For the first time, the Computer History Museum has released the source code for an early version of Adobe’s breakthrough digital printing technology, PostScript. This version dates back to 1984, and contains an early version of the font hinting program protected as a trade secret, which Bill Paxton later rewrote, expanded, and improved, and these changes were crucial to PostScript’s commercial success. important. Adobe Systems was founded 40 years ago in December 1982 when company co-founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock envisioned a new kind of digital printer utilizing the latest computer technology. Their discussions with companies like Digital Equipment Corporation and Apple convinced them that software was the key to the new digital printer. Their vision was that any computer could interface with printers and typesetters through a common language, and print text and images with the highest fidelity. Adobe has put together a crack team to create this common language. In addition to the two co-founders, the team includes Doug Brotz, Bill Paxton and Ed Taft. The language they created, PostScript, was released in 1984. PostScript enabled free scaling, rotation and movement of text and images, and most printers today rely on PostScript or its successor, PDF. John Warnock promoted the development of PDF in the 1990s, transforming PostScript into a safer and easier technology to use as the basis for digital documents, while retaining the advantages of interoperability, fidelity, and quality.
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