Hello,

The inventor of the PDF format died at 19 Aug 2023:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Warnock

Bertus

 

Part of the genius for the PDF format was that the software to read the format was free, so anyone could read the documents.
Only the software required to generate the format had a fee.

 

Part of the genius for the PDF format was that the software to read the format was free, so anyone could read the documents.
Only the software required to generate the format had a fee.

That's probably the first time said business model was ever used.

 

I think we should be giving him credit for making our lives much easier and access to a lot of material more convenient. Thank you Mr. Warnock.

 

I think we should be giving him credit for making our lives much easier and access to a lot of material more convenient. Thank you Mr. Warnock.

Agreed.
He turned a Babel of document formats (WordPerfect, Wordstar, Word, etc.) into one, that everyone could read.

 

Postscript was an invention that charged the world of computer documentation, digital publishing and design.

https://www.fastcompany.com/9094244...arnock-forever-changed-the-way-we-communicate

Warnock was born on October 6, 1940, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and his journey to becoming a tech luminary started by failing mathematics in ninth grade only to later attend the University of Utah where he earned degrees in mathematics, philosophy, and electrical engineering.

Warnock and his colleague and friend, Charles Geschke, left positions at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center to start Adobe Systems Inc. in 1982. Together they made Adobe PostScript, a technology capable of describing any graphical element on a printed page with practically unlimited resolution, setting text, illustrations, and photographs with total precision from a compact file. This file format ushered in the era of “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG), which meant that anything you saw on your computer screen was going to print exactly the same on paper.

https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/leaders/pdfs/warnock.pdf

 

Very likely another ground-breaking idea squandered by Xerox

 

Very likely another ground-breaking idea squandered by Xerox

Like when one of their CEO's supposedly said at a meeting at PARC after seeing a demonstration of the the first windows WYSIWYG system "Xerox doesn't built systems that have a mouse".
".