Thank You John Warnock

John Warnock - 1988

Adobe Corporation

Whether you know it or not, your life was changed drastically by John Warnock. All of our lives were. He passed way recently, but we all owe him more than you may know. Personally, I have used tools that he created, championed, programed, and developed for multiple hours every single day for decades. Not only that, but most of the work I do in my "day job" could not happen without him and his creations. Most industries would grind to a halt if they had to go back to paper, he opened the door for digital documents used in business. My company could not make the strides that we have in going paperless without him. Photography would not be what it is with him either. That means a lot to me personally.

John Warnock passed away on Saturday Aug 19th. He was 82 years old. Warnock and his friend, Charles Geschke, left their jobs at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center to start the company Adobe Systems in 1982. Just as a first act with many more to come, they created "Adobe PostScript" which changed everything that was known about the printing, graphic design, newspaper, text layout, photography and so much more. In short, PostScript is a method to take anything and make it scaleable to any size. This is what what made laser printers usable for the masses. This file format also brought in "WYSIWYG" computing. For you youngsters that stands for "what you see if what you get." Before this all computer screens looked like mainframe screams with text only and your documents and layouts were created with code. If you wanted a word to be bold when printed, you would need to put an asterisk before and after it - when it prints on paper it will be bold. You still saw it normal on the screen, but don't worry, it will print bold. The new way of thinking that Adobe championed allowed all your screens to look like they do today, and you actually see things the way they look in all formats.

If you have ever used a Macintosh computer - you really have John Warnock to thank. Apple for a time looked doomed in the early 1980's as the PC was taking over business and industries. The postscript page, and "WYSIWYG" is what saved apple and the Macintosh. Apple licensed the standard for the LaserWriter allowing users to create anything from a flyer to a large banner easily on their own. Entirely new markets opened up to Apple.

They created Adobe illustrator revolutionizing the graphics industry. Adobe Photoshop revolutionized photography and allowing digital cameras to come into their own. The PDF format that is ubiquitous in our lives is from Adobe. The Adobe Creative suite of software is the gold standard for almost every aspect of creative endeavor from website design, to podcasting, to profession video production, to photograph, and to any thing graphic of illustrating - and so much more.

I read recently that his leadership style was one of the things that grew his company to greatness. He had a deep sense of empathy for his customers and employees. He was also a very generous philanthropist supporting higher education, research, as well as the University of Utah and Standford University. He and I attended the same college in Utah. That is pretty cool too.

Thank you John! When I need to relax or I'm having a bad day I use your software. It really is my therapy as well as what I work with all day. It is what brings me back to earth and calms me down. Each and every day.