Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and developer of PDFs has died at 81

Charles “Chuck” Geschke, the co-founder of the software company Adobe, who helped develop Portable Document Format technology (PDF), died at age 81.

Charles Geschke co-founded Adobe in 1982 along with John Warnock, offering world beyond PDF, several audiovisual innovations. According to the BBC, Geschke died on Friday in California.

Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe, send an email to Adobe employees, saying:

“This is a huge loss for the entire Adobe community and the technology industry, for whom he has been a guide and hero for decades. As co-founders of Adobe, Chuck and John Warnock developed groundbreaking software that has revolutionized how people create and communicate. Chuck instilled a relentless drive for innovation in the company, resulting in some of the most transformative software inventions, including the ubiquitous PDF, Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop.”

Geschke was the chief operating officer of Adobe for eight years and president from April 1989 until his retirement in April 2000. He was the chairman of the board with Warnock from September 1997 to January 2017 and was a member of the board until April 2020. Also, Geschke was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2009 by Barack Obama.