Photoshop celebrates its 30th anniversary
The graphic design tool, used by millions to perform different tasks, debuted in 1987 as an initial prototype
Adobe Photoshop, the photo retouching program used by millions of people around the world, from graphic designers, advertising professionals or simply photography lovers, turns 30 this year since its arrival on the market.
It all started in 1987, when the American software engineer Thomas Knoll developed for personal use a program for a Macintosh Plus computer called Display, which allowed to display grayscale images on monochromatic monitors.
Thomas’s brother, John Knoll, was a special effects supervisor at Light and Magic and was interested in the image editing software his brother had created.
The two brothers decided to work together in this program, to which they added new functions that allowed to process digital image files. The Knoll brothers decided to change the name to ImagePro, but as it was registered they had to call it as we know it today: Photoshop.
Realizing the chances of success of their program after James Cameron used it to recreate the underwater world of the Abyss movie, the brothers decided to offer their product in Silicon Valley.
It was the Adobe company that in 1989 showed interest in this program and launched it on the market on February 19, 1990, initially only for Macintosh. The program was not available for Windows until its version 2.5, which was launched in November 1992.
The program sold three million copies at the end of the decade and its popularity even caused the introduction of the English verb to photoshop in the dictionary.
K. Tovar
Source: dpa
