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John Warnock

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49-463: John Edward Warnock (October 6, 1940 – August 19, 2023) was an American computer scientist , inventor , technology businessman, and philanthropist best known for co-founding Adobe Systems Inc. , the graphics and publishing software company, with Charles Geschke in 1982. Warnock was President of Adobe for his first two years and chairman and CEO for his remaining sixteen years at the company. Although he retired as CEO in 2001, he continued to co-chair

98-652: A PhD , M.S. , Bachelor's degree in computer science, or other similar fields like Information and Computer Science (CIS), or a closely related discipline such as mathematics or physics . Computer scientists are often hired by software publishing firms, scientific research and development organizations where they develop the theories and computer model that allow new technologies to be developed. Computer scientists are also employed by educational institutions such as universities . Computer scientists can follow more practical applications of their knowledge, doing things such as software engineering. They can also be found in

147-578: A "reference model" (but with customization for the Linotronic's different video interface, plus the necessary implementation of "banding" and a hard drive frame buffer and font storage mechanism). Indeed, the PostScript language itself was concurrently enhanced and extended to support these high-resolution "banding" devices (as contrasted to the lower resolution "framing" devices, such as the LaserWriter, in which

196-829: A Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and philosophy, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in electrical engineering ( computer science ), and an honorary degree in science, all from the University of Utah . At the University of Utah he was a member of the Gamma Beta Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He also received an honorary degree from the American Film Institute . He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Marva M. Warnock, marrying in 1965. Marva

245-428: A computer, revolutionizing media and making desktop publishing feasible. In late 1986, Warnock had invented Adobe Illustrator , a computer drawing program that used lines and bézier curves to render infinitely scalable graphics. He initially developed it to automate many of the manual tasks utilized by his wife, Marva, a graphic designer. Illustrator was released in early 1987. In the spring of 1991, Warnock outlined

294-566: A laser printer they intended to market. Jobs was aware of Warnock's efforts, and upon his return to California he began convincing Warnock to allow Apple to license PostScript for a new printer that Apple would sell. Negotiations between Apple and Adobe over the use of PostScript began in 1983 and an agreement was reached in December 1983, one month before Macintosh was announced. Jobs eventually arranged for Apple to buy $ 2.5 million in Adobe stock. At about

343-702: A market in which the Mac is still important. The LaserWriter was the first major printer designed by Apple to use the new Snow White design language created by Frog Design . It also continued a departure from the beige color that characterized the Apple and Macintosh products to that time by using the same brighter, creamy off-white color first introduced with the Apple IIc and Apple Scribe Printer 8 months earlier. In that regard it and its successors stood out among all of Apple's Macintosh product offerings until 1987, when Apple adopted

392-454: A scene until areas are obtained that are trivial to compute. It solves the problem of rendering a complicated image by avoiding the problem. If the scene is simple enough to compute then it is rendered; otherwise it is divided into smaller parts and the process is repeated. Warnock noted that for this work he received "the dubious distinction of having written the shortest doctoral thesis in University of Utah history". The Warnock algorithm solving

441-478: A similar technology, PostScript, and brought it to market for Apple's LaserWriter in 1985. Apple co-founder Steve 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.” Adobe's PostScript technology made it possible to print high-resolution text and images from

490-541: A system called "Camelot", inventing the Portable Document Format (PDF) file-format. The goal of Camelot was to "effectively capture documents from any application, send electronic versions of these documents anywhere, and view and print these documents on any machines [sic]". Warnock's document contemplated: Imagine if the IPS (Interchange PostScript) viewer is also equipped with text searching capabilities. In this case

539-539: A unifying warm gray color they called Platinum across its entire product line, which was to last for over a decade. The LaserWriter was also the first peripheral to use the LocalTalk connector and Apple's unified round AppleTalk Connector Family, which allowed any variety of mechanical networking systems to be plugged into the ports on the computers or printers. A common solution was the 3rd party PhoneNET which used conventional telephone cables for networking. Apple's RIP

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588-569: Is a former partner and graphic designer at Marsh Design in Palo Alto, California , and is known not only for creating the iconic Adobe logo, but also as a designer for nonprofit organizations. They have three children. He is known as the creative driving force behind Adobe System's initial software products: PostScript , Adobe Illustrator , and the PDF , and he continued to be involved in new product development throughout his career. "The thing I really enjoy

637-659: Is the invention process. I enjoy figuring out how to do things other people don't know how to do." Warnock's earliest publication and subject of his master's thesis was his 1964 proof of a theorem solving the Jacobson radical for row-finite matrices, which was originally posed by the American mathematician Nathan Jacobson in 1956. In his 1969 doctoral thesis, Warnock invented the Warnock algorithm for hidden surface determination in computer graphics . It works by recursive subdivision of

