At Xerox PARC, Chuck Geschke and John Warnock
developed a language called Interpress that would
allow any computer to talk to any printer. When
Xerox seemed slow to commercialize this technology,
Geschke and Warnock started their own company,
Adobe, to produce a successor of Interpress called
PostScript.
PostScript made it possible to describe complex
documents in a simple form. In 1983, Adobe partnered
with Apple Computer to create Apple’s new
LaserWriter printer. When it was introduced in 1985
it created the “desktop publishing” industry. Adobe went public in 1986...

Ethernet technology, developed by Bob Metcalfe, who later left PARC and
started 3Com. The network connected the personal computers to laser printers.
We had a 60-page-a-minute black-and-white laser printer, a 10-page-a-minute
color printer. We had a file server where you could store files and share them
for projects. All of these computers were connected in both an internal and
external network throughout Xerox Corporation and into the ARPANET, which
was the precursor of the Internet. All of this was at Xerox PARC in 1977.
That fall, we put on a demonstration for the...

do that.
Shortly after that, I was given the opportunity to start up a new laboratory
within PARC focused primarily in graphics and printing technologies, and one
of my first jobs was to hire a chief scientist to be the head researcher. I had
known John Warnock by reputation. In fact, he gave a talk when I was a graduate
student at Carnegie Mellon. He was just finishing his thesis at the
University of Utah in graphics. But we never really met or spent any time
together. So I called him up, we...

only text, but also images—imagesetters they’re called today—combine that
with all of the software and market it to the Fortune 500 as internal publishing
systems that they could use to have more control and more rapid response in
their printing needs.
Bill liked the idea—partly because he was always frustrated with the financial
printers to get his prospectuses out—and so he said that he would support
it. “But neither one of you guys have ever run a business before, right?” And we
said, “That’s correct.” He said, “Well, I’ve checked around and you...

you’re not going to be looking for work very long. This is something to give a try
and branch out on our own.”
Livingston: You were about 40 when you did this. You had a family; were you
nervous about starting a startup?
Geschke: Both John and I were in our early 40s. Maybe my kids were nervous
that I wouldn’t be able to put them through college, but no, I really wasn’t nervous
because I knew I could get another great job, partly from the experience at
PARC and from watching people...