Bill Atkinson, creator of QuickDraw and pioneer of Apple's graphical interfaces, has died
Kyiv • UNN
Bill Atkinson, one of Apple's key developers, has died at the age of 76 after a long battle with cancer. He created QuickDraw, MacPaint, and HyperCard.
Bill Atkinson passed away on June 5 at the age of 76 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was one of the main architects of Apple Lisa and Macintosh, the author of the QuickDraw graphics library, the MacPaint application, and the HyperCard environment, which preceded the advent of the modern Internet. This is reported by UNN with reference to a post by his relatives on Facebook.
Details
Dear friends and family, it is with sadness that we announce that our beloved husband, father, and stepfather Bill Atkinson passed away on the night of Thursday, June 5, 2025, from pancreatic cancer. He was at home in Portola Valley in his bed, surrounded by family
Also, Atkinson's family emphasized that the world without him will change forever, because he was an outstanding person with a completely different level of consciousness. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, a stepson, a stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters, and a dog, Poppy.
We wish him a journey as meaningful as the one he was in our lives
Additionally
Bill Atkinson joined Apple at the very beginning of the company's development (his position number is 51) and played a key role in creating a number of breakthrough products. Among his achievements are the Lisa computer, the QuickDraw library for working with graphics, the Magic Slate experimental device (which preceded the iPad), and the HyperCard environment, which is often called the predecessor of the modern Internet.
Apple CEO Tim Cook described Atkinson on social media as "a true visionary whose ingenuity, humanity, and innovation for the Mac will inspire us always."
And popular tech blogger John Gruber emphasized that Atkinson undoubtedly belongs to the elite of programmers of all time, and his contribution to the development of the computer industry is invaluable.
One of Atkinson's key inventions was the QuickDraw graphics library, which was the basis of the visual component of Lisa and Macintosh. This set of software modules provided fast and efficient rendering of geometric shapes, text and raster images, creating an intuitive "desktop" with icons for folders, files and applications.
In addition, Atkinson is credited with the introduction of many basic elements of modern interfaces: he developed the drop-down menu function and the "double-click" gesture, which became the standard for opening files and programs by double-clicking the mouse button.
