Photoshop was originally created by two brothers, Thomas Knoll and John Knoll. The two brothers shared interests both in photography and computing, and had the use of their father's darkroom while growing up.
Photoshop was still yet to be conceived, but development effectively started in 1987. The project started as a thesis on the processing of digital images, and evolved first into a small set of graphical subroutines, and then into a program named Display. This grew into a better featured version named ImagePro in 1988, and finally Photoshop 1.0 in 1989. Adobe took interest in this final version, and the first ever version of Photoshop was released in 1990.
There is a fantastic article with even more details on the time leading up to Photoshop 1.0 here.
After its massive success at the top end of the market, a consumer version was created to run alongside the professional package. These packages were sold for much less than their full counterparts, and were also bundled with other products like digital cameras and scanners. Photoshop 4.0 Limited Edition was the first of these packages.
By Photoshop 7.0, which was now the market leader of all graphics programs, Adobe stopped making LE versions, and began the Photoshop Elements product line. The professional package has since moved on to the 'CS' versions, and Photoshop Elements releases have continued.
Below is a brief version history for Photoshop that summarises the Photoshop release history:
| Version | Operating System | Release Date |
| 1.0 | Mac OS | February 1990 |
| 2.0 | Mac OS | June 1991 |
| 2.0.1 | Mac OS | January 1992 |
| 2.5 | Mac OS Windows |
November 1992 |
| 2.5.1 | Mac OS | July 1993 |
| 3.0 | Mac OS Windows |
September 1994 |
| 4.0 | Mac OS Windows |
November 1996 |
| 4.0.1 | Mac OS Windows |
August 1997 |
| 5.0 | Mac OS Windows |
May 1998 |
| 5.0.1 | Mac OS Windows |
June 1998 |
| 5.5 | Mac OS Windows |
February 1999 |
| 6.0 | Mac OS Windows |
September 2000 |
| 6.1 | Mac OS Windows |
March 2001 |
| 7.0 | Mac OS Mac OS X Windows |
March 2001 |
| Elements 1 | Mac OS Windows |
April 2001 |
| 7.0.1 | Mac OS Mac OS X Windows |
August 2002 |
| Elements 2 | Mac OS Windows |
August 2002 |
| CS (8.0) | Mac OS X Windows |
October 2003 |
| Elements 3 | Mac OS X Windows |
October 2004 |
| CS2 (9.0) | Mac OS X Windows |
April 2005 |
| Elements 4 | Mac OS X Windows |
October 2005 |
| Elements 5 | Windows | October 2006 |
| CS3 (10.0) | Mac OS X Windows |
April 2007 |
| Elements 6 | Mac OS X Windows |
October 2007 |
| Elements 7 | Windows | October 2008 |
| CS4 (11.0) | Mac OS X Windows |
October 2008 |
| Elements 8 | Mac OS X Windows |
September 2009 |
| CS5 (12.0) | Mac OS X Windows |
April 2010 |
Adobe produce many other products used for processing all kinds of computer graphics. They have very successfully covered all aspects of the digital imaging market, and have expanded into other areas too, such as video and audio production. A summary of some Adobe products is shown below:
Photoshop - Flagship product for professional digital imaging.
Photoshop Elements - Consumer version for desktop digital imaging.
Photoshop Album - Photo organiser, with search, share and fix capabilities.
ImageReady - Photoshop companion for web graphic production.
Illustrator - Vector graphics package.
Premiere Pro - Flagship product for professional video production.
Premiere Elements - Consumer version for desktop video publishing.
After Effects - Motion graphics and visual effects package.
Audition - Professional digital audio package.
