Corel Ventura
Encyclopedia
Ventura Publisher was the first popular desktop publishing
package for IBM PC
compatible computers running the GEM extension to the DOS
operating system. The software was originally developed by Ventura Software, a small software company founded by John Meyer, Don Heiskel and Lee Jay Lorenzen, all of whom met while working at Digital Research
. It ran under an included run-time copy of Digital Research, Inc.
's Graphical Environment Manager
(GEM).
The first version of Ventura Publisher was released in 1986.
Ventura Publisher was distributed exclusively, worldwide by Xerox from its first shipment in 1986, until Ventura Software sold the source code to Xerox in 1990. The original Ventura Software ceased operations in February 1990, and a new Ventura Software Inc., an affiliated company of Xerox
, was formed at that time. The developers from the original company worked with the new Xerox Ventura Software company to produce Version 3.0 Gold. This was released in late 1990. Besides DOS/GEM it was also available for Win16, Mac and OS/2
.
The three founders of the original Ventura Software no longer worked on the product after November 1990.
Version 4.0 was released in 1991. The last version released by Ventura Software Inc. was 4.1.1 in 1993.
Ventura Publisher, while it has some text editing and line drawing capabilities of its own, was designed to interface with a wide variety of word processing and graphics programs, rather than supplant them. To that end, text, rather than being incorporated into the chapter files, is stored in, loaded from, and saved back to, word processor files in the native formats of a variety of word processors, including WordPerfect
, Wordstar
, and early versions of Microsoft Word. This allows users to continue using their favorite word processors for major text changes, spelling checks, and so forth. Paragraphs other than default body text are tagged with descriptive tagnames that are entirely user-defined, and characters and attributes that have no native equivalent in a given word processor are represented with standardized sequences of characters. When working with the files outside of Ventura Publisher, these paragraph tags and special character and attribute codes can be freely changed, the same as any other text. These tags look very much like HTML tags.
Because it was the first major typesetting program to incorporate the concept of an implicit "underlying page" frame, and one of the first to incorporate a strong "style sheet" concept, Ventura Publisher produces documents with a high degree of internal consistency, unless specifically overridden by the user. Its concepts of free-flowing text, paragraph tagging, and codes for attributes and special characters anticipated similar concepts inherent in HTML
and XML
. Likewise, its concept of "publication" files that tie together "chapter" files gave it the ability to handle documents hundreds (or even thousands) of pages in length as easily as a four-page newsletter.
The major strengths of Ventura Publisher, at least in its original DOS/GEM edition, are its ability to run, with reasonable response times, on a wide range of hardware (including 8086 and 80286-based computers), its ability to produce, by default, documents with a high degree of internal consistency, and its automatic re-export of text to word-processor-native formats. It also had the ability to print to a wide variety of devices, including PostScript
, PCL, and InterPress
laser printers and imagesetters, as well as certain popular dot-matrix printers.
The application was acquired by Corel
in 1993. It was repackaged and soon released as Corel Ventura 4.2 without any major change in the application, other than to drop all support for platforms other than Microsoft Windows.
The first real Corel version was 5.0, released in 1994, and made fundamental changes to both user interface and document structure. Because of this, and because of escalating requirements of the various Corel versions, the original DOS/GEM edition still has a small number of die-hard users.
The application was rewritten for the Win32 platform and was released in 1996, labeled Corel Ventura 7 (instead of 6) so that it would match the version number of CorelDRAW
.
Corel Ventura 8 was released in 1998.
The latest version (as of June 2011) is Corel Ventura 10 (2002), this version run in Windows 7 (x86/64) with compatibility mode (w2k).
As an application with strengths in more structured documents, its main competitors are FrameMaker
, InDesign and QuarkXPress
.
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
package for IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
compatible computers running the GEM extension to the DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
operating system. The software was originally developed by Ventura Software, a small software company founded by John Meyer, Don Heiskel and Lee Jay Lorenzen, all of whom met while working at Digital Research
Digital Research
Digital Research, Inc. was the company created by Dr. Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related products. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world...
. It ran under an included run-time copy of Digital Research, Inc.
Digital Research
Digital Research, Inc. was the company created by Dr. Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related products. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world...
's Graphical Environment Manager
Graphical Environment Manager
GEM was a windowing system created by Digital Research, Inc. for use with the CP/M operating system on the Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors...
(GEM).
The first version of Ventura Publisher was released in 1986.
Ventura Publisher was distributed exclusively, worldwide by Xerox from its first shipment in 1986, until Ventura Software sold the source code to Xerox in 1990. The original Ventura Software ceased operations in February 1990, and a new Ventura Software Inc., an affiliated company of Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
, was formed at that time. The developers from the original company worked with the new Xerox Ventura Software company to produce Version 3.0 Gold. This was released in late 1990. Besides DOS/GEM it was also available for Win16, Mac and OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
.
The three founders of the original Ventura Software no longer worked on the product after November 1990.
Version 4.0 was released in 1991. The last version released by Ventura Software Inc. was 4.1.1 in 1993.
