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Who Was John Warnock? Meet The Adobe Founder Behind The PDF File
Doug Menuez/Stanford University LibrariesAdobe Systems co-founder John Warnock in 1991.In the early 1980s, printing from a computer could be an arduous and expensive task. The first consumer inkjet printer hadnt yet hit the market, so the only options were dot-matrix printers that produced pixelated text or pricey devices like daisy wheel printers and early laser printers.Even with a good printer, documents created on one computer wouldnt always transfer well to another computer or printer. The layout could become skewed, leaving text and images inconsistent between devices. John Warnock set out to solve this problem in the early 1980s. He was working for Xerox at the time, and he and his co-worker Charles Geschke invented Interpress, a programming language that would preserve the layout of a document no matter which computer or printer it was sent to. However, Xerox wasnt interested in commercializing Interpress so Warnock and Geschke quit their jobs and founded Adobe Systems together.Over the next decade, they released a similar language called PostScript, which transformed the computer industry. But John Warnocks real claim to fame came in 1993, when he invented the PDF file. While he might not be as well-known as Steve Jobs or Bill Gates today, Warnock is the man who revolutionized printing and file sharing, making it accessible to all.John Warnocks Life Before AdobeJohn Warnock wasnt always interested in computers. He failed algebra in high school, but by the time he reached college, hed decided to major in math. Even then, he hadnt seriously considered a career in technology. However, after a summer spent working on tires at Firestone, he decided that manual labor wasnt for him. Warnock landed a job with IBM and then went on to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Utah.University of Utah/YouTubeJohn Warnock gave the keynote address at the University of Utahs commencement ceremony in 2020.The university had received a large sum of money and resources from the U.S. Department of Defense to study and advance the field of computer graphics, a subject that piqued Warnocks interest. In his doctoral thesis, he invented the Warnock algorithm, which solved the problem of how to render a three-dimensional object in two dimensions.After graduate school, Warnock moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Marva, and took a job at Xerox. It was there that he met Charles Geschke, the man with whom he would soon found Adobe Systems.The Founding Of Adobe Systems And The Invention Of The PDFWhile working at Xerox, John Warnock and Charles Geschke invented Interpress, a computer language that would allow a document to print consistently, no matter which computer created it or which device printed it. Warnock and Geschke presented their creation to their bosses at Xerox with the belief that the protocol could revolutionize the industry but Xerox passed on it. This rejection pushed Warnock and Geschke to quit their jobs and build something of their own.Doug Menuez/Stanford University LibrariesJohn Warnock (left) and Charles Geschke in 1989.I went into his office, and I said, We can live in the worlds greatest sandbox for the rest of our life, or we can do something about it,' Warnock recalled in a 2018 interview with the Computer History Museum.In 1982, the two men founded Adobe Systems. There, they invented a more advanced version of Interpress called PostScript. Even Steve Jobs was blown away by their creation. After seeing it in action, he wanted it to come standard on the LaserWriter, Apples new printer.In an interview for Pamela Pfiffners 2003 book Inside the Publishing Revolution: The Adobe Story, Jobs said, When that first page came out of the LaserWriter, I was blown away. No one had seen anything like this before. I held this page up in my hand and said, Who will not want that? I knew then, as did John, that this was going to have a profound impact.John Warnock/Computer History MuseumJohn Warnock (left) with a young Steve Jobs at the 1985 debut of Apples LaserWriter.Warnock also played a crucial role in the development of Adobe Illustrator, which he created to help automate his wifes graphic design work. Meanwhile, Photoshop reflected his own personal interest in photography. I learned to do a lot of things in the dark room and I started seeing those in Photoshop, the things you could do in a dark room, and then it became totally obvious that anything you could do with an image, you could do in software, Warnock told the Computer History Museum. Perhaps most importantly, Warnock went on to invent the PDF, or the Portable Document Format, in 1993. At the time, the PDF was the most advanced high-quality electronic document that could be shared via email or the internet. It threw Adobe into the spotlight, and the PDF eventually became the standard for printing and file sharing. But John Warnocks life was much more than his revolutionary career.The Enduring Legacy Of John WarnockWarnock was the CEO of Adobe Systems until his retirement in 2000, and he remained on the companys board of directors until his death in 2023. But while he made tech his career, he also nurtured many passions and projects outside of the industry.In 1986, John Warnock began collecting rare books after purchasing a 1570 edition of Euclids Elements. This hobby led him to found a company called Octavo, which sold CDs containing high-resolution digital images of old books and manuscripts. We scanned some of the great books from the greatest libraries in the world, Warnock told the University of Utah in 2013. The company was not successful for a number of reasons, but I had all the book files.So, instead of selling CDs, Warnock created a website called rarebookroom.org. He uploaded scans from hundreds of rare books, making them freely available to anyone with internet access. In 2009, President Barack Obama awarded Warnock and Geschke the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In a speech during the ceremony, Obama praised their pioneering technological contributions that were central to spurring the desktop publishing revolution and their role in changing the way people create and engage with information and entertainment across multiple mediums.Schmiebel/Wikimedia CommonsJohn Warnock receives the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama.John Warnock died from pancreatic cancer on August 19, 2023, at age 82. He had 20 patents to his name, and his company was worth $235 billion. That same year, Xerox had a market capitalization of just $2 billion.Adobe Systems, run by two academics with a passion for innovation, was seen in the tech world as an underdog despite its eventual success with PostScript, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat, and InDesign. This may be because Warnock valued more than just money in his drive to invent. Throughout his life, he emphasized the importance of community and collaboration.I think a big part of the company is the culture, Warnock told the Computer History Museum. And weve also tried to be very egalitarian its always been giving people opportunity, its always taking care of people, being fair.[W]hen Chuck and I first started the company, Warnock continued, we explicitly said to each other, we want to build a company that we would like to work for.After reading about the life and career of John Warnock, go inside the death of Steve Jobs. Then, look through 44 photos of vintage computers from decades past. The post Who Was John Warnock? Meet The Adobe Founder Behind The PDF File appeared first on All That's Interesting.
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