1983 – Apple Lisa, Creo & Papyrus

The Apple Lisa is the first WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus & Pointing device) computer that is mass produced. Its $9,995 price ticket hampers its commercial success.

Apple Lisa

Compugraphic announces the Personal Composition System which links the Apple Lisa to their Compugraphic 8400 typesetter. The company spends around $20 million on Lisa systems for development, training and sales purposes but their system is a commercial failure. It makes Compugraphic reluctant to invest much in that other Apple product that comes around a year later.

Compugraphic PCS

Graphic studios, repro houses and printing companies use a repro camera like the Agfa-Gevaert Repromaster  2200 to copy and enlarge graphics, make half-tone and dot-screen reproductions or make offset printing plates. The original to be photographed is placed on the copyboard near floor level, and lit by the lamps to the left and right. The film or offset plate is held in the top section of the camera. Both the copyboard and the lens (mounted in a bellows) can be moved, to vary the focus and scale of reproduction.

Agfa-Gevaert Repromaster repro camera

Creo is incorporated in British Columbia. In its early years, it starts out as a small electro-optical developer working on products such as optical tape recorders.

Arpanet finalizes work on TCP/IP, the networking protocol.

Designer and illustrator Chris Costello creates the Papyrus typeface using a calligraphy pen and textured paper. His intent is to create a font that looks as if written on papyrus 2000 years ago. Originally released by Letraset, it is now owned by ITC.

Papyrus typeface example

Another well-known font that is released that year is Helvetica Neue, a new take on the typeface created by Max Miedinger in 1957.

Neue Helvetica typeface example


These are some important or remarkable events from 1983:

  • A South Korean Boeing 747 strays into Soviet airspace and is shot down.
  • The CD appears on the market.
  • The USA invades Grenada.
  • Crack, a cheap narcotic, is developed in the Bahamas.
  • El Niño affects the weather all over the world.

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