By Brandon Griggs, CNN
You may not know her name, but you probably know her work, which still influences how we interact with our computers today.
She's Susan Kare, and she designed fonts and icons for Apple's original Macintosh, including the little trash can for discarding files and the computer with a smiling face. In that way, Kare helped people such as Steve Jobs pioneer the transition from controlling computers via text to the icon-based interfaces now common on touchscreen devices.
"You can find the myriad visual descendants of Kare’s sketches in desktops, laptops, tablets and phones today," writes Steve Silberman in a Public Library of Science blog post this week about Kare's work and legacy.
Kare had a fine-arts background when a friend recruited her to join Apple in 1982. For the Mac, Kare designed the first font whose letters were spaced proportionally - in other words, accounting for the varying width of "i" and "m" instead of just fitting letters into identical blocks regardless of size, which left gaps inbetween.
Because an application for designing icons on Macintosh screens hadn’t been coded yet, Kare went to an art-supply store and bought a sketchbook so she could begin playing around with ideas. In those pages, Silberman wrote, "she created the casual prototypes of a new, radically user-friendly face of computing — each square of graph paper representing a pixel on the screen."
After leaving Apple Kare designed icons and products for Microsoft's Windows, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Facebook's Gifts program, which encouraged users to send each other virtual birthday cakes, flowers and other amorphous treats.
After years of semi-obscurity, Kare has been getting some renewed attention lately. She just published an art book of 80 of her favorite icons created between 1983 and 2011. And her work with Apple is cited in Walter Isaacson's new biography of Steve Jobs, currently the top-selling nonfiction book in the country.
"She and Jobs hit it off because they shared an instinct for simplicity along with a desire to make the Mac whimsical," Isaacson wrote.
In keeping with his rep as a perfectionist micromanager, Jobs stopped by to check on Kare's work almost every day. When she first named her Mac fonts after stops on the Main Line commuter train in her native Philadelphia, Jobs encouraged her to think bigger.
"They ought to be world-class cities!" he complained, according to the book. Kare's fonts were soon renamed after such cultural capitals as San Francisco, London and Venice.
Each week, CNN's "The Next List" profiles innovators, visionaries and agents of change. They’re not household names just yet, but they’re movers and shakers in their own worlds. We’re introducing them to you because these individuals are steadily mapping the course to the future with their new ideas.
WHO: Host Dr. Sanjay Gupta
WHEN: Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. ET - All new time!
WHERE: Only on CNN
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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After leaving Apple Kare.... Looks like Apple Care
God bless the Happy Icons
Not a bad way to make a living.
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I think news sites should get rid of reader comments following articles. Too much ignorance and rudeness at a time our country needs some restraint and respect for other people's opinions.
Totally agree with you Steve! So glad to hear someone else is recognizing the negativity that is pouring out of people in these little text boxes of anonymity. I think you've just convinced me to take a big break from reading comments – there used to be a time where valuable conversations and connections would take place, but not on mega sites – I typically see better comment conversation on very niche oriented sites!
I don't recognize any of her icons. But good luck to her selling icons.
Hey folks, you need to read a little better. It says she designed the first proportionaly spaced font FOR A MAC. Sheesh
HOPE THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE GOES DOWN CUZ THEZE FOLKZ NEED TO GET A JOB! OBAMA 2012
To the person who said "Is this really news?"; there people who do not need blood and guts to think it is news.
Some people need to work on their reading comprehension skills. It says, "For the Mac, she designed.. (the font etc)". Not that she INVENTED THE FONT, it was just a Mac design.
Actually, she *did* design some of the fonts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_font
and.......?
Some people need to work on their reading comprehension skills. It says, "For the Mac, she designed (the fontn etc)". Not that she invented THE font. It was a Mac desing.
Laura? What font did you use for incorrectly typing, 'design'? Please spell check before you critique for gosh sakes!
I like design very much. Look, C’ an apple.
Remember when CNN carried news? Those were the days...
Uh, this is news to TECH people. It's interesting and informative and has to do with TECH because it's in the TECH section. If you don't get my point, you are too stupid to understand news anyway...
Relax fanboy. Maybe you should get the iOverreact app... or better yet, just go tell a friend that 'Apple stuff is safer cuz it's based on UNIX or something' or some other fraudulent Apple nonsense. Thanks CNN for once again bringing up Apple. Christmas is coming, I'm sure you'll want lots of free Apple stuff.
When waz that?
From a quick look at the photo, I thought it was Carly Simon
it is fun to see the person behind that aspect
really played a big role in their success
I'm just not sure why this is news.
