Description:
If you have a Mac and a color printer, Print Explosion can turn your desk into a hobbyist print shop with nearly unlimited potential. As you might expect, there are sign, poster, banner, certificate, and card templates, but it isn't until you start exploring that you realize the staggering range of possibilities offered. Thousands of ready-to-use designs range from cheerful birthday greetings and an impressive selection of holiday wishes to stationery sets complete with matching business cards. Print Explosion also gives you colorful origami and paper airplane patterns and the ability to create calendars, party hats, masks, and gift boxes (although we recommend a heavier cardboard stock for the latter). The clearly annotated interface makes modifying the designs--or creating your own--as simple as double-clicking the text or dragging an image around. Some special effects aren't terribly practical, but there are plenty others that successfully jazz up your creations in an instant. Layout tricks--centering graphics, layering items, or creating circular text--are all menu items, and the comprehensive built-in help is always nearby. Print Explosion's collection features tasteful fonts--nothing outlandish--and clip art that scales smoothly and prints without jagged edges. Browsing for images by category works well, and the thorough print catalog is cleverly cross-referenced. The only minor quibble we have with Print Explosion is that it requires almost 200 megabytes of disk space. --Jack Gardiner
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