Thomas KNOLL

This 2005 stock photo shows Ruth and Thomas Knoll in the living room at their home in Ann Arbor as Photoshop celebrated its 15-year anniversary. Thomas created Photoshop and continues to consult for Adobe on new versions of the software.

(The Ann Arbor News File Photo)

On Feb. 19, 1990, a University of Michigan undergraduate student by the name of Thomas Knoll introduced his pixel manipulation software to the world after signing a licensing agreement with Adobe.

That software was Photoshop, and it would change the way people operated across several computing platforms - from video games to arts and web design to fashion and even government and beyond.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release, Knoll, who developed the technology with his brother, John Knoll, will engage in the popular Reddit AMA series - or Ask Me Anything - which acts as a question and answer format in which users can engage with those featured in the chats. The AMA will begin at 5 p.m. and could last for two hours or more depending on the flow of the questions.

During a recent interview with Adobe News, Thomas Knoll said he didn't originally develop Photoshop as a tool for photographers, one of the software's biggest clients in today's market.

"Photoshop 1.0 and the first several versions weren't really tools for photography, not only because there wasn't appropriate hardware available in digital cameras but, more importantly, because there were no digital printers," he said.

"So Photoshop 1 was primarily aimed at the publishing markets and graphic artist markets. But inkjet printers enabled a real photography workflow to begin, because photographers could scan film in, manipulate it in Photoshop, and then print out the images with an inkjet printer. Then that really exploded when digital cameras came out, and it suddenly became very easy to get lots of images directly into Photoshop."

He said that Photoshop was a tool ahead of its time, but he can see it continuously evolving in the same way that computer technology continues to evolve.

A 1978 graduate of Ann Arbor Huron High School, Knoll has bachelor's and master's degrees from U-M.

Jeremy Allen is the higher education reporter for The Ann Arbor News, covering the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College. Follow him on twitter at @JeremyAllenA2. Contact him at 810-247-4625 or jallen42@mlive.com. Find other University of Michigan-related stories here on MLive.com.