686-507: Is the theoretical study of computing from which these other fields derive. A primary goal of computer scientists is to develop or validate models, often mathematical, to describe the properties of computational systems ( processors , programs, computers interacting with people, computers interacting with other computers, etc.) with an overall objective of discovering designs that yield useful benefits (faster, smaller, cheaper, more precise, etc.). Most computer scientists are required to possess

735-563: The AppleTalk protocol stack , LocalTalk connected the LaserWriter to the Mac over an RS-422 serial port. At 230.4 kbit / s LocalTalk was slower than the Centronics PC parallel interface, but allowed several computers to share a single LaserWriter. PostScript enabled the LaserWriter to print complex pages containing high-resolution bitmap graphics , outline fonts , and vector illustrations. The LaserWriter could print more complex layouts than

784-804: The Association for Computing Machinery in 1989. In 1995 Warnock received the University of Utah Distinguished Alumnus Award and in 1999 he was inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery . Warnock was awarded the Edwin H. Land Medal from the Optical Society of America in 2000. In 2002, he was made a fellow of the Computer History Museum for "his accomplishments in the commercialization of desktop publishing with Chuck Geschke and for innovations in scalable type, computer graphics and printing." Oxford University 's Bodleian Library bestowed

833-850: The Bodley Medal on Warnock in November 2003. In 2004, Warnock received the Lovelace Medal from the British Computer Society in London. In October 2006, Warnock—along with Adobe co-founder Charles Geschke—received the American Electronics Association 's Annual Medal of Achievement Award, being the first software executives to receive this award. In 2008, Warnock and Geschke received the Computer Entrepreneur Award from

882-467: The HP LaserJet and other non-Postscript printers. Paired with the program Aldus PageMaker , the LaserWriter gave the layout editor an exact replica of the printed page. The LaserWriter offered a generally faithful proofing tool for preparing documents for quantity publication, and could print smaller quantities directly. The Mac platform quickly gained the favor of the emerging desktop-publishing industry,

931-541: The IEEE Computer Society "for inventing PostScript and PDF and helping to launch the desktop publishing revolution and change the way people engage with information and entertainment". In September 2009, Warnock and Geschke were chosen to receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation , one of the nation's highest honors bestowed on scientists, engineers and inventors. In 2010, Warnock and Geschke received

980-685: The Marconi Prize , an honor specifically for contributions to information science and communications. Warnock was a member of the National Academy of Engineering , the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and the American Philosophical Society , the latter being America's oldest learned society. Warnock received honorary degrees from the University of Utah , the American Film Institute , and The University of Nottingham in

1029-481: The University of Utah , and also an endowed chair in medical research at Stanford University . In 2003, Warnock and his wife donated 200,000 shares of Adobe Systems (valued at over $ 5.7 million) to the University of Utah as the main gift for a new engineering building. The John E. and Marva M. Warnock Engineering Building was completed in 2007 and houses the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute and

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1078-509: The graphical user interface of Macintosh computers, the LaserWriter was a key component at the beginning of the desktop publishing revolution. Laser printing traces its history to efforts by Gary Starkweather at Xerox in 1969, which resulted in a commercial system called the Xerox 9700 . IBM followed this with the IBM 3800 system in 1976. Both machines were large, room-filling devices handling

1127-425: The "frame buffer", for the lowest resolution devices, 300 dpi), as more than 300 dpi of course required more RAM, and some LaserWriters were able to change between 300 dpi and 600 dpi, depending upon how much RAM was installed. 600 dpi, for example, required 6 MB of RAM, but 8 MB of RAM was more commonly found. At this point, Apple's LaserWriters were employing generic non-parity RAM, whereas HP's LaserJets, especially

1176-540: The Adobe Board of Directors with Geschke until 2017. Warnock pioneered the development of graphics, publishing, web and electronic document technologies that have revolutionized the field of publishing and visual communications. Warnock was born on October 6, 1940, and raised in Salt Lake City , Utah. He failed mathematics in ninth grade before graduating from Olympus High School in 1958, however, Warnock went on to earn

1225-713: The Dean of the University of Utah College of Engineering . John and Marva have also personally assisted with cataract surgeries led by Geoffrey Tabin on missions to reverse blindness in least developed countries . They endowed a chair at the Moran Eye Center , which supports work to treat preventable blindness in Utah and around the world. John was also the Founding Chairman of the Tech Museum of Innovation from 1995 to 1999. Warnock,

