Award Winners

Thomas Knoll | return

What can you say about Thomas Knoll, the man who wrote Photoshop? Or his brother John, who back in 1988 brought the two of them, with their beta version of Photoshop, to Adobe Systems. Little did they know back then, that together they would create a software application that would forever change the way the world creates design, photography, and art. Without them, this certainly would be an empty room right now, and the visual aspects of the communication age would be vastly different, and certainly much less exciting and dramatic than it is today.

It was Thomas Knoll who took his high-school hobby of photography, (where he learned the art of color, balance, and contrast in his father's basement darkroom), and turned it into a program that now touches millions of lives every day.

We've seen his name thousands of times, in Photoshop splash screen—it's the first name on the list, yet the man behind the code remains incredibly humble about his achievement. When we contacted him to let him know he and his brother John would be among the first inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame, he asked us "Why would you want to induct me? I didn't do anything special. Writing Photoshop was just something we did for fun back then--it was basically a hobby."

Known to Photoshop oldtimers, simply as "the Knoll brothers," Thomas' brother John is still involved with the world of digital imagry, but from a different angle. Today John is a visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic, whose portfolio includes "Star Trek Generations," "Star Trek VIII: First Contact" "Star Wars, First Edition" and "Mission Impossible," among many others.

We were honored to have one of the Knoll Brothers at the Photoshop Hall of Fame induction Ceremony, and to accept the Hall of Fame award on behalf of his brother John, as well.