Ventura Publisher, while it has some text editing and line drawing capabilities of its own, was designed to interface with a wide variety of word processing and graphics programs, rather than supplant them. To that end, text, rather than being incorporated into the chapter files, is stored in, loaded from, and saved back to, word processor files in the native formats of a variety of word processors, including WordPerfect
WordPerfect
WordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
, Wordstar
WordStar
WordStar is a word processor application, published by MicroPro International, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that enjoyed a dominant market share during the early to mid-1980s. Although Seymour I...
, and early versions of Microsoft Word. This allows users to continue using their favorite word processors for major text changes, spelling checks, and so forth. Paragraphs other than default body text are tagged with descriptive tagnames that are entirely user-defined, and characters and attributes that have no native equivalent in a given word processor are represented with standardized sequences of characters. When working with the files outside of Ventura Publisher, these paragraph tags and special character and attribute codes can be freely changed, the same as any other text. These tags look very much like HTML tags.
Because it was the first major typesetting program to incorporate the concept of an implicit "underlying page" frame, and one of the first to incorporate a strong "style sheet" concept, Ventura Publisher produces documents with a high degree of internal consistency, unless specifically overridden by the user. Its concepts of free-flowing text, paragraph tagging, and codes for attributes and special characters anticipated similar concepts inherent in HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
and XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
. Likewise, its concept of "publication" files that tie together "chapter" files gave it the ability to handle documents hundreds (or even thousands) of pages in length as easily as a four-page newsletter.
The major strengths of Ventura Publisher, at least in its original DOS/GEM edition, are its ability to run, with reasonable response times, on a wide range of hardware (including 8086 and 80286-based computers), its ability to produce, by default, documents with a high degree of internal consistency, and its automatic re-export of text to word-processor-native formats. It also had the ability to print to a wide variety of devices, including PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
, PCL, and InterPress
InterPress
InterPress is a page description language developed at Xerox PARC, based on the Forth programming language and an earlier graphics language called JaM...
laser printers and imagesetters, as well as certain popular dot-matrix printers.
The application was acquired by Corel
Corel
Corel Corporation from the abbreviation is a computer software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, that specializes in graphics processing, similar to Adobe Systems...
in 1993. It was repackaged and soon released as Corel Ventura 4.2 without any major change in the application, other than to drop all support for platforms other than Microsoft Windows.
The first real Corel version was 5.0, released in 1994, and made fundamental changes to both user interface and document structure. Because of this, and because of escalating requirements of the various Corel versions, the original DOS/GEM edition still has a small number of die-hard users.
The application was rewritten for the Win32 platform and was released in 1996, labeled Corel Ventura 7 (instead of 6) so that it would match the version number of CorelDRAW
CorelDRAW
CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation of Ottawa, Canada. It is also the name of Corel's Graphics Suite...
.
Corel Ventura 8 was released in 1998.
The latest version (as of June 2011) is Corel Ventura 10 (2002), this version run in Windows 7 (x86/64) with compatibility mode (w2k).
As an application with strengths in more structured documents, its main competitors are FrameMaker
FrameMaker
Adobe FrameMaker is a document processor for the production and manipulation of large structured documents. It is produced by Adobe Systems. Although FrameMaker has evolved slowly in recent years, it maintains a strong following among professional technical writers.- Overview :FrameMaker has more...
, InDesign and QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress is a computer application for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG environment. It runs on Mac OS X and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc...
.
See also
- Adobe InDesignAdobe InDesignAdobe InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books. In conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite InDesign can publish content suitable for tablet devices...
- Adobe PageMakerAdobe PageMakerPageMaker was one of the first desktop publishing programs, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the then-new Apple Macintosh and in 1987 for PCs running Windows 1.0....
- Microsoft PublisherMicrosoft PublisherMicrosoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft. It is an entry-level application, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and design rather than text composition and proofing...
- Ready,Set,Go!Ready,Set,Go!Ready,Set,Go! is a software package for desktop publishing. It was originally developed for Apple Computer's Macintosh by Manhattan Graphics, and it was one of the earliest desktop publishing packages available for that platform...
- ScribusScribusScribus is a desktop publishing application, released under the GNU General Public License as free software. It is based on the free Qt toolkit, therefore native versions are available for Linux, Unix-like operating systems, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2...
- Quark CopyDeskQuark CopyDeskQuarkCopyDesk is a professional word processing software product made by Quark, Inc..There are two versions of QuarkCopyDesk available: One is sold with Quark's editorial system QPS and one is sold standalone...
- Quark Publishing SystemQuark Publishing SystemThe Quark Publishing System is a collaborative workflow management system first released in 1991 by Quark, Inc.. It allows the creators of large publications to manage the process by which the publications are created, and also track the flow of created materials through the various phases of...
- Timeworks PublisherTimeworks PublisherTimeworks Publisher was a desktop publishing program produced by GST Software in the United Kingdom.It is notable as the first affordable DTP program. In appearance and operation, it was a Ventura Publisher clone, but it was possible to run it on a computer without a hard disk...
, this was a Ventura clone for the PC and Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
. - Ventura printers from GranadaGranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
.kl - XTensionXTensionThe term XTensions is a trademark of Quark, Inc. and describes a plugin for QuarkXPress, a popular page layout program.An XTensions module is a little program that only runs inside QuarkXPress and enhances existing functionality or adds new functionality to the main program.For example, XTensions...