It's just a story about a person that has had a big affect within the technology world.
News from 1984.
Yeah...knowledge of hiztory is stoopid}
It says her book just came out.
Some of us Art and Art History people like to see news that is relevant to us. Graphic designers have a history and a following. Just spreading the word. Think inside the box.
Its another way of getting Apple on the CNN website. Apparently CNN is Apple's number one free advertiser. Thanks CNN
Another way to get YOUR cynical opinion on a website. Mac is a fact. Invent something else?
it's news because its Sunday after thanksgiving, and CNN probably has a total of three employees who aren't still out on vacation. I'm not sure why your parents didn't abort you.
Awesome site you have here but I was curoius if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I'd really love to be a part of community where I can get comments from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Many thanks!
That dude is hot.
Seriously bro? Let's see a picture of you.
Apple sauce......Go Amazon....... kindle fire
AMAZING - The greater the techonolgy we gain the CR****ER the Art and Architecure. Look what the Greeks, Byzantiens, even Persian created and look at the world today. I want a Time Machine!!
Booo For Apple !!
Meh. Art is subjective. For example, I never understood w t f was ever so fascinating about Andy Warhol's c r a p, yet people think of him as some kind of a god. I've learned to accept that.
There's an app for that. That's what made Steve disappear. The Crapple team that made it also implemented Siri... that's what you get with beta products.
and what planet did you say you were from?
She's beautiful
hi
THIS is the kind of "achievement" we want to recognize?
It's just crap ... what kids were doing on "Etch-a-Sketchers" fifty years ago.
Is this the best this "lost generation" can come up with?
Seriously? This is your headline? This is the biggest story on Earth right now? I'm all for light-hearted news, but comon guys.
There is a point there.............there is nothing giong on in the world most of us are OK. The biggest deal yesterday was o bunch of black friday shoppers got pepper sprayed by some fat lady
What did you say your name was? For the laughs not the record.
Everything I've read by otepi is right on. I've also been around since the mid 70s around Ma Bell and Bell Labs and remember how fanatical the mac people were but the os was pretty strange and quite alone. Apple found unix only after Job's failed Next venture when MacOS became OsX recently, which is a BSD unix derivative. I think otepi's prime detractor will be shocked to look up BSD's origins and find out that it was a fork of Bell Labs early unix.
1) BSD is an open-source rewrite of AT&T's proprietary UNIX, not a fork. 2) OpenStep, which was created at NeXT, was built on BSD (and a derivate of their original NeXTStep). 3) Apple acquired Next, and with it, Steve Jobs and OpenStep which became OS X. They didn't "find" UNIX, they acquired a superior version of it.
Superior how, because it was free?
So how long have you been unemployed from your last its position?
I never meant to start anything
Steve Jobs' genius was in taking things and making them available to the public. He had a real knack for knowing what would work for the public. A genius, and we will all miss him.
Those things though, existed before. Apple did not invent the Net, the mouse, icons, proportional fonts, buttons, menus, widgets, or really anything else. Their genius, again, is making this available to the public in a form the public could use effectively.
It seemed to me that this needed to be pointed out.
Nor did Apple invent the graphical interface as fanboys like to believe. Steve's team couldn't do the work. They had to contract it out to... wait for it... Microsoft
Interesting story about a smart, creative, artist (woman mind you) and suddenly a mac bash party. Some sad, jealous, cynical, and hateful people out there. (And they're normal lol) Just don't buy or use mac productz if you hate them so mvch. I mean, "George it was jvzt a salad." (Seinfeld and the Big Salad episode)
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Apple Stock are headed down down down. Even Obama cant save this company.
your moniker says it all ... you've got a deep case of apple envy. sad.
They nearly went backrupt a few years ago. All they have accomplished was designing a nice smart phone, (using other's ideas) and creating a nice mp3 player (once again, improving on others ideas). The hype doesn't match their accomplishments, but they aren't going down the tubes... they'll become what all successful tech companies are: cautious, complacent, nothing earthshattering.
AMAZING EXISTANCE & INGENUITY! SPLENDID HUMAN BEING SHOULD OF WON A NOBLE PEACE PRIZE
This RELENTLESS apple stuff is so annoying.. really.
What'sNext Let me guess. Uh, another Apple article?
No kidding. CNN is the biggest Apple fanboy on the planet. Maybe Steve was a real close... ummm... buddy with CNN's 'tech' writers. Or maybe Steve just traded CNN's shameless free advertising at the slightest opportunity for free tech gadgets from Apple.
