Quantel Paintbox
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The Quantel Paintbox is a dedicated computer system for performing real time manipulation of video, and creating graphics. Following its initial launch in 1981, it revolutionised the production of television graphics, and is still in widespread use today. Its capabilities have kept pace with the state of the art in software and hardware design.
Initially running on dedicated hardware, it now runs on high-end workstations. However, its features are still ahead of what can be done with the average desktop system, though over time many features that are now considered standard on PCs first emerged on the Paintbox system. It is still the industry standard among professionals in the field of TV production.
It was used by six artists and designers, including David Hockney and Richard Hamilton, to create original artwork in the 1986 BBC Series "Painting With Light".
In the late 1980s Quantel embarked on lawsuits against the Adobe "Photoshop" software package and the Spaceward Graphics "Matisse" system in an attempt to protect patented aspects of the Paintbox system. They won the initial case against Spaceward in 1990, but finally lost the case against Adobe in 1997 following depositions and demonstrations by a number of Computer Graphics pioneers including Alvy Ray Smith and Dick Phillips.
In the 90's, Quantel was widely use in Arte, the European Network. François Vautier was one of their most talented designers.
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[edit] External links
- Information about Quantel's latest version of Paintbox
- Alvy Ray Smith - Digital Paint Systems. Includes information about the Quantel/Adobe lawsuit.
- Computer Graphics in Court: The Adobe/Quantel Case
