Adobe co-founder John Warnock has passed away

Adobe co-founder Dr. John Warnock has died at the age of 82. The software pioneer founded the company in 1982 and was CEO until 2000. During that period, he was involved in the release of PostScript, the PDF file format and Photoshop, among other things.

John Warnock. Source: Adobe

Dr. John Warnock passed away surrounded by family on Saturday, August 5 was announced on Sunday by Adobe, the software company Warnock founded in 1982 with Charles Geschke.

In 1984, Adobe PostScript, the company’s first product, was released. Adobe PostScript allowed users to format text and images in digital documents and then print them identically on any printer that supported PostScript. The company would later develop the PDF file format and Acrobat Reader software, among others, and expand into prominent media editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro.

Warnock was CEO of Adobe until 2000. He also served as chief technical officer until 2001 and remained co-chairman of the board until 2017, a position he shared with co-founder Charles Geschke, who passed away two years ago. “John is widely recognized as one of the greatest inventors of our generation,” Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen wrote in an email to company employees. “My interactions with John over the past 25 years have been the highlight of my professional career.”