Or maybe you should pick another story
Then stop feeding it.
My two cents. As civilizations evolved, two ways of communications emerged; the East Asian way; which uses thousands and thousands of symbols to form phrases and the Western way which uses the alphabet and letters to compose different words. And while both ways work; I can argue that using an alphabet is a smarter approach. Letters with their associted sound are easier to remember and form words that symbols.
In computer world a similar phonomena happened; with IBM pushing for commands and syntaxes. Basicaly Watson was the fruit of that endeuvor. The other approach was that of Apple which went with the point-and-click-stupid approach. You do not have to learn no syntax, no grammer, no command. Just point and click.
I can argue that Apple work was VERY unfortunate and did hinder the development of a more intellagent man-machine interaction schemes.
If programmers efforts were centered on the interface, we may have had a Watson at every home now. Instead, we have Windows which surprises us with yet another crappy newly designed graphical interface; and instead of learning the grammer or the syntax or the commands ONCE; I find my self having to learn where on earth did they hide that option now in this new release.
So for Goodness sake stop presenting those people as the ones who invented the wheel. They had sleek, nice products with the appeal of a nice toy. But they also put in the market faulty things, like a round mouse which was unusable; you had to look at it every time you let it go to reach for the keyboard. Quite distracting; to have to look for the button every time you have to hold it.
And more importantly, lets not give them more than what is truly due, when it comes to their contribution to the development of computing. I personaly think they contributed negatively over all by impeding development of "language" allowing man-machine interaction.
Cheers
"...you do not have to learn...no grammar..." Hey, whose side are you on?
I wrote "it was unfortunate"; does not that clearly state that I am no fan of Apple. I will give them their due recognition. But you'd have to see how negatively they impacted the evolution of computing...
My point is the grammar and spelling you used.
Thank goodness that it wasn't Mseikeh that was running Apple back then or we'd still be using a command line interface for all of our modern conveniences. I can see it now, MS Dos to control your iZune. We'd still be naming operating systems after Roman Numerals. Would MS have come up with Windows if it wasn't for Apple's interpretation and incorporation into it's GUI interface, I doubt it very much. Heck Bill Gates didn't even get the Internet until years later, not exactly a trend spotter or setter.
Much Metta
Percy
You are still not getting the point; THEY DID NOT MAKE WATSON. IBM DID. AND I have to keep looking where that bottun is hidden now, in which sub-menu. That is like trying to remember the Chinese symble for an apple; instead of being led by the sounds the letters a p p l. Hope that help.
I did reconginse they make successful product and I feel no grudge about their stock skyrocketing. Good for them. Money well desereved.
BUT THEY DID NOT MAKE WATON. Hope that make things a bit clearer.
There's more to the world than the "West" and East Asia, ya know? Hint: the western or alphabetical way of writing is a descendant of Middle Eastern writing systems. Writing using letters as opposed to symbols was prevalent in areas ranging from Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and all the way to Europe. Similarly, writing using symbols was common in such diverse areas as ancient Egypt, China and the Americas (with each area developing it independently).
I come from Latakia; 12 km from Ugarit where the first alphabet was found. That is not my point. My point is the contrast between the two methods. I only said Western because most people around here would understand that better. Cheers.
Point taken. I automatically assumed you were one of those west-centric types.
Is that the preface of your thesis of why we shouldn't comment on man-made productz?
Huh.....I didn't know girls could do computer stuff too.
All these apple stories are getting old....90% of press covering a company with a 27% public marketshare and less than 5% business marketshare...I just don't get it. Apple isn't even HIP anymore....they are the Britney Spears of the tech world.
they have got the marketing of a brand down smack. the jealousies run big I guess. great product design too....and I own and love both Mac and Pc products
I think Apple still has a majority when it comes to graphics. I get more than 50% of the Internet graphics are done on Apple machines.
For the non-computer professional, Apple is good, especially in graphics design.
No comment
Are all of these Apple stories due to a settlement with Apple for CNN to use iReport?
Wow, that would actually NOT surprise me lol
Exactly what will dreolvpees use to develop iOS apps if MacOS disappears? The two will merge in the future. Whether they call it iOS or MacOS or something else is purely cosmetic.
and forget great cities, i woulve just skipped everything and named my icons after great galaxies or something. cause i think bigger. and different you could say
what a talented woman and a beautiful likeness she shared with Mac owners. Wish I could thank her personally!
This olepi guy is clueless. I know cause I'm a volunteer fireman.
