The Print Shop Deluxe 15

Rating:
Summary: Great design software
Review: Anyone buying this product with the idea of competing with higher end products (Photoshop, Coreldraw, etc..) will be bitterly dissapointed. If you buy it for relatively simple graphics applications you will love it. I do all our company's fliers, memos, and counter stands with this program. It is quick, it's easy, and I don't have to spend a great amount of time to get simple projects done. I use this in conjunction with the Works Portfolio and have had great success. It is also really nice to be able to "save as" in .pdf format. Good Job Broderbund!

Rating:
Summary: great for some, not for others
Review: Even though there were a lot of negative reviews I bought this product mostly because PC Magazine rated it one of the best (5 stars) and the price can't be beat with the discounts. Here's my take if you read the other reviews like I did.

This program tries to make it easy to start a project (with a walk through wizard) but with any publishing software, you have to know what you are doing. That includes understanding your printer settings, etc. Yes, printer settings can be changed with the program (as with most any software) so it will take some time for inexperienced users to understand how to use it properly.

I must say, this program offers a ton of nice clip art, photos, etc than most other programs in this class. It has 2 CD's full of clipart but you'll need a lot of disk space to install it all. The broadband version of PrintShop accesses the clipart from the internet but with big hard drives available these days, save yourself some headache and buy the regular software, not the broadband one. If you don't have a lot of harddrive space (a few gigs to spare) I wouldn't suggest buying this.

There is no user manual included and the help files are not as in depth as I would like. I find it hard to believe that a complicated program such as this does not have at least a printable copy of a user manual. So be warned, if you not an experienced software user this product might not be for you.

I also saw some negative reviews on photo editing/printing. I haven't tried it so I can't compare. (I use other software for photo editing and printing). There are a lot of great photo editing software packages available. If you're purchasing this for that reason, you might want to look somewhere else. This thing is for printing out greeting cards, postcards, and things of that nature. I guess you can be thankful that there is photo editing features with this at all.

Final take - For someone who has used software since they were young and does for a living, I could figure most things out on my own. If you are inexperienced, you may find this product frustrating. But for the price, you get a lot of nice clipart and wizards to help for most basic home desktop publishing needs (greeting cards, postcards, calendars, etc).

Rating:
Summary: After 15 versions, you'd think they'd get it right!
Review: Good old Print Shop! I have a love/hate relationship with it. On the one hand, it is the greatest thing going for arranging "objects" like text boxes, photographs and other graphics on a page for producing greeting cards, signs and the like. Fifteen is the third version I have purchased, and it features a custom paper wizard, with which you are supposed to be able to create a template for unique paper sizes. First of all, there are only a few formats available upon which the wizard can work its magic. Second of all, it doesn't work very well. I wasted HOURS trying to get some cards printed without having the objects print crazily off the edge of the paper. All I succeeded in doing was to mess up the standard half fold card template, after which it was trial and error and a lot of wasted paper before I got a card presentable enough to send. As long as you aren't too creative, The Print Shop is a useful workhorse of a tool for home printing.

Rating:
Summary: After 15 versions, you'd think they'd get it right!
Review: Good old Print Shop! I have a love/hate relationship with it. On the one hand, it is the greatest thing going for arranging "objects" like text boxes, photographs and other graphics on a page for producing greeting cards, signs and the like. Fifteen is the third version I have purchased, and it features a custom paper wizard, with which you are supposed to be able to create a template for unique paper sizes. First of all, there are only a few formats available upon which the wizard can work its magic. Second of all, it doesn't work very well. I wasted HOURS trying to get some cards printed without having the objects print crazily off the edge of the paper. All I succeeded in doing was to mess up the standard half fold card template, after which it was trial and error and a lot of wasted paper before I got a card presentable enough to send. As long as you aren't too creative, The Print Shop is a useful workhorse of a tool for home printing.

