspectacular income.
Tere was signifcant overlap in tle companies graplics ano interactive
lineups, but tle oeal oio secure for Aoobe a footlolo in tle page-layout
market. Aoobe neeoeo a page-layout program to sell its message of
integrateo communication prooucts, ano oespite PageMakers waning
professional inuence, it still lao many loyal customers. Above all, a
small group witlin Alous was working on a next-generation page-layout
program tlat Warnock ano Cesclke tlouglt sloweo promise. Acquiring
Alous woulo be an investment in tle future of page layout.
Warnock, Cesclke, ano Brainero announceo tle merger at a press
conference in Marcl 1994. Te oeal was presenteo as a merger of equals
but in reality was an acquisition. Alouss revenues were approximately
two-tliros tlat of Aoobes, but its profts were one-tentl. For tle nine
montls prior to tle merger, Alous reporteo a net income of $5.1 million
on revenues of $172.2 million wlile Aoobe reporteo a net income of $49.3
million on revenues of $260.1 million. Alous was a prouo company, low-
ever. Altlougl tle basic terms of tle oeal were lammereo out over tle
next four montls, former CFO Bruce Nakao says tle agreement unoer-
went constant revisions. An analyst oescribeo it to me as two fat pigs
eating eacl otler, says Nakao of tle negotiations.
Regaroless of wlat lappeneo in tle boaroroom, eacl company was com-
mitteo to making tle transition as easy as possible for its employees. A
team of representatives from Alous ano Aoobe met regularly to work

1994- 1998
tlrougl tle oetails of tle merger. It was a textbook example of low to
oo it, markeo by planning ano communication ano clarity, Brainero says.
We were very focuseo. As we were two equal-size companies, we paio a
lot of attention to tle employees. Warnock, Cesclke, ano Brainero lelo
company meetings to answer questions ano maoe vioeos to explain tle
merger to employees.
Craoually a picture of tle new company emergeo. Te combineo
company, calleo Aoobe Systems, woulo operate out of botl Mountain
View ano Seattle. Eacl slare of Alous stock woulo be converteo to a
slare of Aoobe stock, for a fnal value of $440 million. Brainero was given
a seat on Aoobes boaro of oirectors, but le resigneo from any oay-to-oay
involvement in tle company. As Brainero owneo 23 percent of Alous, le
stooo to make a nice return on lis $100,000 investment. (Brainero useo
mucl of tle proceeos to launcl a number of nonproft organizations,
incluoing tle Brainero Founoation, for funoing environmental groups,
ano Social Venture Partners, for funoing community activism.)
Otler oetails of tle merger evolveo over time. For example, not all of
Alouss 13 prooucts were carrieo forwaro unoer tle Aoobe label. Except
for PageMaker, wlicl Aoobe believeo its branoing woulo lelp revive,
ano After Eects, for wlicl Aoobe lao no comparable proouct, Alouss
proouct lineup overlappeo Aoobes. PlotoStyler was reounoant witl
Plotoslop. Hitclcock, freslly acquireo from tle oefunct Digital FiX,
competeo witl Premiere. Aoobe trieo to keep Persuasion aoat, but
Microsofts aggressive sales strategy for its PowerPoint burieo it. Te pre-
press prooucts stayeo until 1996, wlen Aoobe spun o its prepress oivi-
sion as Luminous.
To explain the logic of the
Adobe-Aldus merger, Geschke,
Warnock, and Brainerd (pictured
individually from left) made a
videotape for employees, scenes
of which are shown above.
Aldus PageMaker helped start
the desktop publishing revolu-
tion, but its market dominance
had slipped prior to Adobes
acquisition of it.
154 1994- 1998

Alouss secono-liglest revenue-prooucing proouct was anotler matter.
FreeHano competeo oirectly witl Illustrator, ano it also lao a large ano
vocal customer base of users wlo lao oeliberately closen FreeHano over
Illustrator. Alienating tlose prospective Aoobe customers woulo not lelp
tle mergeo companies future. Aoobe was noncommittal wlen askeo
about FreeHanos fate, vaguely promising tlat botl woulo continue for
tle time being. But tlen FreeHano oeveloper Altsys forceo Alous ano
Aoobes lano ano nearly scuttleo tle merger.
Altsyss contract stipulateo tlat Alous coulo not market a program tlat
oirectly competeo witl FreeHano, wlicl Illustrator most certainly oio.
Fearing tlat Aoobe woulo tlrow all its resources belino its own package
ano oiscontinue FreeHano, Altsys sueo Alous in May 1994. Te Feoeral
Traoe Commission steppeo in to investigate wletler tle merger violateo
antitrust laws by tlwarting competition. Te FTC review got very messy
ano oim cult, Brainero says. I tlink tlat )oln ano Cluck lao given
up ano tlouglt tlat tley coulont pull it o. I workeo niglt ano oay to
resolve tle issue in Texas.
In August, Aoobe ano Alous came to terms witl tle FTC, tley argueo
tlat tle market for illustration software was large ano oiverse, as evi-
oenceo by tle PC-only oerings from Corel ano Micrografx as well as by
otler Mac applications. Alous settleo tle lawsuit by agreeing to return
Adobes acquisition of Aldus
prompted the construction of
a new office complex in Seattle.

1994- 1998
FreeHano to Altsys in )anuary 1995. Aoobe rival Macromeoia purclaseo
Altsys ano FreeHano slortly tlereafter.
Changing Lanes
Wlen tle merger was completeo on August 31, 1994, tle real work began
of integrating not only tle prooucts ano personnel of tle two companies
but also tleir cultures. Aooing to tle strain was Aoobes oecision to
lay o 500 people. Altlougl tle cuts aecteo botl companiesAoobe
employeo about 1,000 people at tle time ano Alous about 1,100former
Alous employees felt singleo out because many Alous prooucts lao been
cut as well. Remembers Linoa Clarke, tle former vice presioent of mar-
keting for tle applications oivision: Aoobe is sucl a nice company, but it
lao to slow some teetl.
Te split between two locations unoerscoreo tle cultural oivision. A team
of Aoobe management embarkeo on a mission of sluttle oiplomacy, y-
ing to Seattle every week to meet witl Alous management. Several of us
woulo meet at tle airport for tle 6 a.m. iglt, Clarke remembers. We
trieo to be ambassaoors of Aoobe culture, but tle oistinctions remaineo.
Alouss culture was more like Applesfreewleeling ano loose. Aoobe
was mucl more conservative. A number of key Seattle employees were
askeo to relocate to tle Bay Area. As tle company grew to more tlan
2,000 people, Aoobe initiateo several construction projectsa larger facil-
ity in Seattle ano a ligl-rise leaoquarters in San )ose, California. Still it
woulo take years for tle tension to oissipate between Aoobe leaoquarters
in San )ose ano its Seattle outpost.
But oespite tle aojustments of personality ano culture, strong positives
emergeo. Alous gave Aoobe several key proouctsPageMaker, After
Eects, ano tle as yet unnameo next-generation page-layout program
to wlicl Aoobe applieo engineering em ciencies ano streamlineo oevelop-
ment processes. Alous lao lao oiscrete teams (Warnock oescribes tlem
as silos operating like separate companies) oeoicateo to eacl proouct.
Aoobe, on tle otler lano, slareo critical components across proouct
lines. It was clear to Aoobe tlat a major restructuring of tle Alous busi-
ness was in oroer. Warnock ano Cesclke agree tlat tle proouct integra-
tion tley envisioneo wlen tley bouglt Alous was mucl laroer to aclieve
tlan tley lao imagineo.
On tle otler lano, Alous lao more robust marketing ano oistribution
clannels tlan relative applications newcomer Aoobe. It was a merger
of equals, says Brainero. We lao as mucl to give in tlis oeal as tley
oio. We lao prooucts tlat flleo in gaps. Our oistribution was better tlan
tleirs, especially internationally: at least 50 percent of our revenues came
from international sales. Witlin 12 montls of tle merger, international
sales increaseo 50 percent for Aoobe.
Following the Aldus merger, Adobe
expanded into international markets,
setting up sales outposts in Canada,
France, Japan, Scandinavia, and India,
among other locations.
No. of employees: 1,587
Acquisitions: Aldus, LaserTools, Compumation
Product releases:
Illustrator 5.5 (Mac)
Premiere 4.0
Acrobat 2.0
Dimensions 2.0
After Effects 1.0
Other:
Aldus acquisition brings PageMaker to Adobe
Adobe Ventures founded
Construction begins on San Jose headquarters
Industry:
Macromedia acquires Altsys
HSC Software releases Live Picture
Netscape, Yahoo, and W3C launched
>>
1994- 1998 1994- 1998
Launched in 1989, Aldus magazine
was more than a marketing vehicle
for Aldus products. It also earned a
reputation for exemplary graphic
design and sound technical advice.
A I1iv1ici MGZii
1994- 1998 1994- 1998
A I1iv1ici MGZii
Adobe continued the magazines
success, expanding international
distribution and reaching 600,000
in circulation under its own imprint
before suspending publication in 2000.
158 1994- 1998

Aoobes marketing team began mining Alouss customer base immeoi-
ately. We coulont wait to start cross-marketing our stu witl Alous,
Clarke says. Our sanobox lao just gotten bigger. Because lalf of Alouss
sales were international, Aoobe relocateo its European leaoquarters to
Alouss base in Eoinburgl, Scotlano, unoer tle oirection of Alouss Derek
Cray. In fact, tooay approximately lalf Aoobes sales come from interna-
tional markets. Te seeos for Aoobes success overseas were sown in tle
European business starteo by Alous ano in tle )apanese om ce createo by
Alous in tle late 1980s.
One of tle marketing oevices now available to Aoobe was Alouss liglly
respecteo self-titleo magazine. Launcleo in 1989, Aldus featureo tips ano
teclniques for using Alous prooucts, written by tle engineers ano proo-
uct managers tlemselves. Notable freelance autlors ano inoustry experts
contributeo stories on topics ranging from tle best typefaces for a par-
ticular project to tle specifcations for paper in oset printing. Altlougl
primarily a marketing velicle, tle magazine competeo favorably witl
establisleo, inoepenoently publisleo magazines ano earneo a reputation
for oering useful information, slowcasing great oesign, ano exemplify-
ing oigital proouction values. Publisleo six times a year ano oistributeo
free to registereo users, tle magazine peakeo at a circulation of 600,000.
Unoer tle Aoobe imprint, tle magazine continueo to tlrive until it was
oiscontinueo in 2000 as part of a cost-cutting move.
Civen tle expanoeo customer base ano increaseo marketing opportuni-
ties, Aoobe put initiatives in place to aclieve proftability by tle eno of
tle frst quarter of 1995six montls after tle merger was fnal. Mission
accomplisleo: Te fourtl quarter of 1994 enoeo witl a net loss of $48.1
million, tle frst quarter of 1995 enoeo witl a net gain of $36.1 million.
Te turnarouno was proof tlat Aoobes merger witl Alous, oespite tle
rougl spots, was a success. Aoobe woulo not be so lucky witl its next
acquisition.
Building a Framework
Unlike tle Alous oeal, wlicl was positioneo as a merger, Aoobes acqui-
sition of Frame Teclnology was just tlat: an acquisition. Aoobe lao
consioereo buying Frame, oeveloper of tle structureo-oocument layout
package FrameMaker, in August 1993, but tle timing wasnt riglt. )oln
was enamoreo of tle Frame teclnology, Nakao says. He tlouglt it supe-
rior to PageMaker. But wlen Cesclke tallieo up low many people woulo
neeo to be laio o, le balkeo.
In 1995 Frames management put tle company up for sale. Warnocks
interest laont waneo. He perceiveo in FrameMaker an entre into tle
teclnical- ano long-oocument publisling market, one oominateo by
Unix workstations in government ano corporate installations. Altlougl
The Aldus and Frame acquisi-
tions filled gaps in Adobes page-
layout lineup, with PageMaker
and FrameMaker, respectively.

1994- 1998
FrameMaker is teclnically a page-layout program, tle market serveo by
FrameMaker, wlicl requires tlat tle content of templateo oocuments be
upoateo frequently, is very oierent from tlat serveo by PageMaker, wlicl
emplasizes creative expression tlrougl graplic oesign. In FrameMaker,
too, Warnock saw a kinoreo application to lis otler pet project, Acrobat.
FrameMaker supporteo SCML (Stanoaro Ceneralizeo Markup Language),
a cross-platform, oatabase-like metloo of presenting information, ano it
even lao an Acrobat Viewerlike application in FrameViewer.
But few people in Aoobes top tier of management slareo Warnocks
passion. Nobooy wanteo to oo tle Frame acquisition except )oln, says
Davio Pratt, leao of tle applications oivision. We coulont justify tle
purclase, but )oln believeo it woulo pay o in tle long run. Te lack of
entlusiasm also stemmeo from fatigue. Te year of nonstop eort tlat
lao gone into integrating Alous into Aoobe lao taken its toll on key sta
members. )ust as we were starting to catcl our breatl, Frame lappeneo,
Clarke says. As a result tlere was not tle level of zeal ano commitment
tlat we lao witl Alous.
But Warnock was unoeterreo, ano in )une 1995 Aoobe announceo its
intention to acquire Frame in a oeal valueo at more tlan $500 million. In
tle following week, Aoobes stock took a beating, losing 18 percent of its
value. Tere was more bao news. After tle oeal was fnalizeo in October
1995, Aoobe oiscovereo tlat it lao to absorb unanticipateo restructuring
expenses of $21.1 million from Frames previous operations. As a result,
Aoobe reporteo a net loss of $11.7 million for tle fourtl fscal quarter of
1995. Overniglt its stock lost 30 percent of its value.
Warnock remains bullisl on FrameMaker to tlis oay, asserting tlat tle
program fts nicely witl Aoobes new Network Publisling initiatives,
especially now tlat FrameMaker las supplementeo SCML witl sup-
port for tle inoustry-stanoaro XML (eXtensible Markup Language) ano
Aoobes own XMP (eXtensible Metaoata Platform), wlicl enables tle
publisling of oynamic content on multiple platforms ano in multiple
meoia types. FrameMaker is a wonoerful proouct, Warnock says, aoo-
ing tlat XML will rule tle worlo of structureo oocuments. He explains
tlat magazines, newsletters, broclures, or aovertisementstle types of
oocuments proouceo in programs like PageMakerare almost never
upoateo. FrameMaker is targeteo at user manuals, oatabase publications,
ano long oocuments tlat are constantly upoateo, le says. Because Web
sites tlemselves are like long, complex oocuments tlat are also constantly
upoateo, FrameMaker fts witl wlere tle Web is going.
Growing by Leaps and Bounds
Aoobes perioo of expansion oiont stop at large companies or oeals
wortl a lalf-billion oollars. In October 1995, it also acquireo Ceneca
Greg Gilley, now vice president
of engineering for the graphics
business unit, helped bring Alduss
product line into the Adobe fold.
160 1994- 1998

the artwork/artbox.
Communications, oeveloper of tle Web applications PageMill ano
SiteMill, for $15 million. Prior to its merger, Alous lao been in tle pro-
cess of acquiring several companies subsequently absorbeo by Aoobe,
incluoing prepress systems oeveloper Compumation in Marcl 1994 ano
font ano clip-art supplier Image Club Craplics in May 1994. Aoobe ulti-
mately spun o all prepress operations into a separate company calleo
Luminous in )anuary 1996. Image Club morpleo into Aoobe Stuoio, a
source for visual oesign elements, before it returneo to its original owners
unoer tle EyeWire label in 1998.
Te Alous acquisition was a luge turning point for tle company, Clarke
says. It clangeo tle nature of Aoobe. Tere was one otler way in wlicl
tle merger clangeo Aoobe: it brouglt in a consumer-prooucts oivision
leaoeo by a software veteran nameo Bruce Clizen.

1994- 1998
Fioic 1nv Cosuvvv Mvv1
Wlen Aoobe acquireo Alous in 1994, it inleriteo a oivision oeoicateo to
consumers wlo oabbleo in layout ano imaging for personal projects or
for fun. Tis class of customer was a far cry from tle creative profession-
als wlo formeo tle core of Aoobes clientele, tlose wlo maoe a liveli-
looo from tle oesign ano proouction of publications ano oocuments. Te
prooucts targeting tle lome or small-business user by necessity lao lower
sticker prices, ano by extension lower margins, tlan tleir professional-
level cousins, wlicl maoe it oim cult to justify oevelopment expenses.
Te consumer market oio represent new opportunities. Te cost of com-
puters lao been oeclining steaoily, making it easier for average folks to
purclase a system for lome use. Low-cost scanners ano printers were
more reaoily available, too, wlicl inspireo computer-savvy parents ano
kios to incorporate plotos into lome-printeo calenoars, greeting caros,
ano sclool projects. A new proouct category for oigital cameras was
attracting tle oollars of snapslot-lappy lobbyists. In time, tlis market
segment woulo become an area of plenomenal growtl for graplics ano
imaging companies. Mucl as oesktop publisling lao wrencleo control
away from proprietary typesetting slops, so oio tle availability of inex-
pensive equipment ano easy-to-use software make it possible for average
folk to publisl materials.
Aoobe lao little interest in entering tlat market at frst. It was a oistrac-
tion, ano sleooing tle oivision woulo mean one less tling to worry about
in tle mergers aftermatl. But one voice successfully urgeo tle company
to reconsioer ano in so ooing lelpeo Aoobe builo a new business.
Consumer Central
In fall 1993, Alous CEO Paul Brainero met witl a canoioate to leao
Alouss consumer group. Bruce Clizen lao been general manager at tle
Claris Clear Cloice oivision of Claris Corporation, an Apple subsioiary
ano maker of oatabase software FileMaker. Because Alouss boaro was
still searcling for a successor to Brainero, Clizen realizeo leo be taking a
job wlere le oiont know wlo lis boss woulo be. I tolo Paul tlat I wasnt
interesteo if tlere wasnt a presioent, Clizen says. Te two men prom-
iseo to stay in toucl.
In )anuary 1994, Brainero recontacteo Clizen ano askeo if le woulo meet
witl someone. He was tolo go to a lotel near tle San Francisco airport,
wlere le woulo be requireo to sign a nonoisclosure agreement. After
My frst thought was,
Why would Chuck Geschke
want to leave Adobe to
be president of Aldus?
Bruce Chizen
>
>
162 1994- 1998

le signeo, Clizen knockeo on a lotel-room ooor ano, as le entereo, saw
Cesclke sitting witl Brainero. My frst tlouglt was, Wly woulo Cluck
Cesclke want to leave Aoobe to be presioent of Alous: Clizen recalls.
Brainero informeo Clizen of tle impenoing merger ano askeo lim again
if le was interesteo in leaoing up tle consumer oivision. Accoroing to
Clizen, Cesclke acknowleogeo tlat none of tlem really knew wlat tle
future lelo as a result of tle merger. I oiont know wlat was going to
lappen eitler, but I knew I likeo tlis guy, Clizen says. Clizen joineo
Alous in February 1994, just prior to tle mergers announcement, ano
became tle vice presioent ano general manager of Aoobes Consumer
Prooucts Division wlen tle merger was completeo in August.
Te consumer oivision, wlicl operateo unoer botl Alous ano Aoobe as
a separate business unit, grew out of Alouss acquisition in 1990 of San
Diegos Silicon Beacl Software. Te proouct lineupincluoing grapl-
ics program SuperPaint, illustration software IntelliDraw, ano Home
Publisler, a repackaging of Personal Presswas baseo on software pre-
viously oevelopeo by Silicon Beacl. Te oivision lao also strayeo into
personal proouctivity software like tle personal-information manager
TouclBase ano tle calenoar application DateBook, botl obtaineo from
Alouss purclase of After Hours Software in 1993.
After my frst visit to San Diego, Bruce ano I agreeo tlat if Aoobe was
going to pursue tle consumer business, tlen it woulo not be oone by
engineering prooucts from scratcl, as was being oone at Silicon Beacl,
Warnock says. Insteao, consumer prooucts woulo be liglly leverageo
from Aoobes core teclnologies. Te reason for tlis approacl was tlat a
consumer proouct coulo never pay for its oevelopment cost if it was not
leverageo from some otler eort. Warnock gave Clizen tle clarter to
see wlat le coulo oo.
Clizen rose to tle clallenge. He quickly realizeo tlat tle company knew
little about tle consumer business. Only minimal researcl on tle market
opportunities lao been oone, nor was tlere a strategy in place for mar-
keting. Te attituoe was tlat customers woulo fno tleir way to tlese
prooucts, le says. He lao oierent ioeas. Clizen believeo tlere was
an auoience for consumer graplics prooucts, especially in tle realm of
imaging. He lao been impresseo by tle Casio QV-10 oigital camera, one
of tle frst reasonably priceo consumer-orienteo cameras from )apan tlat
boasteo sucl frienoly features as an LCD screen tlat coulo be useo for
previewing ano oisplaying images on tle spot. Plotoslop lao tappeo into
tle ligl eno of tle imaging ano plotograply markets, so coulont a
similar but simpler proouct oo tle same for tle low eno: He argueo
lis case. It was a constant battle to get attention witlin tle company,
Clizen says.
PhotoDeluxe, the first Adobe
product targeted to consumers,
quickly became the best-selling
consumer photoediting product
on the market in 1998.
Photoshop Elements, released in
2001, replaced PhotoDeluxe and
advanced Adobes consumer-
oriented initiatives.

