Adobe – Company Overview, History, Products

Adobe is a popular American multinational company that is specialized in software development for graphics design, photo and video editing including animation and print. One of the most popular products of Adobe is Adobe Photoshop which is a widely used photo editing software for multimedia and illustration of motion graphics. In the year 2021, the company reported a revenue of $15.78 billion dollars.

Adobe Inc. is especially known for its amazing software for content creation, editing, photo, and video editing. It has developed software for a wide range of graphic designing and video rendering and editing. Adobe Photoshop which is the most popular photo editing software in the world, Adobe Acrobat Reader is among the most used application for portable document format (PDF), and Adobe Illustrator is considered to be the best illustration software for vector-based diagrams.

Adobe also has created a separate set of cloud suites for its customers, which is known as the Adobe Creative suite and it is a cloud-based subscription service for Customer Experience Management and customized digital marketing software.

How Did Adobe Start?

Adobe was founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke who resigned from their previous company Xerox PARC to start a new PostScript description language. Later on, Adobe also started to develop its own set of software for animation, graphics design, and multimedia editing because of its Adobe Flash acquisition of the company. Later on, similar software for video editing and rendering was known as Adobe Premiere Pro, and a programming language for the web development of websites which include multimedia and graphic design. They were simultaneously offered in a customized subscription pack for this software provided by Adobe.

Initially, Adobe was under the pressure of being acquired by Apple’s Steve Jobs because it was giving a tough competition to Apple’s developed PostScript. The founders refused to sell their company, instead, Steve Jobs bought a huge stake in Adobe by signing a license fee for their PostScript, and then Adobe became the first company in Silicon Valley to be profitable from its first year.

Then Adobe decided to make their own PostScript language description for the printers thus giving a tough fight to Apple’s own printing software. Adobe also launched its own Adobe illustrator software which was basically a vector-based diagram and drawing software for personal computers. Thus, Adobe illustrator played a huge role in popularizing Adobe for its own PostScript language.

Adobe then went public and was listed on the Nasdaq index in 1986. Adobe reportedly crossed the $1 billion dollars revenue in 1999.

Adobe Products

Among the most game-changing software for Adobe was Adobe Photoshop which is till now the most popular photo editing software. It was launched in 1990. Adobe Photoshop became an instant hit in the market due to the boom in photography and editing.

In 1993, Adobe launched its own PDF format document reader and editor. Nowadays, PDF is the most used document format in the world and most of the users have Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF reader.

In 1991, Adobe launched its own software for Adobe Premiere Pro which is used for movie making, editing, and video rendering as well. Adobe also acquired some other companies like PageMaker, OCR, and After Effects to enhance its Adobe premiere setup for videography professionals.

In 2008, Adobe released its new software Adobe media Player which used the web development and design of the HTML and GoLive software which had some great features like online tutorials and support assistance for the customers.