Hồ Thành Việt (; 1955–2003) was a

Vietnamese-American Vietnamese Americans () are Americans of Vietnamese people, Vietnamese ancestry. They constitute a major part of all overseas Vietnamese. As of 2023, over 2.3 million people of Vietnamese descent live in the United States, making them the fourth ...

computer engineer and entrepreneur who is credited with making

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...

more accessible to

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

speakers.

Biography

Việt was born in

Nha Trang Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh District. The city had ...

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

, on July 20, 1955. He fled South Vietnam aboard a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

ship on the same day that Saigon fell, leaving his family behind, and arrived in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

unable to speak English. He graduated from

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public research university in Fullerton, California, United States. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the California State ...

, in 1985 with a degree in electrical engineering. After working at various computer companies, he founded VNI Software Company in 1987 and began working there full-time the following year. VNI was one of the first companies to market software designed for the Vietnamese language. He died on August 28, 2003, in

Fountain Valley, California Fountain Valley is a suburban city in Orange County, California. The population was 57,047 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Indigenous The Indigenous people of the Fountain Valley area are the Tongva. The closest ...

References

External links

VNI Software Co.

VNCR 2001.
Người phát minh bộ chữ Việt VNI trên máy điện toán
Vietnamese

2001

1998 1955 births 2003 deaths American computer programmers California State University, Fullerton alumni Vietnamese emigrants to the United States Vietnamese community activists Vietnamese engineers 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American engineers People from Nha Trang People from Khánh Hòa province {{vietnam-bio-stub