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Bill Atkinson

American computer engineer, programmer, and photographer (1951–2025)

  • Fame50.8
  • Momentum0.0
  • Developers rank#163
Source-basedFalling
  • Fame50.8
  • Momentum0.0
  • Developers rank#163
  • Wikipedia3.8K
Lived 1951–2025, aged 74United States
United StatesUnited StatesDevelopersDeveloper
  • Wikipedia
    19 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1951–2025
    Aged 74
  • Known for
    Hackers: Wizards of th…
    1984
Summary
Updated 2026-06-18

William Dana Atkinson 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, regions, marching ants, the menu bar, the selection lasso, MacPaint (FatBits), HyperCard, Atkinson dithering, and the PhotoCard application program.

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Falling
50.8
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical16.1
Source confidence75.0
Completeness85.0
Global rank
—
Country rank
—
Category rank
#163
Receipts

Sources