Generations learned to type using the Mavis Beacon software—and had no idea she wasn’t a real person. But what about the model used for her image, who vanished from the public eye? Editor-at-Large, ...

Though the name "Mavis Beacon" might not mean much to modern-day kids, to those who came of age in the late 1980s and 1990s, it surely does. "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" was a software program ...

Touch-typing – or keyboarding, as it is more commonly called nowadays – involves using all the fingers in a standard pattern to hit the correct keys without looking at them. Back in the day, typing ...

Maybe you remember the grainy, pixelated nonsense letters to be copied down as fast as possible. Maybe you remember the gentle reminders to “Use all five fingers!” or “Try not to look at the keyboard.

For anyone who grew up learning how to type from Mavis Beacon (back in the day when computer programs were advertised in catalogs and came in over-sized boxes), this news will come to you as a bit of ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

But who is the woman behind the program? As Adrienne Hankin, public relations director for tech company Mindscape, told the New York Times in 1998: "Mavis is the Betty Crocker of software" Though the ...

A generation of adults learned how to type thanks to Mavis Beacon. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, an educational software program, launched in 1987 and quickly became a bestseller. To this day, adults ...