"Mike Hunt, Mike Hunt" you are wanted at the front.
if steve jobs always thought bigger why wasnt the mouse upgraded to rat or no, how bout capubaro the giant south american rodent. (may have spelled it wrong) see i wouldve been a great apple thinker, but i wouldve thought bigger and renamed apple as something like grapefruit or maybe one of them big tomato hybrids like beefsteak or whatever the biggest tomatos are, cause they are bigger fruits, yeah and name the smallest device the kumquat, cause its small. laugh im trying to be funny,and stupid
read his bio..you'll understand him better
oh and why he named the company apple
"im trying to be funny,and stupid"
One out of two isn't bad, I guess.
Look, I own Apple products and happen to like them, but does anyone find it odd that CNN seems to have become the media/PR arm of Apple? It's like they can't go one week without some fawning article on the late Steve Jobs or his colleagues....just plain bizarre....
I know lol. It is bizarre. I run an apple website but it's purely apple stuff. CNN is not very good in presenting good Technology stories. If you take a look at BBC...they tend to focus on biotech, general science, robotics...etc.
Dang yo! I didn't know you had it like that! From the ptciure these look really beautiful. I would definately reccomend trying to see them...after you give me one for my recently past 30th birthday that it.
A great leader, dying of cancer, makes his last contributions.
The press loves this stuff.
Bet your portfolio has a few sharez of apple...at leazt it should
More free shilling for APPLE computer... Apple uses child labor CNN
this is earth not heaven...boycott all that doesn't meet your requirementz...ALL (ok choose which onez)
Boring . . .
This olepi guy is clueless. I know. I'm a volunteer fireman!
My father is a union/paid firefighter and hates volunteers. Someone told me that volunteers though get better gear and training than city firefighters. I am not sure if this is true.
Wow, you're everywhere.
I was wrong once: I thought I had made a mistake, but I hadn't.
Yeah but...the weather today mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
My goodness, so much mud slinging on a tech article. Let's give peace a chance. Imagine if you geniuses used your powers for good ...
Olepi is WORNG AGAIN! STOP SPEING LIES!! Here is the truth.
Lisa Mouse (A9M0050)
Macintosh Mouse (beige & Platinum)
The mouse created for the Apple Lisa was one of the very first commercial mouses sold in the marketplace. Included with the Lisa system in 1983, it was based on the mouse used in the 1970s on the Alto computer at Xerox PARC. Unique to this mouse was the use of a steel ball, instead of the usual rubber found in subsequent and modern mice. It connected to the CPU by means of a standard DE-9 and unique squeeze-release connector. Though developed by Apple, it was actually designed by an outside firm, Hovey-Kelley (renamed IDEO in 1991[4]), who built hundreds of prototypes and conducted exhaustive testing with focus groups in order to create the perfect device.[5] Their perseverance paid off as not only did they bring the design in on time and on budget, but the resulting device remained virtually unchanged for almost 20 years.[6] It was this mouse that established Apple's mouse as a one-button device for over 20 years. Every single aspect of the mouse was researched and developed, from how many buttons to include, to how loud the click should be. The original case design was Bill Dresselhaus's and took on an almost Art Deco flavor with its formal curving lines to coordinate with the Lisa.[7
I used a menu/icon graphical user interface system 5 years before Apple released the Lisa. The Perc (anyone remember that?) used a mouse, as did the Xerox Parc system.
Flattered that you created a screen name just to spew on me, too bad you don't actually know the history. Probably young.
Hey Olepi you seemed to have attracted a world class troll, lol. He is in over his head.
I was never a mac (MacOS) fan. I did have an Apple IIe, and later an Apple IIGS as one of my first home computers, and i had an excellent time with the GS. When Apple killed the ][ line i moved over to PCs. I dabbled with Mac OS X here and there on commodity hardware but other than the shiny logo from actual apple hardware i dont see the attraction from an OS/platform standpoint. Alot of my fellow unix administrators at work have mac os X on their little macbooks and i will never understand the great lengths they go to to compile crap on OSX just to have that shiny exterior. I am more efficient with a 2 gen old dell and any linux build.
ever see the movie 'pirates of silicon valley'? They replicated the PARC theft
devnull: cool. Somehow, I snagged a real one. But anyway.
I built S-100 systems instead of Apple. Oh well.
Apple didn't invent the mouse, the icon, or graphic user interfaces, neither did Microsoft, Commodore, or Atari, but they all made them cheaper and more available, so that, years later, we could argue history while being separated by thousands of miles.
the first good post of the day. well done.
