Soviet-era image retouching tool pre-dates Photoshop, is actually French

In the video above we can see that Soviet computer engineers were digitally scanning and retouching images way back in 1987, three years before Photoshop was available. Don’t worry this isn’t quite the Sputnik-like failing of Western technology that it might seem, Thomas Knoll started working on what would become Photoshop that same year. And that ended up being slightly more popular than Советский фотошоп (not that that’s the real name, it just means “Soviet Photoshop”).

Also, as it turns out, some graphics historians/commentors noted that this device isn’t Soviet at all, it’s the PERICOLOR-1000 running Russian software. I haven’t been able to turn up much information on the PERICOLOR-1000 but this does mean one thing–you’ll be spared the otherwise mandatory “In Soviet Russia” joke. Either way, it’s a great video that reminds us just how awesome old technology is.

As for the computer–that’s the Apple III which came out in 1980 and would have been somewhat outdated at the time, though perhaps not behind the Iron Curtain.

via Boing-Boing