T/Maker Company
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Founder | Heidi Roizen |
| Fate | Acquired by Deluxe Corporation in 1994; product lines later sold to Broderbund |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California , United States |
Key people | Heidi Roizen (CEO), Royal Farros (Chairman) |
| Products | T/Maker spreadsheet, ClickArt clip art collection, Personal Publisher, SmartBundle, Vroombooks, WriteNow word processor |
T/Maker (short for Table Maker), created by Peter Roizen and launched in 1979, ranks among the earliest spreadsheet applications designed for personal computers. It ran on platforms such as CP/M, TRSDOS, and subsequently MS-DOS. Initially distributed by Lifeboat Associates, T/Maker set itself apart by placing formulas along the row and column headers instead of embedding them directly within cells. Although it appeared six months after VisiCalc, T/Maker pioneered an early concept of an 'office' suite by enabling tables to be utilized across databases, spreadsheets, and word processing tools.
T/Maker Company
Established in 1983 in Mountain View, California by Heidi Roizen—sister of Peter Roizen and a recent graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business—the T/Maker Company concentrated on marketing innovative software for CP/M and MS-DOS systems. The firm later expanded into the Apple Macintosh market, offering products such as the ClickArt clip art collection. Heidi Roizen held the position of CEO.
The company released integrated software for DOS, Windows, and Macintosh environments, including ClickArt, which was among the first five software titles available for Mac. Additionally, it was an early source of fonts for the Macintosh platform. By 1988, T/Maker had discontinued sales of its original spreadsheet product.
Notable offerings included Personal Publisher—a desktop publishing application aimed at consumers that was eventually acquired by Software Publishing Corporation—SmartBundle, an office suite; Vroombooks, which were multimedia storybooks; and WriteNow, a Macintosh word processor licensed from NeXT in 1985 and later sold to WordStar in 1993.
In 1986, Heidi Roizen along with chairman Royal Farros purchased T/Maker from Peter Roizen, growing the company organically until 1989 when venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners made its initial investment. Ann Winblad joined the board at that time. A subsequent funding round led by Tim Draper of Draper Fisher occurred in 1993.
The company was acquired by Deluxe Corporation in 1994. Heidi Roizen departed in 1996 to take on the role of Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple. Following this, Royal Farros founded iPrint.com. The remaining T/Maker product lines were purchased by Broderbund, who continue to develop and market the ClickArt series.