Hmmmmmmm? You better write a book; and quick!
For a description of how fonts and special text formatting was done before Apple existed, google troff
We designed a special font for it to be used in mathematical equations. This was 1977. What Apple did is to take what the professionals had been using for years, and make it available to the mass public, albeit on crummy hardware.
Really Olepi? 1977, and your claims are bogus try loooong before that in the late 1950's. Troff is Bogus, spew you dribble elsewhere you and your infected Windoze crap with over 1 million malware and viri compared to just a 000.01 % for Unix, Linux and OS X, iOS. Yeah I want a Windows PC with loads of bloatware and to get Blue screens of Death or errors when I plug and play a printer, or camera, don't give mw the Windows 7 BS either it's still crappy code that's been cleaned up.
Go ahead have your "awesome" hardware that runs crappy Windoze. LOL you people will never lear, ever... what a bafoon, what a loser. Here is a quarter, now go buy a clue. Your Pathetic.
hehe, such ignorance. Troff is from UNIX. I've been running UNIX for over 35 years.
No ignorance and you're spewing lies and I make you look like a fool and idiot you are, here ya go...
The Initial planning and development for Multics started in 1964. Originally it was a cooperative project led by MIT (with Fernando Corbató) along with General Electric and Bell Labs. Bell Labs dropped out in 1969, and in 1970 GE's computer business including Multics was taken over by Honeywell. So the Gentlemen you mentioned were part of the "Bell Labs" they are not the originators as you stated. Now who is ignorant hmmm? get a life...
you're spewing lies and I make you look like a fool and idiot you are, here ya go...
The Initial planning and development for Multics started in 1964. Originally it was a cooperative project led by MIT (with Fernando Corbató) along with General Electric and Bell Labs. Bell Labs dropped out in 1969, and in 1970 GE's computer business including Multics was taken over by Honeywell. So the Gentlemen you mentioned were part of the "Bell Labs" they are not the originators as you stated. Now who is ignorant hmmm? get a life...
Wow, did I hit a nerve? I remember Multics, but that is not UNIX.
Can you actually point out a lie I said? You didn't even seem to know Troff was UNIX and not Windows. I suspect you are in over your head.
Here's a little test on hardware.
1) what is DMA, and did the Apple I have it?
2) 6502, 8008, 6809, Z80, 8080, 8088 - which one is in the first Apple, and was it the best at the time?
3) how many users could the first Apple handle at once?
Anyone have any ctirbeaerons on credit entry guidance or debt relief societies? I am about 8 grand in debt, and call for to force myself out asap. Anyone have any ideas? Do debt counselors at law or debt relief companies truly help?
Microsoft lovers (PC losers) and haters are all the same, haters going to hate, it's okay tho, I'll jeep my Mac and laugh the day you have to go to the goons at geel squad to fix a BLoD. Enjoy YOUR junky PC.
I get it now, you are an Apple bigot, and somehow think I am promoting Windows. NVM.
that's ok you keep your crappy mac I'll still use my Politically Correct machine
"Haters going to hate"? Go spout your memes on a video game message board. I'm sure they'll still find that phrase to be as "fresh" as the latest Call of Duty game.
It is not funny that you take the time to treat others badly because they don't think or act as you do. Being an Apple fan or a God follower dose not mean no one else has a right to compare or think differently. You are a sick person and should seek medical advise. I don't own an Apple device, never bought one and don't want on; they do nothing for me in the technology field I have worked in for 20 years. I own Windows based products and Andriod phones; yet, I have never bashed an Apple products. I support them in the enterprise, MAC's, MACBOOK, iphone, iPad etc. REMEMBER to each his own and no love is lost because you are an Apple lover and I am not. Live and let live. I bet I can ask you questions on MAC products and you can't answer them, even though you are an all MAC person.
Epic nerd battle.
No, half-wit, what they did was make proportional fonts that you could actually see on the screen, not just the typesetting machine.
I still have the old mac with these icons..
Love the little smiling computer icon..
Love the mac...
I would like to see an article on Ritchie and Thompson, the inventors of UNIX. I wager they had a bigger effect on the world's computing than Apple. Apple copied and used their operating system, and still does.
This article is about style, not function.
Understood. That's why I'd like to see an article devoted to the origins of UNIX, an arguably far more important piece of computer history. MAC-osX is UNIX, copied from 30 years ago.
