Introduction
[Transcript]
In 1963, computers took up entire rooms, with their text based interfaces and unintuitive controls, these machines could only be used by specialists- they would’ve been nearly incomprehensible to the average person even if they could get access to one.
Given the prompt of making computers ‘More Approachable’ Ivan Sutherland, a computer scientist at MIT’s Lincoln Labs sought to create a program which would offer a new way for people to communicate with machines, almost completely without the text that dominated the interfaces at the time- his solution was a drawing program simply titled, Sketchpad.
Emulating what it was like to draw on pen and paper, in Sketchpad, the user would use a device called a lightpen to set points and alter lines on the screen. As the program began to take shape, Sutherland saw the numerous ways that drawing digitally was distinct from drawing on paper, writing in his thesis…
- Ivan Sutherland, Sketchpad: A man-machine graphical communication system, 1963.“It has turned out that the properties of a computer drawing are entirely different from a paper drawing not only because of the accuracy, ease of drawing, and speed of erasing provided by the computer, but also primarily because of the ability to move drawing parts around on a computer drawing without the need to erase them. Had a working system not been developed, our thinking would have been too strongly influenced by a lifetime of drawing on paper to discover many of the useful services that the computer can provide.”
In addition to being able to move, duplicate and edit drawings, users could also zoom in and out of the file-
“Imagine the screen as a window we can move over the paper, here we can zoom into the paper, which we understand as being 2 miles in size.”
“Two Miles?”
This explanation of zooming in and out of a two mile long sheet of paper helps show how novel these features were at the time- though they seem completely natural to computer graphics today. In Sketchpad, Sutherland succeeded in creating a way to communicate with the computer through graphics, establishing the graphical user interface, and the guiding principles for digital drawing software for decades to come.
Digital Drawing Software
Super Paint (1974)
In 1974 Richard Shoup completed SuperPaint at Xerox PARC, the research arm of the Xerox Corporation. Superpaint was the most advanced painting program at the time, it featured an early use of color pixels, and a frame buffer allowing users to create rudimentary animations.
Alvy Ray Smith, another computer scientist also contributed to the program, creating the HSV color system,
This system which Smith so nonchalantly describes, is nearly ubiquitous in all graphics software today. Smith would remain at the center of digital art and animation, going on to found Lucasfilm’s Computer Division, and Pixar.
Xerox Alto (1972)
Just two years earlier Xerox had released the Alto, a computer which used a mouse and keyboard as input and a graphical user interface. The Alto came with two art programs, ‘Draw’ a drawing program where users would set down lines precisely using points, and ‘Markup’ a paint program which allowed users to draw freely with the mouse. These programs, presented via an easy to understand graphical user interface could be easily grasped by the average person- but the Alto never saw a major public release- remaining an experiment. It would take nearly another decade for computers, and drawing software with them, to meaningfully enter the lives of everyday people.
Mac Paint (1984)
By 1984 times had changed- over 6 million Americans had computers in their homes, including the newly released Macintosh, a computer which echoed the Alto in a number of ways, including its use of a keyboard and mouse. The Macintosh came with a program called MacPaint. MacPaint’s use of the mouse was an ideal way to show people how to use the device, which was now in the hands of many for the first time.
While technically the second drawing program for a personal computer after Apple’s LisaDraw in the previous year, MacPaint gave many their first experience creating digital art, bringing a type of software previously accessible to only a few into the hands of artists and enthusiasts everywhere.
Microsoft Paint (1985)
The next year, Microsoft released Microsoft Paint, bringing drawing software to the two most popular operating systems. Now that computers had reached the world stage, and with them, digital drawing, more specialized programs aimed at professionals could succeed.
Illustrator (1987)
In 1987 John Warnock released Illustrator with his company Adobe. John Warnock was a former Xerox employee who was influenced to make Illustrator in part due to his wife Marva’s work as a graphic designer. In addition to automating many common tasks in publishing and graphic design, Illustrator employed a drawing method like that in Sketchpad and the Alto Draw Program, where users could select particular points and acutely adjust curves, making it ideal for detail oriented graphic designers and artists.
Photoshop (1990)
Three years later at Adobe, John Knoll, who worked alongside SuperPaint’s Alvy Ray Smith at Lucasfilm, would release an image editing program he made with his brother Thomas. Though intended primarily for photo editing, photoshop was also one of the most advanced drawing and painting programs of its time, with a range of brush effects including soft edges, more closely resembling brush strokes in physical paintings.
Through years of updates, these two Adobe programs would maintain their central place in digital art, garnering a massive community of artists and designers, even as the world of computing has drastically changed around them since their release.
Mobile Era
In 2007, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple and co-founder of Pixar with Alvy Ray Smith and others, announced the iPhone. There were other smartphones before, but the iPhone marked a clear step forward in how people would use technology, presented with a crisp graphical user interface on a screen that could fit right in your pocket. Though it launched with many drawing apps, it wasn’t until after the launch of the iPad, a larger tablet device, that the next major form of digital drawing would take shape.
Procreate (2011)
Procreate launched just one year after the iPad in 2011, and quickly became the dominant drawing app on tablets. With a similar toolset to photoshop, it took advantage of the tablet, which acted both as the touchpad and the screen that showed the work, resembling pen and paper more closely than a mouse and screen, or external drawing tablets could.
Conclusion
Today, with apps like Procreate, Photoshop, Illustrator available across computers, tablets and phones, digital artists have never been so well equipped, and digital drawing and painting software has never been so accessible, finding its way into some of the most popular apps on the planet, like Snapchat and Instagram.
While many interact with digital drawing software without even thinking about it- there’s a massive group of professionals using drawing software in their creative process across art, filmmaking, design, and other fields.
These artists and their creations are possible thanks to the initial principles set in place in Sutherland’s Sketchpad in 1963, which were improved upon as hardware advanced and found its way into the hands of those all around the world.