This timeline is the result of researching the origins of digital paint and draw software, and the tools that were developed to allow for hand manipulation (versus plotter drawn) drawing and painting - the mouse, light pen & drawing tablet. If we look at the software that has become commonplace today (such as adobe photoshop), which allows for painting, animation and photo manipulation in one, we can trace the roots of this software to the University and Corporate Labs that housed large computers with advanced capabilities for their time - MIT Lincoln Labs & Radiation Labs, DARPA & the Augmented Research Centre (ARC), Bell Labs, NYIT’s Computer Graphics Lab, Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (Xerox PARC), NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL). The artistic collaborations that grew out of these labs fueled the advent of Computer Graphics, Computer Art and Video Art from the 1960's to the 1990's.
Drinking from the Firehose: Learning Computer Graphics Techniques and Programming
Graphics researchers waiting in the water fountain line at SIGGRAPH Yellowstone. Computer graphics as a field is broad, deep, complex, and intimidating. More than half a century of rapid progress driven by academic research and industry practices underly it. Parts delve pretty far into physics, math, signal processing, systems programming (and more). And performance is always at a premium—so simple, straightforward techniques are often not possible, and high-level programming abstractions not usable.
Prof. Judy Fan: Cognitive Tools for Making the Invisible Visible
Prof. Judy Fan: Cognitive Tools for Making the Invisible Visible
Early Tools for Thought, Mark Bernstein @ Tools For Thought Rocks
Open Canvas Working Group | OCWG
Working group for establishing interoperability between different infinite canvas tools.
History of The Graphical User Interface (GUI): A Wonderful Curse
Smart Disorganized Individuals: SpimeScript
These days, I'm thinking a lot about 3D printers, desktop manufacturing and software to create physical things. Last year I did some art...
The Making of Cursor's Icons
A year of drawing, testing, and shipping a complete icon system for the world's favourite coding agent.
Textoshop: Interactions Inspired by Drawing Software to Facilitate Text Editing
Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface
This draft was released March 15, 2006. Please email comments to bretworrydream.com. You can also download the PDF.
DynaDraw - A Dynamic Drawing Program
The program Dynadraw implements a dynamic drawing technique that applies a simple filter to mouse positions. Here the brush is modeled as a physical object with mass, velocity and friction. The mouse pulls on the brush with a synthetic rubber band. By changing the amount of friction and mass, various kinds of strokes can be made. This kind of dynamic filtering makes it easy to create smooth, consistent calligraphic strokes.
Terminal Graph — A spatial development environment for macOS
See everything. Switch nothing. Terminals, browsers, editors, and notes on one infinite canvas with dataflow connections. Native macOS.
Photoshop’s challenges with focus, pt. 2 – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