1274-539: The LBP-CX, a desktop laser printer engine using a laser diode and featuring an output resolution of 300 dpi. In 1984, HP released the first commercially available system based on the LBP-CX, the HP LaserJet . Steve Jobs of Apple Computer had seen the LBP-CX while negotiating for supplies of 3.5" floppy disk drives for the upcoming Apple Macintosh computer. Meanwhile, John Warnock had left Xerox to found Adobe Systems to commercialize PostScript and AppleTalk in

1323-535: The LaserWriter II was designed to allow for complete replacement of the computer circuit board that operates the printer. Across all the different models, the print engine was the same. Three years later in 1991, two updated versions of the LaserWriter II were produced. To deliver higher performance, Apple eventually switched from the 68000 series to the Am29000 series of processors to drive later models, starting with

1372-513: The LaserWriter, PostScript, PageMaker and the Mac's GUI and built-in AppleTalk networking would ultimately transform the landscape of computer desktop publishing. At the time, Apple planned to release a suite of AppleTalk products as part of the Macintosh Office , with the LaserWriter being only the first component. While competing printers and their associated control languages offered some of

1421-692: The UK. Computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science . Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on specific areas (such as algorithm and data structure development and design, software engineering , information theory , database theory , theoretical computer science , numerical analysis , programming language theory , compiler , computer graphics , computer vision , robotics , computer architecture , operating system ), their foundation

1470-496: The addition of downloadable bitmapped fonts. It lacked the power and flexibility of PostScript until several upgrades provided some level of parity. It was some time before similar products became available on other platforms, by which time the Mac had ridden the desktop publishing market to success. The LaserWriter used the same Canon CX printing engine as the HP LaserJet, and as a consequence early LaserWriters and LaserJets shared

1519-482: The approach to commercialize the InterPress graphics language for controlling printing on any computer and printer, he and Geschke left Xerox to start Adobe in 1982, naming it after Adobe Creek , which ran behind both their homes. They initially hired two computer scientists (Bill Paxton and Doug Brotz) and two electronics designers (Tom Boynton and Dan Putnam) from PARC. At their new company, they developed from scratch

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1568-485: The capabilities of PostScript, they were limited in their ability to reproduce free-form layouts (as a desktop publishing application might produce), use outline fonts , or offer the level of detail and control over the page layout. HP's own LaserJet was driven by a simple page description language , known as Printer Command Language , or PCL. The version for the LaserJet, PCL4, was adapted from earlier inkjet printers with

1617-442: The combined output of many users. During the mid-1970s, Canon started working on similar machines, and partnered with Hewlett-Packard to produce 1980's HP 2680, which filled only part of a room. Other copier companies also started development of similar systems. HP introduced their first desktop model with a Ricoh engine for $ 12,800 in 1983. Sales of the non-networked product were unsurprisingly poor. In 1983, Canon introduced

1666-529: The commencement speaker for the University of Utah Class of 2020, advised: "The rest of your life is not a spectator sport. Your job in life is to be an active player, to make the world a better place.” Warnock died in Los Altos, California on August 19, 2023, at the age of 82, from pancreatic cancer. The recipient of numerous scientific and technical awards, Warnock won the Software Systems Award from

1715-510: The entire "frame" could be contained within the available RAM ). In most cases, such RAM was fixed in size and was soldered to the logic board. In late PostScript Level 1, and in early PostScript Level 2, the RAM size was made variable and was generally extensible, through plug-in DIMMs, beyond the 2.0 to 2.5 MB minimum (0.5 to 1.0 MB for instructions, depending upon PostScript version, and 1.5 MB minimum for

1764-463: The field of information technology consulting , and may be seen as a type of mathematician, given how much of the field depends on mathematics. Computer scientists employed in industry may eventually advance into managerial or project leadership positions. Employment prospects for computer scientists are said to be excellent. Such prospects seem to be attributed, in part, to very rapid growth in computer systems design and related services industry, and

1813-654: The hidden surface problem enabled computers to render solid objects at a time when most computer renderings were only line drawings and was featured on the cover of Scientific American in 1970 with accompanying article by Ivan Sutherland . In 1976, while Warnock worked at Evans & Sutherland , a Salt Lake City –based computer graphics company, the concepts of the PostScript language were seeded. Prior to co-founding Adobe with Geschke, Warnock worked with Geschke at Xerox 's Palo Alto Research Center ( Xerox PARC ), where he had started in 1978. Unable to convince Xerox management of