1994- 1998
Aoobe was not interesteo in tle consumer oivision, says tle former vice
presioent of marketing for tle applications oivision, Linoa Clarke. But
Bruce pleaoeo witl tlem to give lim six montls to turn it arouno.
Making the Case
Clizen brouglt in a few trusteo players from lis oays at Claris, incluoing
marketing oirector Melissa Dyroall, wlo is now Aoobes senior vice pres-
ioent of corporate marketing, ano Kyle Maslima, wlo joineo tle reclris-
teneo Home ano Om ce Prooucts Division in 1996. Clizen pareo oown
tle proouct lineselling TouclBase ano DateBook to Now Software
tlen starteo making clanges to tle prooucts tlat remaineo. One sucl
clange was to rework SuperPaint into Art Explorer, an easy-to-use paint-
ing program tlat nearly explooeo witl colorful graplics. But Art Explorer
wasnt tle proouct le lao in mino wlen le spieo tlat Casio oigital
camera. Aoobe lao been selling a liglt version of Plotoslop tlrougl
scanner OEMs, but Plotoslop LE (Limiteo Eoition) was just tlatit lao
fewer features tlan tle regular version, but it was still Plotoslop ano a
complex proouct. Wlat was neeoeo was an application like Plotoslop
but mucl easier to use. Clizen persuaoeo Davio Pratt, by tlen senior vice
presioent ano general manager of tle application prooucts oivision, to
allow lim access to Plotoslops engineering talents.
Te result was PlotoDeluxe, a version of Plotoslop geareo towaro
tle lome or small-business user. It aooresseo problems common to
lobbyist plotograplers, sucl as tle reo eye causeo by camera asles
ano tle neeo to repair oamageo or creaseo plotos. It oereo many of
Plotoslops special-eects capabilities but strippeo tlem oown to tle
essentials. PlotoDeluxe also incluoeo guioeo tutorials tlat walkeo
customers tlrougl tle steps of, for example, enlancing a ploto, cropping
it, ano aooing a boroer. It wasnt an entirely graceful solution: glimpses
of its ligl-eno sibling pokeo tlrougl occasionally, making tle profes-
sional Plotoslop features stick out in an otlerwise consumer-frienoly
environment.
PlotoDeluxe slippeo for Mac ano Winoows in 1996. It was a mooerate
success as a stano-alone proouct, but Aoobe knew tle software maoe
a more powerful impression wlen vieweo in tle context of capturing
images from scanners ano oigital cameras. As a result, Linoa Clarke says,
Aoobe bunoleo tle oickens out of it, selling it in conjunction witl imag-
ing laroware. Accoroing to tle researcl frm Dataquest, PlotoDeluxe
was tle number-one-selling consumer plotoeoiting software in tle worlo
by 1998. Tey oiont believe tlat tlere was going to be a market, Clizen
says of tle reaction from executive team. But it turneo into a nice $20- to
$30-million business. Te same Dataquest report sloweo tlat tle entire
category grew 237 percent in 1997 alone.
Acquisitions: Frame Technology, Ceneca,
Visualware, Hyphen
Product releases:
Adobe PageMaker 6.0
Illustrator 6.0 (Mac), 4.1 (Windows)
Photoshop 3.0
After Effects 3.0
Other:
Netscape integrates Acrobat
into Navigator browser
More than 5,000 applications support
PostScript output
Adobe Type Library exceeds 2,000
Type 1 typefaces
Industry:
Sun develops Java
Apple licenses its OS, giving rise to Mac clones
Fractal Design acquires Ray Dream
Macromedia acquires Altsys, Fauve Software
Iomega introduces Zip and Jaz drives
>>
164 1994- 1998

ot every product acquired by Adobe
makes the transition to its new owners.
Some are gutted for pieces of code. Some
are killed because they compete with existing
products. And some are given a shot at continuing
but dont make it in the long run. The following is
a list of software acquired or developed by Adobe
that either never made the grade or that did only
for a while before being discontinued.
Adobe Circulate
Adobe File Utilities
Adobe Type Align
AfterImage
Ares Font Utilities
Art Explorer
Audition
ChartMaker
CheckList
Collectors Editions for Illustrator
Color Central
Confgurable PostScript
Interpreter
Curo Document Manager
DateBook
Digital Darkroom
Dimensions
Display PostScript
DocuComp
Fetch
FontChameleon
FontFiddler
FontHopper
FontMinder
FontMonger
FreeHand
Gallery Effects
Hitchcock
HomePublisher
Image Library
InfoPublisher
IntelliDraw
PageMaker Database Edition
PageMill
Personal Press
Persuasion
PhotoDeluxe for Mac
PhotoDeluxe Business Edition
Photoshop LE
PhotoStyler
PixelBurst coprocessors
PostScript Fax
PrePrint
PrePrint Pro
PressReady
PressWise
Print Central
PrintGear
Publishing Packs
ScreenReady
Separator
SiteMill
SmartArt
Streamline
SuperATM
SuperCard
SuperPaint
Supra
TextureMaker
TitleMan
TitleSoft
TouchBase
TranScript (Unix)
TrapMaker
TrapWise
TrueForm
Type 1 coprocessor
Type Align
Type On Call
Type Reunion
Type Sets
Type Twister
Video F/X
Viewer 3.1
Viewer 95
Word For Word
Tni CL11iG-Rcc Ficcv
N

1994- 1998
PlotoDeluxe proveo to be a fertile test beo for Aoobe in many respects.
Version 2 introouceo Aoobe Connectables: Internet looks embeooeo
in tle program tlat provioeo a constantly upoateo source of tips, tecl-
niques, ano tutorials for oownloaoing from tle Web. Te combination
of consumer oigital imaging ano tle Web also leo to tle oevelopment of
ActiveSlare, a means of slaring family ploto albums over tle Internet.
PlotoDeluxe also testeo oierent market slices as it split into oierent
versions for lome ano business users.
Te success of PlotoDeluxe ano tle boom in tle oigital-camera market
leo Aoobe to oevelop consumer-orienteo Plotoslop Elements in 2001.
Unlike PlotoDeluxe, wlicl oistanceo itself from Plotoslop in name,
appearance, ano interface, Elements bankeo on its relationslip to tle
professional proouct ano its name recognition. Elements meloeo aspects
of botl PlotoDeluxeguioeo tutorials ano Web links, for instanceano
Plotoslop, especially its interface ano tools. Like PlotoDeluxe, Elements
was also bunoleo witl scanners ano oigital cameras, but Aoobe also
aggressively marketeo it as a stano-alone proouct.
Baseo on lis track recoro witl tle consumer business unit, Clizen was
tappeo to leao Aoobes graplics oivision in December 1997, ano tle con-
sumer group was mergeo into tle main trunk of tle company. Te com-
pany lao entereo tle mainstream ano tappeo into tle rapioly growing
auoience for personal publisling ano image slaring.
Tis representeo a major slift for Aoobe, one tlat was not vieweo witl
equanimity by all. Contingents botl witlin tle company ano among
inoustry observers felt tlat tle company was, at tle least, oiluting its
branos association witl graplics professionals ano, at tle worst, moving
away from tlat core market entirely. Inoustry punoits questioneo wletler
Aoobe was reacling too far, too fast.
Compounoing tle clallenge was tle rise of an entirely new communica-
tions meoium, one tlat Aoobe lao yet to grapple witl successfully. Wlile
Aoobe was reacling out to consumers, graplics professionals were ven-
turing into a new territory of tleir own: tle Worlo Wioe Web.
A consumer product
could never pay for its
development cost if it
was not leveraged from
some other efort.
John Warnock
>
>
1994- 1998 1994- 1998
Designer Louis Fishauf was accus-
tomed to hiring illustrators for his
design work. Then he encountered
Adobe Illustrator and quickly fgured
out that he had a knack for drawing
himself. That was back in 1987. Now
hes one of the most honored commer-
cial artists of the last decade, whose
work includes that epitome of 1990s
graphic chic, an Absolut ad. Today
Fishauf moves fuidly between vectors
in Illustrator and pixels in Photoshop.
LcLis FisnLi
1994- 1998 1994- 1998
Illustrator blew my mind
when I saw my frst output.
>
>
168 1994- 1998

Adobe art director Luanne Seymour
Cohen took a literal leap of faith
from an airplanefor a promotional
video about the fear of Web design.

1994- 1998
Wovic 1nv Wvv
Few people coulo lave preoicteo tle impact tlat tle Worlo Wioe Web
woulo lave wlen it came roaring into tle 1990s. Wlat lao starteo as a
means for government, military, ano eoucational institutions to transmit
information became, virtually overniglt, a marketing ano cultural ple-
nomenon. Companies scrambleo to keep up witl tle tsunami of clanges
bearing oown on tlem, ano Aoobe was no exception.
Aoobe was certainly aware of tle rusl to tle Web, but in 1994 Aoobe
was oealing witl issues closer to lome. Te Alous ano Frame acquisitions
lao sappeo mucl of tle companys vigor, ano tle company focuseo wlat
energy it lao left on integrating new software into its proouct line ano
especially on making Acrobat ano PDF a cross-platform publisling stan-
oaro. As a result, tle leaoer in print communications struggleo to keep
pace witl tle rapioly evolving Web market.
Te Web presenteo perplexing ano potentially far-reacling problems for
Aoobe. Te HyperText Markup Language (HTML) useo by tle Web to
present oata oereo little control over tle presentation of information,
wlicl ew in tle face of Aoobes aestletic. Aoobe Acrobat lao been
oevelopeo for just tlat purpose: to transmit riclly formatteo oocuments
over a network. If HTML ano tle Worlo Wioe Web became a stanoaro,
woulo tlat obviate tle neeo for Acrobat: If inoiviouals connecteo to a
worlowioe network coulo access information using only a Web browser,
tlen wlat role oio Acrobat play:
Te answers to tlese questions were not obvious at frst, but by fts ano
starts, Aoobe workeo tlrougl tlem ano laio tle grounowork for a future
in wlicl tle Internet playeo as large a role in publisling as paper oio.
A Leap of Faith
For a company tlat lao starteo tle oesktop publisling revolution, it
was natural to see tle Web publisling revolution as a similar opportu-
nity. Like print, witl its brotlerlooo of typesetters ano secret cooes, tle
Internet lao been tle oomain of scientists ano engineers, ano tle main
metloo of prooucing pages for tle Web requireo typing commanos ano
cooes into a text eoitor tlat unoerstooo HTML, tle WWWs oe facto
programming language proposeo by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. A viewing
application converteo tle commanos into formatteo text ano graplics,
not unlike an interpreter for pages written in PostScript. Ano as in an
earlier era, wlat brouglt tle Web out of tle back room ano into tle
Acrobat was a way
of taking Warnocks
appearance-based
model and making it
acceptable for the Web.
Jonathan Seybold
>
>
170 1994- 1998

mainstream was tle oevelopment ano popularization of a software appli-
cation, in tlis case tle Mosaic Web browser, closely followeo by its com-
mercial successor, Netscape Navigator.
Witl sucl parallels, its not surprising tlat Aoobe approacleo tle Web
tle same way it lao approacleo oesktop publisling. Te meclanism for
publisling content on tle Web existeo, but a PageMaker-like program
tlat facilitateo tle proouction of Web pages oio not. Tose wlo wanteo
to make Web pages lao to learn HTML cooes ano use a text eoitor
like Bare Bones Softwares BBEoit. For oesigners useo to working in tle
WYSIWYC (wlat you see is wlat you get) environment of print page-
layout applications, tle situation was less tlan ioeal. Inoeeo, in many
instances oesigners were being cut out of tle Web oesign process, tleir
role flleo by cooe-savvy newcomers witl engineering clops but little
oesign backgrouno. Aoobe knew tlat software lao to make a similar leap
if oesigners ano publislers were to embrace tle Web.
Near tle eno of 1994, a few montls after tle Alous merger, Aoobe founo
tle answer in tle cubicles of Ceneca Communications. Te six-montl-
olo company autloreo two prooucts for tle Web: PageMill for creating
Web pages ano SiteMill for managing Web sites. PageMill was one of tle
frst of tle so-calleo WYSIWYC eoitors for tle Web tlat gave HTML a
visual interface. Insteao of typing in cooe, oesigners coulo orag ano orop
content into preprogrammeo frames. Perlaps PageMill coulo oo for Web
page oesign ano construction wlat PageMaker oio for print oesign ano
proouctiontle similarity in names was a lappy coincioence but unoer-
scoreo tle association.
It was a reasonable approacl to take. Designers accustomeo to proouc-
ing pages printeo witl oots on paper were now confronteo witl creating
pages oisplayeo as oots onscreen, ano it scareo many of tlem. In aooition
to its oaunting markup language, tle new meoium lao an entirely new
set of constraints, clief among tlem a minuscule fle-size requirement
(for fast-loaoing pages) tlat maoe graplics-intensive pages impractical,
oraconian limits on fonts ano font sizes, a less-exible (vertical) page for-
mat, ano an inability to control tle appearance of tle fnal oisplay (over-
riooen by tle browser ano monitor settings). In typical Aoobe faslion,
tle oynamic ouo of Russell Brown ano Luanne Seymour Colen oecioeo
to aooress oesigners fears leao-on tlrougl a creative slort flm. During
tle SADIM (Stanforo Art Directors Invitational Master) class, a flm crew
tapeo magazine oesigners as tley browseo tle Web ano reecteo about
low tleir roles as oesigners miglt clange as a result of it.
Te footage was spliceo into a slort flm tlat encourageo oesigners to
face tleir fears ano try sometling new. Its purpose was to lelp oesigners
unoerstano tlat tle Web miglt be a new ano frigltening frontier, but
Acquisitions: Ares Software, Swell Software
Product releases:
Adobe PageMaker 6.5
Photoshop 4.0
Acrobat 3.0
FrameMaker 5.0 (+SGML)
PhotoDeluxe 1.0
Other:
Adobe moves into San Jose world
headquarters
Adobe spins off its prepress application
products business as Luminous
Corporation
Industry:
Microsoft ships Windows 95,
Windows NT 4.0, Internet Explorer
Steve Jobs returns to Apple, which then
acquires NeXT
Microsoft releases Internet Explorer
>>

1994- 1998
tlat tley werent alone in tleir fear, Colen explains. To oemonstrate
tlat working outsioe tle comfort zone coulo be botl scary ano exlila-
rating, tle flmmakers came up witl tle metaplor of jumping out of an
airplane ano persuaoeo Colen to oo just tlat.
Te rest of tle movie sloweo Colen confronting ler fear of skyoiv-
ing. Te entire process from suiting up to jumping to lanoing was tapeo.
Colen maoe connections between ler personal fear of jumping from
airplanesI was so afraio tlat I coulont actually make myself jump out
of tle plane, tle guy lao to pusl mewitl ler fear as a oesigner of los-
ing control witl new teclnology. Slown at a 1995 AICA conference in
Seattle, tle fnisleo flm markeo a time in publislings listory wlen many
oesigners were making a leap of faitlaltlougl few maoe as literal a leap
as Colen oio.
Web-Page Maker
But prooucing pages for tle Web is very oierent from preparing pages
for a web press, as Aoobe soon learneo wlen it releaseo PageMill for tle
Macintosl in late 1995. Te program was a lit witl HTML-impaireo
oesigners, tlanks to its accessible interface, wlicl was greeteo witl
entlusiasm by its target auoience, but its execution oio not meet tle
stanoaros oemanoeo by Web professionals. PageMill was marreo by a
lack of table support ano a propensity to replace tags ano generate cooe
The dynamic duo of Russell
Preston Brown and Luanne
Seymour Cohen made it their
mission to champion Web
design and encourage art
directors to try it.
This spec is called b. Caption/
White 20th. It has a 16 point
baseline shift. For vertical spac-
ing consistency position the text-
box so that the top sits on the
bottom of the image.
Over the years Adobe has become a truly
global company. Today more than
50 percent of its business is derived from
international sales to such regions as
Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom,
France, and Scandinavia. Adobes product
development has also taken on an inter-
national favor. The company has research
and development facilities in India,
Germany, Scotland, and most recently,
Canada, with the purchase of Ottawa-
based Accelio Corporation. The Adobe
Acrobat team quips that the sun never sets
on Acrobat development. This page, right:
Edinburgh; below, Tokyo. Opposite page,
top and lower left, Noida, India; lower
right, Ottawa.
Aicii vcLi 1ni Cicii
173
174 1994- 1998

Aicii i 1ni Cvcv1n ci 1ni Wii
At the peak of the
Internet bubble we
were on the outside
looking in.
Bryan Lamkin
W
hen the World Wide Web exploded
as a cultural and technological phe-
nomenon, Adobe was caught fat
footed. Individuals like John Warnock recognized
the Webs importance, but the company had no
organized response to the maelstrom of changes
whirling around it. Today the Web is an integral
component of all Adobes strategic initiatives, but
early on it was a different story.
Missic 1nv Bo1
Adobe stuttered at the time of the Web.
We were looking the other way when the Web
happened. No ones eye was on the ball. The
Internet train was running down the track and we
jumped on the caboose.
Melissa Dyrdahl, senior vice president,
corporate marketing and communications
Adobe didnt accept the reemergence of the
content-driven side of things. They couldnt come
to grips with content over appearance. John
fought an ongoing rear-guard battle. Each time he
was assaulted by the Web hed move a little, then
a little bit more, then a little bit more. It was a
migration step by painful step.
Jonathan Seybold, Seybold Seminars
Nicv Tvv
PageMill was exciting when it frst came out, but
Adobe approached the Web as a single HTML page,
not realizing its complexity. That set them off on
the wrong track.
Lynda Weinman, Web maven
Adobe acted fast with the acquisition of a Web
authoring toolthe right thing to dobut as
they didnt fully grasp the design needs of Web
development, they made the wrong choice with
PageMill. Because of that Adobe moved away from
design dominance in terms of the Web.
Clement Mok, cofounder, NetObjects
We gave Macromedia the Web in the professional
space.
Bryan Lamkin
Mic Pvocvvss
ImageReady made it easier to be a Web publisher.
Before that you had to slice images in Photoshop
using the selection marquee.
Lynda Weinman
We were just starting to play around with hidden
features of ImageReady, like designing rollovers
and having it remember different slices. We had to
do massive changes to a design that would have
taken six hours to do. We hadnt even read the
manual yet, but we discovered these cool features
that let us deploy changes in a couple of minutes.
It was sweet.
Melvin Rivera, cofounder, Mostasa.com
Visio ov Hiosicn1
Early on Adobe wasnt leading in the Web space
but following. Now Adobe is creating leadership-
level products, but it took them a long time to get
it right.
Lynda Weinman
Chuck and I always thought it had helped that
wed been around awhile before we started this
thing. We had seen the mainframe and time-
sharing eras. We knew this current phase couldnt
last, especially the Net explosion.
John Warnock
John was a pillar of strength during the dot-com
boom. He was skeptical that it would last.
Melissa Dyrdahl

1994- 1998
tlat, wlile teclnically accurate, mangleo tle oesigners intention. SiteMill
was revieweo more favorably for its smootl automation of belino-tle-
scenes processes sucl as oeao-link removal, a time-consuming task tlat
most Web publislers are loatl to oo. Developing back-eno processes for
tle Worlo Wioe Web was clearly out of Aoobes purview, lowever, ano
SiteMill was oiscontinueo in )anuary 1997.
Aoobes early success witl PageMill was soon tlwarteo, as a lost of
WYSIWYC eoitors oooeo tle market in tle montls surrounoing its
release. Competitive prooucts oevelopeo at a pace so fast ano furious
tlat it was oim cult to keep up. Initially PageMills competition incluoeo
Home Page, releaseo by Apples software arm, Claris, HoTMetaL Pro,
slippeo in 1994 by SCML oeveloper SoftQuao, ano FrontPage, releaseo
in late 1995 by upstart company Vermeer Teclnologies, wlo solo it to
Microsoft in )anuary 1996, about tle time Aoobe releaseo tle Winoows
version of PageMill. For tlat release, Aoobe repositioneo PageMill as part
of its lome ano small-business proouct line, but it ran smack-oab into
FrontPage, wlicl Microsoft lao incluoeo as part of its Om ce suite of
prooucts, virtually guaranteeing FrontPage tle lions slare of tlat market.
Altlougl PageMill broke new grouno for Aoobe, it was quickly out-
gunneo. Te company neeoeo a more soplisticateo proouct if it was
going to compete for tle learts ano minos of Web oesigners. NetObjects
Fusion, releaseo in late 1996 ano oevelopeo in part by prominent oesigner
Clement Mok, provioeo eogling Web oesigners witl familiar features
sucl as style sleets ano templates. By 1998, tlere were upwaros of a
oozen WYSIWYC Web autloring applications on tle market, incluoing
two promising newcomers tlat targeteo tle professional oesign market:
CyberStuoio, oevelopeo by tle Cerman company CoLive ano noteo for
tle remarkable level of control it gave oesigners over tle position ano
appearance of elements on a page, ano Macromeoia Dreamweaver, noteo
for its ease of use ano clean cooe.
Witlin a year it became apparent tlat oesigners wlo embraceo tle Web
were gravitating towaro Macromeoia Dreamweaver, particularly witl
tle aovent of Macromeoias Flasl graplics ano animation teclnology.
Macromeoia lao Flasl, so we lao to look at PageMill ano ask, wlat
piece of teclnology ooes it lave as an enouring component: Warnock
says tooay. Aoobe countereo Macromeoia in )anuary 1999 by purclas-
ing CoLive. PageMills fate was sealeo. Aoobe ceaseo oevelopment of
PageMill in Marcl 2000 witl an eye towaro migrating users to its latest
acquisition.
We oio PageMillwlicl was HTML oone in a small wayano it faileo,
Warnock conceoes. But lao we oone PageMill in a big way, we woulo
lave faileo in a big way.
SiteMill and PageMill, both
acquired through the purchase
of Ceneca Communications, were
Adobes first Web products.
176 1994- 1998

Photoshop to the Rescue
As tle Web gaineo momentum, oesigners were forceo to come to terms
witl it. Clients requesteo Web-site oesigns in aooition to or insteao of
printeo materials. Designers were faceo witl a oaunting wave of Web
oesign ano autloring applications, oecioing wlicl proouct to use ano
tlen learning low to use it took precious time in tle nonstop Web wlirl.
More often tlan not, oesigners ano graplic artists new to tle Web relieo
on familiar prooucts to lelp tlem navigate tlis new lanoscape. Ano for-
tunately for Aoobe, tle vast majority of tlem reacleo for an olo stanoby
tley knew tley coulo trust: Plotoslop.
Plotoslop laont been oevelopeo witl tle Web in mino, but it lao
many features Web oesigners neeoeo, sucl as tle ability to slice images
into pieces, to save images at reouceo resolutions (wlicl tlerefore lao
smaller fle sizes), ano to convert tlem to Web-frienoly color spaces ano
fle formats (CIF ano )PEC). Plotoslop also alloweo Web artists to create
graplics to exact pixel specifcations. Web-savvy oesigners soon fgureo
out low to work arouno Plotoslops print-centric point of view. In a
remarkably slort perioo of time, tle worlos leaoing image-eoiting appli-
cation became tle stanoaro tool for creating graplics for tle Web. Its
oominance was furtler cementeo as tle scope of Web projects slifteo
towaro large-scale service ano e-commerce sites on wlicl teams of spe-
cialists collaborateo. For tlose given tle task of creating Web graplics,
tlere was no reason to use anytling otler tlan Plotoslop.
Overniglt, ano somewlat by accioent, Plotoslop maoe Aoobe a player
on tle Web.
Recognizing tlat it coulo apply its laro-earneo graplics-application
know-low to tlis new meoium, Aoobe set about creating specializeo
graplics tools for tle Web. First out of tle gate in tle summer of 1998
was ImageReaoy. Conceiveo as a companion to Plotoslop ano intenoeo
for soplisticateo users, ImageReaoy facilitateo tle proouction of Web
graplics: color conversion, fle conversion ano export, image-mapping,
ano so on. It incorporateo sucl tools as image slicing, for cutting images
into tileo pieces tlat loaoeo more quickly into a Web browser, fle opti-
mization, for compressing images into smaller byte packages for faster
onscreen oisplay, ano animation features, for making moving graplic
elements out of static fles.
Aoobe followeo ImageReaoy in December 1998 witl ImageStyler, a Web
graplics tool aimeo at tle business or lome user. Te program combineo
tle graplics-creation capabilities of Plotoslop witl bits of ImageReaoy,
sucl as tle ability to prepare graplics for tle Web, altlougl it lackeo
ImageReaoys animation features.
ImageReady, conceived as a
companion to Photoshop, gave
designers more control over
Web graphics.
Although not planned as a Web
tool, Photoshop quickly became
the standard for Web image pro-
cessing, making Adobe a player
in the Web space.

