Golden Software History

Great Software Since 1983!

Golden Software has been located in Golden, Colorado since its founding in March, 1983. It was the brainchild of Dan Smith, who was at that time a graduate student in the Mining Department at the Colorado School of Mines, and of Patrick Madison, a CSM Computer Science Instructor. At that time, personal computers were new and their applications were limited. Mapping applications required mainframe computers and pen plotters.

Together, Dan and Pat developed a printer language that operated on a PC and required only a dot matrix printer. Their program (PlotCall) also offered a dramatic improvement on the level of resolution available in a computer-generated map: most graphics programs of the time produced printouts that were based on "screen dumps." This limited the resolution to about 24 dpi. PlotCall, on the other hand, offered the full resolution of the installed printer—usually 200 dpi resolution (a breakthrough for the time).

As hardware and software technology improved, Golden Software's products evolved and remained at the leading edge of scientific graphics software. Surfer was the company's first program to take advantage of technological advances, in 1985. Grapher followed, in 1986, providing users with graphing capabilities previously possible only through manual methods. MapViewer was introduced in 1990, Didger in 1996, Strater in 2004, and Voxler in 2006.

Today, Golden Software has grown to be the leading provider of scientific graphics software in the world. Our customers include researchers in mining, engineering, and medicine, as well as thousands of applied scientists and engineers. We have sold over 100,000 software licenses to date, and our products are in use in over 125 countries and on all seven continents!

We keep our customers satisfied by providing them with the best technical support offered anywhere, via phone, fax, e-mail, and our web site. 99% of our technical support phone calls receive an immediate response by one of our expert software support engineers. Of course, all technical support is free with the purchase of our products.

We have new products under development at all times, so count on Golden Software to continue supporting your scientific graphics needs!

The Golden Software Group at the Surfer 9 Release Celebration - 2009

The Golden Software Team at Our 20th Anniversary Celebration - 2003