Maybe not in the form you wanted, but here is one when Dennis Ritchie passed away in October 2011-
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/14/tech/innovation/dennis-ritchie-obit-bell-labs/index.html?iref=allsearch –
BTW, what about Brian Kernighan? He was there too.
Both Brian and Ken are still alive and contributing to the world.
thanks for the link! I remember the good old days of UNIX in the 70's, I called Dennis several times directly, being a sysadmin and kernel programmer of a UNIX ARPANET machine. I got whipped by Ken's chess machine several times
I always admired Kernighan for the clear programming books he helped write.
Nice article: Dennis Ritchie, the shoulders Steve Jobs stood on.
Everyone should read this.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/14/tech/innovation/dennis-ritchie-obit-bell-labs/index.html?iref=allsearch –
That is incorrect, OS X is based from BSD (open source) and Next so no copying there, if that were the case SCO, Redhat, and all the other *ix OS's would be copies and your dribble is out the window, go troll somewhere else loser.
Uh-oh. And what does BSD stand for?
BSD stands for Berkeley Standard Distribution, of UNIX. BSD 1.0 was basically a Pascal compiler/interpreter that was used in CS classes. This is about the time I met Bill Joy (he was still a grad student).
You should write one Olepi and submit it. You have a lot of knowledge in that area so it makes sense. CNN has that ireport thing so there ya go
.
OS X's UNIX foundation is from open source. To say Apple stole it or copied it is like saying all versions of Linux is a rip off, which is a ridiculous assessment. What makes OS X unique is the GUI and other technologies that sits on top of that UNIX foundation.
Terrible picture, I though she dead when I strated reading the article.
She may appear dead in her photo but your inability to read , write and spell is a dead give away of your illiteracy.
I think it's best to blame CNN for their lousy reporting. Leave the icons, topographers, and CEOs to themselves.
Leave the map makers out of it, or do you mean typographers? See, spelling does count.
She did not invent a font or a portionally spaced font. That was done light years ago in the age old days of books and printing. Maybe she was the first to tell Steve Jobs about them.
Nice try! Jobs studied calligraphy at Reed College in Portland, OR.
Actually, she did have to design fonts. Everyone has forgotten, but when the Mac came out, there were essentially only dot matrix printers, and she and Steve wanted Mac typography to look better then the single 'font', if you could even call it that, that most PC programs supported. n those days, most dot matrix printers only had 8 or possibly 9 pins in a column, so making it look like something was a challenge. Laser printers did exist, but they were huge, expensive machines, tied to mainframe computers. Personal laser printers and inkjet printers for personal computers simply did not exist.
We used Versatec plotters and multiple fonts on our computer-driven phototypesetter machines. This was in 1976.
Versatec's were way beyond dot matrix printers, but had to use special chemical paper.
Uh, she created quite a lot of fonts, half-wit.
Wow she did it and there you have it. Such negative statements. Lets celebrate great things!
Unfortunately, it is the playful icons and other game like features of Apple that I found least appealing about Apple products. But I am in a minority thinking that a tool should be treated like a tool since Apple has since taken us a long wayu down the road to not knowing the distinction between play and work.
I too worry about people who do not understand that work requires a dedication and discipline. When done well, work can be very enjoyable and satisfying, but it is not play.
That said, why can't work tools be beautiful and inspiring. My dad had some lovely wood carving chisels. Lovely to look at, wonderful to hold, and they worked great.
I totally agree with you!!!
I hate the cute, toyish mac icons.
And like most working-class non-CEOs - she's probably still paying off her student loans and has a net worth of negative $80,000.
I really doubt it.
That's the best picture they could find of her?
. Keep it classy San Diego.
Most of it was stolen from Xerox. They were the ones who invented icons.
Another day, another pointless Apple article on CNN. I'm really starting to hate Apple.
Mbane , I suspect you already hate apple, yet chose to read and comment on the article.
Ian, please do not feed the trolls. The best you can do it ignore them!
What CNN left out of the story is that Kare then went to work for Microsoft, perhaps because everybody already hates MS.
Actually, the article does state quite clearly that she went to work for Microsoft.
Me too. Philadelphia IS a world class city. San fran certainly isn't. Philly built this country.
And we are starting to hate your mon but we don't troll here and complain about it. geesh get a life
CNN is getting extreme OBSESSED with STEVE JOBS and APPLE. POOR CNN. Why wouldn't you talk about Microsoft?
We hear you loud and clear random capitols guy.
Never used a Mac, have you?
You hate CNN so much, yet here you are.
What would they say about MicroSoft.
Tried to copy Apple. Failed, but dominated because of Jobs desire for perfection and his obsession with control.
