I can remember when I first met Gary in 1988 in the same building as the Cray Computer Apple had bought. Gary was so pumped showing a beta version of Photoshop. At this time Adobe had not bought Photoshop yet and it was written by the original developers, Thomas and John Knoll. Talking to Gary was always a pleasure.
The laser printer story is the story everyone wants to hear and you can find plenty of that on the web.
With Gary’s passing I have been trying to recreate in my mind what Gary was going through being the solo inventor of the laser printer. Reading the Computer History interview located here it reminds of what few know about Gary. https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...
Gary is a physics major who knew how to write software. Gary’s speciality was optics which led to him getting a job in Bausch and Lomb’s division working on lenses for high end cameras for Hollywood. This story is explained in more detail on page 7 of the 53 page document above.
Gary being in the Rochester was also where Kodak was located would often say “The Sky is blue, and the grass is green. No matter what you do with colors don’t break those rules.” So even when he was at Xerox he thought about color. It is part of being an expert on optics.
What I think Gary realized in 1967 when he had the “eureka” moment of the laser printer is if he used a laser to paint a drum the optics totally changes to a more precise addressing. He knew he could use the laser for CMYK for color printing, but first step is to do monochrome printing.
On page 6 of the above document, Gary discussed the use of computers to improve the optics in lens. Why can’t computers use the optics in a laser printer to print anything you want?
In 1992, I took the bold step of leaving Apple Computer to go work at Microsoft on Windows 3.1, being program manager for all the Far East TrueType fonts. But even though I was now in Redmond I would still see Gary in Cupertino when I would visit family and friends in the bay area. I would visit Gary to discuss imaging, fonts, DTP, and color. Five years later in 1997, Gary says he thinks it is time for him to leave Apple. I said why not come to the Windows Imaging team. He says isn’t really wet there, and he would rather stay in Saratoga. Luckily Microsoft made an offer Gary could not turn down and now we were both in Redmond in Windows group. 2-3 years later Gary moved to Microsoft Research and I think that is the happiest I have seen him when at work.
Gary explaining his move from Apple to Microsoft is on page 38 of the above link.
One nice picture that I think will get out there soon is a picture of Bill Gates at Gary Starkweather’s retirement party. Bill is smiling and Gary is too. That’s a nice way to end your working career.
The laser printer story is the story everyone wants to hear and you can find plenty of that on the web.
With Gary’s passing I have been trying to recreate in my mind what Gary was going through being the solo inventor of the laser printer. Reading the Computer History interview located here it reminds of what few know about Gary. https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...
Gary is a physics major who knew how to write software. Gary’s speciality was optics which led to him getting a job in Bausch and Lomb’s division working on lenses for high end cameras for Hollywood. This story is explained in more detail on page 7 of the 53 page document above.
Gary being in the Rochester was also where Kodak was located would often say “The Sky is blue, and the grass is green. No matter what you do with colors don’t break those rules.” So even when he was at Xerox he thought about color. It is part of being an expert on optics.
What I think Gary realized in 1967 when he had the “eureka” moment of the laser printer is if he used a laser to paint a drum the optics totally changes to a more precise addressing. He knew he could use the laser for CMYK for color printing, but first step is to do monochrome printing.
On page 6 of the above document, Gary discussed the use of computers to improve the optics in lens. Why can’t computers use the optics in a laser printer to print anything you want?
In 1992, I took the bold step of leaving Apple Computer to go work at Microsoft on Windows 3.1, being program manager for all the Far East TrueType fonts. But even though I was now in Redmond I would still see Gary in Cupertino when I would visit family and friends in the bay area. I would visit Gary to discuss imaging, fonts, DTP, and color. Five years later in 1997, Gary says he thinks it is time for him to leave Apple. I said why not come to the Windows Imaging team. He says isn’t really wet there, and he would rather stay in Saratoga. Luckily Microsoft made an offer Gary could not turn down and now we were both in Redmond in Windows group. 2-3 years later Gary moved to Microsoft Research and I think that is the happiest I have seen him when at work.
Gary explaining his move from Apple to Microsoft is on page 38 of the above link.
One nice picture that I think will get out there soon is a picture of Bill Gates at Gary Starkweather’s retirement party. Bill is smiling and Gary is too. That’s a nice way to end your working career.