The Birth of a Killer Application

of the phenomenon that would be known as Photoshop. The Birth of a Knoll’s program caught the attention of his brother, John, who Killer Application worked at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in Marin County, California. ILM was the visual effects arm of Lucasfilm, the famous motion picture company founded by George Lucas. With the release of Star Wars, Lucas had proved that really cool special effects, combined with heroic characters and a “shoot-em up script,” could

John Knoll produce a blockbuster motion picture. To that end, John was experimenting with computers to create special effects. He asked his brother Thomas to help him program hotoshop is the best selling a computer to process digital image pixel editing program on files, and Display was a great starting the planet. It is the point. So began their collaboration. standard of many industries John arranged to purchase a new and has been a huge revenue Macintosh II, the first color-capable source for Adobe Systems Inc. model, through his father, a professor But Photoshop’s beginnings at the University of Michigan. Before were humble, and if it weren’t it was shipped to his brother, Thomas for a tendency to procrastinate got hold of it and rewrote the code by a certain University of Michigan for Display to work in color. graduate student, Photoshop might In the ensuing months, Thomas never have been developed. and John worked on expanding Thomas Knoll Back in the fall of 1987, Thomas Display’s capability. At John’s Knoll, a doctoral candidate in com- urging, Thomas added the ability puter vision, was trying to write as a diversion from his doctoral to read and write various file programming code to display gray- work. Because it wasn’t directly formats, while John developed scale computer images on a black- related to his thesis, Knoll thought image processing routines that and-white bitmap monitor. The code it had limited value at best. would later become filter plug-ins. was called Display. Knoll wrote it Little did he know that this initial Thomas developed the unique on his Mac Plus computer at home code would be the very beginning capability to create soft-edged

16 • PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 program demo, he confided to Subsequently, John returned to someone that he was having Adobe for another demonstration. problems naming the program. The Russell Brown, Adobe’s primary art confidant suggested Photoshop, director, was blown away by the and that became the program’s program. He had just signed a non- working name. John started shopping around Photoshop 0.07 Splash Screen for a company to invest in Photoshop. He called on SuperMac, selections that would allow local but financial troubles there precluded changes. He also developed such any deal. Aldus was already working features as Levels for adjusting on something inhouse. Although tonality; Color Balance, Hue, and Adobe was interested, nothing Saturation for adjusting color, and could immediately be settled. painting capabilities. Thomas remained in Ann Arbor, In the summer of 1988, John Michigan, fine-tuning the program, thought they might have the basis while John traveled all over Silicon of a commercially viable product. Valley giving program demos. He Russell Brown Thomas was reluctant: “Do you kept pushing his brother to add have any idea how much work it is new features. John even wrote a disclosure agreement with Letraset, to write a commercial application?” simple manual to make the to view their new image editing he asked John. But with his naive program more understandable. program, ColorStudio. He was con- optimism, John convinced Thomas Finally he succeeded in attracting vinced that Photoshop was better. it would be worth the effort. “I’ll the attention of a scanner manufac- Timing is everything. With a figure out how to make money turer. Barneyscan decided that the great deal of enthusiasm, Adobe with this,” he told his brother. Well, program would be of use to people decided to buy the license to John was right, but so was Thomas. who owned their scanners. A short- distribute Photoshop. It was It did take a lot of work. term deal was worked out, and the September 1988 and the Knoll first public iteration of the software brothers and Fred Mitchell, head of was introduced as Barneyscan XP. Adobe Acquisitions, made the deal hen John saw an ad in About 200 copies of the program, with a handshake. It would be MacWeek for another now in Version 0.87, were shipped April before the final legal pixel imaging appli- with scanners. agreements were worked out. cation, PhotoMac, he The key phrase in that deal was became concerned. He “license to distribute.” Adobe didn’t went to the SIGGRAPH completely buy-out the program Conference (Special until years after Photoshop had Interest Group for the become a huge success. It was a Computer Graphics division of the smart move on the Association for Computing Knolls’ part to work Machinery) to investigate the new out a royalty agreement application. “We’ve got nothing to based upon distribution. worry about here,” he told Thomas. Photoshop 0.87 Splash Screen After the legal agree- PhotoMac lacked some of the ments were signed, major features of the Knolls’ Around this time, John demon- Thomas and John product. In fact, John was stunned strated the program to engineers at started developing a by how poorly its features were Apple computer. It was a huge hit. shipping version. implemented. They asked John to leave a couple Adobe decided to keep Thomas changed the name of of copies. There followed the first the working name their software several times. Each incident of Photoshop pirating. Photoshop. Thomas time he found one he liked, it had Seems that the engineers shared the wrote all the code for John Knoll’s early already been taken. Then, during a program with some friends. the application in Ann Photoshop icons.

PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 • 17 Arbor, while John developed and additional engineers. They hired wrote plug-ins in California. Some Mark Hamburg, also a graduate of of the Adobe people thought John’s the University of Michigan, who features were gimmicky and didn’t had interviewed at Adobe the same belong in a serious application. month Photoshop 1.0 shipped. They viewed the product as a tool Mark had worked at Ashton Tate, for retouching, not special effects, where he implemented Bezier Paths so John had to find a way to “sneak” for Full Write. Paths was a feature them into the program. Those plug- Adobe wanted to add to Photoshop ins have become one of the most 2.0, and the company pegged Mark powerful aspects of Photoshop. as the Path Man for Version 2.0. Adobe Photoshop 1.0 shipped Between April 1989 and the on a single 800k disk. official release of the program early in 1990, development continued, with demo of Photoshop probably took no official beta testers. At Adobe, place at the Mac Summit in Santa Russell Brown and others worked Barbara in 1990. He had a knack for with the program and made sugges- making Photoshop seem easy and tions. Thomas would write and lots of fun, producing humorous then rewrite the code, while John, demos that showcased Photoshop’s Russell, and Fred pushed him to features. People who attended the add features. John was particularly demos spread the word about this good at coaxing Thomas to make really cool new product. improvements. Finally, in February Yet, clearly, Photoshop 1.0 needed 1990, Photoshop 1.0 shipped. more work. While Photoshop was Mark Hamburg easier to use, ColorStudio, which here were some early was developed by Fractal Design, Working with Thomas in Ann bugs in the program, and had some advanced features Photo- Arbor, Mark began development of most people ended up using shop did not. However, much to its Version 2.0 in Mountain View Version 1.0.7. Despite that, disadvantage, Letraset had positioned (Adobe’s first home). The major Photoshop was a hit, beating ColorStudio in a vertical market, features of 2.0 were to be a raster- the competition—most selling it as a specialized tool for izer for Illustrator files (Adobe’s notably ColorStudio—with specialized uses. vector-based application), support its well-written code and Adobe, on the other hand, for CMYK color, Duotones, and the easy-to-use interface. Photo- positioned Photoshop as an easy- Pen tool. Hamburg said his first shop had features that the others to-use tool for anybody with a Mac. real contribution to Photoshop was lacked, and the timing of the release MacWorld even published a shoot- to suggest raising the minimum was excellent: Just as the desktop out in an article about Photoshop RAM allocation from 2- to 4MB. and ColorStudio. John Knoll, Apparently, this little allocation working in Photoshop, and Marc bump greatly aided the stability Zimmer, of Fractal Design, working and performance of the program. in ColorStudio, produced a series Steven Guttman, now CEO of of retouching and compositing Halfbrain.com, became Photoshop’s tasks. Photoshop was seen as the first full-fledged product manager winner, although Zimmer com- Photoshop 1.0.7 Splash Screen plained that the test wasn’t fair— John was an artist while Zimmer publishing revolution was heating was “just a programmer.” With the up, Photoshop was there to take development and release of advantage of the growth. (Of course, Photoshop 2.0, Adobe was clearly you had to own an Apple computer.) becoming the industry standard. Adobe also had a secret weapon: Thomas Knoll had been the entire Russell Brown. His first public engineering staff. Adobe needed Photoshop 2.0.1 Splash Screen

