Guide to the Ideographix, Inc. records
Finding aid prepared by Sydney Gulbronson Olson
Computer History Museum
July 2018
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA, 94043
(650) 810-1010
research@computerhistory.org
Title: Ideographix, Inc. records
Identifier/Call Number: X6819.2013
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
42.53 Linear feet,
15 record cartons, 20 newspaper boxes, and 2 manuscript boxes
Date (inclusive): 1974-1991
Abstract: The Ideographix, Inc. records range in date from 1974 to 1999 and contain program listings, manuals, specifications, data
sheets, periodicals, software, and A/V materials. The contents of the collection were produced and used by the office of Ideographix,
Inc. (IPX), a software development company that specialized in Chinese language keyboards and printers. IPX, which was headquartered
in Sunnyvale, California and operated from 1972 to 1999, is best known for making the world's first system to automate Chinese
typesetting. About half of the collection consists of program and code listings ranging in date from 1975 to 1988. There is
also a small amount of other printed materials published by IPX, such as installation manuals, data sheets, and user guides.
The other half of the collection is made up of software, including magnetic tapes, 8 inch floppy disks, 5.25 inch floppy disks,
and paper tape.
creator:
Ideographix, Inc.
Collection surveyed by Sydney Gulbronson Olson, 2018.
The collection is open for research.
The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying
any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the
Computer History Museum's collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer
History Museum.
[Identification of Item], [Date], Ideographix, Inc. records, Lot X6819.2013, Box [#], Computer History Museum.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Chan Yeh, 2013.
Ideographix, Inc. (IPX) was a software development company that operated from 1972 to 1999 and specialized in Chinese language
keyboards and printers. IPX was best known for making the world's first system to automate Chinese typesetting. The company
was founded in 1972 in Sunnyvale, California by Chan Yeh, a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the United States after teaching
himself Korean in order to be a translator for the U.S. during the Korean War. After the war, Yeh studied military science
at the Virginia Military Institute and earned a PhD in nuclear engineering at Cornell University. Prior to founding IPX, he
worked as an analyst at IBM for six years. He remained the CEO for the entire duration of the company. The company of about
50 employees developed the IPX automatic Chinese photo-typesetting system, which made typesetting Chinese characters three
times faster. Later, the company designed and produced Chinese language keyboards as well as some of the earliest laser printers
that created Chinese characters. IPX's products were very successful in China and Taiwan. IPX closed in 1999.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Ideographix, Inc. records contain program listings, manuals, specifications, data sheets, periodicals, software, and A/V
materials ranging in date from 1974 to 1991. The contents of the collection were either produced by or used in the office
of Ideographix, Inc. (IPX), a software development company that specialized in Chinese language keyboards and printers. About
half of the collection consists of program and code listings ranging in date from 1975 to 1988. There is also a small amount
of other printed materials published by IPX, such as installation manuals, data sheets, and user guides, as well as some manuals
from other companies, such as Autologic, Inc. and Microbar. There is one record carton of issues of the "Seybold Report on
Publishing Systems" and "Seybold Report on Desktop Publishing" ranging in date from 1985 to 1988. While there is a very small
amount of text material in Chinese, the majority of the materials are in English. The other half of the collection is made
up of software. There are about 60 magnetic tapes, 900 8 inch floppy disks, 400 5.25 inch floppy disks, and 4 paper tape rolls.
Most of the software has handwritten labels with both English and Chinese text. The majority of the floppy disks appear to
be related to fonts used by the IPX systems. Finally, the collection includes two VHS tapes, titled "IPX Automatic Typesetting
Systems (English)" and "IPX System in English (U.S. format)."
Physical objects were separated from the main collection. To view catalog records for separated material, search the CHM catalog
at
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/ .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Chinese characters
Computerized typesetting