Owners of 8-bit systems who also have access to a
printer must surely know about Print Shop and its accessories
(reviewed in issue 20) which must be one of the most useful
applications programs for the ordinary home user. If you have not
seen that program before, what it briefly enables you to do is print
out your own custom stationery, greetings cards, posters, banners
and calendars. Shortly after the ST came out a Print Shop clone
appeared called Printmaster which was basically Print Shop only a
little more sophisticated. A must for any ex-8 bit Print Shop owners
but it was recently withdrawn due to legal action from Broderbund
and with Broderbund failing to release Print Shop in ST format it
looked like ST owners would have to forego the joys of home
printing.
Then, suddenly, along came a series of budget
price software (only £9.95!) called Let's Make .. Greeting Cards,
Calendars and Stationery and Signs & Banners. Three separate
programs with two additional Art Library disks also at £9.95 each.
You've guessed it, clones of Printmaster! The series is basically
Printmaster broken down into separate disks which makes it an
excellent way to get into home printing. One of the problems with
the original Print Shop was that it was quite expensive and most
people used only one or two of the modules. Now you can choose just
what you want. Each disk supports a whole host of printers and is so
simple to use that you really don't need any sort of manual (though
you do get a brief manual with each disk).
If you have a printer, or intend getting one,
these programs come highly recommended at £9.95 each and will put
your printer to excellent use. Buy them now before Broderbund find
out!
CALENDARS & STATIONERY
Print out three types of calendar, either a full
month, a weekly day to a line calendar or a weekly open format to
enter your own dates. Your own choice of graphics go at the top and
you choose the font style for the month and year. Short reminder
notes can be entered on any day.
Letterheadings can be created in a variety of ways
with different graphics at the top and, optionally, bottom. Fonts
can be selected for the main heading, though not the address lines,
and for the bottom if required.
ART LIBRARIES
Two additional disks are available each containing
75 new graphics elements for use with any of the main programs so
you need never be stuck for inspiration!
SIGNS & BANNERS
Signs come as A4 size posters which you create to
your own design using graphics in small, medium or large size. The
size of graphic determines the number available on each poster. Text
is overlaid in a font of your choosing with several styles available
in each font. Although the layout is not free-form (you must select
from pre-defined positions) a huge variety of signs can be made for
almost any occasion.
Banners are long signs, printed sideways on
continuous paper with all the usual choices of graphics and text.
How long depends on what you want to say!
GREETINGS CARDS
Greetings cards are cleverly printed on A4 size
paper so that they can be folded to quarter A4 size with a design
both on the front and inside of the card. Cards are a little more
complex but are really quite easy as are all of the modules. Every
program in the series gives you a preview before printing and this
is especially useful for the Greetings Cards. You can also step back
through each step of the design procedure using the ESC key until
you get just what you want. When you get a good design you can save
it to disk.
The Let's Make series
is available from Software Express in Birmingham who kindly supplied
the review copies.
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