1862-482: The most processing power in Apple's product line—more than the 8 MHz Macintosh. As a result, the LaserWriter was also one of Apple's most expensive offerings. For implementation purposes, the LaserWriter employed a small number of medium-scale-integration Monolithic Memories PALs , and no custom LSI , whereas the LaserJet employed a large number of small-scale-integration Texas Instruments 74-Series gates, and one custom LSI. The LaserWriter was, thereby, in

1911-588: The ones which offered a plug-in PostScript interpreter card, required special parity-type PS/2 RAM modules with a "presence detect" function according to IBM specs. Building on the success of the original LaserWriter, Apple developed many further models. Later LaserWriters offered faster printing, higher resolutions , Ethernet connectivity, and eventually color output in the Color LaserWriter . To compete, many other laser printer manufacturers licensed Adobe PostScript for inclusion into their own models. Eventually

1960-498: The same form factor (for its RIP ), able to provide much greater function, and, indeed, much greater performance, all within the very same LBP-CX form factor, although the external packaging was, for marketing purposes, somewhat different. Since the cost of a LaserWriter was several times that of a dot-matrix impact printer , some means to share the printer with several Macs was desired. LANs were complex and expensive, so Apple developed its own networking scheme, LocalTalk . Based on

2009-423: The same time, Jonathan Seybold ( John W. Seybold 's son) introduced Paul Brainerd to Apple, where he learned of Apple's laser printer efforts and saw the potential for a new program using the Mac's GUI to produce PostScript output for the new printer. Arranging his own funding through a venture capital firm, Brainerd formed Aldus and began development of what would become PageMaker . The venture capital coined

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2058-407: The same time-frame as Apple's LaserWriter, Adobe was licensing the very same version of PostScript to Apple's potential competitors (Apple's PostScript licensing terms were non-exclusive); however, all non-Apple licensees of PostScript generally employed one of Adobe's PostScript "reference models" (Atlas, Redstone, etc.) and even Linotype 's first image setter which featured PostScript employed such

2107-405: The same toner cartridges and paper trays. PostScript is a complete programming language that has to be run in a suitable interpreter and then sent to a software rasterizer program, all inside the printer. To support this, the LaserWriter featured a Motorola 68000 CPU running at 12  MHz , 512 KB of workspace RAM , and a 1 MB frame buffer. At introduction, the LaserWriter had

2156-420: The software publishing industry, which are projected to be among the fastest growing industries in the U.S. economy. LaserWriter The LaserWriter is a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter sold by Apple, Inc. from 1985 to 1988. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. In combination with WYSIWYG publishing software like PageMaker that operated on top of

2205-415: The standardization on Ethernet for connectivity and the ubiquity of PostScript undermined the unique position of Apple's printers: Macintosh computers functioned equally well with any Postscript printer. After the LaserWriter 8500, Apple discontinued the LaserWriter product line in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned to Apple. In 1988, to address the need for both an affordable printer and a professional printer,

2254-628: The term "desktop publishing" during this time. The LaserWriter was announced at Apple's annual shareholder meeting on January 23, 1985, the same day Aldus announced PageMaker. Shipments began in March 1985 at the retail price of US$ 6,995, significantly more than the HP model. However, the LaserWriter featured AppleTalk support that allowed the printer to be shared among as many as sixteen Macs, meaning that its per-user price could fall to under $ 450, far less expensive than HP's less-advanced model. The combination of

2303-450: The user could find all documents that contain a certain word or phrase, and then view that word or phrase in context within the document. Entire libraries could be archived in electronic form... The new PDF format, though, was slow to gain industry traction and Warnock noted that "the industry 'did not get it ' ". One of Adobe's popular typefaces , Warnock , is named after him. Warnock held twenty patents. In addition to Adobe Systems, he

2352-443: Was of its own design, and was implemented using few ICs, including PALs for most combinatorial logic; with the subsystem timing DRAM refreshing, and rasterization functions being implemented in very few medium-scale-integration PALs. Apple's competitors (i.e., QMS , NEC , and others) generally used a variation of one of Adobe's RIPs with their large quantity of small-scale-integration (i.e., Texas Instruments ' 7400 series) ICs. In

2401-872: Was or had been on the board of directors at ebrary , Hiball, Knight-Ridder , Octavo Corporation , Netscape Communications , and Salon Media Group . Warnock was a past chairman of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. He was on the board of trustees of the American Film Institute , the Sundance Institute and the Folger Shakespeare Library . His hobbies included photography, skiing , web development , painting, hiking , curation of rare scientific books, and historical Native American objects. A strong supporter of higher education, Warnock and his wife, Marva, have supported three presidential-endowed chairs in computer science, mathematics, and fine arts at

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