Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Best Home Publishing Program?

MacinDoc

MacinDoc

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 22, 2004
2,268
11
The Great White North
I am interested in basic DTP package that's OS X native and has a minimal learning curve so my kids can also use it. It would be used mostly to create greeting cards, and possibly a few banners and certificates. Any suggestions? Print Shop vs. Print Explosion? Any other ideas?
 
Brøderbund's The Print Shop is probably the easiest to use, with quite a few older versions under it's belt to build on. It's functional, all around - but don't expect miracles. Programs like these are jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But you and the kids should be able to crank out greeting cards, flyers, cd labels, funky emails, etc. with little or no learning or effort. I'm a designer in real life, and we use it at home so everyone has the same things to work with. I have Quark/Photoshop/Freehand/Illustrator for the stuff it won't do. :)
 
Mudbug said:
Brøderbund's The Print Shop is probably the easiest to use, with quite a few older versions under it's belt to build on. It's functional, all around - but don't expect miracles. Programs like these are jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But you and the kids should be able to crank out greeting cards, flyers, cd labels, funky emails, etc. with little or no learning or effort. I'm a designer in real life, and we use it at home so everyone has the same things to work with. I have Quark/Photoshop/Freehand/Illustrator for the stuff it won't do. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for your advice! Question: would that be the Brøderbund or the MacKiev version - I've seen them both, the boxes are different, and the Brøderbund version has the MacKiev logo on the box. I've read that at least some of the Brøderbund versions still out there run in Classic, which is of no interest to me. VersionTracker lists only the MacKiev version (which is also the one sold at the Apple Store), but Brøderbund's web site lists its latest version as "new". Can anyone out there tell me what's most current, what runs natively in OS X, and whether any Canadian online retailers carry it?
 
MacinDoc said:
Thanks for your advice! Question: would that be the Brøderbund or the MacKiev version - I've seen them both, the boxes are different, and the Brøderbund version has the MacKiev logo on the box. I've read that at least some of the Brøderbund versions still out there run in Classic, which is of no interest to me. VersionTracker lists only the MacKiev version (which is also the one sold at the Apple Store), but Brøderbund's web site lists its latest version as "new". Can anyone out there tell me what's most current, what runs natively in OS X, and whether any Canadian online retailers carry it?
Click to expand...
Are you serious? Of course the MacKiev version is newer. MacKiev specializes in porting applications to MacOS X. The Brøderbund version is for MacOS 9. The Print Shop has the feel of a Windows app. However, MacKiev integrates such MacOS X standard facilities as iPhoto and the Address Book into its version. This caveat: although the graphic features of the Brøderbund version of the Print Shop and the MacKiev version look nearly identical, their file formats are incompatible with each other. You cannot open files created by one version in the other application.
 
I had The Print Shop and the Deluxe version for my daughter to make party invites and such on. They are great if you need a very simple program to bang out banners, cards and such on your home inkjet.

But, pleasepleaseohplease...don't EVER send one of these files to a commercial printing company to produce. We got a "The Print Shop" file from one of our clients to reproduce as a 2 PMS job. It had "4CP" gradients and builds all over it, and they couldn't understand why we wanted to charge them a couple hunderd to re-create it in a program that actually color separates.

I'd rather get a Publisher or Powerpoint file, and I can't think of anything worse to say than that.
 
MisterMe said:
Are you serious? Of course the MacKiev version is newer. MacKiev specializes in porting applications to MacOS X. The Brøderbund version is for MacOS 9. The Print Shop has the feel of a Windows app. However, MacKiev integrates such MacOS X standard facilities as iPhoto and the Address Book into its version. This caveat: although the graphic features of the Brøderbund version of the Print Shop and the MacKiev version look nearly identical, their file formats are incompatible with each other. You cannot open files created by one version in the other application.
Click to expand...
That's what I thought, until I saw Brøderbund's latest version at a reseller, with the MacKiev logo on it. I did a bit more research, and found this, which suggests that Brøderbund does indeed have an OS X version, which is in part based on the MacKiev version.
* Integration with iPhoto™ v.2 and iTunes(R) requires Mac OS Xv. 10.1.5 or later.
** Integration with iCal™ and Address Book requires Mac OS 10.2 or later.
Portions © 2003 The Software MacKiev Company. All rights reserved by their respective parties.
Click to expand...
 
MacinDoc said:
That's what I thought, until I saw Brøderbund's latest version at a reseller, with the MacKiev logo on it. I did a bit more research, and found this, which suggests that Brøderbund does indeed have an OS X version, which is in part based on the MacKiev version.
Click to expand...
This is most interesting. I have the Classic Mac version from Brøderbund and the MacOS X port from MacKiev. It appears that Brøderbund has brought the Print Shop for Mac back in house.
 