1994- 1998
Wlile botl were solio prooucts, neitler ImageReaoy nor ImageStyler
ever really founo its nicle. Te crowoeo Web market confuseo potential
customers, many of wlom enoeo up buying Plotoslop on name recogni-
tion alone or using a oeoicateo Web graplics program like Macromeoia
Fireworks. In 1999, only a year after its oebut, ImageReaoy 2.0 was rolleo
into Plotoslop 5.5. Te oecision enoeo ImageReaoy as a stano-alone
application, but it solioifeo Plotoslops position as tle premier graplics
tool for tle Web as well as print. ImageStyler never maoe it to a secono
version. Aoobe replaceo it in )anuary 2000 witl LiveMotion, a graplics
creation ano Web animation package geareo for tle professional market.
Aoobes Plotoslop Elements, a scaleo-oown version of Plotoslop, now
serves tle business ano lome Web graplics market.
Working with a Net
Aoobes track recoro in prooucing new applications for tle Web lao been
uneven tlus far, but tle company recognizeo it neeoeo an overall strategy
tlat incorporateo tle Webs infrastructure into botl its applications ano
its systems.
In May 1995 Aoobe unveileo tle frst plase of its Internet strategy, wlicl
appeareo to be a mislmasl of ioeas. On tle one lano Aoobe touteo
PageMakers ano Persuasions HTML-export features, wlicl maoe page
layouts or om ce presentations Web reaoy. Botl eorts were poorly
Aware of PageMills limita-
tions, Adobe acquired GoLive
CyberStudio in 1999 to bolster
its Web lineup.
178 1994- 1998

executeo ano maoe little impression. On tle otler lano Aoobe intro-
ouceo a system by wlicl customers coulo manage inoivioual printers
worlowioe using tle Internet. Calleo PrintMill, it woulo allow corporate
communications specialists working in, say, New York to locate a printer
in tle Los Angeles om ce ano seno a fle to tlat printer for review by long-
oistance colleagues. Te concept of Web-reaoy printing was incorporateo
into tle tliro generation of PostScript.
But tlose steps towaro tle Internet oiont aooress tle more funoamental
problem nagging Aoobe: in Aoobes worloview, HTML was simply too
limiting a language. It coulo not proouce tle visually ricl pages on wlicl
Aoobe lao stakeo its reputation. Tats wly Aoobe was intent on pusling
Acrobat as tle stanoaro means of transmitting composeo pages across
networks, ano tlere was no bigger network tlan tle Worlo Wioe Web.
Wlat Aoobe neeoeo was an Internet partner wlo recognizeo tle value of
PDF, tle Portable Document Format.
Netscape Communications, formeo in 1994, became tlat partner. Te
ambitious young company lao tle popular Netscape Navigator Web
browser, ano Aoobe became an early investor (in fact, Warnock sat on
Netscapes boaro). In Marcl 1995 Aoobe ano Netscape announceo a
joint strategy by wlicl Aoobe woulo embeo Web links in PDF fles ano
Netscape woulo incluoe a PDF plug-in for Navigator. Tis meant tlat
wlen a URL link was oouble-clickeo in a PDF oocument, a Netscape
Navigator browser winoow openeo, tlereby provioing instant access to
tle Internet. It also meant tlat a version of tle Acrobat Viewer, cooe-
nameo Amber, became part of tle Netscape browser. Wlen a person
surfng tle Internet came across a PDF fle, Navigator launcleo tle
Acrobat plug-in so tlat tle user coulo reao tle PDF fle witlout leaving
Navigators HTML-native environment.
Te agreement witl Netscape was pivotal in terms of Aoobes Internet
ano Acrobat strategies. Warnock resisteo information separateo from its
appearance, says meoia consultant )onatlan Seybolo. Acrobat was a way
of taking lis appearance-baseo mooel ano making it acceptable for tle
Web. However, Aoobes alliance witl Netscape put Aoobe once again in
tle crosslairs of Microsoft, wlicl was oeveloping its own Web browser
software to compete witl Navigator.
As Web lysteria reacleo a fever pitcl in tle late 90s, Aoobe was per-
ceiveo by many inoustry watclers to be sitting on tle sioelines. Rival
companies like Macromeoia ano Microsoft took tle leao in Web oesign
ano oeployment applications, wlile Aoobe fumbleo its Web applications
ano pluggeo away at promoting Acrobat. Hao it not been for Plotoslop
ano Acrobat, Aoobe woulo lave misseo tle 90s Web boom entirely. But
given tle oot-com bust of 2000, Aoobes lesitation seems prescient in
Acquisitions: DigiDox, Sandcastle, Finepoint
Product releases:
Illustrator 7.0 (Mac and Windows)
PhotoDeluxe 2.0 (Mac)
Dimensions 3.0
Streamline 4.0
Other:
Adobe PageMaker and Photoshop are
third and fourth best-selling software
brands, with sales of $0.8 billion
Adobe Systems is sixth most-
profitable public computer software
company
Adobe is number two software
firm, following Microsoft, with 4% of
market share
Patent #5,634,064 issued to John
Warnock and others: for a document
reader that reads articles displayed in a
continuous stream
Industry:
Fractal Design and MetaTools merge,
become MetaCreations
Macromedia releases Flash
>>

1994- 1998
linosiglt, ano inoeeo Warnock spins it tlat way tooay. I oiont want
to jump on tle Internet ano go along for tle rioe, le says. If we were
like everybooy else, we woulont lave a sustainable business.
Te market clanges wrouglt by tle Web were only one business clal-
lenge Aoobe confronteo ouring tle latter part of tle 1990s. In 1998 it met
perlaps its greatest test as a company, one tlat arose not out of external
circumstances but from internal conoitions.
This 1997 promotional video cen-
tered on the dynamic nature of
the Web and Adobes strategy of
serving a market in which people
communicate 24 hours a day and
7 days a week.
1994- 1998 1994- 1998
Known for his minimalist Web designs and simple,
effective animations, Hillman Curtis has created
award-winning designs for clients such as Cartier,
MTV, RollingStone.com, and Goodby, Silverstein
& Partners. His signatures include clean naviga-
tion systems (seen here in the Greenwich Street
Project and Adobe Studio sites) and powerful,
compact animations such as these created for
RollingStone.com and Adobe. Curtiss book,
MTIV: Process, Inspiration, and Practice for the
New Media Designer, outlines his straight-
forward and respectful approach to design.
(www.hillmancurtis.com)
Hiii CLv1is
1994- 1998 1994- 1998
Find the themethen
communicate it clearly.
>
>
182 1994- 1998


1994- 1998
Rvcvouvic
Te Internet boom continueo to escalate in 1998. It was a time of unprec-
eoenteo prosperity for Silicon Valley ano especially for tle myriao of oot-
com companies sprouting up in its fertile soil. Te euploria of limitless
potential perfumeo tle air. But tle mooo in Aoobes executive boaroroom
was far oierent.
For Aoobe, tle summer of 1998 was markeo by frustration ano oiscontent.
After years of steaoy growtl ano clear oirection, tle company was grap-
pling witl stalleo sales ano a loss of focus. Like a slip cauglt in a meteo-
rological perfect storm, wlere tlree weatler fronts collioe, Aoobe was
bueteo by slow proouct sales, a slumping )apanese economy, ano political
infglting. Alreaoy reeling from tlese factors, Aoobe was oealt anotler
blow wlen arclrival Quark announceo it wanteo to buy tle company.
Te only way to get back on track was to make some laro oecisions.
Several years later, cofounoer Cluck Cesclke oescribeo tle year as per-
laps tle most pivotal in Aoobes listory.
The Endless Summer
Te Aoobe Systems of 1998 was a far cry from its origins, in wlicl two
men witl a gooo ioea built a company from scratcl witl tle lelp of a
couple oozen lanopickeo lires. By tlat summer, Aoobe employeo 41
vice presioents ano supporteo four large business units tlat often com-
peteo witl eacl otler for customers ano resources. Te structure was
becoming unwieloy, oierent oivisions ouplicateo eorts tlat woulo lave
been better serveo by a cooroinateo, centralizeo system.
In anticipation of retirement, tle cofounoers lao been pulling back ano
laying tle founoation for tle team tlat woulo take Aoobe into tle future.
On tle executive level Warnock ano Cesclkes longtime lieutenants
people sucl as Steve MacDonalo, Davio Pratt, ano Bruce Nakaolao
left tle company. Aoobe lao replaceo tle oeparteo executives, but witl
mixeo results. Te executives we lao lireo all came from searcl frms.
All lao great creoentials, but tlese political fefooms were oeveloping,
says Warnock. Cesclke concurs: We coulo never get tlem to work as
a team.
Te lack of teamwork was taking its toll on proouct oevelopment, sales,
ano marketing. Our stock was in tle tank ano we oiont lave a colerent
business plan on tle lorizon, Warnock says. Our employees all lao oif-
ferent ioeas about tle companys oirection. If you askeo tlem wlat our
It was a drag to come
into work every day.
Chuck Geschke
>
>
184 1994- 1998

mission was going forwaro, tleyo tell you wlat tley lao been tolo by
tle last VP wloo talkeo to tlem. Weo lost control.
We were starting to lose our customers too, says Cesclke. Aooing to
Aoobes woes was tle so-calleo Asian u. Te )apanese market, wlicl
contributeo $60.3 million in revenues in tle tliro quarter of 1997, was
o 40 percent for tle same perioo in 1998, ano Aoobe's stock was getting
lammereo.
Te executive sta meetings lao become nigltmares, in Warnocks
woros, ano tle infglting was laving an eect on tle two cofounoers.
It was a orag to come into work every oay, Cesclke remembers. After
a frustrating meeting in )uly 1998, Cesclke calleo Warnock on vacation
ano saio, Im at my wits eno, Warnock recalls. Tey playeo out some
options, incluoing early retirement. But tley knew tlat Aoobe as it stooo
tlen was not tle legacy tley wanteo to leave. Tey lao workeo too laro
to see it eno tlat way. It was time for tle cofounoers to reassert tlem-
selves. I fnally saio, We lave to get rio of tlem all, Warnock says. But
before tley coulo put tle wleels in motion, tley neeoeo to line up a team
tley coulo count on.
Like Warnock ano Cesclke, Bruce Clizen was frustrateo by tle state
of aairs at tle executive level. We coulon't get anytling oone, Clizen
says tooay. I was getting reaoy to move on. I talkeo to Cluck about it
ano tolo lim tlat I tlouglt le lao to make some clanges. Clizen tlen
left for a family vacation at tle New )ersey slore. Coming in from tle
beacl one oay, le was tolo le lao a message from )oln Warnock, wlo
wanteo Clizen to call lim. )oln never calleo me. So I tlouglt, Wlat
ooes le want: On tle plone Warnock tolo Clizen tlat le ano Cesclke
were eliminating tle bulk of tle executive sta tle next Monoay. Ten
Warnock askeo Clizen a question witl far-reacling implications: Wlat
role oo you want to lave:
Clizen, tlen vice presioent ano general manager of tle graplics prooucts
oivision, saio le wanteo to take on all proouct marketing ano oevelop-
ment, wlicl woulo incluoe engineering. Clizens forte at tlat time
was sales, so assuming engineering was a big transition. On top of tlat,
Clizen woulo now report oirectly to Warnock, tle engineers engineer.
But Warnock ano Cesclke reassureo lim. Tey saio, Everybooy tlinks
liglly of you. You oon't lave to be a teclnologist as long as you lave tle
respect of tle teclnologists, says Clizen, wlo woulo take on tle title of
executive vice presioent, prooucts ano marketing.
Back in San )ose, Warnock scleouleo one-on-one meetings witl tle
aecteo executives for Monoay morning. Te weekeno before was flleo
witl oreao for tle cofounoers. On Monoay, tle executives met inoiviou-
ally witl Warnock, wlo accepteo tleir resignations.
Our stock was in the
tank and we didnt have
a coherent business
plan on the horizon.
John Warnock
>
>

1994- 1998
186 1994- 1998

Warnock ano Cesclke, now supporteo by a single group of like-minoeo
lieutenants, swung into action. Aoobe lao to oevelop a plan ano execute
it. Working witl Clizen, tley began restructuring tle company. We
broke oown tle business oivisions into functional organizations, Clizen
says. Tey consolioateo fnance, operations, ano marketing into a single
infrastructure. Tey laio o 350 people. Clizen assembleo lis team,
wlicl incluoeo Slantanu Narayen, wlo woulo oirect engineering, Bryan
Lamkin, wlo took over graplics prooucts, ano Melissa Dyroall, wlo
woulo leao a unifeo marketing eort.
Knowing tle roao aleao woulo be clallenging, Clizen calleo a meeting of
lis senior sta to test tleir resolve. He went arouno tle room ano askeo
eacl person: Are you in or are you out: Everyone replieo inexcept
Lamkin. I saio, Let me get back to you on tlat, le says somewlat
sleepislly tooay. Internet fever was running ligl ano Lamkin yearneo for
clange ano excitement. Aoobe at a Zen level lao stayeo tle same, le
says. Clizen gave lim a niglt to tlink it over. Te next morning Lamkin
saio le was staying. Wlat maoe me stay was wlat maoe me come lere
in tle frst place: tle prooucts ano tle people, le says.
Te triage lao been successful, but tle companys earnings report for
tle tliro quarter reecteo tle summer of turmoil: a net income of just
$152,000, or one cent per slare, on revenues of $222.9 million, a layo
of 350 people witl restructuring clarges of $37.1 million, ano a oecline of
$25.2 million in revenue in )apan alone.
Witl internal problems abating, Aoobe turneo its attention to external
relations. After tle restructuring announcements, tle fnancial community
After the 1998 management
shake-up, a new executive team
emerged: back row, from left,
Geschke, Chizen, Warnock, CFO
Hal Covert, executive VP of sales
Fred Snow; front row, from left,
VP Jim Stephens, general coun-
sel Colleen Pouliot, VP Rebecca
Guerra.

1994- 1998
lelo back, waiting to see wlat Aoobe woulo oo. But for Aoobe, it was time
to be proactive. Traoitionally Warnock lao been Aoobes public face wlile
Cesclke tenoeo tle corporate fres. Now a clange was neeoeo. I tolo
)oln tlat I lao to go on tle roao to cement our outsioe relations ano tlat
)oln lao to be Mr. Insioe for a wlile, says Cesclke. He ano )im Steplens,
vice presioent of corporate oevelopment ano former vice presioent of
investor relations, took to tle skies. )im Steplens ano I visiteo every major
account. We spent montls on airplanes. We loggeo 250,000 miles ano vis-
iteo 30 countries.
But before Cesclke ano Steplens took o ano before tle turnarouno lao
a clance to take eect, Aoobe was oealt one more blow, tlis time from a
rival software maker.
A Catalyst to Change
Ever since QuarkXPress lao eclipseo PageMaker as tle page-layout
application of cloice for professional publislers, tlere was no love lost
between Quark ano Aoobe. Te two companies lao oierent plilosoplies
about business, customer relations, ano proouct oevelopment. For tle
most part, tley agreeo to oisagree ano stayeo away from eacl otler. But
as Aoobe suereo tlrougl tle tumult of 1998, Quark saw an opportunity
to clange Aoobes fortunes or, at tle very least, unnerve its founoers.
On August 18, Quark CEO Freo Ebralimi sent a fax to Warnock ano
Cesclke expressing interest in merging tle two companies. Te two
men were surpriseoano incenseo. Aoobe saw tle oer as yet anotler
example of Quarks arrogance. On August 21, Warnock ano Cesclke
wrote Ebralimi inoicating tlat tley lao no wisl to oiscuss sucl a
scenario. Te reply prompteo anotler, public exclange. On August 25,
Quark issueo a press release announcing its overture ano tlen posteo
tle two previous letters on its Web site. Now Aoobe was forceo to con-
frm Quarks proposal ano to oeny its own interest. Aoobes press release
concluoeo tlat Quarks corresponoence lao faileo to state any material
terms tlat woulo constitute a frm ano bona foe oer. If Quarks faxeo
letter lao proereo actual terms, Aoobe as a publicly lelo company
woulo not lave been able to comment. Insteao it was able to fglt back
on tle stage of popular opinion.
Te timing of Quarks letter was auspiciousit lao come just before
tle opening of tle inuential publisling-inoustry traoe slow Seybolo
Seminars, lelo eacl September in San Franciscowlicl leo some
observers to view it as a publicity stunt. Te orama being playeo out via
fax ano Web site was inoeeo tle buzz of tle slow (one inoustry maga-
zine gave out buttons tlat reao, Im betting on Aoobe! ano Im betting
on Quark!). But a telling moment came ouring a conference session
wlose topic was tle possible takeover. After some onstage oebate, tle
Product releases:
Illustrator 8.0
Photoshop 5.0
Premiere 5.0
PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 3.0 (Windows)
PhotoDeluxe Business Edition (Windows)
ImageReady 1.0
ImageStyler 1.0
PageMill 3.0 for Mac
PostScript 3
Other:
Hostile takeover bid from Quark Inc.
Adobe expands into East Tower, San Jose
headquarters
Patent #5,831,632 issued to John
Warnock and Michael Schuster: for a
technique that replicates, bends, and
miters tiles to match the curvature and
corners of a specified PostScript path
>>
1994- 1998 1994- 1998
Over the years Adobes annual
reports have served as a refection
of current trends in graphic design,
as a showcase of Adobe products
in action, as a digest of an industry
in transition, and as a record of the
companys fnancial success. In recent
years, its annual fnancial review is
also available in PDF format, which
can be downloaded from its Web site,
www.adobe.com.
Tnv Evoiu1io or
1nv Aui Rvvov1
1,,o
1,,z
1,8,
1,86

1994- 1998
1,,
1,,6
1,,,
zoo1
1,,8
190 1994- 1998


1994- 1998
mooerator askeo tle auoience for a slow of lanos in favor of Quarks bio.
Not a single lano was raiseo.
Never a company to slrink from a fgltwitness its response to tle
Apple-Microsoft type alliance in 1989Aoobe useo tle conference as an
opportunity to oebut an as yet unseen proouct. Te surprise oemonstra-
tion came ouring a keynote speecl by Steve )obs, back at tle lelm of
Apple, in wlicl le inviteo Aoobe ano Quark onstage to slow support
for tle Macintosl. Witl Quark founoer ano clief teclnology om cer Tim
Cill onstage, Aoobe unveileo its brano-new page-layout application ano
QuarkXPress competitor, cooe-nameo K2. Clearly Aoobe was not about
to let Quark get tle upper lano.
Aoobe refuseo to talk to Quark. Recognizing tle futility ano expense of a
lostile takeover, Quark witlorew its oer less tlan tlree weeks after tle
initial fax.
But Quarks gambit aclieveo its oesireo eect: It tolo tle worlo tlat tle
once miglty Aoobe was in trouble. Ano Aoobe was. Te companys stock
price lao oippeo to $24.44 on August 24, about tle lalf its value four
montls earlier. If Quark, a privately lelo business, coulo come up witl
tle money to purclase a company four times its size, Aoobes future oio
not look promising.
But internally tle bio lao tle opposite eect. Te Quark takeover
attempt catalyzeo tle company, Warnock says tooay. Our response was,
Were going to be oamneo if we get taken over by tlese turkeys. Were
going to annililate tlem. Well just out-engineer tlem. Six montls later,
in Marcl 1999, Aoobe releaseo tle page-layout program K2, now calleo
InDesign.
By tle eno of 1998, Aoobes stock lao climbeo back to $46.75. Witl new
senior managers Aoobe was poiseo to tackle tle clallenges of tle 21st
century. More important, tle company was oeveloping a colerent proo-
uct strategy, one tlat wove togetler tlreaos from its systems leritage,
applications success, ano future teclnologies. At its center was Aoobe
Acrobat.
Our response was,
Were going to be
damned if we get taken
over by these turkeys.
John Warnock
>
>
192 1982- 1984

1982- 1984 193 Planning the Next Wave

1999- 2001
If tle first battle of tle publisling revolution was wageo
on paper, tlen tle next woulo be fouglt on tle Worlo Wioe
Web. By tle close of tle 20tl century, tle Web was transforming
communication in terms of content oistribution ano commercial
transaction. Unwilling to abanoon its laro-won position in tle
printing ano graplic arts markets, Aoobe embraceo tle mooel
of cross-meoia publisling, in wlicl content once createo is ois-
tributeo tlrougl multiple metloos, wletler print or online. Tle
company expanoeo its proouct line to incluoe more-robust Web
autloring tools, reinvigorateo its page-layout line, ano refineo tle
software tlat serveo as a fulcrum between tle print ano online
worlos. Witl PDF, like PostScript before it, Aoobe lao oevelopeo
anotler inoustry stanoaro.
Planning tle
Next Wave
Show me any publisher on
earth who does not print
out or publish using some
piece of Adobe technology.
Frank Romano
>
>
1
9
9
9
2
0
0
1
1999 2000
Dot-com boom hits
highest point
Adobe acquires
GoLive
Revenue: $1 billion
Employees: 2,800
$
Corel buys MetaCreations
graphics products
Apple introduces Mac OS X
Adobe releases GoLive 5.0,
LiveMotion 1.0, Network
Publishing campaign
Adobe releases
Acrobat 4.0, InDesign 1.0
Creo Products buys digital prepress opera-
tions of Scitex Corp., forming CreoScitex
Geschke retires, Warnock
steps aside; Chizen pro-
moted to president and CEO
2001
$
2002
1999 2000
$
2001
Microsoft releases
Windows 2000
and XP
Adobe acquires Accelio
(electronic forms
technology)
Economic slowdown
hits technology
industry
Revenue: $1.2 billion
Employees: 3, 043
$
2002
Adobe ships After Effects 5.0,
Illustrator 10.0, Acrobat 5.0,
Photoshop Elements 1.0
Warnock
retires
Acvov1 Tvs Hoio
If 1998 was a year of inner turmoil for Aoobe, tle company entereo 1999
oetermineo to reassert itself. Aoobes traoitional graplic arts prooucts
continueo to sell well, but Aoobe executives knew tlat, as witl PostScript
before it, oiminisling returns were inevitable. Te more mature tle proo-
uct, tle fewer features can be aooeo witl eacl upoate, leaoing to a sales
plateau. If Aoobe was to tlrive into tle 21st century, tlen it lao to look
to new markets. Te clallenge before Aoobe wasnt just to come up witl
sexy new software, eitler. Wlat was neeoeo was a teclnology platform
arouno wlicl a colesive proouct strategy coulo be built.
Te company oiont lave to look far for tle way out. It was riglt unoer
tleir noses in tle form of Aoobe Acrobat.
In tle years immeoiately following its public oebut unoer tle name
Carousel in 1991, Acrobat seemeo to many observers like a solution in
searcl of a problem. Te proouct lao long been cast in tle slaoow of
its aslier graplics siblings. But surrounoeo by funoamental clanges in
communications ano guioeo by Warnocks tenacity ano unwavering faitl,
Acrobat lao slowly transformeo itself into an inoispensable part of Aoobe
customers oaily work. As features were aooeo to tle teclnology ano its
suite of applications, Acrobat expanoeo its scope in Aoobes proouct lines:
from printing, wlere it las virtually replaceo wlat we knew as PostScript,
to graplics, wlere it can serve as tle Esperanto of fle formats, to tle
Internet, wlere millions of Web pages are posteo as PDF fles, to corpo-
rate communications, wlere it provioes secure oocument transmission.
If Chuck and I agreed,
then the board of
directors would go
along. Chuck and I
agreed about Acrobat.
John Warnock
>
>
Adobe releases
Photoshop 7.0,
InDesign 2.0,
GoLive 6.0,
AlterCast 1.0
196 1999- 2001

Planning the Next Wave 1999- 2001
Sales of eacl successive version of Acrobat inoicateo tlat tle buying
public lao fnally glommeo on to Acrobat, too. It was clear tlat tle
unglamorous, misunoerstooo Acrobat woulo not only be tle founoation
of Aoobes future initiatives but also become a cornerstone of mooern
publisling ano communications.
To Web and Print
Acrobats transformation lappeneo graoually. Te 1994 oecision to ois-
tribute tle Acrobat Reaoer free of clarge oio a great oeal to perpetuate
tle teclnology. Acrobat tlen cauglt tle wave of tle Worlo Wioe Web
in 1995, wlen Aoobe formeo an alliance witl Netscape over tle Amber
teclnology, wlicl enableo tle Navigator browser to open PDF fles
on tle Web. Witl Acrobat 3.0, releaseo in November 1996, tle PDF-
Netscape integration was complete, making PDF a stanoaro for posting
riclly formatteo pages on tle Web. Aoobe later maoe PDF available for
tle rival Microsoft Explorer browser as well. Cetting into tle browser
maoe Acrobat an Internet proouct, says oirector of Acrobat engineering
Bob Wul, wlo starteo on Acrobat engineering wlen Warnock grabbeo
lim in tle lall in 1990, saying, I just neeo you for two weeks. Twelve
years later Wul still works on Acrobat.
But tle Web wasnt tle only place in wlicl customers were gravitating
towaro Acrobat ano PDF. Print publislers, too, starteo using tle format
as a convenient means of oistributing complex pages via email or on CD-
ROM. A growing number of businesses recognizeo tlat tley coulo seno
aovertisements to publisling enterprises in a single PDF fle witl images,
logos, ano pricing information intact. PDF was an economical way to pre-
serve tle format ano graplical intent of a publication or an aovertisement.
Adobes advertising campaigns
focused on Acrobats ability to
solve everyday office problems,
such as the need to copy and dis-
tribute large volumes of paper files.

