1984
• The Apple Macintosh is a ground-breaking computer which for the first time combines a graphical user interface and a mouse with a ‘reasonable’ price tag of $2490 (taking inflation into account that is over $5000 today). Even though its memory is limited to 128K, it has a single 400K disk drive and the 9-inch monitor has a resolution of only 512×342 pixels, the concept is ahead of its time and will have a profound effect on the graphic arts market.
• Adobe launches PostScript, a page description language that can be used to control output devices like laser printers. It offers some huge advantages that contemporary systems don’t offer: the language is device independent which means that a PostScript file can be output on both 300 dpi laser printers and high resolution imagesetters. Any manufacturer can buy a license for the PostScript interpreter and its specifications are freely available for companies to write software that use its powerful features.
• Linotype introduces the Linotronic 300 imagesetter, the first 2400 dpi output device to ship with a PostScript RIP.
• The Soviet Union does not participate in the summer Olympics in the USA.
• ‘The Cosby Show’ starts and becomes the most popular TV-show of the 80’s.
• The Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated.
• The Band Aid song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ gathers money for Africa.
• A gas leak in a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal (India) kills 2000 and injures another 150000.
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