If you just want a DTP program to play with and don't really care about greeting cards, etc. and don't need clipart then you might look into a program called Ragtime. (sorry no link, no time to look it up right now) They have a free version for home/educational purposes and it works pretty well. Not a Quark Express, but you can't beat the price and you learn a more traditional approach to DTP instead of the templates used by Printshop.

Just depends what you are looking for though. If your kids are younger they will probably enjoy Printshop more. If they are in high school they might like to learn a more professional approach. Just another option.
 
I just ordered the Broderbund version from their site (they're running a special - basically it's $35 with free shipping), so I'll be curious to see if the OS X disk is basically the same as the MacKiev listed offering. The system requirements are certainly identical...
 
Westside guy said:
I just ordered the Broderbund version from their site (they're running a special - basically it's $35 with free shipping), so I'll be curious to see if the OS X disk is basically the same as the MacKiev listed offering. The system requirements are certainly identical...
Click to expand...
Brøderbund appears to ship both the Classic and MacOS X versions in the same box, whereas MacKiev is (was?) MacOS X, exclusively. Having both the Classic version from Brøderbund and the MacOS X version from MacKiev, my greatest frustration is that the two cannot edit each other's files. I hope that Brøderbund has resolved this issue.
 
kgarner said:
If you just want a DTP program to play with and don't really care about greeting cards, etc. and don't need clipart then you might look into a program called Ragtime. (sorry no link, no time to look it up right now) They have a free version for home/educational purposes and it works pretty well. Not a Quark Express, but you can't beat the price and you learn a more traditional approach to DTP instead of the templates used by Printshop.

Just depends what you are looking for though. If your kids are younger they will probably enjoy Printshop more. If they are in high school they might like to learn a more professional approach. Just another option.
Click to expand...
As it turns out, I mostly need it for cards (my kids are ages 5 months to 10 years), and I have no clip art, so I'll probably go with The Print Shop in the end.
 
Okay, I received my Broderbund "Print Shop for Mac" order today. There are two CDs in the package - and right on the jewel case front cover it says "Mac OS X version by Software MacKiev".

Now the two Macs in our house are both OS X; but if someone had an OS X Mac and an older OS 8/9 Mac around this would be an especially good deal.
 
Westside guy said:
Okay, I received my Broderbund "Print Shop for Mac" order today. There are two CDs in the package - and right on the jewel case front cover it says "Mac OS X version by Software MacKiev".

Now the two Macs in our house are both OS X; but if someone had an OS X Mac and an older OS 8/9 Mac around this would be an especially good deal.
Click to expand...
Do you know if the software license allows use of both at the same time on different machines?
 
MacinDoc said:
Do you know if the software license allows use of both at the same time on different machines?
Click to expand...

I had a hard time finding the license info anywhere. It doesn't seem to be available on Broderbund's website or MacKiev's. But I actually ended up doing a reinstall since the available upgrade failed; so I read through the EULA closely this time, all the way to the end.

It is very obvious that they only want you to install the OS X version on one computer - but there's no mention of the OS 8/9 version at all. I think this is because Broderbund produced the OS 8/9 version, and MacKiev did the OS X version. As far as I can tell, they are two separate products being bundled in the same jewel case. In that case there shouldn't be anything wrong with using the OS X version on one computer and the OS 8/9 version on another.
 
MisterMe said:
Brøderbund appears to ship both the Classic and MacOS X versions in the same box, whereas MacKiev is (was?) MacOS X, exclusively. Having both the Classic version from Brøderbund and the MacOS X version from MacKiev, my greatest frustration is that the two cannot edit each other's files. I hope that Brøderbund has resolved this issue.
Click to expand...

There is an explicit statement in the jewel case liner notes - "Projects created in older versions of The Print Shop for Mac or any Windows versions cannot be opened in the OS X version of The Print Shop."
 
Westside guy said:
There is an explicit statement in the jewel case liner notes - "Projects created in older versions of The Print Shop for Mac or any Windows versions cannot be opened in the OS X version of The Print Shop."
Click to expand...
Buzz kill! I'm only joking. Thanks for the info. The thing that is really frustrating is the the MacOS 9 and MacOS X versions of Print Shop produce projects that are quite similar. Both are ports of the Windows version. There is no technical reason why these two apps should have different file formats ... but they do. If Brøderbund had unified the file formats, I would purchase this new bundle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back