18 • PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 slowly, and required a total rewrite was the primary writer of the Power of Thomas Knoll’s original code. PC accelerator code, which was The Windows version of Photo- implemented as a plug-in. shop was like a completely separate Even before 2.5 had been com- program. The Mac version bore the pleted, work began on Version 3.0, code name Merlin; the Windows code named Tiger Mountain. This version, Brimstone. Adobe would next version was to incorporate a later rue its decision to number the major new feature Thomas was next version Photoshop 2.5. Why working on called Layers. marketing chose not to label it Meanwhile, Thomas worked Version 3.0 remains unclear. In with Hamburg and Johnston on Steven Guttman general, software versions labeled .5 other early 3.0 features, with the do not sell well because they are per- help of a few specialized engineers. and began the tradition of giving ceived as mere maintenance releases. Stern created optimizations for code names to the beta versions. Important new features were the Power Mac, while Seetha Version 2.0, Fast Eddy, was sup- added, notably palettes and 16-bit Narayanan worked on bringing the posedly named for a character in file support. In general, though, Windows version on par with the the movie The Hustler (maybe also Version 2.5 is most noteworthy for Mac version. for the speedy development cycle). being the first Windows version. Photoshop 2.0 shipped in June 1991. Adding CMYK support to Version 2.0 made the printing indus- dobe Photoshop for Windows try sit up and take notice. Photo- had a competitor: Aldus shop 2.0 fueled the desktop publish- PhotoStyler. Windows ing revolution by putting separation users could now run capabilities in the hands of Photo- Photoshop, but the list of shop users. Sales started to skyrocket. new features was short. Development continued and addi- There was also immediate tional engineers were hired, including feedback from the market that Kevin Johnston. Development of something was really wrong with the next version wouldn’t be easy. the memory handling. Seetha Narayanan Adobe had decided that a Windows version should be devel- Photoshop 3.0 was the first oped along with the Mac version. version I had the opportunity to Guttman split product manage- beta test. I had some experience as ment into two teams. The Mac team a beta tester for a program called was headed by Jeff Parker, the Live Picture, which some users Windows team by Bryan Lamkin. touted as a “real-life Photoshop The development progressed Killer.” Adobe was concerned that Photoshop 2.5 Splash Screen Live Picture would offer serious competition. Live Picture’s Layers Tech Support tried to track feature allowed the user to stack down the problem; Hamburg was multiple elements, while keeping so determined to fix it that he them discretely separate. Layers actually offered to make house would prove to be a very calls. When the “memory bug” was significant feature. finally located and squashed, the Meanwhile, rumors of Photo- primary viable version became 2.5.1. shop’s new features began to leak This version was significant for being to the media. There was the first application tuned to work speculation that the Photoshop with Power PC chips, Apple’s faster engineers had copied the Layers Bryan Lamkin new chip architecture. Zalman Stern feature from Live Picture, when in

PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 • 19 truth, Thomas had worked on the was a scheme to pare down the wrote into the applications. They concept long before he ever heard ranks of Version 3.0 beta testers. If a were usually well hidden unless of Live Picture. To him, the layers beta tester didn’t report at least one you knew the obscure key strokes concept was merely a convenient Bass-O-Matic sighting, said Matt, necessary to reveal them (See method of keeping objects separate then obviously he wasn’t using the sidebar on page 23). Such ATWs during image editing. program, and he would be dropped are basically humorous one-liners Photoshop 3.0 shipped for the from the beta program. At the time made up by the engineering staff. Mac at the end of September 1994, it sounded like brilliant explanation! the Windows version shipped in There was a more serious glitch n many ways, Photoshop 3.0 November. It was an instant hit discovered after Version 3.0 (and all five upgrades) was a with users and the press. shipped. Somehow, the beta definitive product. Many expiration code had escaped notice. people, both within Adobe and ersion 3.0 was not without Version 3.0 was recalled. Version on the outside, wondered what its tribulations. Before it 3.0.1 started shipping immediately. could top 3.0. Though there was shipped, Jeff Parker took a Unfortunately for those users who now a considerably larger engi- sabbatical from Adobe, did not return their software, the neering staff (Sean Parent from leaving 3.0 bereft of a Mac program expired on January 1, Apple and Marc Pawliger from version product manager. 1995. While the vast majority of IBM came onboard in the later John Leddy stepped in to take users were aware of the problem, stages of 3.0 development), the idea over the position. During the and Adobe did its best to replace of developing another version of beta process, there was friction 3.0 CDs, some users panicked. All Photoshop wavered. Photoshop between engineering and quality it took was updating the installed engineers became distracted by assurance (Q&A). Many features in 3.0 version with the 3.0.1 updater other projects. Thomas was Photoshop 3.0 were barely docu- already widely available through beginning the stressful and time- mented or not documented at all. online services. consuming project of building a In fact, there was speculation that new home; Hamburg began Brown had engineers include working on an object-oriented undocumented features so he could programming application; Johnston wow the crowds at demos. While and a couple of other engineers left Russell did indeed beg, plead, and Adobe or started new projects. finagle for new features, the lack of Development seemed bogged documentation was not a down when Lamkin decided to conspiracy, but a breakdown in jump start it. With encouragement communication among various from Hamburg, he hired an departments at Adobe. Photoshop 3.0.1 Splash Screen interface designer to rework the The Bass-O-Matic episode, entire user interface of Photoshop. however, was merely the result of Unfortunately for Adobe, a The goal was for all Adobe products an engineer having some fun. similar situation occurred February to have a similar appearance and While several stories are floating 1, 1995, when the Japanese version behavior logic. Hamburg was around about the origins of Bass-O- also suffered a beta copy expiration persuaded to return to the Photo- Matic (a reference to a Dan Akryod warning. A quick 3.0.3 updater shop engineering team, which took skit on Saturday Night Live), all I can fixed the problem, but there were on the task of “revving” Photoshop say is what I know for sure: At serious repercussions. Some yet again. times during early beta testing, the engineers left Adobe. There were some real surprises words “Bass-O-Matic” would These incidents were mildly lurking for unsuspecting Photoshop mysteriously appear in a menu. embarrassing, but they didn’t users. First, Andrei Herasimchuk, When I returned for a look in the diminish the enthusiasm that users the new interface designer, started menu, the words would disappear. had for Version 3.0, especially the making radical recommendations Matt Brown, one of Adobe’s best Layers feature. This was the for the key commands and tech support guys, came up with a version with an Adobe Transient behavior logic of Photoshop. remarkable explanation for this Witticism (ATW)—a little some- Herasimchuk came from a small anomaly. He said that Bass-O-Matic thing “extra” that programmers New England software company

20 • PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 to the West Coast. Herasimchuk invited me to the Adobe offices Evolution of the Photoshop Toolbar in Mountain View to participate in what he called “Usability Testing.” It was more like a psychological test. I was stationed at a computer with a video camera aimed at me, told to launch the program, and left to explore it. They wouldn’t tell me much of anything, but they did ask questions. I was supposed to intu- Andrei Herasimchuk itively grasp the changes, of which there were many. Most of them that had come out with a Photo- seemed to have a definite logic. I shop companion product, Specular was one of three people given an Collage. Even before 3.0 acquired alpha version to “play” with, and I Layers, Specular had developed a started e-mailing off my opinions 0.87 2.1 proxy system of loading Photoshop and reactions. 1.0 files, stacking them as layers, Somewhere along the line, the collaging multiple files, and adding full impact of the proposed changes filter effects. Herasimchuk was hit me: Users were going to face instrumental in developing Collage. major behavioral differences in the With Lamkin’s blessings and way Photoshop worked. I started encouragement from Hamburg, getting nervous that I had too much Herasimchuk undertook some responsibility and that maybe the radical surgery on Photoshop. engineers should re-evaluate the Other engineers worked on other changes. My cold feet came too late new features: Parent developed to have any impact, which as time Actions; Jason Bartell worked on has shown, was fortunate. Adjustment Layers (originally When the first beta copies came scheduled for a later version); and out, there was an uproar from the Pawliger worked on Grids & beta testers. “Why was such-and- Guides. Hamburg worked on Free such (insert your favorite key Transform and screen caching, a command here) being changed?” 2.5 3.0 performance enhancement that Some users rebelled. By the time 4.0 originated with Thomas. This was the beta process was over, most the start of Photoshop 4.0, code testers had adjusted to the changes, named Big Electric Cat. but the media had picked up on the I was introduced to the alpha controversy. The news groups and version of Photoshop 4.0 on a trip online services such as CompuServe and AOL were flooded with complaints by frustrated users who felt the changes made no sense. At the time that Photoshop 4.0 shipped in November 1996, the general reaction among users was, “Why did you break Photoshop?” Finally, as they learned the changes and began to understand the improvements in logic and Photoshop 4.0.1 Splash Screen behaviors, the controversy died 5.0 5.5

PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 • 21 away. Photoshop 4.0 was a huge splash screen for Strange Cargo, the financial success for Adobe and a code name for Version 5.0. vindication of sorts for the At the Orlando Photoshop engineers who took a risk in Conference in September 1997, making radical changes. Herasimchuk and Katja Rimmi (the primary interface designer of rom the time Photoshop first Photoshop 5.0) met with several of appeared on the market, to the alpha testers who would be the shipping of Version 4.0, Adobe Headquarters working with the engineers on the some rather remarkable Version 5.0 feature development. things took place in the Photoshop has topped 100. A We sat around discussing some of industry. The desktop couple of years ago, well after the plans that were taking shape. publishing revolution Photoshop had become a success, Herasimchuk hinted that there was forever changed the prepress Adobe entered negotiations with going to be a new feature that and printing industries, mostly the Knoll brothers to finally buy out would “blow me away.” That feature for the better. Adobe bought all rights to Photoshop. It cost Adobe would be called the History Palette. Aldus and killed PhotoStyler. a bundle, but it was worth it. Macromedia ended up with Free Photoshop 5.0 was in develop- Hand in the deal, Illustrator’s main ment well before Version 4.0 competitor. They tried to create shipped. I remember glancing at a another Photoshop competitor, white board in Sean Parent’s office x-Res, but it died. On the Windows on the 10th floor of Adobe’s new side, Picture Publisher began to corporate offices in San Jose (they lose its market share. say it’s the building that Photoshop Meanwhile, a little startup built, kind of like Thomas’s house, company called HSC started selling but with more floors). It was fall Photoshop plug-ins, changed its 1996, during the Version 4.0 launch name to MetaTools, and went party. On the white board was a list Katja Rimmi public. It bought up Specular and of possible features for the next then merged with Fractal Design, release. Most of them have made it The History Palette was Ham- again changing its name, this time into the program. burg’s vision of implementing a to MetaCreations. Its image editing In spring 1997, there was little multiple undo feature in Photoshop. product, Live Picture, has since died. news coming from Adobe. But instead of a traditional scheme, The World Wide Web surged as Illustrator 7.0 had shipped, and he wanted it to be an elegant and a technology. Just last month, Meta- while the Mac version was not powerful feature. Creations released its product significantly different, the Windows Rumor has it that Hamburg was engineers and put their products on version of Illustrator jumped from influenced by my blending technique the auction block, retaining only the Version 4.0 to 7.0. That summer —the way I worked between Web streaming products. Apple began Herasimchuk e-mailed that things “states” (my term for an image to lose market share, but was still were starting to heat up at Adobe. file’s condition at a particular stage touted as the first choice for graphics He asked me to create the beta of manipulation). Prior to Photo- and multimedia content creation. shop 5.0, there were four such Remarkably, throughout all of states. My technique used the these changes, Photoshop continued Saved state and the Snapshot state to grow and prosper. The installed in manipulating the current state. user base is in the millions (with a This was the concept Mark used in ratio of unregistered to registered developing his vision of the users at perhaps 5-10/1). Entire History feature. Instead of a plain cottage industries have developed vanilla multi-undo, which would and prospered by supplying have been cool on its own, Mark Photoshop plug-ins and add-ons. used the concept to enhance the The number of books written about Photoshop 5.0 Splash Screen power and usability of the feature.

22 • PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 Of Easter Eggs & Code Names By Jeff Schewe