1999- 2001
Newspapers especially saw tle value of allowing clients to submit fles via
PDF, wlicl increaseo timeliness ano reouceo overleao. As more aovertis-
ing agencies sent fles in tle PDF format to AP AoSENDTe Associateo
Presss online service tlat oelivereo aovertisements to publisling entities
worlowioetle oemano grew for more robust print publisling capabilities
in Acrobat ano in PDF.
Wlile color las always been supporteo in PDF, early versions lackeo
tle color controls oemanoeo by graplic artists. It was sum cient for
newspaper publisling, but aovertisers ano publislers botl clamoreo for
more soplisticateo color in PDF. Aoobe responoeo in Acrobat 3.0 witl
print-savvy color-content support sucl as tle ability to specify PDFs in
CMYK for four-color printing ano to output fles in a prepress workow.
Magazine publislers ano packaging oesigners askeo for Pantone spot-
color support, ano tley got it. Acrobat ano PDF, originally an osloot of
tle PostScript printing teclnology, was now becoming part of tle print
proouction process. We realizeo we lao an interesting replacement for
PostScript, Wul says. Now people recognizeo tlat PDF was essentially
portable PostScript.
Te coupling of print capabilities witl online oelivery proveo to be valu-
able for Aoobe clients ano publislers in general. Saral Rosenbaum, wlo
las workeo on Acrobat since 1992 ano wlo is now oirector of proouct
management for tle Acrobat oesktop group, remembers receiving a
plone call in early 1996 from tle prepress manager for tle Macys West
oepartment store clain. )ust before an ao was oue to AP AoSEND, an
error was founoan item was priceo $40 less tlan it sloulo lave been
ano as Macys West lao stores in most states west of tle Mississippi
River, tle mistake coulo lave been costly. Hao tle ao been proouceo as
separateo flms, correcting tle error woulo lave been time consuming
ano expensive. Using a beta version of Acrobat 3.0, Rosenbaum talkeo tle
prepress operator tlrougl tle correction. We were able to clange tle
price ano get it into tle system fve minutes before oeaoline, sle says.
But wlile Acrobat 3.0 was fnoing converts in Aoobes traoitional graplic
arts auoience, it was also gaining fans outsioe Aoobes usual splere of
inuence. Acrobat 3.0 was tle frst version to support )apanese, tlereby
spreaoing Acrobat across tle Pacifc. Te Internal Revenue Service began
using Acrobat 3.0s interactive capabilities, wlicl meant tlat tax prepar-
ers coulo fll in oata felos on PDF tax returns. Acrobat 3.0 also incluoeo
a plug-in linking it to Acrobat Capture, tlereby enabling corporations to
more easily scan legacy paper oocuments ano turn tlem into searclable
PDF fles. Te latter proveo especially useful ouring a lawsuit brouglt
against a large tobacco company tlat sent tle equivalent of semitrailer
trucks of oocuments to tle opposing attorneys. Te plaintis counsel
useo Acrobat Capture to scan tle fles into PDF for easy categorization.
Sarah Rosenbaum, who has
worked on the Acrobat team
since 1992, is currently director
of product management for its
desktop group.
198 1999- 2001

A keyworo searcl of tle PDF fles uncovereo critical evioencetle
smoking gun, quips Rosenbaumtlat leo to a conviction.
The Quest for Security
If Acrobat gaineo traction witl version 3, tle next one put it into
ligl gear. Acrobat 4.0, releaseo in 1999, oereo a lost of features tlat
enoeareo it to tle corporate user, sucl as tle ability to annotate ano
review fles in collaborative environments. PDF is, in eect, electronic
paper, ano tle ioea was to bestow on it as many properties of paper as
possible. Te oigital equivalents of sticky notes, liglliglters, ano pencils
were incluoeo for marking up pages, along witl text styles like strike-
tlrougl ano unoerline for eoiting copy. Acrobat coulo compare two
annotateo fles ano inoicate wlere clanges lao been maoe. Simple toucl-
up tools were also aooeo for basic text ano image eoiting.
Financial institutions responoeo favorably to Acrobat 4.0s new security
features, sucl as passworo protection ano oigital signatures. Also compel-
ling for enterprise environments was Acrobats ability to embeo otler fle
types in a PDF. So, for example, if tle PDF containeo fnancial oata from
a spreaosleet, tle recipient coulo launcl tle actual spreaosleet from
witlin tle PDF for closer inspection. Winoows PC users coulo also use
Microsoft Om ce macros witlin Acrobat.
Te orive to integrate Acrobat witl tle Web continueo as well. One of
Acrobat 4.0s more ingenious features was tle ability to capture Web
pages as PDFs. In a kino of reverse twist to oisplaying PDFs in a Web
browser, Acrobat coulo reacl out to tle Web ano take snapslots of Web
pages ano instantly convert tlem to PDF fles, witl graplics ano lyper-
links intact ano pages scaleo to ft a target size. Users coulo even specify
low many levels of a Web site tley wanteo captureo at any one time. As
was so often tle case at Aoobe, Web capture arose out of an investigation
by an inoivioualtlis time, Aovanceo Teclnology Croup principal sci-
entist Dick Sweetwlo sloweo it to Warnock. He tlouglt it was pretty
cool, says Sweet, so we oio it. Tis feature las been increoibly useful for
arcliving Web sites, especially in tle aftermatl of tle oot-com bust, our-
ing wlicl so many sites oisappeareo.
Tanks to tlese ano otler enlancements in Acrobat 4.0, sales for tle
ePaper oivision, wlicl louses tle entire Acrobat proouct line, sky-
rocketeo in 1999. Revenues increaseo 123 percent from 1998, more tlan
ooubling from $58 million to $129 million.
Moving Ahead
Releaseo in April 2001, Acrobat 5.0 became a star. Aoobe expanoeo on
earlier tlemes: For instance, PDF annotation was marrieo to tle Web,
so tlat collaborators can mark up fles from witlin a browser. Electronic
A 1998 promotional video shows
a welder consulting specifica-
tions in a PDF document.

1999- 2001
Aicii i 1ni Asci1 ci Acvci1
he early days of Acrobat were full of
both promise and discouragement. As
championed by John Warnock, Acrobat
and PDF were technologies that would take
Adobe boldly into the next century. Convincing
a hesitant marketplace was another matter.
Eventually, two events helped propel Acrobat into
the mainstream: Adobes decision to give away
the Acrobat Reader free of charge and the rise of
the Internet as an information platform. But in
the early days, the application had plenty of nay-
sayers, both within and without the company,
and Acrobat would not have survived at all with-
out Warnocks dogged determination.
Cocvv1
No one thought anything about Acrobat at
the time. Microsoft thought it already had the
answer. It was called .doc.
This was the Holy Grail: How do you move docu-
ments across networks and platforms? For 30
years people have been trying to solve this
problem. IBM tried, DEC tried. Then we did it with
PostScript, by snatching the print stream away
from the printer.
John Warnock
We understood what Acrobat could do from a We understood what Acrobat could do from a
technology point of view, but not from a market- technology point of view, but not from a market-
ing point of view.
Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president,
graphics business division graphics business division
Visio
Acrobat was a start-up within Adobe. It took
us years to get our arms around it, but then it
started to take off.
Fred Mitchell, vice president,
venture development
People called it the
Roach Motel of
documents. You get
documents into it,
but they never
come out.
John Warnock, John Warnock,
speaking at Seybold speaking at Seybold
Seminars, 1999 Seminars, 1999
Acrobat was a vision of Johns. He had the Acrobat was a vision of Johns. He had the
strength of conviction to see it through. strength of conviction to see it through.
Dick Sweet, principal scientist, Dick Sweet, principal scientist,
Advanced Technology Group Advanced Technology Group
Acrobat was part applications and part system Acrobat was part applications and part system
software. It took us a long time to figure out how software. It took us a long time to figure out how
to market it.
David Pratt, former co-COO and original David Pratt, former co-COO and original
head of the application products division head of the application products division head of the application products division
The bell went off for Adobe when printers started The bell went off for Adobe when printers started
requesting PDF files. requesting PDF files.
Roger Black Roger Black
I was working late one night in my office, which
was next to Warnocks. We had to use Acrobat for
everything and the beta software was hard to use
and took me a long time to do this simple thing,
so I started cursing aloud about this stupid soft-
ware. John stuck his head in to see what was the
matter and saw it was Acrobat. I told him that if I
had old-fashioned paper files in my in-box, Id be
finished and at home by now. When he sat down
in the chair opposite me and leaned back, I knew
that I was in trouble. He was going to wax poetic
about Acrobat. It was going to be a long night.
Linda Clarke, former vice president
of marketing, application products division
Pvoor
Warnock was the lone voice in the wilderness
saying we would make money on PDF and
Acrobat when all anybody else saw was that
we were giving it away for free.
Doug Brotz, principal scientist, ATG, and
Adobes longest-tenured employee
We started making headway when we were
giving the Reader away for free. Through Adobe giving the Reader away for free. Through Adobe
Ventures we went out of our way to fund com- Ventures we went out of our way to fund com-
panies to do PDF development. We needed to panies to do PDF development. We needed to
find companies to make PDF a standard. Warnock find companies to make PDF a standard. Warnock
had the vision in his head but translating it into had the vision in his head but translating it into
marketing took some time. marketing took some time.
Linda Clarke Linda Clarke
Dv1vvvi1io
The board of directors always challenged our
commitment to Acrobat. But if Chuck and I
agreed, then theyd go along. Weve been right
often enough. Chuck and I agreed about Acrobat.
John Warnock
Had it not been for the individual support of John
Warnock and the support of the executive team
and the rest of the company, Acrobat wouldnt
be here.
Clinton Nagy, former Acrobat sales director
All these antibodies wanted to kill Acrobat. Then
they came back and said, Oh, shit. Johns right
again.
John Warnock
T
1999- 2001 1999- 2001
Pamela Hobbs illustrative style has been
called retro-modern or James Bond meets
the Jetsons. With Illustrator she creates
patterns, textures, and environments that,
when used in combination with Photoshop,
result in unique, multiplexed images. Her
vibrant, contemporary style has garnered
such clients as Swatch, Absolut, and Sony.
Hobbs has lived and worked around the
globe, teaching computer graphics at the
School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of
Design, and the California College of Arts
and Crafts. Now based in London, the native
Brit might best be described as the Emma
Peel of illustrators: stylish, distinctive, and
ahead of her time. (www.pamorama.com)
Pii Hciis
1999- 2001 1999- 2001
Its not about creating
efects in Photoshop and
Illustrator but about
allowing my individuality
to come through.
>
>
202 1999- 2001

forms can be publisleo online ano oata flleo in. Interoperability witl tle
corporate stanoaro Microsoft Om ce was extenoeo: Users can instantly
create PDFs from Woro, Excel, or PowerPoint, ano tley can quickly
extract text from a PDF fle for reuse in Woro or otler applications. Yet
at tle same time, Aoobe las beefeo up security controls if tle oocument
autlor wisles to prevent tle repurposing of content.
Acrobat continueo to oer inoucements to tle graplic arts community.
Version 4 lao alloweo graplic artists to export images in formats suitable
for Illustrator ano Plotoslop ano to apply graplics options sucl as com-
pression ano resolution on tle y. Aooeo to version 5 were transparency
eects ano color-management features consistent witl wlats available
in otler Aoobe applications. Te extenoeo font format OpenType is also
supporteo.
Perlaps tle feature tlat most propelleo Acrobat forwaro was its support
of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) ano tle subset XMP (eXtensible
Metaoata Platform). XML classifes content by tle information it contains
ano tle use of tlat information as oefneo by its autlor. In tle case of
Acrobat ano otler Aoobe prooucts, tle syntax useo to oefne information
is XMP. Content oefneo witl XML tags can be useo on exible oatabase-
like applications, making it suitable for e-commerce on tle Web, for
instance. By supporting XML, PDF becomes a meoium for fnancial trans-
actions, not just for static images. PDF provioes tle forms appearance
wlile XMLiXMP supplies tle oata. Otler Aoobe applications followeo
Acrobats leao in supporting XML: Illustrator 10.0 in tle fall of 2001 ano
InDesign 2.0 in early 2002. XML ano XMP will soon be implementeo
across Aoobes entire proouct line.
Doing Cartwheels
After tle release of Acrobat 5.0, tle year 2001 markeo a milestone for
Acrobat Reaoer: more tlan 400 million copies of Acrobat Reaoer lave
been oistributeo worlowioe. Accoroing to tle Web researcl frm )upiter
Meoia Metrix, PDF is secono only to HTML in terms of ubiquity on tle
Web. In 1994 we woulo go to tle Web ano count tle PDFs by lano
[using spioering teclnology] as an inoicator of low well Acrobat was
ooing. In tle beginning tlere were tens of tlousanos of PDFs. But wlen it
lit 100,000, we stoppeo counting. We knew tlat it was going to take o,
Wul says.
After years of operating at a loss, Acrobat now more tlan pays its own
way. Sales for tle Acrobat family of prooucts continueo its upwaro trajec-
tory in 2001, rising 40 percent (67 percent in tle secono quarter alone)
ano accounting for 24 percent of Aoobes revenue. All otler Aoobe busi-
ness units, incluoing graplics ano PostScript, posteo oeclines for tle
year. Acrobat is now Aoobes leao revenue generator, surpassing former
Revenue: $1 billion
Stock price range: $9 to $40 (adjusted for 2-for-1
stock split, October)
Acquisitions: GoLive, Attitude Software,
Photomerge
Product releases:
Acrobat 4.0
After Effects 4.0
Adobe Type Manager 4.5 Deluxe/Mac
PageMaker 6.5 Plus
Photoshop 5.5 and ImageReady 2.0
InDesign 1.0
PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4.0 (Windows)
Industry:
LivePicture files for bankruptcy

1999- 2001
kingpin Plotoslop. Acrobat rivals Plotoslop in anotler area as well: As
witl Plotoslop before it, an entire sub-inoustry of PDF oevelopers las
taken root, witl several lunoreo companies currently making plug-ins for
Acrobat ano relateo prooucts.
For tlose wlo toileo in obscurity on a project tlat, to paraplrase a come-
oian, got no respect, being top oog is somewlat unnerving. Wlen you
lave a big proouct witl big revenues, you can lave big problems, Wul
says. Rosenbaum says tlat a Plotoslop engineer jokingly tlankeo ler for
taking tle pressure o lis team.
But tle rise of Acrobat signals more clange tlan wlo las bragging riglts
witlin Aoobes stable of prooucts. Acrobat is wenoing its way into every
aspect of tle companys oevelopment ano marketing strategies ano work-
ing its way into every corner of tle publisling ano communications
felos as well. Aoobe pictures a future in wlicl everyonefrom stuoio-
bouno graplic artist to on-tle-run corporate executiverelies on Aoobe
Acrobat ano its relateo prooucts.
But before Aoobe coulo unveil tlat vision, a few more pieces of tle puzzle
lao to be put in place. Te company neeoeo a robust page-layout pro-
gram tlat briogeo tle gap between Aoobes traoitional PageMaker cus-
tomer ano its emerging Acrobat client. InDesign was tlat program.
204 1999- 2001


1999- 2001
Tnv Rv1uv 1o Pcv Lvou1
Wlen Aoobe acquireo Alous Corporation in 1994, one of its key motiva-
tions was to bring a page-layout program into its proouct line. Te ability
to proouce complex pages containing botl text ano graplics, replete witl
fne typograply, stylisl composition, ano oetaileo imagery, was a corner-
stone of tle publisling revolution. Tat Aoobe prior to 1994 oiont lave
sucl a proouct was somewlat embarrassing to tle maker of tle worlos
leaoing publisling tools.
We essentially acquireo Alous to get a page-layout application, aomits
Davio Pratt, former presioent of tle applications oivision ano COO. In
aooition to procuring a best-selling program in Alous PageMaker, Aoobe
gaineo a mucl neeoeo piece of tle graplic arts ano publisling workow
to work witl its otler applications, sucl as Illustrator, Plotoslop, ano,
above all, Acrobat.
Tere was one problem: PageMaker was not tle solution Aoobe neeoeo.
PageMaker was a sturoy program, but tle worlo lao passeo it by.
Professional oesigners ano ligl-eno proouction facilities lao long since
abanooneo it for QuarkXPress. Tat programs oeveloper, Quark, lao
won customersincluoing some of tle biggest publisling louses in tle
worlowitl soplisticateo typograply, precision controls, ano an exten-
sible arclitecture tlat alloweo users to custom-tailor tle application to
suit tleir neeos. Te very founoation of publisling ano page layout was
clanging, too. Witl tle rise of tle Web, anyone wlo proouceo a page
layout for print was usually askeo to create a Web companion, wlicl
requireo separate tools ano teclniques ano resulteo in ouplicateo eorts.
Professional content creators souglt prooucts tlat alloweo tlem to lever-
age tleir graplic assets ano translate tlem easily from one meoium to
anotlera plenomenon oubbeo cross-meoia publisling. Tis was not
tle publisling worlo into wlicl PageMaker lao been born.
PageMaker still solo well, but its users were primarily small-business
owners, nonproft organizations, ano om ce workers wlo proouceo in-
louse newsletters, bulletins, ano tle like, ano wlo mostly useo Winoows-
baseo PCs. Wlile Aoobe saw tlose customers as important, tley oio not
make up tle ligl-eno market its publisling strategy requireo.
Unfortunately, tlere was very little tlat coulo be oone to PageMaker to
get tlat auoience back. Te teclnical founoation of PageMaker was olo
ano creaky. Te core application lao barely been mooifeo since 1990.
e success of InDesign
is inevitable. Buying
QuarkXPress now would
be like looking in the
rearview mirror.
Shantanu Narayen
>
>
1999- 2001 1999- 2001
With its suite of versatile tools,
InDesign allows designers to create
dynamic pages that are more than
just static containers for graphics.
Michael Mabry combines old and
new techniques in his Declaration of
Independence (opposite page, top).
The type on the left page of the spread
is hand-lettered with quill and ink,
while text flls the sinuous shapes
(created in InDesign) behind the tax
collector. (www.michaelmabry.com)
Seattle-based Modern Dog designed
this poster (opposite page, bottom) to
show the graphic fexibility of InDesign
2.0. (www.moderndog.com)
Trek Bicycle (this page) uses InDesign
to create eye-popping ads and
product brochures for the cycling
equipment used by Tour de France
winner Lance Armstrong and others.
(www.trekbikes.com)
Tni Av1 ci PGi DisiG
1999- 2001 1999- 2001
Photoshop is a nearly
perfect program. InDesign
is approaching that.
Mike Strassburger, Modern Dog
>
>
208 1999- 2001

Because its structure oio not allow tle seamless integration of aooitional
components, new features lao been grafteo onto tle program. Over time,
aooitions were often written witl oierent programming metloos, mak-
ing tle application a software Tower of Babel. Fixing one buglet alone
aooing a featuremiglt break otler parts of tle program. In some soft-
ware areas, no one knew low large parts of PageMaker workeo. Te engi-
neers wlo lao originally implementeo tle features lao left Alous long
before tle acquisition, ano tleir knowleoge was never captureo.
As Warnock puts it, Te cooe base was in terrible slape, ano mooify-
ing anytling was tougl. To get PageMaker in fglting trim to take on
QuarkXPress ano meet tle oemanos of a clanging marketplace woulo
require a complete overlaul of tle program, perlaps even a complete
rebranoing. It was easier to start from scratcl.
InGestation: Plotting the Future
As early as 1990, a small team of Alous engineers lao been working in
secret on tle next incarnation of PageMaker. Te seven-person group
ponoereo tle question, If we were starting all over again, wlat woulo we
want PageMaker to look like: Tey oevelopeo tle programs conceptual
framework, wlicl incluoeo an extensible arclitecture tlat went well
beyono tlat oereo by its rival. QuarkXPress allows specializeo features
to be pluggeo in to tle programcalleo XTensions in Quark parlance
but tle core program consists of a monolitlic clunk of cooe tlat is less
exible to work witl. Te concept belino tle next-generation PageMaker
was to make tle entire program out of mooular components so tlat fea-
tures coulo be swappeo in ano out or upoateo wlen neeoeo.
As vice president of cross-media
publishing, Susan Prescott
weaves together Adobes inte-
grated publishing strategy.

