Desktop publishing is the result of a timely convergence of four symbiotic technologies: page-description programming, raster-image processing, laser printing and the Graphical User Interface; and its success in revolutionising not only the …
Read MorePostScript is a page-descriptive programming language, or PDL, able to describe text as well as graphics on one page and precisely communicate this information between computer and an output device, regardless of its resolution capability …
Read MoreIn 1979, Apple, a successful young company in which Xerox had been among the first to invest, was developing its Lisa computer, the second commercial machine to utilise a Graphical User Interface*. Both Xerox and Apple knew that success …
Read MoreRaster-image processing is the conversion of vector (digital) information into a high-resolution, pixelated ('raster') image. A raster-image processor, or RIP, whether a software or firmware component, is able to interpret vector data, such as a PostScript file …
Read MoreWhile the quality of output produced using laser-printing technology was undoubtedly impressive, it was mutually understood that, without access to popular typefaces (the tools by which the typesetting machine manufacturers distinguished themselves) …
Read MoreThe Apple Macintosh computer was launched in January 1984, a year before the aforementioned LaserWriter, by a high-profile marketing campaign that deployed an advert directed by Ridley Scott and a national premiere during the half-time break of that year's Superbowl …
Read MoreJon Seybold had, by 1985, published widely on the potential ground-breaking possibilities raised by the convergence of PostScript, Linotype, and Apple's Macintosh and LaserWriter. He too was surprised at the apparent market failure following The Macintosh Office launch …
Read MoreWhile Adobe published the specification of its PostScript PDL 'Type 3' font format in 1984, making it freely available to laser-printer manufacturers, it kept secret the specification of the 'Type 1' font format (which utilised character hinting, essentially instructions to the RIP …
Read MoreIn 1993 Adobe released its most definitive product, Acrobat, a consolidated suite of software applications, including Illustrator, PhotoShop and Acrobat Reader; programmes to be used for creating and viewing WYSIWYG documents …
Read More