Artist Martin Holbrook worked with Quantel's development team to develop the artist-oriented functionality and user interface, which remained virtually unchanged throughout the life of the product. The patented pressure-sensitive pen and tablet elevated it from a computer into a real artist's tool. The real-time, broadcast quality,
24 bit color Quantel Paint Box as it was then known, was launched at
NAB Show in Las Vegas in May 1981. The
PAL DPB-7001 and the
NTSC DPB-7000 are digital paint machines, with stencils and layers introduced nine months later, and font and text functions implemented by Pepper Howard in 1983. The hardware was readily available off-the-shelf components, supported by
Programmable Array Logic ICs which are custom-programmed by Quantel. Combining the latest hardware, custom software which had solved usable digital paint issues and an artist-friendly familiar way of creating artwork that required no computer knowledge, made the Paintbox an instant success. It became the global industry standard digital studio and image manipulation tool for the next fifteen years, bringing digital art and graphics onto TV screens. The second generation V-Series Paintbox was released in 1989 as a modernized and more compact and affordable model. It has internal hardware improvements, a better tablet, upgraded keyboard, and a cordless stylus. Prices started at . In 1985, Quantel developed a vastly increased framestore capacity, enabling them to create a high resolution print quality Paintbox, which revolutionized the photo manipulation industry five years before
Photoshop was introduced and led to Quantel's high-profile lawsuit against
Adobe for using the Paintbox's patented features. In the late 1980s, Quantel filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Spaceward Graphics for creating the Matisse system, which was marketed as a cheaper version of the Paintbox. It won the case against Spaceward at the High Court in London in 1990, but lost the case against Adobe in 1997, which was able to demonstrate that
Richard Shoup's
SuperPaint (1973) had introduced particular features before Quantel's Paintbox. Though Adobe did not yet exist when Paintbox was launched, demonstrating prior use to the court meant that Quantel's patents became invalid and the case was thrown out by the judge in Adobe's home state of Delaware. A Paintbox unit was usually integrated into Quantel's editing systems, especially the Quantel Henry, Eventually, Paintbox became a feature of Quantel's other, more powerful editing, media management, and post-production products. In 2005, Quantel updated their line of
x86-based workstations (with Paintbox and Paintbox gQ models, and a software-only version of QPaintbox). They also released their new Quantel Editbox. Though becoming the industry standard TV graphics and post production computer with hundreds sold around the world, Quantel lost all its market share against cheaper systems and software. ==Paintbox and art==