Chuck Geschke, who was the co-founder of Adobe died at 81. He was the father of desktop publishing. If you have ever used PDF on your computer, you must thank Chuck Geschke. In 1980, he and a colleague managed to create a way to send digital documents to a printer. They started Adobe company.
Charles Matthew Geschke was from Cleveland. He was born on Sept. 11, 1939. His mother was a paralegal at the Cleveland bankruptcy court, and his father was a photoengraver.
Chuck Geschke who was an entrepreneur and computer scientist, managed to develop ways to create, share and print digital documents. He is considered the father of desktop publishing.
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The death of the co-founder of Adobe
The co-founder of Adobe company died at his home on Friday, in Los Altos, California. He was 81 years old. According to his wife, Nan, he died of cancer.
Chuck Geschke and John Warnock company
In 1980, at Xerox PARC, Chuck Geschke, and John Warnock found a way to send documents between a computer and a printer. They did not want to miss that great opportunity, so they decided to leave Xerox. Chuck Geschke and John Warnock founded their own company.
Then, Chuck Geschke and John Warnock worked on the new incarnation of their printing technology. Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder visited them in their tiny office in Mountain View, California in 1983. He wanted to buy their new start-up but Chuck Geschke and John Warnock declined, however, at the end of the year, Apple licensed their technology which was named PostScript.
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Chuck Geschke, the father of desktop publishing
The next year, the printer of the Macintosh was unveiled. The printer was based on PostScript which was built in partnership with Adobe. This was the beginning for the father of desktop publishing because Chuck Geschke became the chief operating officer.
David C. Brock, the director of the Software History Center, said a language was provided by PostScript by which computer software can talk with a new class of lower-cost printers. He added that it opened a new space for people.
The Portable Document Format, or PDF
The most influential accomplishment of the co-founder of Adobe company is the Portable Document Format or PDF. It is still an important way of sending a document from any machine on the internet.
Shantanu Narayen, who is Adobe’s current chief executive said Chuck and John found a way to bring civilization in form of the written material into the modern era.
One year after the Apple LaserWriter arrived, Adobe became famous. Now, Adobe company is mentioned as one of the world’s greatest software companies in the world with a value of $245 billion. However, the company’s rapid rise brought some personal hardship. In 1992, Dr. Geschke was kidnapped by two men in the parking lot at Adobe headquarters. He was in chains for about four days at a rented house in Hollister, California. His family promised the kidnappers a ransom of $650,000 but, F.B.I. agents managed to capture the kidnappers and rescued him.
An engineer
Chuck Geschke and Dr. Warnock were awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2009 by President Barack Obama. In addition to his daughter and wife, he is survived by two sons named Peter and John, and also seven grandchildren.
Chuck Geschke had helped to create one of the world’s richest companies in the world, but he didn’t call himself a businessman. Instead, he used to consider himself an engineer. During an event at the Computer History Museum, Geschke said the final goal of an engineer is to build something that people will use. He added that engineers get motivated by having an impact.
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