History!!

What are the roots of Digital Illustration?

Hint: A lot of it is about type, and it's really all about the reproduction of information.

To transmit information (the bible, mostly) monks went blind in candle-lit scriptoriums copying bibles and other scriptures.

In 1439 AD Johannes Guttenberg becomes the first European to use moveable type. (However, it was invented in China by Bi Sheng in 1040 AD.)

Guttenberg press and printed page, circa 1439 (wiki article)

The “ Modern World ”

In the Twentieth Century the problem of reproduction is resolved, but it's arduous and not yet digital. Nonetheless, all these things influenced digital illustration and design.

The world of: Paste-up

It was important, if fact a job defining skill, to place things on boards that line up and are at right angles to each other.

Acutal paste-up artwork using actual paste

Devices to line things up

Drafting Machines & Drafting Tables

Here's a “vintage” drafting machine for sale on eBay

T-Squares

Substances to hold things down

Rubber Cement, RC Thinner and Spray Mount

Hot-Waxers

Devices to cut things apart

X-Acto Knives & Blades

The world of: Type

Wooden Type

Metal Type

A line of metal type.

 

Hand-Set Type

AKA "Letterpress" - used nowadays for wedding invitations and special events

Hand setting type workstation

California job case & slug of set type

Letterpress press

 

Machine-Set Type

Linotype Hot-Lead Typesetter Machine
(Wikipedia article )

Photo-Typesetting
Example of mark-up for typesetting and a good article .

 

The world of: Inking

Straight-Edges & Triangles

Templates

French Curve Sets

Flexible Curves

Ruling Pens

Instrument sets

Rapidograph Pens

Hand Mask-Cutting

Rubylith

Camera Sizing

Photostat Camera
& Processor

“Luci” Camera (Camera Lucida)

Proportion Wheel

Weird Types of Measurement

Typesetting is measured in Points, Picas and Agates

• Points invented by French printers in the early 18th Century
• Agates used by newspapers (about 5.5 points in one agate)
• 72 points (pt.) per inch (.01386 inch)
• 1 pica = 12 points, 6 picas per inch
• Don't worry, the only one that matters anymore in points...

History of Digital Illustration

Known at the time as “Desktop Publishing”

1984

Apple introduces the Apple Macintosh and creates "Desktop Publishing".

The introduction of Apple MacDraw introduces vector drawing/graphics for the masses

1988

Adobe introduces Illustrator 88

Great YouTube video from Adobe on the origins of Illustrator

Altsys created FreeHand and licenses it to Aldus (creator of PageMaker)

1989

Corel introduces CorelDRAW on Windows 2.0

Early 1994

Adobe acquires Aldus

Mid 1994

Altsys sues Adobe to get FreeHand back

1995

Macromedia acquires Altsys

2005

Adobe acquires Macromedia

2007

Adobe retires FreeHand

2009

Some people still use FreeHand, but for all practical purposes it is dead in 2012.

2012

Adobe moves to subscription model

2024

Adobe Illustrator August 2024 (version 28.71) current version, decent upgrade with some new features and enhancement (listed here)

The sad story of Freehand on Wikipedia

Current Tools

Illustrator Creative Cloud 2024

• Mac and Windows

CorelDRAW Graogucs Suite 2024

• #1 competitor to Illustrator
• No longer available as stand-alone app
• $599 package or $22.42/mo with annual contract

Xara Designer Pro

• Windows only
• V20 $179.40, Version PRO+ $16.95/mo (billed annually)

Inkscape

• Open Source Free software
• Downloads for MacOS, Windows and Linux

Affinity Designer 2

• A viable alternative to Adobe Cloud
• No subscription. $69.99 for Windows & MacOS, $19.99 for iPad

Sketch

• Mac, Web (browser-based), and iOS
• No subscription. $120 byout, or $10/mo

 

There are more, the above are just a few of the options, listed by popularity. For more on the various tools and their differences check this Wikipedia article