Rating:
Summary: Missing Feature To Do "BORDERS*
Review: Having used Print Shop since Version 3 was out, I am very pleased for the most part with their software. Believe I get plenty of 'bang' for a small buck. Made weird discovery just tonight -- I cannot locate the "borders" function. The icon on the left toolbar should read frames and borders. I only have 'frames'. Have email support to see what's up. Have a feeling that it is due to Win XP and one or both of the service packs I've installed. If anyone has had this problem and solved it would enjoy an email. Thanks. [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Photo Magic Made Easy
Review: Hey Everyone I have this product and I think the Print Shop 15 is the best one they created. I haven't had any problems with any of the print shops programs that I have purchased.

I do all my photo's using this program and the designs are outstanding. I admit it takes time to learn all the ins and outs of it, but all programs you have to learn by trial and error. I have the previous version of it also. Every time the new program comes out I buy it.

The Print Shop is the very first one I bought and I am not sorry I did. Its thanks to the Print Shop that I got so interested in learning what I could create and wow it was awesome. The best part of this fantastic program is you can do almost anything with your photos and so much more.

I learned to change the backgrounds, add special effects, add sounds, add more scenes into the picture and combine them into one. You can crop, adjust brightness, contrast, change background color, and they also put in where you edit your own colors for your text and so much much more.

They have some very beautiful graphics in this program and I constantly work with it every day and I learn more as I go. The best part is watching my photo's take on a whole new look. Its thanks to the Print Shop that I can take an ordinary photo and turn into something that I can treasure. I wouldn't know what to do without my Print Shop program.

I just love this program, the best buy I ever made. I even look for their emails in my emails and its the very first one I open. I can't wait to see what the next one will be if they come out with a new one. They got me as a lifetime customer!

Rating:
Summary: RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN
Review: I bought this product to help with my scrapbooking projects. I used it for only the most simple layouts and had nothing but trouble. IT IS EXTREMELY SLOW AND CUMBERSOME. I wouldn't give this product to my ex-mother-inlaw. The clip art is cheezy and trite. Forget trying to import a graphic. Forget trying to shut down the product...you'll go mad waiting!
IF you value your sanity...DO NOT BUY this product

Rating:
Summary: RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN
Review: I bought this product to help with my scrapbooking projects. I used it for only the most simple layouts and had nothing but trouble. IT IS EXTREMELY SLOW AND CUMBERSOME. I wouldn't give this product to my ex-mother-inlaw. The clip art is cheezy and trite. Forget trying to import a graphic. Forget trying to shut down the product...you'll go mad waiting!
IF you value your sanity...DO NOT BUY this product

Rating:
Summary: I am just thrilled with The Print Shop Deluxe 15!
Review: I bought this software last week (got a great deal on it) and I absolutely love it. I've read alot of poor reviews on this site but despite that I decided to try it anyway. I'm am so glad that I did. I had no problems with installation & have had no problems at all using it. There are so many things you can do with this program & so many graphics to pick from. This is the only program you will need to do projects with. I like the fact that you can customize the label size so you can do anything that you want to. This program is so easy to use. I am no computer expert and I was able to pick up on it right away. I am also learning more each day about all of the features this program offers. If you are considering purchasing this program I would absolutely postively recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Not a lot of bang for the buck
Review: I have previous versions of the Print Shop and thought it was good. I purchased PrintShop Deluxe on DVD, Ver. 15 because I couldn't get my old program to work on my new computer with WinXP. The new version seems to rely only on its built in graphics, photos and templates. There are not a lot of tools to do your own thing. I also had immediate problems with the software in scrolling through the fonts -- the program freezes. This is apparently a well-known problem to Broderbund as their "fix" on the web page is to delete several of the fonts. When I asked why (through their customer service site) there was no fix and they thought it was acceptable to delete fonts, they blamed it on XP and then invited me to buy their newest version. I guess I thought that's what I was doing when I was at CompUSA. Now I know...they keep the old [stuff] out there until it's sold out.