Harvard Graphics was a pioneering, award-winning presentation program developed for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows by Software Publishing Corporation. Harvard Graphics, Inc. released the first version of its landmark computer program for MS-DOS in 1986 as Harvard Presentation Graphics. It was one of the early presentation consumer application software programs that allowed users to incorporate text, information graphics, and charts into custom slideshow presentations. The first presentation program for the personal computer was VCN ExecuVision. The first commercial presentation program was released in late 1978 by Hewlett Packard minicomputers and was named "BRUNO" and then "HP-Draw". Harvard Graphics, acquired by Software Publishing Corp, was followed next by "Persuasion" from Aldus Corp. which was later acquired by Adobe. A small company in Silicon Valley called Forethought had also been developing a presentation product for years; Forethought released its competing product for the Apple Macintosh, PowerPoint 1.0, in 1987. The next year, Microsoft purchased Forethought, and released ports of PowerPoint for Windows 2.0. Nevertheless, in the late 1980s Harvard Graphics was the overwhelming leader in presentation graphics software sales, with over 70% market share, according to IDC research figures at the time. Microsoft assimilated PowerPoint into the 1990 release of its Office suite for Mac OS; in turn, Harvard Graphics, Inc. ported its own software to Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 1991. Harvard Graphics, PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance, and (later) WordPerfect Presentations competed through the early 1990s, and Harvard Graphics gradually lost market share. In 2001, Serif Incorporated purchased exclusive marketing rights to the product line of Harvard Graphics, Inc., and assumed product support responsibilities.
Sources
- About HG - Abbreviated history of Harvard Graphics, Inc.
