Corel Ventura

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Corel Ventura
Basic data

developer Corel Corporation
Publishing year 1986
Current  version 10.397 (Win)
(2002)
operating system Windows XP , Windows 2000
category Desktop publishing
License proprietary
German speaking Yes
www.corel.de

Corel Ventura is the oldest desktop publishing program with an eventful history. In 1985, after leaving Digital Research Inc., John Meyer founded Ventura Software to develop a DTP program under the GEM graphic interface . 1986 Version 1 was finished and was distributed by Xerox. In 1987 Ventura Publisher overtook the then market leader PageMaker and was the most widely used DTP program at the time. By 1989, there were already 200,000 copies (note: probably related to the American market) when Xerox bought Ventura software to release both a GEM, Windows and OS / 2 version in 1990 . But the Windows version could not achieve the legendary speed of the GEM versions. In addition, it was very flawed and therefore hardly usable seriously. Although version 4 was much better on it, the lost market shares could never be made up.

In 1993 Corel took over the program as Corel Ventura and implemented some elements from its graphics program CorelDraw  5 for version 5. In 1996, Ventura came onto the market in a completely re-programmed version 7. The text-based editing that had prevailed until then was supplemented by object-oriented editing. Although this version was on a par with QuarkXPress, the market leader at the time , it was unable to gain significant market shares outside of the English-speaking world, as the interface was only available in English (however, there were spelling checks and separation algorithms in many languages).

In 1998, PageMaker and QuarkXPress had already had such a head start, at least in German-speaking countries, that version 8, now also in German and with many other improvements, was not very well noticed. The current version 10 (9 was skipped) could not change this either. This has a direct PDF output, XML support, database connections and extremely flexible script programming.

Experts agree that blatant mismanagement has resulted in the former market leader becoming a marginal phenomenon. In the meantime, there is no longer any marketing for the program and the implementation of a future version 11 seems to be impossible.

Nevertheless, there is a tight-knit and very international fan base around Ventura, made up of publishers, graphic designers and IT people. These experts still judge Ventura to be superior to the established DTP programs in many respects, although it lacks many of the modern layout techniques, such as transparent object shadows.

The special way of working

His legendary way of working is rooted in the history of the Ventura. Right from the start, Ventura focused on high typographical precision and efficient work through the use of powerful formats (styles). The text could be placed on freely defined pages as well as in linked and freely movable frames.

This way of working proves to be enormously time-saving with large documents, as a paragraph can be turned into a chapter opening page with just one click. Subsequent changes only have to be made once in the style and then immediately affect the entire document.

More layout functions, such as page and table styles, etc., were gradually introduced. With Ventura it is possible to create complex layouts with rotated and linked frames and at the same time to use the enormous possibilities of the Ventura styles.

In addition to the normal layout work, these styles also allow extremely versatile design options for database-based documents, the so-called database publishing . In combination with anchored picture frames, style-based column changes, tables, automatic numbering, indexes and directories, telephone books, annual reports, catalogs can be created semi or fully automatically in the shortest possible time, while with other DTP programs significantly more manual work is necessary.

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