The Quantel Paintbox is a dedicated computer system for performing real time manipulation of video, and creating graphics. It rose to prominence in the latter part of the 1970s, where it revolutionised the production of television programmes, but is still in widespread use today. Its capabilities have kept pace with the state of the art in software and hardware design.

Initially running on dedicated hardware, it now runs on high-end workstations. However, its features are still ahead of what can be done with the average desktop system, though over time many features that are now considered standard on PCs first emerged on the Paintbox system. It is still the industry standard among professionals in the field of TV production.

It was used by some artists and designers, notably David Hockney.

Quantel is a British company, based in Newbury, Berkshire.

External links

• Information about Quantel's latest version of Paintbox