Mavis Beacon's first name was taken from Mavis Staples, lead vocalist for the Staple Singers. Crane, who was then a partner in The Software Toolworks, devised the sobriquet. She was introduced to Les Crane, the former talk-show host, while he was shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. The original photo of Mavis Beacon was of Caribbean-born model Renee L'Esperance. The current Windows and Mac versions are published under the Broderbund trademark by both Encore and Software MacKiev. Earlier versions were made for Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family (version 1 only), Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Palm OS (version 16), and Amiga. Later versions supported only QWERTY until the 2011 Ultimate Mac Edition from Software MacKiev which returned full Dvorak keyboard lessons to the product. An early version supported both QWERTY and the alternative Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout.

Editions of Mavis Beacon are currently published by Encore Software (hybrid Mac and Windows) and Software MacKiev (macOS only) and are available throughout the retail sales world.

The first version written for MS-DOS was created by Norm Worthington, Walt Bilofsky, and Mike Duffy. Haymond, an independent computer programmer living in Berkeley, California, who later worked for the Department of Homeland Security. The original version was written by Charles R. The typing program was initially released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks and has been published regularly ever since.

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