4 stars (Borderless Printing with Epson R300 series printer) - I purchased Print Shop 21 (Standard) for one reason and one reason only: Borderless printing. I'm sure there are other packages out there that can do the same thing but it was time to upgrade PS anyway. I selected borderless printing in the Epson R300 print setup menu (with compatible paper) and got a perfect borderless greeting card, really professional in appearance. To me, it was well worth the $29. ---One more note; I had to tweak my NVidia 5200 video card settings in Windows XP to get any graphics to show up. How did I know how to do this?, Broderbunds EXCELLENT web based technical support, unbelievable! However, this is a compatibility issue so that's why it only gets 4 of 5 stars. Now to play with the other features this program has to offer!
2 stars (Good desktop tool but extremely poor customization) - I have been using Print Shop (PS) Deluxe since version 15,
then version 20, and now version 21.
And I use it quite frequently, for example, to create CD and DVD
labels and greeting cards. It offers a nice collection
of fonts and art clips.
But the biggest problem with PS is its extremely poor
customization and configuration options. They are non-existing.
Given the popularity, one expects Broderbund to enhance the
software to allow minimal customization. During
installation, you have two options: either install the entire
thing (and it would take several GBs) or install a minimal
version (but you do not know what the minimal option offers)
and have your CDs (or if you are lucky, your DVD) nearby to
mount when essentially everything you want has to be read from
the CD or the DVD!
For my situation (installation on a laptop) I had to install
the whole thing (as I do not wish to have to take my DVD
along). Thus I had to let go of several GBs of my harddrive,
even though I use only a tiny portion of PS (essentially,
labels and greeting cards; I do not have any use for banners,
booklets, brochures, business cards, calendars, fax covers,
forms, letterheads, newsletters, resumes, signs, web pages,
etc, but the associated templates, art clips, fonts, etc reside
on my harddrive for no good reason).
It would be nice if the software installation would allow you
to install features you were going to use.
Similarly, once installed, the ONLY customization you can make
is to choose the default font type! You can't even set the
default folder for your projects. If your PS projects are stored
deep down your file system, you have to navigate to it each
and every time you lanuch PS.
My rating is thus as follows: ease of use 5.0. Customization
and installation options, 0; average rating: 2.5.
5 stars (Don't need to buy pro version) - The Pro Version is great for a business, but this has plenty for home users. |
