INVENTOR

Bill Atkinson

1951 - 2025

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William Dana Atkinson (March 17, 1951 – June 5, 2025) was an American computer engineer, computer programmer and photographer. Atkinson worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1990. Some of Atkinson's noteworthy contributions to the field of computing include Macintosh QuickDraw and Lisa LisaGraf (Atkinson independently discovered the midpoint circle algorithm for fast drawing of circles by using the sum of consecutive odd numbers), marching ants, the menu bar, the selection lasso, MacPaint (FatBits), HyperCard, Atkinson dithering, and the PhotoCard application program. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Bill Atkinson is the 301st most popular inventor (up from 391st in 2019). (up from 4,432nd in 2019)

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Bill Atkinson ranks 301 out of 426. Before him are Samuel Morland, Jacob Perkins, Mohamed M. Atalla, Kálmán Kandó, L. L. Langstroth, and Leonardo Torres y Quevedo. After him are Oleg Losev, George Graham, Bernard Lown, Ivan Kulibin, Marion Donovan, and Walter Clopton Wingfield.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1951, Bill Atkinson ranks 312. Before him are Ivano Bordon, Tom Noonan, Michel Aupetit, Pier Luigi Bersani, Harry Hamlin, and Patrick Bergin. After him are Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, Dean Barrow, Mario Delpini, Marijan Beneš, Gerrie Knetemann, and Charles Shyer. Among people deceased in 2025, Bill Atkinson ranks 244. Before him are Barbie Hsu, Baldur Preiml, Émilie Dequenne, Bernardo Ruiz, Thelma Hopkins, and Marc Garneau. After him are Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, Cristóbal Ortega, Jorge Costa, Djamel Menad, Christopher Loeak, and Johnny Tillotson.

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