| Revision as of 07:55, 11 March 2003 edit209.245.136.2 (talk)No edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 01:53, 23 March 2003 edit undoMaury Markowitz (talk | contribs)Administrators76,017 editsmNo edit summaryNext edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| ⚫ | '''Adobe Systems''' is a ] ] company, founded in December 1982 by ] and ] after they left ] to further develop and commercialize the ] ]. ] subsequently licenced for use in their ] ] product line in 1985, thereby sparking the ] revolution. The company name comes from the Adobe Creek which ran near the company's original offices in Mountain View, California. The headquarters of the company are located in ]. There are about 3400 employees working for Adobe in ]. | ||
| '''Adobe Systems''' is a ] ] company. | |||
| ⚫ | Soon after introducing PostScript Adobe entered the consumer ] market by introducing ], a vector-based drawing program for the ]. This was the logical outgrowth of commercializing their in-house font-development software and to help popularize the use of ]s. Unlike MacDraw (the standard vector-based drawing program for the Mac), Illustrator described all shapes with the more flexible ] curve, and provided a level of accuracy sorely missing. Font rendering in Illustrator, however, was left to the Macintosh's QuickDraw routines and would not be superseded by a PostScript-like approach until Adobe's own ATM (]) and Apple's eventual adoption of ]. | ||
| ⚫ | Adobe Systems is a |
||
| ⚫ | |||
| Although Illustrator was an excellent product (still) highly valued by the prepress industry, Adobe eventually hit its stride with the introduction of ] for the Macintosh in ]. Although there were competitors, Photoshop 1.0 was extremely stable, well-featured, and of course came from a major player that could afford to market it professionally. It was a combination that soon eclipsed all else. | Although Illustrator was an excellent product (still) highly valued by the prepress industry, Adobe eventually hit its stride with the introduction of ] for the Macintosh in ]. Although there were competitors, Photoshop 1.0 was extremely stable, well-featured, and of course came from a major player that could afford to market it professionally. It was a combination that soon eclipsed all else. | ||
| Line 11: | Line 9: | ||
| History has been kind, however. Since it always had PostScript interpreter licencing to fall back on, Adobe simply outlasted its rivals and eventually bought them out or, like ], kept improving its applications until they met or exceeded the competition's. For reasons unknown, Corel never leveraged their Draw product to do professional illustration—users quietly derided it as something only office users would touch—so when Illustrator was finally revamped for Windows, prepress users found it too good to ignore. Corel's interest in acquiring ] from ] at the same time may have proved to be a key distraction. | History has been kind, however. Since it always had PostScript interpreter licencing to fall back on, Adobe simply outlasted its rivals and eventually bought them out or, like ], kept improving its applications until they met or exceeded the competition's. For reasons unknown, Corel never leveraged their Draw product to do professional illustration—users quietly derided it as something only office users would touch—so when Illustrator was finally revamped for Windows, prepress users found it too good to ignore. Corel's interest in acquiring ] from ] at the same time may have proved to be a key distraction. | ||
| Adobe's reputation (for better or worse) unfortunately includes a common perception of over-aggressiveness. This started with their practice of encrypting their high-quality Type 1 fonts |
Adobe's reputation (for better or worse) unfortunately includes a common perception of over-aggressiveness. This started with their practice of encrypting their high-quality Type 1 fonts in order to charge licensing fees to any company wishing to use them. The fees, considered exhorberant by many, eventually caused Apple and ] to develop their own standard, ]. At the show at which TrueType was introduced, Warnock followed TrueType talks from both Apple and Microsoft VPs, and stated almost in tears that they were being sold "smoke". A few months later Adobe dropped the licensing fees, but by this time TrueType had a foothold in the market. Adobe then released the "Adobe Type Manager" software, which allowed for ] scaling of Type 1 fonts on screen, just like TrueType. | ||
| But perhaps the most damaging incident was the ]'s arrest of ] for what it said was a violation of the ]. Sklyarov was arrested ], ] at the ] conference in Las Vegas, NV, apparently at the behest of Adobe Systems, according to a DOJ complaint, and is charged with distributing a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. Sklyarov helped create the Advanced eBook Processor (AEBPR) software for his Russian employer ]. | But perhaps the most damaging incident was the ]'s arrest of ] for what it said was a violation of the ]. Sklyarov was arrested ], ] at the ] conference in Las Vegas, NV, apparently at the behest of Adobe Systems, according to a DOJ complaint, and is charged with distributing a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. Sklyarov helped create the Advanced eBook Processor (AEBPR) software for his Russian employer ]. This is particularily annoying because Warnock has continually claimed to be a great supporter of ], claiming in one interview ''I am probably the strongest free-speech advocate you will ever meet; I own a copy of the first printing of the Bill of Rights! I hate censorship in any form. From this you can probably guess how I feel about the telecommunications bill.'' Yet it was a similar bill that Adobe used to attack Sklyarov. | ||
| Adobe's latest efforts are mainly centered on ]. Although sales of their ] product (which is a PDF file generator) were slow to start in the mid-90s, Adobe kept with the product, perceiving long-term revenue potential, which has since panned out. There are also ancilliary benefits, such as providing a common, high-quality data exchange infrastructure for their publishing applications. | Adobe's latest efforts are mainly centered on ]. Although sales of their ] product (which is a PDF file generator) were slow to start in the mid-90s, Adobe kept with the product, perceiving long-term revenue potential, which has since panned out. There are also ancilliary benefits, such as providing a common, high-quality data exchange infrastructure for their publishing applications. | ||
| Adobe's first retail product (the PostScript language doesn't count, since it is licensed to manufacturers, not sold to end users) was digital ]. In 1996, the company announced the ] font format, jointly with Microsoft, and in 2002-03 Adobe completed the conversion of its library of Type 1 fonts to the new format. | Adobe's first retail product (the PostScript language doesn't count, since it is licensed to manufacturers, not sold to end users) was digital ]s. In 1996, the company announced the ] font format, jointly with Microsoft, and in 2002-03 Adobe completed the conversion of its library of Type 1 fonts to the new format. | ||
| ==Products== | ==Products== | ||
Revision as of 01:53, 23 March 2003
Adobe Systems is a computer software company, founded in December 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke after they left Xerox PARC to further develop and commercialize the PostScript page description language. Apple Computer subsequently licenced for use in their LaserWriter printer product line in 1985, thereby sparking the desktop publishing revolution. The company name comes from the Adobe Creek which ran near the company's original offices in Mountain View, California. The headquarters of the company are located in San Jose, California. There are about 3400 employees working for Adobe in 2002.
