Watch this: 1990 demo of the Quantel Paintbox

Remember the 1977 Yellow Pages graphic design tools? A decade later, things had gotten a lot more advanced, and the Quantel Paintbox workstation was de rigueur for creating television graphics and overlays. In 1990, Quantel created this demo of its new V-Series, which was smaller and more powerful — about the size of a large present-day desktop computer. The V-Series included an “integral hard disk that holds the equivalent of 185 full-frame pictures” and like the previous version, it came with a sketchpad-sized screen and stylus, letting artists “paint with light.” Besides showing off the new hardware, Quantel also showcased what we sincerely hope was not the best Paintbox work artists did during the 1980s, facilitated by then-revolutionary technology like cut and paste.