The Quantel Paintbox is a dedicated computer graphics workstation for composition of broadcast television video and graphics. It was produced by the British production equipment manufacturer Quantel (which, via a series of mergers, became part of Grass Valley), its design emphasized the studio workflow efficiency required for live news production.

At a unit price of US$250,000 (equivalent to about $900,000 in 2025), they were used primarily by large TV networks such as NBC. In the UK, Peter Claridge's company CAL Videographics became the first commercial company to purchase one.

Following its initial launch in 1981, the Paintbox greatly influenced the production of television graphics.

Artist Martin Holbrook worked with Quantel's development team to develop the artist-oriented functionality and user interface, which remained virtually unchanged throughout the life of the product. The patented pressure-sensitive pen and tablet elevated it from a computer into a real artist's tool.

The real-time, broadcast quality, 24 bit color Quantel Paint Box as it was then known, was launched at NAB Show in Las Vegas in May 1981. The PAL DPB-7001 and the NTSC DPB-7000 are digital paint machines, with stencils and layers introduced nine months later, and font and text functions implemented by Pepper Howard in 1983. The hardware was readily available off-the-shelf components, supported by Programmable Array Logic ICs which are custom-programmed by Quantel. Combining the latest hardware, custom software which had solved usable digital paint issues and an artist-friendly familiar way of creating artwork that required no computer knowledge, made the Paintbox an instant success. It became the global industry standard digital studio and image manipulation tool for the next fifteen years, bringing digital art and graphics onto TV screens.

The second generation V-Series Paintbox was released in 1989 as a modernized and more compact and affordable model. It has internal hardware improvements, a better tablet, upgraded keyboard, and a cordless stylus. Prices started at $80,000 (equivalent to $200,000 in 2025).^{[citation needed]}

In 1985, Quantel developed a vastly increased framestore capacity, enabling them to create a high resolution print quality Paintbox, which revolutionized the photo manipulation industry five years before Photoshop was introduced and led to Quantel's high-profile lawsuit against Adobe for using the Paintbox's patented features. In the late 1980s, Quantel filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Spaceward Graphics for creating the Matisse system, which was marketed as a cheaper version of the Paintbox. It won the case against Spaceward at the High Court in London in 1990, but lost the case against Adobe in 1997, which was able to demonstrate that Richard Shoup's SuperPaint (1973) had introduced particular features before Quantel's Paintbox. Though Adobe did not yet exist when Paintbox was launched, demonstrating prior use to the court meant that Quantel's patents became invalid and the case was thrown out by the judge in Adobe's home state of Delaware.

A Paintbox unit was usually integrated into Quantel's editing systems, especially the Quantel Henry, and later Quantel Editbox.