aster Eggs are little bits of application burp?” is one of the most frequently E code modification that allow certain asked questions about Version 4.0. hidden functionality to be seen or heard. In 1997, I was asked to create the Usually, the functionality is no more than alternate screen for Version 5.0 by Marc the application programmer’s idea of fun Pawliger—an honor, albeit an unpaid and games. On occasion, programmers one. Hamburg named this version have been known to slip in hidden features, Strange Cargo, a reference to a work by too, as a kind of secret signature. With techno artist William Orbit. There are some notable exceptions, Easter Eggs do two extra Easter eggs in this version, no harm. I’m not sure when Easter Eggs accessible from the alternate screen. I made their first appearance in Photoshop, Mark Hamberg code named Version was sworn to secrecy, but the cat must but I do know that even Version 1.0 3.0 Tiger Mountain, a reference to a be out of the bag by this time. Go to the recording by Brian Eno. From that alternate screen and immediately type version on, the platforms had the same “B-U-R-P.” (Excuse me!) Now type in code names. the kitty’s name, Sorry—I still can’t Version 3.0 saw the introduction of divulge that, but it can be found in the Adobe Transient Witticisms (ATW)—one- 5.0 ATWs (Hint: “___LIVES!”). liners supposedly uttered by the engineers during development. To see the 3.0 ATWs, go to the alternate screen (Option>About Photoshop) and let the shipped with the secret Knoll Software credits run in their entirety. While holding splash screen, which originally contained the option key, click in the area just the address and phone number (long above the credits. Among the ATWs is a since obsolete) of John Knoll’s software list titled “Top Ten Signs the Engineering company. Team Has Been Working Too Hard.” Photoshop 2.0 was code named Merlin Mark Hamburg code named Version by Photoshop’s first product manager, 4.0 Big Electric Cat, for a song by Adrian Steve Guttman. In Version 2.5, the Mac Belew. The splash screen was created by version was code named Fast Eddie, and Joseph Kelter, of Bad Cat Design. In the Mac version, when users clicked on the kitty’s nose, an Easter Egg manifested as In homage to Photoshop’s history, an electronic burp. According to Version 5.0 has another Easter Egg. Hamburg, “How do you make the kitty “Merlin Lives!” resides in a hidden Option>Layer Options key command. Version 5.5, which has the same alternate screen as 5.0, did not get a code name, and has but a handful of additional ATWs. the Windows version, Brimstone. The code name for the next version Photoshop 2.5 had a Hidden Filter menu of Photoshop? Well, I can’t comment for all the Distortion plug-ins, an extra bit on that, but I’m willing to bet it’s a of functionality designed by John Knoll. It musical reference, and that it’s stored was accessed by holding down the option in Mark Hamburg’s ubiquitous Apple key and navigating to About Plug-ins in Newton laptop. the Apple Menu.

PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 • 23 Joe Ault, Software When I received the first alpha sated for by the impressively vast Engineer, version of Strange Cargo with the array of new features. Generalist (utility History feature, I was stunned. infielder) Mark had implemented a perfect ne big new feature caught a approach to multiple undos (at lot of users by surprise: least from my point of view). I Color Management. To immediately started to put the some it was a Holy Grail. Jason Bartell, feature through its paces. It was To others, it was a con- Software going to be a powerful one. spiracy to screw up their Engineer, Adjustment A few weeks later, I received lives. I think the color man- Layers, New another alpha version, with yet agement tools in Photoshop Hue/Saturation, Levels and another aspect in the History 5.0 are great. For the first time, Curves feature: non-linear History. Wow! users can do the majority of color enhancements this was getting deep. To management duties right in understand non-linear History, it Photoshop, instead of using an Scott Byer, helps to be a sci-fi fan. Non-linear expensive third-party tool. However, Senior Software History means that you can step Adobe did make a couple of errors Engineer, back in time and branch out to a in judgement. For example, the UNIX version, new timeline without killing off default behavior to convert the Windows performance those future events that have colors of users’ files when opening tuning, already happened. Needless to say, has proved to be a mistake. magnetic tools Version 5.0 was looking like a Additionally, the engineers did major upgrade. something to the way dot gain is Jeff Chien, Every new alpha disk that implemented. Apparently there Software Engineer, arrived had more features hooked was a slight error in the way UNIX version, up and working. It gets to be a bit Photoshop originally calculated dot PDF, and EPS parsers like an Easter egg hunt. You gain, dating back to Version 2.0. The develop a pattern of checking out engineers decided to correct the each menu item and tool for new error, but there was no documen- goodies. There’s always surprises— tation directly relating to the change, occasionally bad ones. and this caused problems for users. Kevin Conner, current Take the Clone tool, for example. Some members of the press pro- Photoshop I’ve been told that a certain author claimed Photoshop 5.0 a failure. Product Manager, had made a case to Hamburg Adobe addressed these two problems responsible for about why the behavior change and created an update that included Photoshop LE from Version 2.5 to 3.0 was a a wizard to walk people through mistake. This unnamed author (his setting up color preferences. The first name is Deke) convinced update shipped as Version 5.0.2. And Chris Cox, Hamburg to change the behavior to think Herasimchuk was worried Software Engineer, back to the way it was in 2.5, so that nobody would notice Color Bit twiddler the Clone Brush would not Management as a new feature! and code performance produce a “hall-of-mirrors” effect. Other things were happening in tweaker. The change wasn’t as bad as it was the imaging Author: Chris’s unexpected. industry. Photoshop Filters Then there were the Pen Tool Apple behavior changes—required in Computer, Josh Freeman, Software Adobe’s new policy of cross- which Engineer, application tool behavior unifica- many Plug-in support tion. Herasimchuk had struck industry again. But the mild annoyances pundits caused by these relatively minor had written changes were more than compen- off for dead,