Soon after introducing PostScript Adobe entered the consumer software market by introducing Adobe Illustrator, a vector-based drawing program for the Apple Macintosh. This was the logical outgrowth of commercializing their in-house font-development software and to help popularize the use of laser printers. Unlike MacDraw (the standard vector-based drawing program for the Mac), Illustrator described all shapes with the more flexible Bezier curve, and provided a level of accuracy sorely missing. Font rendering in Illustrator, however, was left to the Macintosh's QuickDraw routines and would not be superseded by a PostScript-like approach until Adobe's own ATM (Adobe Type Manager) and Apple's eventual adoption of TrueType.
Although Illustrator was an excellent product (still) highly valued by the prepress industry, Adobe eventually hit its stride with the introduction of Adobe Photoshop for the Macintosh in 1989. Although there were competitors, Photoshop 1.0 was extremely stable, well-featured, and of course came from a major player that could afford to market it professionally. It was a combination that soon eclipsed all else.
If Adobe made any mistakes with the Macintosh, it might have been their missing the opportunity to develop their own publishing program. This was done instead by Aldus (which released PageMaker) and later Quark (which released QuarkXPress). Adobe was also too late to address the emerging Windows DTP market, and thus let Corel Corp. dominate it with Corel Draw. In a classic failure to predict the direction of computing, Adobe released Illustrator for Steve Jobs' ill-fated NeXT computer but a far-too-featureless version for Windows.
History has been kind, however. Since it always had PostScript interpreter licencing to fall back on, Adobe simply outlasted its rivals and eventually bought them out or, like Microsoft, kept improving its applications until they met or exceeded the competition's. For reasons unknown, Corel never leveraged their Draw product to do professional illustration—users quietly derided it as something only office users would touch—so when Illustrator was finally revamped for Windows, prepress users found it too good to ignore. Corel's interest in acquiring WordPerfect from Novell Corp. at the same time may have proved to be a key distraction.
Adobe's reputation (for better or worse) unfortunately includes a common perception of over-aggressiveness. This started with their practice of encrypting their high-quality Type 1 fonts in order to charge licensing fees to any company wishing to use them. The fees, considered exhorberant by many, eventually caused Apple and Microsoft to develop their own standard, TrueType. At the show at which TrueType was introduced, Warnock followed TrueType talks from both Apple and Microsoft VPs, and stated almost in tears that they were being sold "smoke". A few months later Adobe dropped the licensing fees, but by this time TrueType had a foothold in the market. Adobe then released the "Adobe Type Manager" software, which allowed for WYSIWYG scaling of Type 1 fonts on screen, just like TrueType.
But perhaps the most damaging incident was the FBI's arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov for what it said was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sklyarov was arrested July 17, 2001 at the Def Con conference in Las Vegas, NV, apparently at the behest of Adobe Systems, according to a DOJ complaint, and is charged with distributing a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. Sklyarov helped create the Advanced eBook Processor (AEBPR) software for his Russian employer Elcomsoft. This is particularily annoying because Warnock has continually claimed to be a great supporter of free speach, claiming in one interview I am probably the strongest free-speech advocate you will ever meet; I own a copy of the first printing of the Bill of Rights! I hate censorship in any form. From this you can probably guess how I feel about the telecommunications bill. Yet it was a similar bill that Adobe used to attack Sklyarov.
Adobe's latest efforts are mainly centered on Portable Document Format. Although sales of their Acrobat product (which is a PDF file generator) were slow to start in the mid-90s, Adobe kept with the product, perceiving long-term revenue potential, which has since panned out. There are also ancilliary benefits, such as providing a common, high-quality data exchange infrastructure for their publishing applications.
Adobe's first retail product (the PostScript language doesn't count, since it is licensed to manufacturers, not sold to end users) was digital fonts. In 1996, the company announced the OpenType font format, jointly with Microsoft, and in 2002-03 Adobe completed the conversion of its library of Type 1 fonts to the new format.
Products
Financial information
Adobe Systems entered in 1986 in Nasdaq. It has a market capitalisation of US$6.176 billion (February 2003) and shares are traded at about US$26.5 (February 2003). It revenues are of about US$1.2 billion (2002)
See Also: Photoshop, PDF, PostScript
External link
- Adobe's web-site is at http://www.adobe.com