Interleaf
| Company type | Public (until acquisition) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Founder | David Boucher, Harry George |
| Defunct | January 2000 |
| Fate | Acquired by Broadvision |
| Successor | Broadvision, later Aurea Software Inc. |
| Headquarters | Waltham , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | David Boucher (CEO 1981–1992), Harry George (CFO) |
| Products | Technical Publishing Software (TPS), Interleaf 5-7, Active Documents, Interleaf WorldView, WorldView Press, Cyberleaf |
| Parent | Broadvision (from 2000), Aurea Software Inc. (from 2020) |
Interleaf, Inc. was a software firm focused on developing tools for the creation and distribution of technical publications. Established in 1981, its premier offering was the first commercially available document processor that combined text and graphic editing with a WYSIWYG interface, delivering output quality close to traditional typesetting standards. The company also pioneered early advancements in document management, electronic publishing, and web-based publishing solutions. In the early 1990s, Interleaf launched "Active Documents," which allowed extensive programmatic interaction using LISP with nearly every document component and software function.
In January 2000, Broadvision acquired Interleaf; subsequently, Broadvision itself was purchased by Aurea Software Inc. in May 2020.
Originally based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Interleaf later moved its headquarters to Waltham.
History
Interleaf was founded by David Boucher (who served as CEO from 1981 to 1992) and Harry George (CFO). The company leveraged significant technology contributions from MIT’s Office Automation Group, incorporating innovations from the Etude WYSIWYG editor. Early employees also came from firms such as NBI, Inc. and Wang Laboratories. Initially, Interleaf provided integrated hardware-software solutions running on workstations from Sun Microsystems and Apollo Computers before expanding compatibility to platforms like Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Silicon Graphics, Apple Macintosh II, and IBM PCs.
The company introduced its first products between 1984 and 1985. Its Technical Publishing Software (TPS) was distinctive in enabling authors to compose text alongside technical graphics on-screen with genuine WYSIWYG formatting for laser printing—a significant advancement over conventional markup-based typesetting systems. TPS was particularly effective for managing extensive corporate technical documentation.
Interleaf went public in June 1986 through an initial public offering that raised $24.6 million.
In 1990, the company relocated its headquarters from Cambridge to Waltham, Massachusetts.
Following Broadvision’s acquisition in 2000, Interleaf’s authoring tools were renamed "Quicksilver." Broadvision released versions 3.0 (2007), 3.5 (2010), and 3.7 (2014). Currently, Quicksilver is marketed and supported by Aurea Software, Inc.
Conversion
Several engineering companies and defense contractors continue to maintain archives in the Interleaf/Quicksilver format. However, by the early 2000s, the expense and complexity of sustaining documents in this format led many users to convert their files—most commonly into Microsoft Word due to its widespread corporate adoption.
Because of outdated codebases, few technical solutions for conversion were available at that time. Manual re-entry of content remained an option but was only economically viable when outsourced to low-cost labor regions such as China or the Philippines and involved risks of transcription errors.
As of 2023, automated conversion services are still limited. The primary provider is ZANDAR Corporation’s TagWrite tool, which performs fully automated, highly accurate conversions of Interleaf/Quicksilver documents entirely in-memory without human involvement.
TPS
TPS (which evolved into "Interleaf 5" through "Interleaf 7") was a comprehensive text-and-graphics document system designed specifically for technical publishing with networked capabilities. Launched in 1984, subsequent versions incorporated enhancements such as automatic page numbering and cross-references spanning multi-chapter works; improved graphic functions; auto-generated indexes and tables of contents; hyphenation; equation support; and "microdocuments"—self-contained document elements embedded recursively within larger documents. The system supported programmable elements through "Active Documents" and featured multilingual support including Japanese text formatting.
Functioning as a structured document editor, TPS organized documents into classes of elements (like body text, paragraphs, titles), each with globally configurable attributes such as font size applied consistently across all instances. Any changes impacting pagination or cross-referencing were instantly reflected on screen—a key WYSIWYG advantage that set Interleaf apart. The structured document model also enabled conditional document assembly, allowing users to apply metadata tags to elements and automatically produce customized document variants—for example, aircraft manuals tailored by specific model numbers.
This structured framework paved the way for the early 1990s introduction of Active Document features. Comparable to how JavaScript adds interactivity to web pages, Interleaf employed LISP scripts embedded within document elements to deliver dynamic functionality. These scripts facilitated capabilities such as automatically updating charts from embedded datasets, adapting pages based on database inputs, and guiding users through complex workflows like filling out insurance forms.
Interleaf Relational Document Manager (RDM)
RDM represented an early solution in document management that Interleaf acquired in the late 1980s and subsequently incorporated into its product suite. It utilized a relational database management system to handle intricate document collections along with their version histories. Contributors "checked out" the most recent document versions for editing and "checked in" their revisions afterward, ensuring collaboration always occurred on up-to-date content.
Interleaf WorldView
Introduced in 1992, Interleaf WorldView provided capabilities akin to those later seen in Adobe Acrobat Reader, arriving approximately one year earlier. This tool allowed users to view document sets created by Interleaf across workstations, Macintosh computers, and PCs, maintaining accurate page layouts and active hyperlinks.
Interleaf WorldView Press
WorldView Press was designed to prepare documents for online presentation through WorldView by importing content from Interleaf as well as other prevalent formats such as Microsoft Word, PostScript, TIFF, and SGML. Utilizing Interleaf’s rapid reformatting technology, it generated documents tailored for a wide range of display devices, from compact laptops to expansive monitors. Developed in Lisp by Jim Giza, WorldView Press significantly improved the versatility of document distribution.
Interleaf Cyberleaf
As the World Wide Web gained prominence as a distribution channel, Interleaf launched Cyberleaf—a variant of WorldView Press that produced HTML-formatted documents. Created under the direction of Bill O'Donnell with subsequent enhancements by Brenda White, Cyberleaf expanded Interleaf’s publishing reach into web-based formats.
Competitors
In the realm of technical writing and publishing software, Framemaker and Ventura Publisher stood out as principal rivals.
Within document management solutions, Interleaf competed directly against Documentum.
For electronic document distribution, Adobe Acrobat—which debuted after Interleaf WorldView—eventually became the industry leader.
External links
- QuickSilver official site
- "Interleaf, Inc.—1981 to 2000", preprint, Mark Dionne and David Walden, 2019. This version is the author's draft of an article originally published in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.
- [1] Information on converting Interleaf/Quicksilver documents including graphics, tables, equations, and formatting styles.