And after that .... bug, bug, bug, hole for virus, bug, bug, Bad Os, oops another Bad Os, opps (why do we keep doing this? because we can now get away with it! ) bad Os, another virus and hacker hole, ad infinitum............
Well said!
Microsoft didn't try to copy Apple and fail, they partnered with IBM to make OS/2 ( a real operating system), and then used the graphical interface from OS/2. They failed in trying to make their own operating system (as opposed to a user window system).
Hi, just stblumed on your page from reddit. It?s not an article I would typically read, but I loved your perspective on it. Thanks for making a blog post worth reading!
cause tt sucks
Jim, that's because Microsoft is crap, bloatware OS written in age old code that has nothing new to offer besides the millions upon millions of malware and bloatware Windows OS'es get and it's worse and will continue to get worse until M$ rewrites the code from the bottom up, but people in Hell want ice water as well so I don't think thats going to happen
If igorance is bliss, then you are the most insane, stupid of foolish person on the planet. Microsoft is bloatware, full of bugs etc. I bet you can't even install an upgrade to one of those MAC's you have.
Hear foolish person, Windows comes in varied forms, from desktops to servers. Remember Novell? Bet you don't! Windows server products killed Novell because of several reasons, one being better tied to the "Domain" than Novell to desktops. Name the Apple server product? xServer you say? How many company's using it. For your information, Microsoft products run enterprise, from SQL to Exchange, to Windows server 2008R2 to other backend products. What you know about anything is simply nothing. The iPads, iphones ets are only toys that simple minded persons like you go crazy over and become rather ignorant to other products and services.
Because nobody would be interested in reading it, half-wit. Were you around in the 90's? Back then it was all MS coverage, all the time. MS is a has-been company. They are utterly uninteresting at this point.
Susan Kare has been a wonderfully nice person and a wonderful artist since her childhood in Raleigh, NC. Thanks for your ongoing artistic contributions – including your Apple icons.
CNN is being paid to mention Apple once a day. An Apple article a day keeps the bills paid.
And you also probably think the moon landing was faked, and four assassins took out JFK, and...
Wow what an amazing 'woman in business', she was one of the zillions of people doing not-so-important jobs making icons! CNN, you must have really dug deep for this glowing example of celebrating women. In the meantime, 5 million men do this every day. But don't worry, with women making up 60% of our university students for 30 years now, maybe they should be picking up the pace.
Why so hysterical? This is someone who did something, which is obviously something you never did. I do not understand why so many men seem to be so threatened by a women's accomplishments. Or why they even need to seperate them from simply "accomplishments". It may not seem so great to you, but you didn't do it and. She did. Credit to Susan.
She was the first person to have a full time job making Icons, so her place in history is cemented.
Who Kares......
As a designer, I do. Very little recognition is ever given to the people who do the things YOU take for granted.
perhaps we should have articles about toilet paper makers. I bet you take that for granted.
You do. You read the article and commented on it. I would say you cared more than the "average" person.
There's things called books that have been printed with proportinally spaced fonts for centuries. She's closer to the last then the first to use them.
Idiot. This was the first time COMPUTERS could asymmetrically space individual letters. Or didn't you "READ" the article? Go back to FIRST GRADE. You failed everything after that.
Not the sharpest tool in the shed are you Usher? I'm thinking you didn't exactly ace the reading comprehension section of the SAT's.
I like to smell feces!
ME TOO!!!!!!!!!
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Yep, I've known about Susan Kare for years.
MOOF!
The # 7 comment had more intresting info in a few lines than the whole article!!
First proportionally spaced font? Nope, not even close. The Xerox Star used variable width fonts long before the Macintosh. Kare did make an early set of useful icons, but even icons were already a well established technique by the time the Mac was being designed.
Yes, and there was a proportionate IBM Selectric typewriter, as well.
I am trying to find where in the article it says Mrs. Kare was the first person to design icons. Can you find anything else to whine about?
I'm trying to find where in Jim's comment he referred to the article saying she was the first person to design icons. Oops, you failed reading comprehension. He mentioned what the article claimed, that she designed the first proportionally spaced font.
You're right, it said "Kare designed the first font" to have variable widths. But also this line:
"You can find the myriad visual descendants of Kare’s sketches ..."
implies that her icon designs are at the root of the tree of all the icons we see today.
