1. John Edward Warnock was an American computer scientist, inventor, technology businessman, and philanthropist best known for co-founding Adobe Systems Inc.
23 Facts About John Warnock
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John Warnock pioneered the development of graphics, publishing, web and electronic document technologies that have revolutionized the field of publishing and visual communications.
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John Warnock was born on October 6,1940, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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John Warnock failed mathematics in ninth grade before graduating from Olympus High School in 1958; however, Warnock went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and philosophy, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in electrical engineering, and an honorary degree in science, all from the University of Utah.
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John Warnock received an honorary degree from the American Film Institute.
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John Warnock lived in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Marva M Warnock, marrying in 1965.
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John Warnock is known as the creative driving force behind Adobe System's initial software products: PostScript, Adobe Illustrator, and the PDF, and he continued to be involved in new product development throughout his career.
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John Warnock noted that for this work he received "the dubious distinction of having written the shortest doctoral thesis in University of Utah history".
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The John Warnock algorithm solving the hidden surface problem enabled computers to render solid objects at a time when most computer renderings were only line drawings and was featured on the cover of Scientific American in 1970 with accompanying article by Ivan Sutherland.
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In late 1986, John Warnock invented Adobe Illustrator, a computer drawing program that used lines and Bezier curves to render infinitely scalable graphics.
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John Warnock initially developed it to automate many of the manual tasks utilized by his wife, Marva, a graphic designer.
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The new PDF format, though, was slow to gain industry traction and John Warnock noted that "the industry 'did not get it".
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One of Adobe's popular typefaces, John Warnock, is named after him.
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John Warnock was a past chairman of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.
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John Warnock was on the board of trustees of the American Film Institute, the Sundance Institute and the Folger Shakespeare Library.
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John Warnock's hobbies included photography, skiing, web development, painting, hiking, curation of rare scientific books, and historical Native American objects.
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John Warnock was the Founding Chairman of the Tech Museum of Innovation from 1995 to 1999.
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John Warnock died in Los Altos, California on August 19,2023, at the age of 82, from pancreatic cancer.
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The recipient of numerous scientific and technical awards, John Warnock won the Software Systems Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in 1989.
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In 1995 John Warnock received the University of Utah Distinguished Alumnus Award and in 1999 he was inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
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In 2004, John Warnock received the Lovelace Medal from the British Computer Society in London.
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John Warnock was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
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John Warnock received honorary degrees from the University of Utah, the American Film Institute, and The University of Nottingham in the UK.