SuperPaint

1973

Xerox PARC, United States

Dick Shoup’s SuperPaint system was a combination of revolutionary software and customized hardware that is the ancestor of all modern paint programs. Its long list of now-common features included a palette of 16.7 million colors, a colormap, adjustable paintbrushes, video magnification, image transformations, video in/out capacity, a tablet and stylus, and animation and image file transfer abilities. The SuperPaint system garnered Xerox and Shoup an Emmy Award in 1983 and, along with Alvy Ray Smith and Tom Porter, a technical Academy Award in 1998.