The Ventura Story.

Ventura Publisher was the first desktop publishing software package to run on IBM PC compatible computers. Developed in the mid-1980s, Ventura was also the first desktop publishing application to incorporate features such as style sheets and automatic page layouts, allowing for long document formatting. This paper provides an autobiographical sketch of Lee Lorenzen, one of the founders of Ventura Software and developers of Ventura Publisher. Lorenzen outlines his early career in software and the founding story of Ventura Software and their innovative application. He also describes the early competitive landscape in desktop publishing software, including Aldus PageMaker, and then contrasts it with the key long document publishing features of Ventura Publisher such as style sheets, fast hyphenation and justification, automated layout algorithms, and database publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]