2021-02-12
The 21st Birthday of iText

On February 14, 2000, I released iText 0.30, the first officially distributed version of iText.

While I'm creating Trivia pages for my book Entreprenerd, I compiled an overview of the different layouts of my personal web site and the iText web site.

The first years (2000-2001), my website was quite basic:

lowagie.com in 2001

So was the iText web site:

iText website in October 2000

As iText became more popular, I updated the website.
Note that I didn't have a logo for iText yet in 2001:

iText website in 2001

On my personal web site, I used an image of coffee beans for the button that linked to iText.

personal web site in 2002

The only documentation for iText consisted of a very simple tutorial:

Creating PDF in 5 steps: first iText tutorial

The first iText logo had an i that was shaped as an eye, as you can see on a 2002 version of the iText website:

iText website in 2002

My personal website was rebranded from the recursive abbreviation LOWAGIE—"Lowagie, Online With A Great Internet Expert"—to B.L.O.G.—"Bruno Lowagie's Online Gazette" (2004).

personal website in 2004

The iText website also underwent significant changes in 2004:

iText website in 2004

The most important change in 2004 was a new tutorial "iText by Example":

iText Free Online Tutorial

This tutorial resulted in a book contract with Manning Publications. I was asked to write iText in Action and I promoted the book on my personal website (2006).

personal website in 2006

In 2008, the iText website was migrated from lowagie.com to 1t3xt.com.
A new logo was created.

1T3XT website for iText

My personal website changed many times. Here you see the sales numbers of the first edition of iText in Action, but on the side, I already added the cover of the second edition (2010).

personal website in 2010

With the second book, I felt the need for a new website design for 1t3xt.com (2010).
I also adapted the logo:

iText website in 2010

The board of directors didn't like this website. In 2014, I rewrote it completely during one of our two-day board meetings:

iText website in 2014

The board didn't like the logo, so that was changed to the logo that is still used today:

iText website in 2015

My own website also underwent an evolution. This is what it looked like in 2012 (this is the default Drupal theme):

personal website in 2012

In 2014, there wasn't much difference between my personal website and the iText website:

personal website in 2014

As iText was growing, we outsourced the creation of the iText website. This was the first iText website that was created by a third party instead of by me personally (2016):

iText website in 2016

It evolved over the years (2018):

iText website in 2018

In 2018, I changed my own website from:

personal web site in 2018

to:

personal web site in 2018

If you liked this trip down memory lane, you'll also love my book Entreprenerd. Register on the Entreprenerd page on LinkedIn if you want to be kept up to date on the progress I'm making with the publishing process.

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