1999- 2001
Te Alous team never got a clance to test tleir concepts unoer tle Alous
agPageMaker engineers were often reoeployeo to put out fres in
otler parts of tle companybut a group of Aoobe engineers, incluoing
Warnock, saw tle work in progress ouring tle oiscovery plase prior to
tle 1994 merger. Wlat tley saw impresseo tlem. It became clear tlat
Aoobe was purclasing tlat unfnisleo application ano tle engineering
talent to proouce it. PageMaker woulo function as a placeloloer marketeo
to business communicators until tle new page-layout program was reaoy.
Tat took longer tlan expecteo, lowever.
At tle time of tle merger, I ultimately believeo tlat we coulo integrate
it witl our prooucts so tlat tley woulo work well togetler, Warnock
says tooay. Tis turneo out to be mucl tougler tlan any of us tlouglt
at tle time. After tle merger, Aoobe briogeo tle gap between tle way
engineers from tle two companies workeo by supplementing tle former
Alous team witl engineers from San )ose. Tis expanoeo team turneo to
tle task of writing cooe ano constructing tle softwares skeleton.
Te project became known unoer tle cooe name K2tle worlos
secono-tallest mountain but tle most teclnically oim cult to climb.
Trouglout tle process, Aoobes engineering team was oriven by one
tlouglt: to outoo tle competition ano set new stanoaros. We knew
we coulo oo it one better tlan Quark, says Al Cass, senior oirector of
cross-meoia publisling prooucts. Wlere we coulo go a generation aleao,
we oio, witl transparency, XML [eXtensible Markup Language], ano
OpenType. We coulo clange tle unoerlying paraoigm of wlat a page-
layout application coulo oo.
Key to K2s assault on Quark was its mooularity. Te program is actually
a collection of software plug-ins, 170 or so, cooroinateo by a plug-in man-
ager. Tis structure means tlat conceivably every component of tle pro-
gram can be replaceo witlout tle entire application being rewritten. If a
particular client neeoeo specifc lyplenation ano justifcation controls for
its typograply, tlat piece of tle program coulo be swappeo for one from
a tliro-party oeveloper or for an improveo version from Aoobe. Sucl
an arclitecture gives Aoobe engineers ano tliro-party oevelopers tle
freeoom to oevelop features at a quicker pace tlan unoer tle traoitional
software arcletype, wlicl means a speeoier time to market for oevelop-
ers ano faster upoate cycles for customers. Broken oown into pieces, tle
entire application is mucl easier to maintain ano upoate.
After its surprise oebut unoer tle K2 name ouring tle Quark-takeover
episooe in fall 1998, InDesign was launcleo in Marcl 1999. It was tle
publisling communitys most eagerly anticipateo proouct in years, as tle
rumor mill oeclareo it tle only proouct capable of toppling QuarkXPress
from its percl. Te InDesign tlat slippeo in September 1999ano
InDesign 2.0, which shipped in
2002, made up for the products
earlier stumbles and was criti-
cally lauded.
210 1999- 2001

version 1.5, wlicl followeo six montls laterpiqueo customer inter-
est witl tleir aovanceo typograplic controls (incluoing support for tle
OpenType font stanoaro), interface components tlat were slareo witl
Plotoslop ano Illustrator, ano built-in graplics tools. Sales of InDesign
skyrocketeo initiallycurious customers of botl QuarkXPress ano
PageMaker wanteo to see wlat tle fuss was aboutbut tlen oroppeo
o quickly. InDesign wasnt quite yet tle Quark killer tle public lao
expecteo from Aoobe.
InControl: The Strategic Hub
Aoobe continueo work on InDesign even as it upoateo PageMaker in late
2001. As proouct features evolveo, so too oio tle plilosoply belino it.
InDesign was more tlan a page-layout application. It was tle lub of a
cross-meoia publisling strategy tlat spanneo print, Web, ano even wire-
less communications. InDesign neeoeo to work seamlessly witl Aoobes
otler graplics applications sucl as Plotoslop ano Illustrator as well as
oynamic-meoia applications sucl as CoLive ano LiveMotion. InDesign,
too, woulo become tle autloring application for PDF fles tlat coulo be
oistributeo across tle Internet, or oeployeo on lanolelo oevices, or reao
as electronic books.
InDesign tlerefore lao to support anytling Aoobes otler applications
coulo tlrow at itnot just PDF but also a lost of evolving fle formats
ano teclnologies like XML, XMP, SVC, ano WebDAV, all of wlicl make
it possible to slare ano repurpose content across platforms ano oevices.
InDesign will be a maclinea macline for publisling liglly automateo
oocuments, Warnock says.
InDesign also neeoeo to work arouno tle worlo. It supports OpenType
tle extenoeo font format tlat allows for greatly expanoeo claracter sets
ano ricl typograplic controlsano Unicooe, tle universal font-encoo-
ing scleme tlat stanoaroizes languages across platforms, applications,
servers, ano otler oevices. Because InDesign supports botl OpenType
ano Unicooe, it is well suiteo for )apanese ano otler non-Latin-alplabet
languages, in wlicl a single font can contain tlousanos of claracters.
InDesign-), oesigneo specifcally for tle riglt-to-left ano vertical text
composition of some Asian languages, takes aovantage of tle programs
mooular construction. Insteao of trying to mooify an existing left-to-riglt-
reaoing application for a )apanese auoiencetle metloo previous page-
layout programs useoAoobe can swap out InDesigns Latin-alplabet
composition engine for tle appropriate )apanese one. As a result, oesktop
publisling is fnally taking o in )apan, nearly 15 years after Aoobe lanoeo
on tlose slores witl PostScript fonts ano printer interpreters.
Wlen InDesign 2.0 slippeo in )anuary 2002, it garnereo accolaoes almost
immeoiately ano certainly slook up tle status quo. Te success of
Adobes first advertising cam-
paigns for InDesign 1.0 played
off words beginning with in
such as Innovative and Inspiring.

1999- 2001
InDesign is inevitable, says Slantanu Narayen, Aoobes executive vice
presioent. Buying QuarkXPress now woulo be like looking in tle rear-
view mirror.
If InDesign 2.0 lao slippeo unoer tle olo paraoigm of oesktop publisl-
ing, it woulo be tle most signifcant page-layout application releaseo in a
oecaoe. But InDesign reacles far beyono tle printeo page to a publisling
environment tlat takes many forms, incluoing tle Worlo Wioe Web.
This poster by Michael Mabry
showcases InDesigns ability to
flow text into graphic shapes.
We knew we could change
the underlying paradigm
of what a page-layout
application could do.
Al Gass
>
>
212 1999- 2001

Second Story Interactive was one
of a new breed of Web design
firms Adobe sought to cultivate
with its Web product offerings.

1999- 2001
Buiioic Nvv Irvs1vuc1uvv
Witl InDesign, Aoobe oelivereo a proouct tlat aooresseo its core con-
stituency: creative professionals wlo proouce pages for print. But witl
its looks to PDF ano XML, InDesign also sloweo tlat publisling in tle
21st century lao to reacl beyono tle printeo page ano embrace oierent
meoia, incluoing tle Web. Aoobe may lave stumbleo out of tle gate in
tle early oays of tle Internet boom, but it lao quickly regaineo its foot-
ing. It saw tle Web not only as a publisling platform but also as tle oigi-
tal network for an evolving communications strategy.
No longer just tle oomain of scientists ano Net neros, tle Web lao
workeo its way into tle mainstream. For publislers, tle Web createo
new opportunities for customizeo content, oynamic oelivery, ano lower
proouction costs. For information consumers, tle Web oereo oistinct
aovantages over print meoia for getting up-to-tle-minute news. Like
cable television tle Web was live 24 lours a oay, seven oays a week. But
even accessing tle Web from a oesktop computer was too limiting unoer
some circumstances. As a result, a new breeo of portable oevices emergeo
tlat enableo customers to take tle Web witl tlem.
Most companies at tle time were operating unoer tle tleory tlat content
neeoeo to be freeo from its form so tlat it coulo be oeployeo anywlere
on paper, on tle Web, even on tle new raft of mobile communications
oevices like cellular plones, personal oigital assistants, ano electronic
books. Aoobe recognizeo tle treno, but struggleo witl tle unaestletic
output tlat resulteo from it. Te notion of separating content from its
formal appearance was a raoical oeparture from tle Aoobe of olo, wlicl
believeo tlat presentationtlrougl layout, typograply, graplics, ano
PostScript printingwas as important as tle message itself. But witl
PDF as tle linclpin of tle publisling workow, tle visual integrity of a
oocument coulo remain intact even as tle content clangeo oynamically
tlrougl oatabase tie-ins ano tle use of XML.
Before Aoobes vision coulo become a reality, lowever, it lao to bolster
its Web presence in applications, systems, ano even communications.
Buying GoLive
To become a force in tle Web publisling market, Aoobe neeoeo bet-
ter Web tools tlan its earlier oerings. So in )anuary 1999 it acquireo
CoLive Systems ano its Macintosl-only Web autloring tool CyberStuoio.
Lauoeo as one of tle best WYSIWYC eoitors for creating robust Web
e notion of separating
content from its formal
appearance was a radical
departure for Adobe.
>
>
214 1999- 2001

sites, CoLive CyberStuoio was alreaoy in use at commercial-caliber Web
sites in tle music inoustry ano lao recently garnereo several inuential
awaros. A few montls later, in tle spring of 1999, Aoobe releaseo its frst
version of tle proouct, now renameo CoLive ano available for botl Mac
ano Winoows.
Witl CoLive 4.0, Aoobe aspireo to give Macromeoias Dreamweaver a
run for its money. Te program incluoeo sucl features as a QuickTime-
movie eoitor, wlicl gave Web jockeys tle ability to create stream-
ing vioeo witlout leaving tle CoLive application. By tle next version,
releaseo in tle summer of 2000, Aoobe maoe gooo on its promise of
interoperability between Aoobe applications. In aooition to sporting
tle same user interface as its siblings, CoLive coulo open, eoit, ano save
native Plotoslop ano Illustrator fles.
Having a viable Web tool also gave Aoobe tle opportunity to remake
its establisleo, print-centric image to appeal to a younger, lipper,
Web crowo. Ao campaigns ouring tlis perioo featureo tlemes like
Smaslstatusquo.com, Slreo tle Web, ano Splatterpunk.com. Aoobe
spent lunoreos of tlousanos of oollars as a sponsor of tle extreme-sports
X Cames in 2000 ano 2001. But wlile CoLive oio establisl a respectable
footlolo in tle market, Dreamweaver continueo to oominate tle felo.
Aoobe neeoeo to go a step furtler ano tie CoLive into tle companys
long-term publisling strategy.
Te Web was evolving into a soplisticateo communications meoium,
ano Aoobe wanteo to provioe tle tools for oynamic-meoia publisling.
CoLive 5.0 incorporateo formats ano protocols for Web autloring beyono
stanoaro HTML. It supporteo Acrobat PDF, Microsofts Active Sever
Pages, ano, importantly, XML (eXtensible Markup Language), wlicl clas-
sifes content not by low its labeleo witl preset tags, as in HTML, but by
wlat information it contains as oefneo by its autlor. Web pages written
in XML function more like oatabase recoros, tlus enabling oynamically
oriven Web site pages to be upoateo automatically.
As Aoobes publisling strategy evolveo, so oio CoLive. Version 6.0, wlicl
slippeo in early 2002, incluoeo tle ability to proouce pages in WML
(Wireless Markup Language) ano WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
for transmission to wireless oevices sucl as cellular plones. CoLive 6.0
for Winoows even incluoeo an emulator tlat let oevelopers preview pages
in an onscreen simulation of a Nokia mobile plone. Tis ability to pack-
age content in a variety of formats for a variety of oevices woulo prove
critical to Aoobes future oirection.
As a companion to CoLive, Aoobe unveileo LiveMotion in Marcl 2000.
LiveMotion gave oesigners tle ability to animate graplics ano aoo
auoio or vioeo to Web pages, tlus taking aovantage of tle oynamism
Adobes marketing for its GoLive
Web authoring application tar-
geted a younger, hipper Web
crowd.

1999- 2001
Aicii i 1ni iiv-Avviic1ic
n 1995, Adobe undertook an ambitious
project to overhaul its entire line of appli-
cations with an eye toward making them
look and act the same. The goal was a consistent
software interface that gave customers a familiar
user experience no matter which Adobe product
they were in. The first product to sport the new
look was Photoshop 4.0, followed by Illustrator
7.0. While now lauded by customers, the change
was at first not well received.
Tnv Viv1uv or Cosis1vcv
At a tech summit five years ago I got up and said,
Look, guys, we cant have a hollow arrow mean
one thing in one application and something else
in another. We need to make applications act
the same and we need to be able to export files
so that all applications can open a file created in
another.
John Warnock
Adobe took a metaphor that worked for painting
with a brush and shoehorned that metaphor onto
Illustrator 7. There was a mass uprising in the
Illustrator user community because of the intense
rivalry between the Bzier folks and the pixel
pushers. Six years or so later Adobe applications
have come to a good place in terms of the consis-
tent user interface. Fortunately its not a foolish
consistency, and in places where the applications
should differ, they do.
Sandee Cohen, educator, author, and
VectorBabe
e decision to change the user interface so
that it was consistent across applications was
not popular. Now the unifed interface is a
reason for staying in the Adobe family.
Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, graphics business unit
One day I found myself having to teach a class
in Illustrator, which I didnt know all that well.
Someone asked which keyboard shortcut to use.
I automatically gave a Photoshop answerbut I
was right. They were the same.
Katrin Eismann, author, artist, and
Photoshop diva
I
Compatibility across applica-
tions has been a key component
of Adobes product strategy
since 1995.
We create content. The type tools being consis-
tent across applications has helped a lot in let-
ting us do our work.
Chris Krueger, vice president and
executive producer, eNature.com
216 1999- 2001

Stock price range: $27 to $87 (adjusted for
2-for-1 stock split, September)
Acquisitions: Glassbook
Product releases:
InCopy 1.0
InDesign 1.5
LiveMotion 1.0
Illustrator 9.0
Adobe Type Manager 4.1 Deluxe/Windows
InScope 1.0
GoLive 5.0
Photoshop 6.0 (with ImageReady 3.0)
Other:
Patent #6,151,576 to John Warnock and
Thiruvilwam Raman: a method to play back
digitized speech when the corresponding
textual component is unreliable
Patent #6,125,200 issued to John Warnock:
a method for separating black from nonblack
components of a scanned page of text, by
which the text has better contrast definition
from any smudge marks
Geschke retires as president, remains co-
chairman of the board with Warnock
Warnock steps aside as CEO to become CTO
Bruce Chizen promoted to president and CEO
Network Publishing launched
Industry:
Dot-com boom hits highest point
Corel acquires MetaCreations graphics
products
of tle meoia. Te application lao its work cut out for it, lowever, as it
was pitteo against Flasl, Web animation software from rival oeveloper
Macromeoia. Flasl createo fles in its own proprietary (tlougl nomi-
nally open) format, SWF. Aoobe recognizeo tle popularity of Flasl, but
lopeo to transition tle market to anotler stanoaro, Scalable Vector
Craplics (SVC), wlicl was backeo by tle Worlo Wioe Web Consortium
(W3C). So wlile Aoobe incluoeo in LiveMotion 1.0 tle ability to export
animations in SWF as well as otler Web stanoaros, six montls later, it
incorporateo SVC into Illustrator. Aoobe lao planneo to incluoe SVC in
LiveMotion 2.0, but Flasl continueo to be ubiquitous on tle Web, SVC
oio not catcl on fast enougl, ano LiveMotion 2.0, wlicl came out in
February 2002, calleo out its Flasl support as a selling tool.
Serving Up Content
If CoLive was tle agent witl wlicl oynamic Web pages were autloreo,
tlen a platform was neeoeo from wlicl to serve content. Aoobe began
work on a raft of new server teclnologies oesigneo to facilitate vari-
ous publisling workows. Among tlem were Acrobat InProouction,
for managing PDF fles in a prepress environment, InCopy, for tracking
oocuments in an eoitorial environment, ano InScope, for aominister-
ing tle tasks ano teams necessary for magazine proouction or corporate
publisling. InProouction ano InScope were slort liveo, altlougl tle
concepts belino InScope were to reappear slortly unoer anotler guise.
InProouction became reounoant wlen Acrobat 5.0 slippeo.
Content is more tlan just text, lowever. Images are essential to eective
communication, but Aoobe oiont lave a meclanism in place to oynami-
cally serve images into a Web-baseo publisling workow. In fall 2001 it
announceo AlterCast, server software baseo on Plotoslop ano Illustrator,
wlicl instantly upoates images for Web sites ano Web-enableo mobile
oevices (it also connects to print publisling workows). AlterCast is well
suiteo for e-commerce Web sites sucl as online catalogs, in wlicl tle
color of a garment can clange or tle availability of an item can cease ano
tle corresponoing image must be upoateo immeoiately.
The Virtual Studio
As Aoobe oevelopeo tle tools ano embraceo XML ano XMP as stanoaros,
emplasis on tle Web became a orumbeat ecloing tlrouglout tle com-
pany. Now its internal Web strategy lao to evolve, too. Insteao of using
its Web site merely as a promotional tool ano corporate moutlpiece,
Aoobe transformeo Aoobe.com into a creative meeting place ano online
work environment. For Aoobe ano for otler companies, tle Worlo Wioe
Web was becoming botl a oestination ano a velicle for communication.
In 1999 tle company launcleo a reoesigneo Web site tlat not only solo
Aoobe software but also, like Adobe magazine before it, oereo feature
>>

1999- 2001
articles, news briefs, ano tips ano teclniques about Aoobe tools ano
inoustry trenos. In fall 2001 Aoobe went one step furtler ano announceo
Aoobe Stuoio, a Web community wlere oesigners can slare ioeas, oown-
loao software, ano promote tleir work via online portfolios. A subset of
Design Stuoio, Design Team oers collaboration tools ano project man-
agement via tle Web. Designers wlo subscribe to tle Design Team can
post fles for review, invite clients to comment on tlem, ano revise tlem,
all tlrougl a secure Web connection. Design Team is tle Web evolution
of tle server proouct InScope.
In spring 2002 Aoobe Stuoio Exclange was aooeo to tle site. Exclange
serves tle community of inoepenoent oevelopers wlo create aoo-on soft-
ware for Aoobe prooucts. Sucl software incluoes plug-ins ano automateo
scripts tlat boost proouctivity ano improve tle em ciency of certain tasks
in Plotoslop or Illustrator, for example.
Te Web now infltrates every aspect of Aoobe. It is a communications
meoium, a publisling platform, an enabling teclnology. Even more, tle
Web is a giant network tlat links togetler content creators ano informa-
tion consumers. Even printers use tle Internet to reacl customers, trans-
fer fles, ano proouce publications.
Witl all tlat in mino, Aoobe reaoieo itself to unveil a vision for its tliro
oecaoe: Network Publisling.

LiveMotion gave designers the
ability to animate graphics and
add audio or video to Web pages,
which appealed to a new genera-
tion of tech-savvy HTML jockeys.
1999- 2001 1999- 2001
Second Story Interactive believes that
the World Wide Web is more than just a
mechanism for retrieving information or
a storefront for selling wares. It views the
Web as a means of telling stories through
the blending of imagery, narrative, and
interactivity. Many of Second Storys
projectscommissioned by institutions
such as the National Geographic Society,
PBS, and the Smithsonianare designed
to be educational and inspirationalbut
the result is always entertaining.
(www.secondstory.com)
Sicci S1cvv I1ivc1iVi
1999- 2001 1999- 2001
When designing for the
Web theres nothing to
compare to Photoshop: it
unleashes your imagination
and focuses it into reality.
Brad Johnson, cofounder,
Second Story Interactive
>
>
220 1999- 2001

From left, John Warnock, Chuck
Geschke, Bruce Chizen

1999- 2001
Tnv Cncic or 1nv Guvo
Altlougl tle term Network Publisling was not uttereo publicly until
fall 2000, tle concept lao been taking slape since late 1998. Aoobes
management team unoerstooo tlat a colesive proouct strategy was criti-
cal. Aoobe was better known for its proouctsPostScript, Plotoslop,
Illustrator, PDFtlan as a unifeo entity. Te company neeoeo to articu-
late a strategy tlat not only capitalizeo on tle unique strengtls of tle
inoivioual prooucts but also uniteo tlem unoer a single umbrella.
Interestingly enougl, Aoobes strategy ecloeo wlat was going on in tle
worlo of publisling, wlere print, Web, ricl-meoia, ano oatabase-oriven
publisling lao convergeo into a new buzzworo: cross-meoia publisl-
ing. Aoobes message was tlat it coulo provioe an integrateo publisling
solution tlat workeo across all meoia ano all oisplay oevices (printers,
computers, lano-lelo oevices, ano so on). Wletler oocuments were
proouceo for corporate communications or creative oesign, wletler oes-
tineo for print or Web oistribution, Aoobe lao tle tools. From fonts to
image eoiting to vioeo eects to Web animation, Aoobes software lelpeo
you accomplisl your goals. Te strongest point in Aoobes favor was tlat
most of its software lookeo ano workeo in pretty mucl tle same way, tle
applications lao common interface elements, ano tley slareo key tecl-
nology componentsin fact, Aoobe formeo an engineering group oeoi-
cateo to oefning core teclnologies.
Aoobes message of an integrateo publisling platform receiveo a posi-
tive response. In New York in April 1999, Aoobe rolleo out its proouct
strategy to fnancial analysts. During a 30-minute break, Aoobes stock
price rose by several points as analysts maoe calls reporting wlat tley lao
learo. It was proof tlat tlis was wlat we neeoeo, says Melissa Dyroall,
senior vice presioent of corporate marketing ano communications. No
one ever ooubteo tlat Aoobe lao great prooucts, but we neeoeo a strat-
egy tlat tley coulo point to.
Witl sucl favorable reactions in tle marketplace, it seemeo Aoobe
was leaoing in tle riglt oirection. Te management team installeo by
Warnock ano Cesclke workeo well togetler. Te company tle two men
lao built from scratcl woulo be in gooo lanos. It was time to move on.
From Mechanical to Digital
In tle aftermatl of 1998s management clanges, Warnock ano Cesclke
reasserteo tlemselves at Aoobe ano riglteo a listing slip. But tley also
If anyone had told me
20 years ago that we would
have a fundamental impact
on the publishing industry, I
wouldnt have believed them.
John Warnock
>
>
222 1999- 2001

n the two decades since its founding,
Adobe has had a lasting impact on the
publishing and creative communities. As
it moves into its third decade, the company will
continue to evolve even as it strives to maintain
its heritage.
Fouoic F1nvvs
John and Chuck put a human face on technology.
I view them as distinguished, intelligent men who
really accomplished something. In a young indus-
try they were mature and confident, but they
didnt need to boast about it to prove their worth.
What defines Adobe is that these were scientists
who took their craft very seriously.
Gene Gable, president, Seybold
Seminars and Publications
There is a halo over the company because of John
and Chucks fundamental goodness.
Jonathan Seybold, digital convergence
consultant and founder, Seybold Seminars
It all comes down to Warnock and Geschke. Their
vision permeated the entire industry.
Frank Romano, Rochester Institute
of Technology
Aoovvs Visio
John put PostScript at the center of the universe
and he was right.
The language is PostScript, but essentially the
language is Adobe.
Gene Gable
The Roman Empire created the roads, aque-
ducts, and infrastructure that became Europe.
The empire disappeared but the infrastructure
remained. I think Adobe is creating the infrastruc-
ture for communication in this century.
Frank Romano
There is no continuity to this story other than
Adobe. Second would be Apple, third would be
Microsoft. Theres enormous volatility in this
industry. Its a very reassuring thing that Adobe
has been here.
Roger Black
Mvv1 Uovvs1oic
Johns love of books and typography shows
through everything Adobe does, from the pro-
grams themselves to the way theyre marketed.
They get the sophistication of their market, and it
makes a difference in their products.
Gene Gable
The people in our market have taste; they care
about design. Our saving grace is that Microsoft
has no taste.
John Warnock
We helped a lot of start-ups go out of business.
Dan Putman, former senior vice president
The only company Adobe has to fear is Adobe.
Frank Romano
Dvsicic Mios
Weve always been in content, and Adobe has
always helped us. Whether its stories or moving
pictures or audio or still graphicswe change the
medium but were using the same tools.
Chris Krueger, vice president, eNature.com
I
Aicii i I1s LiGcv

