1963
Ivan Sutherland creates Sketchpad
Ivan Sutherland demonstrated Sketchpad in 1963 — the first program to use a light pen for interactive drawing, constraints, and zoom on a computer display.
What it was for
Sketchpad on MITMassachusetts Institute of Technology — a research university central to many computing breakthroughs.'s TX-2 pioneered direct manipulation, object instances, and constraint solving — ideas that became CAD, GUIs, and modern graphics toolkits. Sutherland's PhD work showed computers could be visual design instruments, not just number crunchers.
People
- Ivan Sutherland — creator
Why it's here
Sketchpad invented interactive computer graphics and constraint-based drawing.
Why it mattered
It foreshadowed CAD, WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You Get — editing where the screen closely matches printed output. editors, and graphical user interfaces decades ahead.
What it solved
Engineers drafted on paper with no way to edit geometry or reuse symbols interactively on screen.
Media
ImageIvan Sutherland operating SketchpadIvan Sutherland / Kerry Rodden scan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- Xerox Alto operational1973
- Macintosh 128K releasedJanuary 24, 1984