Rainbow Software's Showcase Presentation System was the world's first screen-based presentation system. Launched in 1981 by London-based Rainbow Software (now Showcase Presentations Ltd) and running on

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

II computers with just 16k of RAM it was the first commercial computer-based presentation system displaying directly onto RGB monitors or projectors. Rainbow's first client was

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in London closely followed by

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

and many others. Customers claimed that it paid for itself in a single presentation. Showcase used programmable duotone colouring to maintain ‘hi res’ mode; and a range of proportionally spaced, properly designed fonts (in 1983, two years later,

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

was still trying to persuade his embryonic Mac development team that such fonts were important).Isaacson, W. (2011) ''Steve Jobs'', Hachette Digital The

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

didn't make much impact until the mid-1980s; Rainbow lacked the resources to redevelop the system from scratch on to this new format with poor graphic capabilities. The Rainbow name was eventually dropped in favour of Showcase Presentations Ltd, which became a service company. In 1987 a product from General Parametrics called VideoShow allowed better quality presentations from a PC and Showcase adopted this and started to develop into a broader consultancy business. In 1990

Windows 3 Windows 3.x means either of, or all of the following versions of Microsoft Windows: * Windows 3.0 * Windows 3.1x Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windo ...

appeared and combined with a

Compaq Portable 386 The Compaq Portable 386 is a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1987. It was equipped with a Intel 80386 CPU, RAM, ROM, floppy, hard disk drive, priced at respectively, and a gas-plasma display. Early versions of the ...

and the first version of a new program called

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

, the route to the future seemed clear. Since then there have been many changes in hardware and software – and particularly in display devices, speed and resolution – but the same general combination of hardware and software has prevailed. Showcase Presentations rapidly became a high-profile support company, creating presentations for major blue chip companies and working around the world.

References

{{reflist Presentation software