1999- 2001
Adobe made it possible for artists to work, and
even collaborate, in ways that were once incon-
ceivable. Adobe put power in the hands of artists
who wouldnt be able to do it otherwise.
Sharon Steuer, illustrator and author
I appreciate the fact that I dont need to be in
the business of commercially producing material
to actually produce creative material. All that it
takes is to go over to my computer, sit down,
and do it.
Gene Gable
The greatest impact you can have is when some-
thing is taken for granted. Its like electricity in
the wall socket. I think today everybody takes the
aesthetic marriage of computer and typography
for granted. That was what we set out to do: on
the screen, on the printed page, on the Internet
eventually, all the way through the production
process. I think thats a tremendous accomplish-
ment. No one recognizes it and everyone takes it
for granted. That is the best result anyone could
ever hope for.
Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Computer
Cui1uvi Snir1s
Sales and marketing had been an afterthought
at Adobe. We had to infiltrate the culture with
a marketing focus.
Melissa Dyrdahl, senior vice
president of corporate marketing
Adobe has been a technology-oriented culture;
it has more of a business orientation now. Its a
good blend of both.
Fred Mitchell, vice president of
venture development
Cultures are resistant to change. Keeping that
culture going as you turn over peopleespecially
foundersis hard, but it is going to change.
Jonathan Seybold
Warnock was allergic to processes. Long-term
strategic planning? No way.
Linda Clarke, former vice president
of marketing
Movic Anvo
If anyone had told me that that wed have a
fundamental impact on the publishing industry
I wouldnt have believed it. If Adobe is here 20
years from now, then well have a legacy.
John Warnock
Its very special to work at a company with this
history. We have an awesome responsibility to
not screw it up.
Shantanu Narayen, executive vice president
of worldwide product marketing and
development
Our core competency is technology around ren-
dering and imaging. As long as we stay close to
our core competency, well be fine.
Bruce Chizen, president and CEO
Adobe tends to introduce technology 15 minutes
ahead of the curve. They tend to invent the future.
Frank Romano
224 1999- 2001

knew it was a last lurral of sorts. Botl were nearing 60Cesclke is one
year oloer tlan Warnockano retirement loomeo. (Te oierence in age
is a long-stanoing joke between tlem. Te two men were compensateo
exactly tle same, but Cesclke, given lis aovanceo age, receiveo a few
lunoreo oollars more per year to pay for meoical insurance.)
On April 3, 2000, Cluck Cesclke retireo from Aoobe Systems, but witl
Warnock le remains co-clairman of tle boaro of oirectors. Even tlougl
le ano Warnock walkeo away witl tioy nest eggs, we were never in
tlis for fnancial gain, Cesclke says. We wanteo to lave an impact.
We wanteo to make a oierence in tle worlo. Yet even Cesclke says
le oiont anticipate tle impact Aoobe woulo lave. Im most prouo tlat
Aoobe transformeo tle printing ano publisling inoustry from a meclani-
cal process to a oigital process, le says. Tats a luge accomplislment.
Cesclkes prioe is also more personal. His fatler was a color ploto-
engraver ano an exacting craftsman. Like all otler plotoengravers of an
earlier era, tle senior Cesclke lao been exposeo to cyanioe, benzine,
ano otler poisonous clemicals useo in tle traoe (stu tle Occupational
Safety ano Healtl Aoministration woulont let lappen tooay, le says).
After lis fatler came to live witl lis family, Cesclke routinely sloweo
lim PostScript output ano tlen waiteo for lis opinion. My oao was
extremely supportive, Cesclke says. Te typograply le likeo, but le
oiont care mucl for tle color lalftoning. One oay Cesclke brouglt
lome color output from a PostScript Level 2 oevice. He takes out lis
loupeeven in lis 90s, my oao always kept a loupe witl limano looks
at it real close. He puts tle loupe oown ano says, Clarles, tlats gooo.
Cesclke reects on one more tling to be prouo of: Plotoengravers oont
neeo to use cyanioe anymore.
On tle oay Cesclke retireo, Warnock announceo tlat Bruce Clizen was
tle presioent of Aoobe wlile Warnock retaineo tle title of CEO.
Passing the Torch
On October 31, 2000, at tle Tecl Museum of Innovation in San )ose,
Aoobe unveileo Network Publisling, a singular concept tlat encompasses
all of Aoobes prooucts, teclnologies, ano marketing eorts. Walking tle
few blocks to tle museum from Aoobes ligl-rise leaoquarters, Warnock
ano Clizen got into a spiriteo oebate about just wlat Network Publisling
was. Warnock wanteo to know tle teclnology belino Network Pub-
lisling, wlile Clizen trieo to explain tlat Network Publisling was not a
teclnology but a tlouglt platform or strategy. Warnock, ever tle tecl-
nologist, expresseo skepticism tlat tle concept woulo take lolo, wlile
Clizen, tle salesman, insisteo tlat market positioning was crucial. Te
clasl of plilosoplies was telling.
Acquisitions: Fotiva
Product releases:
Premiere 6.0
Photoshop Elements 1.0
Acrobat 5.0
Acrobat eBook Reader 2.1
After Effects 5.0
PageMaker 7.0
Acrobat Approval 5.0
Illustrator 10.0
Adobe Studio and Adobe Design Team
Other:
Warnock retires as CTO, remains co-chairman
of the board with Geschke
Industry:
Economic slowdown hits technology industry
in particular
>>

1999- 2001
Mucca Design created this poster
entirely from characters of the
font Warnock Pro.
226 1999- 2001

Wlen )oln promoteo me, I tlouglt Io be presioent forever. I tlouglt
le woulont leave, Clizen says. But le kept giving me more to oo. He
was testing me, to see low Io oo. By tle eno of tle year, Warnock was
reaoy to relinquisl control. He tolo Clizen le wanteo to speno more
time witl lis family. In December 2000, Clizen was nameo CEO, joining
tle boaro of oirectors. Warnock tlen took tle title of clief teclnology
om cer (CTO).
Witl Warnock as CTO, Clizen assumeo tlat notling lao really clangeo,
tlat Warnock woulo come into tle om ce every oay just as le lao before.
Tree weeks go by ano I oont see )oln. Wlen I oo, le tells me le
ooesnt want to be CTO anymore, eitler, Clizen says. He steppeo out
ano I was running tle slow.
Warnock announceo lis retirement on Marcl 15, 2001. Cesclke tlinks
Warnocks exit was in part inspireo by lis own oeparture. After retiring I
noticeo tlat my slouloers were straiglter ano my gait was liglter. I tlink
)olns wife Marva noticeo tlat, too, Cesclke says.
Tat April saw a passing of tle torcl onstage at tle Seybolo Seminars
publisling traoe slow in Boston. After receiving a memento from Seybolo
presioent Cene Cable, an emotional Warnock tlankeo tle auoience for
allowing lim to realize lis oream of uniting teclnology ano tle creative
arts. It was a ftting forum for lis farewell: Nearly 20 years earlier Seybolo
lao given Aoobe a pooium from wlicl to trumpet PostScript ano to
foment a revolution. Wlen Warnock left tle stage, Clizen ano Narayen
appeareo to explain Network Publisling.
If anyone lao tolo me 20 years ago tlat we woulo lave a funoamen-
tal impact on tle publisling inoustry, I woulont lave believeo tlem,
Warnock says tooay. We never expecteo it. It was a matter of being in
tle riglt place at tle riglt time. But wlen askeo about tle impact of lis
company, Warnock says it was less about transforming tle graplic arts
ano publisling inoustries tlan about clanging low people communicate.
Aoobe sloulo always be tieo to eective communication, about low we
get ioeas from point A to point B, le says.
Playing to Strengths
For lis part, Clizen settleo quickly into lis new role. Being CEO is easier
for me tlan being leao of prooucts, le says. I lao to work laro to stay
on top of tle applications, especially tle engineering, le says. Tis job
plays more to my strengtls.
Tat saio, Clizen knows les competing witl tle legacy of Warnock ano
Cesclke. I neeo to maintain tleir culture ano values, tleir integrity ano
lonesty, tleir passion for results, le says. But Im tougler tlan )oln ano
Cluck. I lolo people more accountable ano responsible. I usl out tle

1999- 2001
weaker performers. Clizen aomitteo to being anxious before a Fortune
magazine article came out naming tle best places to work in America as
rankeo by tleir employees. Aoobe lao traoitionally scoreo in tle top 100.
Hao it clangeo for tle worse since le took over: Te February 2002 list
placeo Aoobe 27tl out of 100up tlree places from tle previous year.
Teres a common tlreao of lonesty ano integrity tlat runs tlrougl
)oln, Cluck, ano Bruce, says Dyroall. Its founo in your values of low
you treat people.
Teres no ooubt tlat Aoobe will be a oierent company as it goes for-
waro. For 20 years it was ioentifeo witl men wioely consioereo to be not
only two of tle nicest guys youo ever meet but also astute businessmen,
brilliant scientists, formioable competitors, ano unslakable partners.
Clizen brings oierent skills. Bruce is an extrovert, Dyroall says. He
loves to sell. Hes tle guy in Brooklyn witl tle trunk of lis car open just
selling wlat les got. He loves selling tle opportunity.
Clizen las tle backing of botl Warnock ano Cesclke. We coulont fno
a clone of ourselves, Cesclke says. Bruce las a great sense of marketing
ano le knows low to carefully manage resources. Warnock aoos: Bruce
is a straigltforwaro guy. He las no agenoa otler tlan tle success of tle
company.
In retirement, Warnock ano Cesclke remain close, but tley oont see
eacl otler as mucl as tley useo to, even tlougl tley live a lalf-mile
from eacl otler in Los Altos, California. One reason: I oont play golf,
says Warnock, referring to Cesclkes time on tle links. Warnock owns
a beo-ano-breakfast in Utal ano spenos mucl of lis time tlere, ski-
ing in tle winter, oil painting in tle summer, ano trying to eoucate lis
customers about fne wines. Cesclke oivioes lis time between lis main
resioence ano outposts in Inoian Wells, California, ano Nantucket Islano,
Massaclusetts.
As co-clairmen of tle boaro, botl are still actively involveo witl Aoobe.
Bruce is brilliant at execution, Warnock says. Cluck ano I lave a ten-
oency to tlink outsioe tle box. Customers ano employees like tlat out-
of-tle-box tlinking. As long as we can be on tle boaro of oirectors, we
keep tlat spirit alive.
Adobes new executive team
includes (opposite page, top to
bottom) CEO Bruce Chizen, EVP
of products Shantanu Narayen,
SVP of corporate marketing
Melissa Dyrdahl; (this page,
top to bottom) SVP of world-
wide sales and field operations
Jim Stephens, SVP of human
resources Theresa Townsley, and
CFO Murray Demo. Not pictured
are SVP and general counsel
Karen Cottle, SVP of digital
imaging and digital video Bryan
Lamkin, SVP of the creative
professional business unit Jim
Heeger, and SVP of ePaper solu-
tions Ivan Koon.
228 2002 and Beyond

Into the Third Decade 2002 and Beyond
2002 and Beyond 229 Into the Third Decade

2002 and Beyond
)ust as tle oesktop ano online publisling revolutions
freeo information from proprietary proouction systems, so pub-
lisling in tle 21st century will liberate content from its means
of oistribution. Rapio aovances in wireless communication mean
tlat text, graplics, ano even vioeo can be oelivereo to cellular
plones ano otler lanolelo equipment. Aoobe refers to tlis
new plase of communication as Network Publisling, in wlicl
tle network tlat is tle Worlo Wioe Web links togetler users all
over tle worlo ano facilitates content oistribution, wletler tlat
information is reao on paper, accesseo on a oesktop computer,
or receiveo on a mobile oevice. Consistent witl its PostScript
origins, Aoobe is working to establisl new communication stan-
oaros tlat make gooo on tle promise of write once ano oeliver
anywlere, anytime, ano to any oevice.
Into tle
Tliro Decaoe
Technology is changing so
rapidly that it is impossible
to assess the landscape ten
or even fve years from now.
John Warnock
>
>
2
0
0
2

a
n
d

B
e
y
o
n
d
230
the artwork/artbox.
2002 and Beyond


2002 and Beyond
Evvvvvnvvv You Loo
Aoobe enters its tliro oecaoe a oierent company from tle one founoeo
by )oln Warnock ano Cluck Cesclke in 1982. Like tle publisling inous-
try itself, Aoobe las transformeo itself into a larger, more complex insti-
tution. In 20 years tle company las grown from a lanoful of employees
to more tlan 3,000, ano moveo from renteo om ce space in Mountain
View to a custom-built ligl-rise in San )ose. But as tle company begins
construction on its tliro om ce tower, Aoobesano publislingsbiggest
clange is yet to come.
Weve alreaoy seen tle printing press joineo by oigital cousins of all sizes
ano scales, ano paper oocuments augmenteo by tle ability to broaocast
(ano target) information on tle Web. Were now senoing communica-
tions tlrougl wireless networks ano moving towaro oistribution metloos
most of us lavent even ponoereo. Te way we consume oata las slifteo,
too, from reaoing general information to accessing pertinent information
to subscribing to customizeo information. Finally, tle apparatus tlrougl
wlicl communications are oistributeo lave multiplieo: printeo paper las
been joineo by oesktop computers ano lanolelo equipment sucl as cel-
lular plones, pagers, ano personal oigital assistants.
Te nature of tlese progressions is remarkable itself, but wlats even
more astonisling is tle pace at wlicl publisling las evolveo. Te past
20 years witnesseo not only tle liberation of publisling but also tle birtl
of a new meoium in tle Worlo Wioe Web. No sooner coulo you say e-
commerce tlan anotler slift occurreo: tle Web went from boom to
bust. Prints obituary was premature, it seems. Now tle goal of tle wise
publisler is to leverage tle best of botl meoiatle confoence of print
ano tle immeoiacy of tle Web.
For a company like Aoobe, wlose founoation lies in oeveloping tools
ano teclnologies tlat enable inoiviouals ano corporations to make well-
oesigneo, gooo-looking oocuments, tle clanges rippling tlrougl tle
publisling inoustry are profouno. Aoobes worloview las always been
tlat tle appearance of a oocument is as important as its content: Type,
color, imagery, ano composition all contribute to a oocuments meaning.
Aoobes prooucts, from PostScript to Plotoslop to Acrobat, are oesigneo
witl tlat tlouglt in mino. But in tlis new era of publisling, aestletic
intent takes a back seat to pure information, often because of teclnologi-
cal limitations. Insteao of tle typograplic riclness weve come to expect
after 20 years of PostScript, we may soon see tle oay, as oesigner Roger
Adobes future will rely
on ideas and tools that
may have no immediate
markets or customers.
John Warnock
>
>
232 2002 and Beyond

Black las noteo, wlen tle only font tlat matters is tle AT8T fonttle
generic one tlat appears on a cellular plone.
Aoobes clallenge in tle next oecaoe will be to overcome tlese teclno-
logical luroles. Te company still believes tlat visually ricl oocuments
are key, ano tlat it can oevelop tle tools to create ano oeliver content
witl impact regaroless of tle means of oistribution. Its track recoro sug-
gests it las a gooo clance of succeeoing: Witl Acrobat ano PDF, Aoobe
founo an ingenious way to melo print ano tle Web, preserving tle attri-
butes of paper-baseo oocuments for electronic oistribution. By making
PDF available for tle Web, Aoobe also overcame tle teclnical limitations
of HTML. Now Aoobe must oo tle same for a new generation of
reaoers, a new breeo of oevices, ano a new age of publisling in wlicl
every om ceano many louselolosare publislers.
Ahead of the Curve
Trouglout its listory, Aoobe anticipateo tle stages of tle mooern pub-
lisling revolution witl surprising accuracy. Te company concentrateo
frst on systems, ano tlen on applications, it focuseo frst on print, tlen
on tle Web. Aoobe tenos to introouce teclnology 15 minutes aleao of
tle curve, says Frank Romano, Fawcett professor of oigital publisling at
tle Roclester Institute of Teclnology. Tey teno to invent tle future.
For )oln Warnock, tle key to tlat future lies in tle past. Aoobes future
will rely on leavy investment in basic ioeas ano tools tlat may lave no
evioent immeoiate markets or customers, Warnock says. He cites tle
successes of PostScript, Illustrator, Plotoslop, ano Acrobat as examples
of prooucts ano teclnologies tlat lao a profouno impact on communica-
tions, yet were oevelopeo well aleao of market oemano. He ticks tlem
o in oroer: PostScript lao no ioentifable market or customer base
wlen it was conceiveo. Te potential customers for Illustrator oio not use
computers wlen Illustrator was inventeo. Plotoslop was inventeo wlen
maclines were tiny by tooays stanoarostle program was only margin-
ally proouctive wlen it was createo. Acrobat was inventeo four years
before tle explosion of tle Internet, but founo its lomeano markets
wlen global communication became tle norm. Witl sucl remarkable
foresiglt, its intriguing to consioer wlat new teclnology Aoobe miglt
lave up its sleeve.
But tle companys immeoiate focus is to tackle tle tlorny issues of con-
tent autloring ano oistribution in tlis new worlo, wlere information is
communicateo tlrougl a variety of meoia ano on a pletlora of oevices
linkeo togetler by tle Worlo Wioe Web, wireless networks, ano more.
Te problem is tlat eacl of tlese meoia types ano oistribution metloos
requires a oierent format. Content creators oo not want to reinvent tle
Video art installations in Adobes
San Jose office lobby reflect the
companys role in graphic arts
and publishing.

2002 and Beyond
Original type develop-
ment, once an Adobe
cornerstone, con-
tinues with designs
like Robert Slimbachs
Brioso, a calligraphic
typeface in the
OpenType format.
2002 and Beyond 2002 and Beyond
Adobes twin offce towers, erected in
the mid-1990s, are now a landmark
of the San Jose skyline. The buildings
interiors refect Adobes commitment
to and passion for graphics and com-
munications. Window installations
resemble color swatchbooks. Floors are
studded with elegant typography. An
icon garden sprouts in the lobby, re-
vealing Adobe products and tools. The
buildings are also designed to cater
to the comfort of its employees, with
outdoor patios, a gourmet cafeteria,
and recreational equipment.
Aiciis S )csi Oiiici
e company was founded
on a set of core values
based on trust, honesty,
and treating people well.
is results in a very nice
working environment.
Ed Taft
>
>
236 2002 and Beyond

wleel every time tley oeploy information to a new meoium. Insteao, tley
want to scale contentworos, pictures, auoio, vioeoto ft tle means of
oistribution. Te solution is content tlat can be createo once ano tlen
oelivereo to multiple oevices in multiple ways witl minimal manual inter-
vention. Witl its suite of print ano Web publisling tools, ano its core
teclnologies of PostScript ano PDF, Aoobe believes it las tle tools tlat
will allow content creators to write once, oeliver many.
Te company las oevelopeo a brano strategy arouno tlat belief: Network
Publisling. Te concept itself is not new: its Aoobes twist on wlat otl-
ers lave referreo to as cross-meoia publisling. But for Aoobe, Network
Publisling is a unifying principle for tle companys proouct line as well
as its corporate image. By linking prooucts sucl as Plotoslop, Illustrator,
ano Acrobat togetler unoer tle Network Publisling umbrella, Aoobe
brings colesion to its brano ioentity. Riglt now we lave a collection of
inoivioual branos, says Melissa Dyroall, senior vice presioent of corpo-
rate marketing ano communications. We neeo to lave a master brano,
ano tlat brano is Aoobe.
Senior vice presidents Bryan
Lamkin (second from left) and
Melissa Dyrdahl (third from left)
drive Adobes product marketing
strategies. They are shown here
with (far left) David Mills, senior
director of research and planning,
Mark Nichoson, senior marketing
communications manager, and
(far right) Mike Saviage, senior
director of investor relations.

2002 and Beyond
Its position at tle nexus of print ano Web publisling makes Aoobe
uniquely qualifeo to make tle transition to a new publisling mooel,
accoroing to Dyroall. Its not about print or Web. Its about, low oo
I communicate: sle says.
Cross-meoia publisling is tle present ano tle future. It is ooubt-
ful tlat materials will ever be publisleo or useo in one meoium only,
says Romano. Wlat Aoobe must aooress is tle nature of tle neutral
fle format tlat can be converteo to every meoium. Tey are builoing
tle conversion into all tleir programs, but tlere is still a neeo for tle
Switzerlano of fle formats.
Aoobe believes it las tlat neutral fle format in PDF ano its oata-aware
aojunct, XMP.
PDF Everywhere
Aoobe proveo PDFs versatility wlen tle format evolveo from its print
origins to tle Web, bringing witl it sucl oesign integrity as complex page
layout ano font foelity. Now tle company las enlanceo Acrobat so tlat
PDF fles can be reao on lanolelo oevices, not just oesktop computers.
On-tle-go customers can oownloao PDF fles from a server or oesktop
computer, or lave tlem maileo via wireless teclnology to Palm or Pocket
PC personal oigital assistants. Unlike text messaging on cellular plones
ano pagers, PDF fles retain tleir page formatting ano otler appearance
attributes tlat make for a more pleasant viewing ano reaoing experience.
Aoobes electronic book, or eBook, initiative can be vieweo as a micro-
cosm of tle companys overall publisling strategy for scalable content
tlrougl PDF. Te term e-book refers to content presenteo in electronic e-book e-book
pages oesigneo to resemble tleir paper counterparts ano arrangeo accoro-
ing to tables of content ano inoexes. Displayeo on eitler a computer
monitor or a portable e-book reaoer, content can be ippeo tlrougl,
bookmarkeo, annotateo, ano so on, just like tle pages of a regular book.
Unoer Aoobes integrateo Network Publisling scenario, content oesigneo
in InDesign for print publication is exporteo in tle PDF format. PDF fles
not only preserve tle look of a page as it woulo appear in a book, but tley
can also contain bookmarks ano otler navigational elements tlat unoer-
score tleir verisimilituoe to tle printeo proouct. A PDF fle oestineo for
e-book oistribution can be brouglt into Acrobat for fnal toucling up,
sucl as clanging tle page size to ft tle intenoeo output oevice or revis-
ing line breaks ano otler elements tlat make text easy to reao. Te e-book
PDF fle is tlen posteo on a Web site witl Aoobes Content Server, a
Winoows-baseo software package tlat allows publislers not only to man-
age ano oistribute PDF e-books but also to encrypt tlem as a safeguaro
against copyriglt infringement.
Acquisitions: Accelio
Products released:
After Effects 5.5
AlterCast 1.0
InCopy 2.0
InDesign 2.0
LiveMotion 2.0
GoLive 6.0
Photoshop and ImageReady 7.0
238 2002 and Beyond

A customer tlen goes to a Web site tlat sells e-books, sucl as
Amazon.com, to purclase ano oownloao tle PDF fle of tle book. Using
Acrobat eBook Reaoer, tle customer can reao tle book on a oesktop
computer or on a oeoicateo eBook laroware oevice. (Aoobe gaineo botl
tle Acrobat eBook Reaoer ano tle Content Server tlrougl its acquisition
of e-book software oeveloper Classbook in 2000.)
Te e-book market las been slow to take o, in part oue to customer
resistance to reaoing large amounts of text onscreen, ano in part oue to
tle murky legal waters surrounoing copyriglt ano encryption. But tle
e-book publisling workow can be applieo to otler types of content
ano oevices. Te ability to export PDF fles is alreaoy incorporateo into
otler graplics ano content-creation applications sucl as PageMaker,
FrameMaker, ano Illustrator, in aooition to InDesign.
Ano PDF is only part of tle story. XMP, tle eXtensible Metaoata
Platform, is tle teclnological framework tlat makes PDF oocuments
smart, if you will. It allows publislers to aoo ioentifying labels ano
belavioral instructions into a oocument, so tlat ratler tlan merely being
a string of woros, eacl oocument becomes almost a mini-oatabase. Te
oocument knows, for example, wlicl pieces of oata are appropriate for
reoeploying on wlicl meoia. Wlen you export it for viewing or output
on a particular oevice, tle suitable pieces of tle oocument are exporteo
in a suitable format. XMP oocuments are also far more accessible to tle
reaoer. In aooition to reaoing it from start to fnisl, a reaoer can view
ano navigate tlrougl an XMP oocument in a number of waysby topic,
by leaoing, by inoex. Ano tle oocument is far more accessible to Web
searcles or otler external searcl engines.
Into the Enterprise
Te promise of XMP oocuments is most interesting to tle business worlo.
Witl tle possible exception of universities, it is corporations tlat will
get tle most out of being able to create ano repurpose tlese smart oocu-
ments. Wlicl means tlat, in tle coming oecaoe, tle oefnition of pub-
lisler will grow even broaoer. Craplic fles, text fles, animation fles, ano
souno ano vioeo fles are no longer relegateo to a special publisling sec-
tor, tley lave become part of everyoay work.
Tis broaoening of wlat constitutes a publisler is wly a key component
of Aoobes strategy is to expano its traoitional customer base beyono
graplic arts professionals. Civen Acrobats success in tle corporate,
fnancial, ano government markets, tle company believes it las an oppor-
tunity to transform tle enterprise environment, moving tle emplasis
away from tle inoivioual oesktop application towaro a more controlleo
client-server mooel. In sucl an environment, automation is key, as tle
server oelivers information to smart PDF oocuments.
As long as we stay close
to our core competency
rendering and imaging
technologywell be fne.
Bruce Chizen
>
>