Funny I don't remember tripping over the "dog cow" icon in recent systems
Re whining? Yes, it bothers me when history is rewritten. E.g. Jobs' claim (in his Stanford address) that the Mac wouldn't have had variable width fonts if he'd not dropped into a course in calligraphy is pure BS. Every bit-mapped computer of those days had variable width fonts. Now if he'd simply claimed it improved his sense of design and style, I wouldn't have had any objection to that. But thinking that the Mac wouldn't have had variable width fonts if he hadn't happened to drop into that course? Pure fantasy.
KARE DID NOT INVENT THE PROPORTIONALITY BIT – that was decided by others before her. Maybe she helped implement it. Big deal – no story.
What do you know about "story"? Have you ever written anything more than a complaint in you're sad, judgmental life? If you can't find something positive to say, buzz off!
The article says Ms. Kare designed the first proportionally spaced font for the Mac, not the first proportionally spaced font on any computing platform. Amazing to me how poorly folks read these days - perhaps due indirectly to the success of the very computing devices we're discussing.
You're so right Dave. But worse than being a poor reader, James get's his jollies from criticizing CNN and the stories they publish. Perhaps he would be kind enough to share is many splendid accomplishments with us.
"For the Mac, Kare designed the first font whose letters were spaced proportionally"
Very poorly written if intended to say it was just the first proportionally spaced font *for the Mac*. But then, English isn't a particularly precise language, otherwise we wouldn't have nearly so many lawyers!
Read the article, Susan Kare didn't just do work for Apple, she also worked for Microsoft, Facebook, and many other companies. Her work is seen and used by billions of people all over the world and is something we've all come to know. This is hardly an Apple-centric article despite Ms. Kare starting her work for Apple, it's necessary to mention them as it is relevant to how she got into the industry.
It is too bad CNN has such a short memory. As I posted already, we used machines with GUI's, fonts, icons, menus, and mice in the 1970's.
Unfortunately, Marc, when it comes to those who just hate Apple, nothing you are going to say or do would ever change their mind. Of course they don't recognize that Ms. Kare not only worked for Apple, but for many other companies as well. There is nothing more mind-numbingly ridiculous than listening to the drivel of those who hate Apple and those who hate anything BUT Apple. You would think that this type of behavior would end when we reach adulthood, but reading some of these comments reminds us all that idiots and morons will always exist. I have a great idea! Lets send all of the Apple fanboys along with all of the Apple haters to some remote location and let them all kill each other so the rest of us can discuss and debate issues without their pathetic whining!
Well said Marc... The other idiots or troll on this board are blinded by Microsoft to see the truth, Apple haters are going to hate.
"we used machines with GUI's, fonts, icons, menus, and mice in the 1970's."
Those 'machines' were NOT personal computers – they were over $100,000. It was Apple that brought the GUI to the PC, Xerox thought that was an impossible task to do.
I saw a GUI oriented machine at Xeroc Parc before 1982. We designed the Motorola 68,000 chip on machines in the 1970's that had full tablets, icons, menus, etc.
I was around too. And i remember when steve introduced the mouse and the worlds leading tech anaylst publicly said "no ones gonna want to use that thing"
Thousands of people were exposed to the technology of the Xerox Alto (and before that, the MIT media lab systems) that really pioneered the use of bitmapped displays, mice and variable width fonts. Sad to see the popular press getting it so wrong.
I guess the CNN staff only sees it from the public user's perspective, instead of the professional systems that came before Apple even existed. I remember when Apple used the 6502 processor. I was already on the Net then, and as a microprocessor designer, I thought Apple was behind. The Mac was a joke, as a real computer. It was good as a personal computer, I guess. Funny to see how CNN and everyone thinks Apple invented all this stuff, instead of just copying it.
The Xerox mouse couldn't last more than 6 days before it fell apart. Steve Jobs had to create one for consumer usage – to last at least a year.
Apple is the best..
At first, I thought people commenting about CNN being Apples biggest free advertiser was internet hyperbole. Now I'm starting to see it as being true.
Is CNN also Apple media?
Yes, we get it CNN. Apple has a huge stake in your company.
Michael SeymourI am wiitrng this as Ingrid's supportive husband. Today is her birthday and we celebrated with lunch and I must say that the dilemma is over. We have purchased an iPad and have ended the debate. On another note, I have read all of Ingrid's wiitrngs and although young adult is not my cup of tea I have to say she is an excellent writer. I tell her to hang in there and her day will come. She is a talent waiting to be discovered. Check out this site and come back frequently guys! Anyone cruising through here check out her work and you won't be sorry.
Sorry, my grammar is not good. I stream tupe and dont spelksheck.