24 • PEI • FEBRUARY 2000 Greg Gilley, came back to life with the release of VP of Web the iMac. The resurgence of Apple Applications, Senior caught much of the industry by engineering surprise. Then there was the “Asian Flu,” the crash in the Asian financial markets that had adverse effects on many high-tech companies. Kevin Johnston, Adobe did not come through former Software unscathed. When Photoshop 5.0 Engineer, Photoshop 5.5 Splash Screen calculations and shipped in May 1998, Adobe’s numerous other stock was about $51 per share. By features the summer, Adobe’s stock had graphics software has changed so No. 3 Photoshop engineer, tumbled, ending up at about $25 many industries. now with the week before SeyBold San Will another piece of software Halfbrain.com Francisco in September. come along to knock Photoshop John Leddy, During that summer, Adobe from the top seller list? I doubt it. former went through major corporate The elves at Adobe are surely hard Photoshop restructuring and laid off many at work developing yet another Product Manager people. Some employees left before version of Photoshop with being laid off, notably, John Leddy, tremendous new features and who left for MetaCreations. Mean- perhaps a controversy or two. while, an Adobe competitor did Photoshop has become big busi- something foolish—the company ness. The company’s revenues are Charles began a semi-official attempt at an $1 billion a year. Yet throughout McBrian, unfriendly takeover of Adobe. Why Photoshop’s history, one thing Software Engineer, OLE Quark executives thought they remains clear. Photoshop came out automation could pull off a hostile takeover of at the right place at the right time. It support Adobe is unclear, but the timing continues to be a well-crafted piece was terrible for Adobe. of software developed by some Against the backdrop of all this truly gifted software engineers. controversy, and to the surprise of Thanks, Thomas Knoll, for pro- Sean Parent, many, the decision to ship yet crastinating on your doctoral thesis. Software Engineer, another Photoshop Version .5 release By the way, he never did finish his Actions, File was made. Not only did it come just thesis. He still lives in Ann Arbor, Info, Mac OS over a year after the shipping of Michigan, in relative obscurity, with enhancements Photoshop 5.0, but it also had his wife and kids in the 10,000+ Image Ready 2.0 as a bundled square-foot house that Photoshop extension. The list of features new built. He still works for Adobe on a with 5.5 was not long, but it did contract basis and he still “plays Marc Pawliger, finally address a major area that 5.0 around” with Photoshop. John Engineering Manager, had missed: the World Wide Web. Knoll is no longer directly involved Grids & Guides, Photoshop 5.5 has been very suc- with Photoshop development. But he Measure Tool, Alignment, cessful, Adobe has come back, and is rumored to still use it in his work Color Samplers, with the release of InDesign (Adobe’s at Industrial Light & Magic. ᮤ Generalist. “Quark Killer”), the outlook is posi- UNIX version tive. So much so that Adobe’s stock has surged from $25 a share to Akiko Sherry, Software more than $75, even after splitting Engineer, two-for-one. responsible for editable type To say that Photoshop’s 10-year Jeff Schewe, a 46-year-old Chicago native, a feature consultant and alpha in 5.0 and lots history is a phenomenon is a vast tester for Adobe Photoshop, is this of Japanese features understatement. No single piece of month’s cover artist.

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