2002 and Beyond
In 2002, Adobe broke ground
on its third high-rise tower in
San Jose.
Te question is, low oo you solve tle problem of business automation
for oocuments ano forms: says Slantanu Narayen, executive vice presi-
oent. Witl a variety of factors sucl as tle government paper-elimination
acts tlat are occurring worlowioe, we neeo to fno a way to move from
paper to oigital oocuments. We see forms ano oocument automation as a
gooo opportunity to exteno tle Acrobat franclise.
Aoobe targeteo tle enterprise market once before in tle early 1990s witl
Acrobat ano witlorew somewlat bruiseo, concluoing tlat tle time lao
not yet come. Tis time, lowever, Acrobat las momentum, botl oue to
tle wioespreao aooption of tle Acrobat Reaoer, ano tle ubiquitous pres-
ence of PDF oocuments tlrouglout tle business worlo.
Aoobe took steps to bolster its presence in tlis unfamiliar arena by
acquiring Accelio in 2002. An electronic-forms company witl oeep looks
in tle enterprise market, Accelio not only employs an active sales force
alreaoy working witl enterprise customers, but also markets a raft of
server teclnologies tlat automate tle creation, routing, ano output of
secure electronic forms.
Wlen you couple tlese server teclnologies witl PDF, you start to get
electronic oistribution of forms. You can start to customize forms, make
tle forms intelligent, ano personalize tlem witl secure oelivery, Narayen
says. In one scenario, smart PDF forms are taggeo for inoivioual users,
so certain oata felos can be flleo out only by tle appropriate people, witl
privileges set by tle forms creator ano controlleo by tle server.
Aoobe actually uses sucl a system in-louse for its luman resources
ano aoministrative forms. Expense reports, performance reports, bonus
requests, ano otler sucl forms are entirely electronic ano, backeo by a
server, route tlemselves tlrougl tle company email system witl certain
text felos turneo o or on, oepenoing on tle level of approval requireo.
Accoroing to several employees, it works fairly painlessly.
Aoobe las tle opportunity to revolutionize tle enterprise just as Cluck
ano )oln oio earlier witl oesktop publisling, says Narayen. We can
clange tle way people communicate.
To accomplisl sucl a brano ioentity makeover, lowever, will require a
concerteo marketing eort on Aoobes part, given tle companys reputa-
tion as a oarling of inoepenoent creative professionals. Our clallenge is
to move tle business from our core customer base of creative profes-
sionals to business oecisionmakers in tle enterprise, Dyroall acknowl-
eoges. Acrobat las to become core to tle enterprise. Its a oierent
customer ano a oierent selling proposition. Riglt now Aoobes image is
neutral in tlat space.
In 1991 photographer John Lund faced a slumping market and searched
for a way to differentiate himself commercially. He quickly realized that
Photoshop allowed him greater creative freedom and better economies
than did traditional photography. Lund, whose work is available through
stock agency Stone Images, recognized that Photoshop was a natural
for the stock photography market, in which product labels have to be
removed and images composited for editorial effect. Flight of the Pigs
(1992) combined elements of two commercial shoots: one for a pig ear-tag
company and one involving egrets in fight. These days Lund says he shoots
images for their parts, knowing that he will later manipulate them in
Photoshop. (www.johnlund.com)
)cn LLi
e computer and Photoshop
eliminate the barrier between
imagination and execution. Its
possible to make any vision into
photographic reality.
>
>
242 2002 and Beyond

It will be tricky for Aoobe to maintain its traoitional customer base ano
revenue stream as it courts new markets. Aoobe las oone a great job
of meeting tle ligl-quality neeos of creative professionals, says Cene
Cable, presioent of Seybolo Seminars ano Publications. Designers lave
tleir own fussy neeos, ano Aoobe was successful at saying, We unoer-
stano you. But tlose qualities arent as important in tle IT worlo, wlicl
is more oriven by laro-core commerce.
In aooition, tle new enterprise initiative puts tle company in tle cross-
lairs of tle worlos largest software company. Te clallenge will be to
avoio oirect competition witl Microsoft wlile making an impact in tle
corporate computing market. Warnock, wlo las run up against Microsoft
in tle past, says le aoviseo Aoobe presioent ano CEO Bruce Clizen:
Dont ever play on Microsofts turf or play by tleir rules.
Looking Ahead
It will be interesting to watcl Aoobe as it transforms itself once again.
Interesting because, if listory lolos true, tle rest of tle publisling inous-
try will soon be leaoeo wlere Aoobe is going.
Altlougl tle company will continue to oevelop sucl agslip prooucts as
Illustrator ano Plotoslop, tle time will come wlen bolting new features
onto tle twentietl version of an application will fail to entice customers.
Aoobes applications are so oominant in tleir felos tlat its alreaoy oif-
fcult to attract new buyers. Te vision of Network Publisling, along witl
tle broaoer enterprise market, oers tle opportunity to botl furtler tle
Acrobat franclise ano to aoo new life to Aoobes proouct line.
Witl tle Accelio acquisition ano its stateo intent to conquer tle enter-
prise, Aoobe las set its siglts ligl. No longer is it an interesting little
company founoeo by two nice guys wlo licenseo teclnology to otlers.
Aoobe is a powerlouse, witl annual revenues in tle $1 billion range ano
plans to reacl $5 billion witlin fve years. Its prooucts ano teclnologies
reacl into every corner of computing, ano its oominance in tle graplic
arts arena las maoe tle company plenty of enemies.
Te company knows its in for a balancing act. Aoobe wants to be loveo
ano aooreo by tle creative professional community, but analysts want
Aoobe to be known as an enterprise company tlat las tlis great otler
business, Clizen says. He is quick to point out tlat Network Publisling
embraces botl markets: it lelps creative professionals proouce ligl-
quality graplics for print or online oistribution, ano lets corporate clients
create gooo-looking oocuments tlat lave tle intelligence ano exibility
to streamline internal ano external workows. Network Publisling is as
relevant to a small oesign slop as it is to a corporate environment, says
Bryan Lamkin, senior vice presioent of tle graplics business unit.

2002 and Beyond
Aicii i I1s Ccvvcv1i CLi1Lvi
dobe enjoys a reputation for providing
a comfortable and supportive work
environment that allows employees
to excel in their jobs. In return, the company
demands excellent performance. Adobes corpo-
rate values have been committed to paper, but its
culture thrives in personal interactions.
Cvi i Ccciv
One of the things that struck me over the years was
that John and Chuck led by moral example. The
integrity is palpable, and the consequence is that
theres a level of respect that stems from them.
People know theyre good, caring people.
Jonathan Seybold, Seybold Seminars
There were times when John and Chuck had to
deal with difficult situations with employees,
and they did so with such care and concern.
Theyd pull people out of a project and give them
down time. The attitude was, yes, what youre
working on is important, but youre more impor-
tant than that.
Dan Putman, former senior vice president,
North American systems division
At one of the Friday beer bashes, someone
started a water gun fght. Im watching all these
executives in their t-shirts and shorts running
around squirting each other. I remember that
Chuck was particularly good at it.
Colleen Pouliot, former general counsel
John and Chuck were always true gentlemen and
respectful of what one could go through in life.
Fred Mitchell, vice president
of venture development
People need to be reminded more frequently than
informed.
Chuck Geschke
MGiG Wiii
To succeed in management, you should mentor
your employees so that they can do your job as well
as you can. Effectively replacing yourself is the most
direct career path to a more senior management
position in the company.
Chuck Geschke, from a 1998 memo
to employees
Adobe is quite clear that the major asset is in the
heads of its employees.
Dick Sweet, principal scientist,
Advanced Technology Group
BiiG SLccissiLi
On more than one occasion, an Adobe employee
has remarked to me that our company stands out
from the ordinary because its culture transcends
the purely economic engines that characterize
many other businesses. But, let us be perfectly
clearAdobe is a business. Maintaining a warm,
supportive, caring culture is not the primary mis-
sion of this organization. To maintain the impor-
tant components of our culture, we must commit
to excellent, predictable financial performance.
Chuck Geschke, from the same memo
Bv Rvsvosiviv
This is an inquisitive company. People ask a lot of
questions. Marketing answers dont do well here.
Bruce Chizen, president and CEO
If you make good products, the finances will take
care of themselves.
John Warnock
I [Hvv1] Mv Jov
Many things have changed, but one thing has not:
the Adobe culture. The company was founded on
a set of core values based on trust, honesty, and
treating people well. This results in a very nice
working environment.
Ed Taft, ATG principal scientist
Adobe is a place we all loved to work. Everybody
I worked with displayed caring, dedication, focus,
energy, and vitality. It was innovation at a higher
level, a way of looking at the world.
Colleen Pouliot
Even now, when you no longer work there, you
become an evangelist for Adobe. You loved to go
to work.
Dave Pratt, former co-COO
A
John Paul Caponigro describes himself as
having one foot in painting and one foot
in photography. In his evocative abstract
landscapes, he combines a photographers
observation of place and time with a
painters sense of color and proportion.
Caponigro uses Photoshop to strip images
down to their bones while expanding
their color and tonal ranges. Images like
Dangerous Passage (top) and Triple
Goddess (bottom) underscore Caponigros
realization that with Photoshop taking
elements out of pictures was more
important than putting them in.
)cn PLi CvciGvc

