Linotype-Hell DaVinci was an image manipulation program targeted at the repro and print shop markets. It originally ran on proprietary hardware, but was later ported to
Silicon Graphics workstations. The first version was released in 1993, and it continued to see regular releases until
Heidelberg acquired
Linotype-Hell in 1997. Heidelberg continued to update the software a few times before it was discontinued in April 2001, but the core engines for trapping and color management were recoded to work on
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
files and were a key contributor to the commercial success of
Prinergy Prinergy is a prepress workflow system created by Creo in 1999 and maintained and sold through Kodak. It is a client/server system that integrates PDF creation, job proofing, imposition, and a raster image processor (RIP) into one unified workflow. ...
, whic
benefittedfrom the Heidelberg-Creo joint venture.
Development
Hardware
DaVinci originally ran on proprietary "Power" workstations with dual
68040 or
88110 processors and several custom
ASIC
An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...
s. Later it was ported to
SGI IRIX based "Sprint" systems. Optional hardware included a high-speed
FDDI interface and a second
Ethernet controller.
The DaVinci name was the second choice during its development. Internally, it was known as "Chagall", named after the artist. However, permission could not be obtained to use his name. In the early days of Photoshop and Apple Macintosh hardware, rotation and scaling of large digital images taxed those machines to the limit, often taking several minutes to complete. In a high-end colour shop the Davinci performed these manipulations and many others with ease and in seconds, especially on the proprietary hardware. It was also equipped with a calibrated colour monitor.
Release history
See also
*
Barco Creator
Barco Creator was an image manipulation program targeted at the repro and print shop markets. It was developed by Barco Creative Systems a division of the Barco Group and first shown as a prototype at Parigraph in April 1988, then later at Ipex 88" ...
*
Barco ColorTone
*
Dalim Tango
Dalim Tango was a color retouching package aimed at the repro and prepress markets. It ran on Silicon Graphics workstations, and was first released in 1993. This retouching package is still available in the DALiM LiTHO program. As of 2013, LiTHO ...
IRIX software
Raster graphics editors
Technical communication tools
References
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