Adobe Systems Inc Essay Research Paper Adobe — страница 3

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PostScript printer. In September, just prior to the Seybold Computer Publishing Conference, Apple and Microsoft announced that they would join together to develop an open-font standard for the OS/2 Presentation Manager and Macintosh System 7. PostScript had always been a closed-font standard and Adobe had closely guarded the specifications to make it difficult for third-party font developers to produce clones. Although the new Macintosh system was one year away and the Microsoft OS/2 system was two years away, the announcement was a clear shot at Adobe’s PostScript, which had grown to be the largest collection of fonts in the world. Immediately after Microsoft’s Bill Gates made the predicted announcement at the conference, John Warnock, who felt Apple had betrayed him, got on

stage and released Adobe’s specifications for PostScript Type 1 fonts to the public, instantly making PostScript an open-font standard so developers could create fonts without paying licensing fees to Adobe. The two announcements had the potential to split the industry into two camps — those who would develop for Adobe’s PostScript and continue to support PostScript in their printers, and those who would side with Microsoft and Apple and the companies who had committed their support to the new standards. In December 1989, as the battle with Apple continued, Adobe gave the code for its Adobe Type Manager to Insight Development Corporation so it could begin developing software drivers for MacPrint and JetWriter. This move enabled Mac users to print on inexpensive

Hewlett-Packard LaserJet and DeskJet printers instead of the $7,000 Apple LaserWriter. In 1990, Adobe gained ground when IBM announced that it would support Adobe’s Type 1 fonts as well as Apple’s new emerging technology called Royal fonts. Although not committing to Adobe exclusively, at least IBM did not abandon Adobe by joining with Apple and Microsoft. Because of the loss of revenue from Apple, in June 1990, Adobe’s stock dropped 30 percent and stockholders filed a lawsuit claiming that Adobe had given out misleading sales projections and had artificially inflated the value of the company’s stock. Electronic Publishing and the Internet By September 1990 the feud between Adobe and Apple mysteriously disappeared and they had a licensing agreement to create new products

based on Apple’s printer technology and Adobe’s PostScript. Then in December 1991, Adobe agreed to deliver Type 1 fonts for Macintosh users and to include Type 1 fonts for Adobe Type Manager (ATM) in future versions of the Macintosh System 7 to control both displays and printers. For Adobe, 1992 contained both good and bad news. The class-action lawsuit brought against the company in 1990 by disgruntled stockholders was dismissed. But in May 1992 the company was shocked when Adobe’s president, Charles Geschke, a mild-mannered man who had once studied to be a Jesuit priest, was kidnapped by two men who demanded $650,000 in ransom. After 5 days of captivity, Geschke was returned safely and the kidnappers were arrested by the FBI. By 1993, it was apparent to the computer

industry and especially to Adobe that electronic publishing was becoming a very important method of distributing information. Adobe knew that electronic distribution would need the same capability to present attractive documents as the printer technology had needed in 1985 and began its effort to dominate the Internet. In 1993 Adobe released Acrobat, a program that enabled a user to create a document then use the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) to format it for electronic distribution. Documents could be viewed on the World Wide Web (WWW) or through e-mail, Lotus Notes, corporate networks, CD-ROMs, or a printer, and could even include a QuickTime movie clip in the document. In addition, Acrobat could be used in Mac, Windows, DOS, or UNIX platforms. To continue its move into

electronic publishing, in 1994 Adobe merged with Aldus, the company that produced PageMaker, a page composition software program. In 1994, having faced off with Microsoft and won, Adobe turned around its decline and registered revenues of $441 million in product sales and $156 million in royalties from PostScript. The following year, Adobe moved even further into the electronic publishing area by signing an agreement with Netscape to integrate Acrobat technology into the Netscape Web navigational software. In September, Adobe agreed to purchase Ceneca Communications, Inc., a developer of WWW publishing and site management tools. Ceneca’s PageMill software eliminated the need to understand the complex document formatting for the WWW and made it as easy to produce Web pages as