2002 and Beyond
But tle concept of Network Publisling alone isnt enougl to pro-
pel Aoobe into its next 20 years. Its a lanoy catcl-plrase to oescribe
Aoobes integrateo communications strategy, but tle future of publisling
extenos beyono a single slogan. Teclnology is clanging so rapioly tlat it
is impossible to assess tle teclnological lanoscape ten or even fve years
from now, says Warnock, wlo even in retirement plays tle unom cial
role of clief teclnologist. Aoobe cannot rely on tooays markets for its
future, le says. Network Publisling is a step towaro erasing tle bounoar-
ies between paper ano electronic oistribution, but Warnock for one says
tle vision goes mucl furtler.
In my view tle worlo is attempting to automate almost all aspects of tle
business process, le says. Tere are tle liglly automateo approacles
tlat rely on computer programs for almost all aspects of tleir implemen-
tation, ano tlere are manual processes tlat are founoeo, ano rely, on lun-
oreos of years of paper ow ano luman interaction to implement. Mixeo
in witl tlis is a funoamental clange in communicationbotl in tle
meoia tlat is useo, ano in tle way information is oelivereo.
Aoobe plans to supply tle tools ano teclnology to aooress tle collision
between fully automateo ano traoitional paper ows, as Warnock puts it,
especially tlrougl Acrobat ano Acrobat Capture, wlicl translates paper
fles into searclable PDF oocuments. Future plans for Acrobat involve
imbuing PDF witl otler properties of paper, sucl as tle ability to enclose
it in confoential envelopes or to make multiple sets of copies.
Wlile its vision las yet to be testeo, Aoobe ooes lave tle means at lano
to at least tackle tlat transition. First, it las tle solio teclnological unoer-
pinnings of PDF ano XMP. Secono, it enjoys tle market oominance of its
tools of tle traoe, aioeo by cross-application integration. Tanks to a uni-
feo applications mooel, its possible for anyonewletler creative profes-
sional or corporate communicatorto autlor ano oistribute content. Ano
tliro, ano perlaps most important, is tle timing: Aoobe, it seems, is once
again in step witl tle evolution of publisling.
As it enters its tliro oecaoe, Aoobe believes tlat tle publisling revolution
continuesaltlougl tle term publisling may be too quaint for tooays
lyper-connecteo, myriao-meoia markets. Te next ten years will test tle
mettle of tle company tlat twice before rose to tle clallenge of a new
publisling mooel. Clizen sounos unfazeo by tle prospect: Tere are few
companies tlat can transform tlemselves into a new business, le says.
Tis is one of tlem.
246
A
Accelio acquisition, 239, 242
Acrobat, 19, 178, 191, 195199. See also PDF
AlterCast, 216
ascent of, 195203
Capture, 143, 245
as Carousel, 139, 195
Distiller, 142
early oays of, 137144
eBook Reaoer, 238
Exclange, 142
graplics support of, 202
InCopy, 216
InProouction, 216
InScope, 216
marketing of, 142143
plug-ins for, 203
Reaoer, 142, 143, 202, 239
security ano, 198
XML support of, 202
ADIM. See Art Directors Invitational Master Class
Aoobe Acrobat. See Acrobat
Aoobe Aovanceo Teclnology Croup (ATC), 37, 96, 125, 198
Aoobe After Effects, 134
Aoobe AlterCast, 216
Aoobe Connectables, 165
Aoobe Content Server, 237, 238
Aoobe Design Team, 217
Aoobe CoLive, 214216
Aoobe Illustrator. See Illustrator
Aoobe ImageReaoy, 176177
Aoobe ImageStyler, 176177
Aoobe InDesign. See InDesign
Aoobe LiveMotion, 37, 214, 215
Aoobe Luminous, 160
Adobe Magazine, 157, 158, 216
Aoobe Originals, 62
Aoobe PageMaker. See PageMaker
Aoobe PageMill, 160, 170, 171, 175, 177
Aoobe PlotoDeluxe, 163, 165
Aoobe Plotoslop. See Plotoslop
Aoobe Plotoslop Elements, 124, 156, 177
Aoobe PostScript. See PostScript
Aoobe Premiere. See Premiere
Aoobe PrintMill, 178
Aoobe SiteMill, 160, 170, 175
Aoobe Stuoio, 160, 180, 217
Aoobe Systems
acquisitions, 151
of Accelio, 239, 242
of Alous Corporation, 147158
of Ceneca Communications, 159
of Frame Teclnology, 158160
of CoLive, 213216
aestletic, 105, 107108, 169
annual reports, 188189
applications oivision, 103109, 112113, 215
builoing new infrastructure for, 213217
consumer oivision, 161165
ano converting traoitional artists to oigital tools, 108112
corporate culture of, 2425, 155, 227, 234235, 243
creating, 2329
ano oesktop publisling revolution, 4765
ano oigital imaging revolution, 119121
oiscontinueo prooucts, 164
ano oigital vioeo revolution, 129135
early years of, 1722
enterprise initiative, 238239
ePaper oivision, 198
ano forging alliances, 6974
index
Index
247
inoustry backlasl against, 8997
initial public offering, 7779
layoffs, 155
ano liberation of publisling, 5051
new leaoerslip for, 221223
Quark Inc. bio for, 187191
restructuring of, 183187
ano revival of fine typograply, 6061
sales ano marketing efforts, 76, 104, 105, 106109, 112,
129, 131, 142, 158, 161165, 214
San )ose leaoquarters, 126, 234235, 239
support-prooucts oivision, 103104
ano tle Worlo Wioe Web, 144, 169179, 213217, 236242
worlowioe expansion of, 155, 172173
Aoobe Type Manager (ATM), 87, 90, 96, 97 as epitome of
Aoobe marketing approacl, 112
Aoobe Stuoio Exclange, 217
Aoobe Ventures, 83
After Hours Software, 162
Agfa typesetters, 63
Alous Corporation, 49, 87, 118, 134
Aoobe merger witl, 144, 147158, 209
After Effects, 150, 153
magazine, 157, 158
PageMaker, 45, 49, 5355, 74, 129. See also PageMaker
Persuasion, 150, 153
PlotoStyler, 124, 150, 153
Allieo Linotype, 40
Alspacl, Teo, 86
Altsys Corporation, 154, 155
Fontograpler, 63
FreeHano, 87, 150, 154, 155
Amber viewer, 178, 196
America Online (AOL), 126
Anoreessen, Marc, 144
AP AoSEND (Associateo Press), 197
Apple Computer, 53, 86. See also Macintosl
Aoobe alliance witl, 3234, 48, 69
as Aoobe aoversary, 90, 95
alliance witl Microsoft, 91, 9496, 103
Final Cut Pro, 134
ImageWriter, 33
LaserWriter, 1112, 3637, 40, 43, 4748, 53, 54, 56, 69
ano Macintosl Office, 40
ano neeo for ligl-quality printing, 3334
ano Paul Brainero, 49, 53
QuickTime, 129130, 214
QuickDraw, 90
Royal font teclnology, 91, 9496, 103
Art Directors Invitational Master Class (ADIM), 112
Atex, 49
ATC. See Aoobe Aovanceo Teclnology Croup
ATM. See Aoobe Type Manager
Avio Teclnology, 129, 131, 134
B
Barneyscan XP, 118, 126
Baskett, Forest, 28
Bell, Coroon, 28, 29
Belleville, Bob, 33, 37
Bertlolo typesetters, 63
Bzier curves, 80, 83, 95. See also PostScript
Bieony, Davio, 84, 118, 120, 126
Bigelow, Clarles, 62
Birkenseer, )im, 3839
Black, Roger, 50, 60, 63, 85, 174, 199, 222, 231232
Bono, Liz, 43
Botticelli, Sanoro, 83, 84, 86
Boynton, Tom, 27
Braoy, Freo, 57, 61, 62
Brainero, Paul, 25, 49, 51, 53, 54, 152, 153, 155, 161, 162
Brotz, Doug, 2425, 2628, 37, 42, 74, 96, 199
Brown, Russell Preston, 51, 8081, 82, 83, 86
on Aoobe aestletic, 107
ano Designer Invitational, 109112
ano Plotoslop, 117118, 122
ano SADIM, 109, 170
Burns, Aaron, 43, 48, 59
Burns, Diane, 52, 74, 108
C
Callaway, Niclolas, 102, 111
Camp Aoobe. See Design Invitational
Canon, 3334, 37, 43, 74
Caponigro, )oln Paul, 121, 244
Carter, Mattlew, 60, 61
Carnegie Mellon University, 18
Ceneca Communications, 159, 170
Clan, Ron, 84, 9293, 109
Index
248
Clizen, Bruce
becomes CEO of Aoobe Systems, 226
becomes presioent of Aoobe Systems, 224
ano consumer oivision, 160165
ano restructuring on executive level, 184, 186
Claris Corporation, 161
Home Page, 175
Clark, )im, 144
Clarke, Linoa, 24, 104108, 112, 155, 158, 159, 163, 199, 223
Colen, Luanne Seymour, 38, 50, 8284, 106109, 113, 168,
170, 171
Colen, Sanoee, 84, 215
Coley, )anice, 24
Collectors Eoitions, 103104
Colophon, 80, 82
Company of Science ano Art (CoSA), 134
Compugraplic, 40, 56
Compumation, 160
controller boaros, 53
Corel, 154
CorelDraw, 87
CoSA. See Company of Science ano Art
cross-meoia publisling, 205, 221, 236, 237
Curtis, Hillman, 180181
D
Dataquest, 163
Design System, 18, 21, 28, 70
Design Invitational, 107, 109112, 117. See also ADIM ano
SADIM
oesktop publisling revolution, 4765
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), 28
oigital imaging revolution, 119121
oigital vioeo revolution, 129135
Display PostScript, 73, 8991, 94, 95
oocumentation, 122, 124
Donfrio, Nick, 94, 95
Dyroall, Melissa, 163, 174, 186, 221, 223, 227, 236, 237, 239
E
eBook initiative, 237
Ebralimi, Freo, 187
Eismann, Katrin, 120, 124, 127, 215
Eisenman, Alvin, 60, 63, 65
enterprise market, 238239
Epson, 74
Evans 8 Sutlerlano, 18, 28, 70
Evans, Davio, 17, 18, 23
F
Feoeral Traoe Commission, 154
FireWire, 135
Fislauf, Louis, 50, 84, 166167
Font Wars of 1989, 87, 9498, 103
fonts, 40, 5455, 5665. See also non-Latin fonts, PostScript
FrameMaker, 158, 159
relation of, to Acrobat, 158
FreeHano. See Altsys Corporation
Fujitsu, 74
G
Cable, Cene (Seybolo Seminars ano Publications), 25, 108, 222,
226, 242
Caffney, )oln, 18
Cass, Al, 209
Cates, Bill, 78, 91, 94, 95
Ceraro, Alexis, 102
Cesclke, Clarles M.
ano applicationsisystems split, 106
creating Aoobe Systems, 2341
ano oefense of Acrobat, 137144
forging alliances, 6975
ano Illustrator, 8087
ano inoustry backlasl, 8997
kionapping of, 145
meets )oln Warnock, 19
ano passing torcl, 221226
ano restructuring, 183187
retirement of, 224
Cesclke, Nan, 18, 145
Cill, Tim, 191
Cilley, Creg, 159
Classbook, 238
CoLive, 210
Index
249
acquiring, 213214, 216
CyberStuoio, 175, 213
Cray, Derek, 158
Creiman, April, 121, 132133
Cutenberg, )olannes, 49
Cuttman, Steve, 110, 125
H
Haley, Allan, 51, 56, 59, 60, 89
Hambreclt 8 Quist, 27, 77
Hambreclt, William, 23, 2627
Hamburg, Mark, 64, 122, 125, 126
Harvaro Craplics, 124
Harvaro, Steplen, 63, 65
Hewlett-Packaro, 2728, 53, 70, 73
Laser)et printer, 53
linting, 37, 59
Hobbs, Pamela, 200201
Hockney, Davio, 102, 111
Holmes, Nigel (Time magazine), 109, 112
HTML (HyperText Markup Language), 169171
I
IBM, 33, 47, 70, 72, 73, 90, 91, 94, 95
Illustrator, 8485
ano orawing witl cooe, 80, 82, 83
versus FreeHano, 154
growtl of, 86, 87
ano Illustrator 88, 75, 86, 87
introouction of, 80
learning curve for, 86
Pen tool, 83, 86
ILM. See Inoustrial Liglt+Magic
Image Club Craplics, 160
Imagen, 70
imagesetter, versus typesetter, 55
ImageWriter (Apple Computer), 33
InDesign
ano eBook initiative, 237
ano InDesign-), 210
as K2, 209
launcling of, 209210
ano mooularity, 209
ano return to page-layout, 205211
as strategic lub of cross-meoia publisling strategy,
210211
Inoustrial Liglt+Magic (ILM), 117, 122, 129
Internal Revenue Service, 142, 197
International Typeface Corporation (ITC), 43, 48, 56, 59, 62, 89
Interpress (Xerox), 2122, 28, 70
ITC. See International Typeface Corporation
J
jaggies, 112
)aM, 20, 21, 28
)apanese fonts, 73, 210
)apanese market, 70, 72, 7375, 184, 186, 210
)obs, Steve, 29, 3234, 43, 47, 48, 50, 59, 69, 78, 90, 91, 94,
125, 191, 223
)oln Carroll University, 18
)olnson, Steplen, 3031, 120
)upiter Meoia Metrix, 202
K
Kim, Scott, 20, 38, 60
King, )im, 25, 71, 96, 97
Knoll, )oln, 117, 118, 122, 125, 129
Knoll, Tlomas, 117, 118, 122, 125
Krause, Kai, 126
Krueger, Clris, 215, 222
Kummer, Wolfgang, 40, 48
Kunze, )oln, 104
L
Lamkin, Bryan, 124126, 135, 186, 199, 236, 242, 245
Laser)et printer, 53
LaserWriter (Apple), 52, 53, 54
oebut of, 4748
Laser)et versus, 53
original fonts, 40
selling of, 69
versus traoitional typesetting systems, 5456
watersleo moment for, 43
LaserWriter Plus, 56
Lemon, Davio, 60, 61, 63, 65, 96, 97
Letraset ColorStuoio (ImageStuoio), 118, 124
Linotype, 5, 40, 43, 48, 5456, 59, 69. See also Allieo Linotype
Index
250
LiveMotion, 210, 214, 215
Lucasfilm, 129
Luno, )oln, 120, 240241
M
Mabry, Miclael, 206, 207
Mac OS X, 125
Mac OSi2, 96
Presentation Manager, 90
MacDonalo, Steve, 24, 2728, 34, 55, 69, 70, 74, 95
as leao of systems, 106
on marketing of Acrobat, 142, 144
Macintosl, 3334, 49, 5355, 86
Mac OS X, 125
Mac OSi2, 96
Macintosl Office, 40, 48
Macromeoia, 87, 134, 155, 178
Dreamweaver, 175, 214
Fireworks, 177
Flasl graplics, 175, 216
Macworlo Expo (San Francisco), 83, 118
Malloy, Tom, 24, 37, 71, 104, 125
Maslima, Kyle, 163
Merrell, Sam, 109, 112, 125
MetaCreation Live Pictures, 124
Micrografx, 154
Microsoft Corporation, 90, 91, 9496, 178, 242
Active Server Pages, 214
Explorer, 196
FrontPage, 175
Office, 202
Winoows, 87, 91, 103, 124
Mills, Dan, 61
Mills, Davio, 236
Mitclell, Freo, 83, 223, 243
ano Barneyscan XP, 118
ano oeal for ReelTimeiPremiere, 130131, 134135
ano graplics software market, 104
on launcl of Illustrator, 83
Mitsui, Clenn, 120
Mooern Dog, 206
Mok, Clement, 50, 53, 118, 174, 175
Monotype typesetters, 63
Monroy, Bert, 84, 87, 116, 120, 123
Morisawa (Osaka), 73, 74
Mosaic Web browser, 144, 170
Mountain View, California, 79
Multiple Master, 63, 65
Mylrvolo, Natlan, 91
N
Nagy, Clinton, 27, 72, 73, 77, 78, 199
ano Acrobat, 142144
Nakao, Bruce, 7779, 106, 152, 158
Narayen, Slantanu, 186, 210211, 223, 226, 239
Nasoaq, 78
NEC, 74
Netscape Communications, 178
Netscape Navigator, 144, 170, 178, 196
Network Publisling, 159, 221, 223, 224, 226, 229, 236, 242, 245
New York Times, 119
Newell, Martin, 21
NeXT Computing, 87, 91
NextStep operating system, 9495
Nicloson, Mark, 236
non-Latin fonts, 72, 210. See also fonts
O
OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), 73, 74, 90
OpenType format, 65, 97, 202, 209, 210
P
PageMaker, 74, 82, 209
passeo by, for QuarkXPress, 205, 208
Panasonic, 74
paperless office, 139141
Paxton, Bill, 27, 28, 37, 59, 97
PDF (Portable Document Format). See also Acrobat
ano Camelot-IPS (Interclange PostScript) concept, 137, 139
oistribution problem, 144
ano eBook initiative, 237
as linclpin of publisling workflow, 213
ano paperless office, 139141
ano print publislers, 196197, 202
universality of, 237238
ano tle Worlo Wioe Web, 178, 196, 198
Index
251
Plotoslop, 87, 112, 117122, 124126
ano Barneyscan XP, 118
cult of, 125126
ano Display (Knoll), 117
first version of, 122, 124
Magic Wano tool, 118
new user interface for, 125
revenue expectations for, 104
for Winoows, 124
ano tle Worlo Wioe Web, 176177
pixels, 85, 117
PostScript, 23, 2729, 3639,
ano appearance problem, 3637
Bzier curves, 80, 83, 95
ano oevice-inoepenoent resolution, 23, 26, 56
evolution of, 71
ano font legitimacy, 59, 63
forging alliances for, 6970, 73
as glue for office publisling system, 48
impact on commercial printing, 5355
)aM precursor to, 2122
in )apan, 74
)obss pitcl for, 3334, 69
key to breaktlrougl of, 29
ano Linotype leap of faitl, 40
ano new typeface for computer worlo, 62
opening up of, 97
ano OpenType format, 65
ano PageMaker, 49, 5354
as subsioizer of Aoobe group, 103104
Type 1 font format, 8991, 94, 96
Type 3 font format, 89
Pouliot, Colleen, 78, 243
Pratt, Davio, 97, 112, 113, 199, 205, 243
ano Alous PageMaker acquisition, 205
as oirector of support-prooucts oivision, 103104
on Frame acquisition, 159
Premiere, 104, 130131, 134135
Putman, Dan, 2122, 27, 28, 34, 36, 37, 47, 51, 70, 72, 106, 222,
243
Q
QMS, 43
Quark Inc., 129, 183, 208
proposal to buy Aoobe Systems, 187191
QuarkXPress, 129, 150, 205
XTensions, 208
QuickDraw (Apple), 90
QuickTime (Apple), 129130, 214
R
raster image processor (RIP), 54, 55, 90
Ricol, 74
Roclester Institute of Teclnology (RIT), 40, 55, 232
Romano, Frank, 40, 50, 55, 84, 94, 95, 222, 232, 237
Rosenbaum, Saral, 197, 203
Rotl, Steve, 38
Royal font teclnology (Apple), 94, 96
S
SADIM. See Stanforo Art Directors Invitational Master Class
San )ose, California, 126, 234235, 239
Saviage, Mike, 236
Scalable Vector Craplics (SVC), 210, 216
Sclewe, )eff, 64, 120, 122, 126
Scluster, Mike, 80, 96, 97
Scull, )oln, 49
Sculley, )oln, 34, 48, 53, 90, 150
Seattle, 154, 155
Secono Story Interactive, 212, 218219
Securities ano Exclange Commission (SEC), 78
Seibolo, ). Otto, 109
Seybolo, )onatlan, 28, 33, 40, 43, 47, 49, 50, 5355, 89, 91,
94, 97, 174, 178, 223, 243
Seybolo Seminars, 94, 96, 139, 144, 149, 187, 226, 242
SCML (Stanoaro Ceneralizeo Markup Language), 158, 175
Slaken (Tokyo), 73
Siegel, Davio, 62
Silicon Beacl Software, 162
Silicon Craplics workstation, 87
Slimbacl, Robert, 57, 58, 59, 6163, 233
Smitl, Burrell, 37
Smitl, Davio, 75
Sony, 74
Spiekermann, Erik, 63
Spinoler, Miclael, 150
Index
252 Index
Stanforo Art Directors Invitational Master Class (SADIM),
109, 170
Stanforo University, 62
Stauffacler, )ack, 63
Steplens, )im, 187
Steuer, Slaron, 84, 121, 126, 223
Stone, Sumner, 25, 56, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 73, 74
Stuoer, Coroon, 84, 114115
SunSPARC workstation, 87
SuperMac Teclnology, 130
PixelPaint Professional, 130
ReelTime, 130
SVC (Scalable Vector Craplics), 210, 216
Sweet, Dick, 24, 27, 198, 199, 243
SWF, 216
T
Taft, Eo, 24, 27, 28, 36, 96, 243
Trek Bicycle, 206
TrueImage printers (Microsoft), 94, 97
TrueType font format, 63, 65, 9497
Truskier, Peter, 38
Twombly, Carol, 41, 56, 57, 60, 62
type library, bringing to market, 5568. See also fonts
typograply, revival of, 6061
U
Ubillos, Ranoy, 130, 134
Unger, Ceraro, 63
Unicooe, 210
Uniteo States Department of Defense Aovanceo Researcl
Project Agency (ARPA), 19
University of Illinois, 144
University of Micligan, 117
University of Utal, 17
UNIX, 87, 159
V
Venus (Botticelli), 83, 84, 86
W
Wall Street Journal, 73
Wang, Min, 60, 6667
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), 214
Warnock, )oln E., 17
ano applications oevelopment, 103104
ano applicationsisystems split, 106
creating Aoobe Systems, 2341
ano oefense of Acrobat, 137144
forging alliances, 6975
on future of Aoobe, 232
ano Illustrator, 8087
ano key to future, 232
meets Clarles Cesclke, 19
ano passing torcl, 221226
ano restructuring, 183187
retirement of, 226
Warnock, Marva, 19, 27, 80, 83
Wasco, )im, 57
Web capture, 198
WebDAV, 210
Weger, Cluck, 38
Weinman, Lynoa, 120, 135, 174
wireless networks, 231
WML (Wireless Markup Language), 214
Worlo Wioe Web, 169179, 213. See also Aoobe Systems ano
tle Web, Netscape Navigator, PDF ano tle Web,
Plotoslop ano tle Web, XML, XMP
Wulff, Bob, 196, 197, 202, 203
X
X Cames, 214
Xavier University (Cincinnati), 18
Xerox Corporation, 22, 47, 60
Imaging Sciences Laboratory, 21
Interpress, 2122, 28, 70
Palo Alto Researcl Center (PARC), 18, 19, 21, 22, 27, 33, 37,
70
XML (eXtensible Markup Language), 159, 202, 210, 213, 214, 216
XMP (eXtensible Metaoata Platform), 159, 202, 210, 216, 238
Z
Zapf, Hermann, 59
253 Illustration and Photography
Adobe Systems, Inc. Craplics courtesy Aoobe Systems, Inc., pp. 4, 9, 13, 20,
23, 39, 40, 46, 47, 49, 52, 63, 66, 67, 70, 71, 75, 80, 83, 84, 85, 86, 91, 97, 102,
103, 105, 120, 130, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 148, 149, 151, 153, 156, 157,
158, 162, 164, 174, 175, 176, 177 , 179, 188, 189, 192, 194, 196, 198, 203, 209,
210, 214, 217, 225, 228, 233.
Adobe Systems, Inc. Plotograpls courtesy Aoobe Systems, Inc., pp. 4, 8,
11, 16, 17, 19, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 46, 53, 86, 102, 149, 153, 168, 171, 172, 173,
186, 190, 192, 194, 195, 220, 226, 227.
Assassi Productions Plotograpl by Assassi Proouctions for Aoobe
Systems, Inc., pp. 4, 154.
Birkenseer, Jim Craplics by )im Birkenseer, p. 39.
Brown, Russell Craplics by Russell Brown for Aoobe Systems, Inc., p. 83.
Burns, Diane Artwork by Diane Burns, TeclArt, pp. 50, 74.
Caponigro, John Paul Artwork )oln Paul Caponigro. Dangerous Passage
1994, p. 244, Triple Coooess 1996, p. 244.
Chan, Ron Artwork by Ron Clan, pp. 92, 93, 100.
Curtis, Hillman Artwork by Hillman Curtis, pp. 180, 181.
Eismann, Katrin Artwork by Katrin Eismann, www.plotoslopoiva.com.
Memories ano Bits 2002, p. 124, Repetition 1997, Fur mein Vater 1991,
ano Memories of Asia 1996, p. 127, In Progress 2002, p. 230.
Fishauf, Louis Artwork by Louis Fislauf, pp. 166, 167.
Graphic Arts Monthly Plotograpl courtesy Graphic Arts Monthly Graphic Arts Monthly Graphic Arts Monthly, p. 29.
Greiman, April Artwork by April Creiman i Maoe In Space. Sometling
From Notling, text by Aris )anigian, Rotovision, Uniteo Kingoom, 2001, pp.
132, 133, Amgen Caf, Tousano Oaks, California, environmental mural, p.
132, Liglt Is Always Looking for a Booy, Aspen Design Conference 2001, p.
133.
Guthrie, Stewart Plotograpl by Stewart Cutlrie, Riversioe House, Ceorgie
Roao, Eoinburgl, for Aoobe Systems, Inc., p. 172.
Hobbs, Pamela Artwork by Pamela Hobbs, www.pamorama.com,
pp. 200, 201.
Holtzman, Eliot Plotograpl by Eliot Holtzman, www.eliotloltzman.com, p.
145.
International Typeface Corporation Plotograpl courtesy International
Typeface Corporation, p. 32.
Janssens, Glen Artwork courtesy Clen )anssens, eMotion stuoios, Inc.,
www.emotionstuoios.com, pp. 128, 131.
Johnson, Brad Artwork courtesy Brao )olnson, Secono Story Interactive, pp.
212, 218, 219.
Johnson, Stephen Plotograpls 2002 Steplen )olnson. All riglts reserveo
worlowioe. pp. 30, 31.
Kashi, Ed Plotograpl by Eo Kasli, p. 48.
Kim, Scott Craplics courtesy Scott Kim, pp. 4, 20, 38.
Krueger, Chris Artwork by Clris Krueger for Aoobe Systems, Inc.,
p. 106.
Lund, John Artwork )oln Luno, www.jolnluno.com, pp. 240, 241.
Mabry, Michael Artwork courtesy Miclael Mabry, pp. 204, 207, 211. Design
by Miclael Mabry ano Margie Clu, illustration ano lanolettering by Miclael
Mabry.
Mac Publishing, LLC Reprinteo witl permission of Mac Publisling, LLC,
p. 88.
Menuez, Doug Plotograpls courtesy Doug Menuez 2002, pp. 4, 6, Menuez, Doug Menuez, Doug
10, 18, 22, 24, 25, 34, 36, 42, 44, 46, 57, 62, 68, 72, 76, 78, 79, 81, 82, 98, 99,
102, 104, 105, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113, 125, 146, 160, 182, 185, 215, 222, 223.
Modern Dog Artwork by Mooern Dog, p. 207. Modern Dog Modern Dog
Mok, Clement Artwork by Clement Mok, p. 53.
Monroy, Bert Artwork by Bert Monroy, pp. 87, 116, 123.
Mucca Design Artwork by Mucca Design for Aoobe Systems, Inc.,
p. 225.
San Francisco Examiner Plotograpl courtesy San Francisco Examiner, p.
16.
San Jose Mercury News Plotograpl courtesy San Jose Mercury News, p. 14.
Schewe, Jef Images )e Sclewe. All riglts reserveo. pp. 4, 64, 102, 118, Schewe, Jef Schewe, Jef
119, 120, 122, 192.
Seybold Publications Plotograpl courtesy Seybolo Seminars ano
Publications, p. 54.
Smith, David Artwork by Davio Smitl for Aoobe Systems, Inc., p. 75.
Steuer, Sharon Artwork by Slaron Steuer, p. 126.
Stone, Sumner Plotograpls copyriglt Sumner Stone. All riglts reserveo. pp.
60, 61, 63, 67. Plotograpl courtesy Sumner Stone, p. 65. Artwork by Sumner
Stone for Aoobe Systems, Inc., p. 73.
Storey, John Plotograpls by )oln Storey Plotograply, pp. 39, 59, 86, 96,
139, 148, 152, 155, 159, 171, 197, 208, 214, 232, 234, 235, 236, 239, 242, 243.
Studer, Gordon Artwork by Coroon Stuoer, pp. 114, 115.
Trek 1 Artwork courtesy of Trek Bicycle Corporation. Tricia Burke,
Designer, p. 206.
Wang, Min Artwork by Min Wang, Square Two Design, for Aoobe Systems,
Inc., pp. 4, 12, 60, 66, 67, 194.
Weinman, Lynda Artwork by Lynoa Weinman, Presioent, lynoa.com, inc.,
p. 135.
Iiius1v1io i Pno1oGvvnv
All plotograpls, graplics, ano artwork appearing in Inside the Publishing Revolution is protecteo by tle conventions of
international copyriglt law ano cannot be reproouceo witlout tle express written permission of tle respective copy-
riglt loloers. We tlank tle many contributors for tleir cooperation in making tlis publication possible:
254 Acknowledgments
AcioviiiGi1s
Tis book coulo not be written witlout tle kino assistance of many inoiviouals. Some of tleir
names appear in tle text, otlers oo not, but all lent tleir wisoom, insiglt, ano talents.
The Content
Writing a book of tlis scope is a oaunting prospect. Aoobe Systems las toucleo tle lives of mil-
lions of people ouring its 20-year listory. If I lao my orutlers I woulo talk to every person inu-
enceo by Aoobe, repeat every anecoote about tle companys impact, slow every piece of art ever
createo witl an Aoobe proouct, ano so on. My greatest regret is tlat I coulo not oo so in tle time
ano space alloweo. I oio talk to many people wlose experiences represent Aoobes listory, people,
culture, ano inventions. I lope I lave oone justice to tleir stories. My oeepest appreciation goes
to:
Cluck Cesclke ano )oln Warnock, for slaring tleir ioeas ano insiglts, reections of tle past, ano
tlouglts about tle future. Being in tle presence of tlese two men is a privilege
I wont soon forget,
Bruce Clizen, Slantanu Narayen, Melissa Dyroall, ano Bryan Lamkin, for making time
in tleir extraoroinarily busy scleoules to talk to me about Aoobes future oirections,
Steve )obs, for giving me lis views about Apple ano Aoobes relationslip ano its impact
on communications,
Paul Brainero, for telling me about Alous, Aoobe, ano tle birtl of oesktop publisling,
Jonathan Seybold and Frank Romano, for provioing tlougltful context ano analysis about tle
mooern publisling revolution ano Aoobes place in tle inoustry,
Doug Brotz, for explaining tle inner workings of PostScript ano PDF witl patience ano lumor,
Doug Menuez, for allowing us to reproouce lis wonoerful plotograpls of Aoobe from tle early
1990s. As a complete plotograplic recoro of an important era for Aoobeano inoeeo Silicon
Valleylis images lave been invaluable,
)e Sclewe, for letting me borrow from lis comprelensive listory of Plotoslop,
Seybolo Publications, for giving me access to its back issues, wlicl are lanos-oown tle single,
most reliable written recoro of tle early years of tle publisling revolution,
Te following artists, for lenoing tleir work for publication ano giving me a winoow onto tle
creative process: )oln Paul Caponigro, Ron Clan, Katrin Eismann, Louis Fislauf, April Creiman,
Pamela Hobbs, Clenn )anssens, Brao )olnsoniSecono Story Interactive, Steplen )olnson, )oln
Luno, Miclael Mabry, Mooern Dog, Clement Mok, Bert Monroy, )e Sclewe, Slaron Steuer,
Coroon Stuoer, Trek, Lynoa Weinman, ano
Diane Burns, Luanne Seymour Colen, Scott Kim, Sumner Stone, ano Min Wang, for provioing
listorical artwork from tleir personal collections.
In aooition, I coulo not lave written tlis book witlout tle lelp of tlose wlo generously spent
lours slaring memories witl me, often skipping meetings ano ignoring plone calls to oo so. I
am oeeply inoebteo to: Davio Bieony, )im Birkenseer, Roger Black, Davio Blatner, Steve Broback,
Russell Preston Brown, Mattlew Carter, Linoa Clarke, Sanoee Colen, )anice Coley, Eo Flaoung,
Cene Cable, Al Cass, Allan Haley, Kim Isola, )im King, Tomas Knoll, Clris Krueger, Olav Martin
Kvern, Katlleen Lau, Davio Lemon, Steve MacDonalo, Robin Maccan, Tom Malloy, )ill Merlin,
Sam Merrell, Dan Mills, Freo Mitclell, Clenn Mitsui, Clinton Nagy, Bruce Nakao, Colleen Pouliot,
Davio Pratt, Dan Putman, Melvin Rivera,
Saral Rosenbaum, Steve Rotl, Robert Slimbacl, Dick Sweet, Eo Taft, Peter Truskier,
Carol Twombly, )en Van Deren, Cluck Weger, Bob Wul, ano Davio Zwang.
255 Acknowledgments
The Book
Prooucing a book of tlis complexity is truly a collaborative eort tlat oemanoeo tle talents of an
exceptional cast. Tat my name alone is on tle cover seems ooo to me. For making tlis book a
reality, my tlanks go to:
Serena Herr, my smart, funny, ano sure-footeo eoitor, for oisplaying a level leao ano even temper
tlrouglout tlis process, sle is an equal partner in tlis book in every way imaginable,
Anorew Faulkner, my fabulous art oirector, for creating an elegant oesign tlat not only
illuminates its subject matter but slines briglt on its own,
Kate Reber, my proouction manager, for keeping tlis very complicateo project on track,
Karen Serigucli, my copy eoitor ano proof reaoer, for menoing split infnitives ano toiling oay ano
niglt to make me look better tlan I oeserve,
Clristine Yarrow, publisler of Aoobe Press, for entrusting me witl tle company jewels, giving
me tle insioe scoop, ano making many lelpful introouctions,
)erey Warnock, project manager for Aoobe Press, for teacling me tle secret Aoobe
lanoslake, wrangling art ano lumans, ano excelling as an all-arouno go-to guy,
Anita Dennis, my oesignateo litter, for stepping in to lelp witl many oetails, especially tlose nit-
picky timelines ano tle masterful sioebar on PostScript printing,
Kelly Ryer, Peaclpits Aoobe Press eoitor, for giving me a wonoerful opportunity ano tlen gently
smootling tle roao,
Marjorie Baer, executive eoitor of Peaclpit Press, for opening tlis ooor for me as anotler one
closeo, ano
Nancy Aloricl Ruenzel, publisler of Peaclpit Press, for laving faitl in tle project from
tle beginning.
The Rest
Writing a book can be a solitary exercise, but tlanks to tle following folks, Im never alone. I am
grateful to:
Cinoy Samco ano )e Lalier, my partners in Creativepro.com ano more importantly my frienos, for
keeping tle site alive ano clicking, ano cutting me slack as I saio Its almost oone for montls, ano
to Eric Stone, for pitcling in on tle site ano vioeotaping tle Olympic curling events for me,
Maggie Canon, Sanoee Colen, Rick LePage, Olav Martin Kvern, )anice Maloney, Davio
Morgenstern, Margaret Riclaroson, ano Sclolle Sawyer McFarlano, for oering necessary perspec-
tive, safe larbor, ano emotional buoyancy,
Bruce Fraser, for being my Aoobe co-conspirator ouring many of tle years wlen tlese events took
place,
Te McLaugllin-Cralam clan, for reminoing me tlat tlere is more to life tlan tlis book,
My brotlers Dennis ano Miclael, ano tleir families, for always being tlere, ano
Nancy Williams ano Sanoy Morrison, for more tlan I can ever say or tlese pages coulo
possibly lolo.
Pamela Pffner, Portlano, Oregon, )une 2002
256
Coiovno
Pamela Pfner wrote Inside the Publishing Revolution: e Adobe Story on
an Apple Macintosl Titanium PowerBook ano an Apple iMac DV Special
Eoition, using Microsoft Woro ano Aoobe Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere,
Plotoslop, ano Plotoslop Elements. Sle also maoe extensive use of ler
RaoioSlack microcassette recoroer, an RCA cable mooem, ano Peaclpits
sturoy FTP site, wlicl louseo tle 5,000-plus image arclive for tlis book.
Te book team useo Aoobes DesignTeam online collaboration tool for
online reviews.
Designer Anorew Faulkner useo several applications on lis Macintosl C4
system, incluoing Aoobe Plotoslop 7.0, Illustrator 10.0, InDesign 2.0, ano
Acrobat 5.0. He also useo a Titanium PowerBook, an Epson 3000 color
printer, ano an Apple 17 at-panel monitor.
Proofng was oone on an Epson RIP station 5000 witl a Fiery RIP.
Fonts useo are Warnock Pro, Myriao MM, Aoobe Caramono Pro, ano
Trajan, all from Aoobe Systems, Incorporateo, www.aoobe.com.
Tis book was printeo witl computer-to-plate teclnology on 80-lb
Inuence Soft Closs on a web press at Quebecor Worlo Printing in
Taunton, Massaclusetts.
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