Revolution in the Valley by Andy Hertzfeld

Author:Andy Hertzfeld
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc.,
Published: 2005-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

Steve Icon

February 1983

Having your own icon becomes a status symbol

In February 1983, I started working on an icon editor that Susan Kare could use to create icons for the Finder. Inspired by the “Fat Bits” pixel editing mode that Bill Atkinson had recently added to MacPaint, it had a large window with a 32 × 32 grid, displaying each pixel at 8 times its natural size, as well as a small window that showed the icon at its actual size. Clicking on a pixel inverted it, and subsequent dragging propagated the change to the dragged over pixels.

Susan started working on icons for the Finder, but she also used my editor to draw many other practice images and to create fun icons that often reflected her whimsical sense of humor. One day, I went by her cubicle and was surprised to see her laboring over a tiny icon portrait of Steve Jobs.

Icons were only 32 × 32 black or white pixels, 1024 dots in total, and I didn’t think it was possible to do a very good portrait in such a tiny space. But somehow, Susan had succeeded in crafting an instantly recognizable likeness with a mischievous grin that captured a lot of Steve’s personality. Everyone she showed it to liked it, even Steve himself.

Bill Atkinson was so impressed with the Steve icon that he asked Susan to draw one of him so he could use it in the MacPaint About box. He sat in Susan’s cubicle for an hour or so, chatting with her while she crafted his icon. I don’t think it turned out quite as nice as the Steve icon, but it certainly was an unmistakable likeness, and it did become part of MacPaint.

Susan Kare’s Steve Jobs icon

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