Photoshop History

The story behind the software...

Photoshop was originally created by two brothers, Thomas Knoll and John Knoll. The two brothers shared interests both in photography and computing, and had the use of their father's darkroom while growing up.

Photoshop was still yet to be conceived, but development effectively started in 1987. The project started as a thesis on the processing of digital images, and evolved first into a small set of graphical subroutines, and then into a program named Display. This grew into a better featured version named ImagePro in 1988, and finally Photoshop 1.0 in 1989. Adobe took interest in this final version, and the first ever version of Photoshop was released in 1990.

There is a fantastic article with even more details on the time leading up to Photoshop 1.0 here.

After its massive success at the top end of the market, a consumer version was created to run alongside the professional package. These packages were sold for much less than their full counterparts, and were also bundled with other products like digital cameras and scanners. Photoshop 4.0 Limited Edition was the first of these packages.

By Photoshop 7.0, which was now the market leader of all graphics programs, Adobe stopped making LE versions, and began the Photoshop Elements product line. The professional package has since moved on to the 'CS' versions, and Photoshop Elements 4 was released in Autumn 2005.

Below is a brief version history for Photoshop:

Version	Operating System	Release Date
1.0	Mac OS	February 1990
2.0	Mac OS	June 1991
2.0.1	Mac OS	January 1992
2.5	Mac OS Windows	November 1992
2.5.1	Mac OS	July 1993
3.0	Mac OS Windows	September 1994
4.0	Mac OS Windows	November 1996
4.0.1	Mac OS Windows	August 1997
5.0	Mac OS Windows	May 1998
5.0.1	Mac OS Windows	June 1998
5.5	Mac OS Windows	February 1999
6.0	Mac OS Windows	September 2000
6.1	Mac OS Windows	March 2001
7.0	Mac OS Mac OS X Windows	March 2001
Elements 1	Mac OS Windows	April 2001
7.0.1	Mac OS Mac OS X Windows	August 2002
Elements 2	Mac OS Windows	August 2002
CS (8.0)	Mac OS X Windows	October 2003
Elements 3	Mac OS X Windows	October 2004
CS2 (9.0)	Mac OS X Windows	April 2005
Elements 4	Mac OS X Windows	October 2005

Adobe produce many other products used for processing all kinds of computer graphics. They have very successfully covered all aspects of the digital imaging market, and have expanded into other areas too, such as video and audio production. A summary of some Adobe products is shown below:

Photoshop - Flagship product for professional digital imaging.
Photoshop Elements - Consumer version for desktop digital imaging.
Photoshop Album - Photo organiser, with search, share and fix capabilities.
ImageReady - Photoshop companion for web graphic production.
Illustrator - Vector graphics package.
Premiere Pro - Flagship product for professional video production.
Premiere Elements - Consumer version for desktop video publishing.
After Effects - Motion graphics and visual effects package.
Audition - Professional digital audio package.

There are loads more products that I haven't mentioned at all, but it is probably worth mentioning that Adobe do some interesting bundles too. One of their later offerings, Creative Suite, is described by them like this:

"Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium software is a unified design environment that combines full new versions of Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, GoLive CS2, and Acrobat 7.0 Professional software with new Version Cue CS2, Adobe Bridge, and Adobe Stock Photos."

So if you are thinking of buying any more products, it's worth visiting the Adobe Website and taking a look at what they offer.

That's pretty much it for the history of Photoshop. If you have any comments or queries on this subject, just let me know via the contact page.

Kind Regards

Robert Redwood Robert Redwood - Bio
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