New Print Shop Adds Tools, Effects, Art, CD Labels.

There was a day when I had 10,000 fonts for my Mac. My addiction grew to nearly 3-million pieces of clip art; bit map, vector graphics, photographs.

I thought my addiction had passed until I saw the new Print Shop. Now I’m collecting art templates, art tools, photo effects, edges effects. The art monkey’s on my back again.

Years ago, long before Mac OS X, I used to collect fonts and clip art. If it worked on the Mac, I bought it and stored it. My addiction was so bad that I bought some Windows-only clip art and converted that for my Mac.

There was a time when I had to add more RAM just to handle all the fonts that I didn’t use but had running on my system.

Mac OS X helped wean me both fonts and clip art. In the early years of OS X the old packages just didn’t work. I was saved by OS X.

Along comes MacKiev and a new version of The Print Shop. Finally, art done right on the Mac.

And not just art. The Print Shop is loaded with photos and graphics, as you’d expect. But there’s new layout tools, photo editing tools, edges and effects.

There’s also projects types, label free print, art specifications, Spotlight integration and, my new favorite, iLife integration. Drag and drop.

The Print Shop doesn’t just add to my addiction, it raises the bar. I don’t know of an art package that does more, looks better doing it.

Photos & Graphics
As with most art CD packages, The Print Shop is loaded with royalty-free photos and graphics that eveery desktop publisher or wannabe will find valuable.

Nostalgia art. Modern art. Classical art. The art CD has more photos and an easier way to find art via the browser.

I’ve developed a more disciplined approach to fonts and no longer expect my Word menu to drop down with 5,000 fonts. But The Print Shop shows up with 240 graphic fonts (not just another version of Helvetica or Times).

Layout Tools
I’m a long time user of Photoshop, though dropped to Photosop Elements when the annual Adobe CS Tax became a bit much. For many uses, Photoshop is overkill.

The Print Shop adds some excellent desktop publishing tools for basic layout and design of the graphics element, including Rulere, Guidelines, Grids, and Overlays.

Now you can position the graphic element first, then drop into your application.

Photo Editing
Backk to the non-use of Photoshop. Sometimes you just need to tweak a graphic element and Photoshop is waaaaaay overkill. The built-in Photo Workshop adds a bunch of easy-to-use tools.

For example, there’s photo effects; blurs, bumps, twirls, etc. My favorite for most photos is Special Edges and Effects. Pixelate, Puzzle, Fall, Chrome, Strokes. Enough to keep the Adobe Tax (upgrades) to an extra year.

Projects Types
For many art users on the Mac, printing labels to CDs or DVDs requires another application. Same for print graphics to booklets (page layout). The Print Shop eases that pain with themes and temmplates for both.

There’s DVD cases, including some that match the iDVD themes from Apple. Handy. There’s also Booklets Project which helps you layout attractive booklets without investing in Adobe InDesign or Quark.

It’s a huge list. CDs, Cases, Envelopes, Calendars, Tickets, Business Cards, Certificataes, Newsletters, Menus, Signs, Posters, Greeting Cards, Address and Shipping Labels, Photo Albums, Photo Collages. You get the idea.

iLife Integration
Ultra handy for the Digital Hub is integration with iLife. Import your iTunes playlist to create CDs and cases. Drag and drop from iPhoto into the page layout utility.

Merge the AddressBook addresses into the envelope and label utility. You can even import iCal events to create an attractive calendar with photos from iPhoto. Waaaaaay cool.

iLife’s iDVD themes are attractive and included with SuperDrive-equipped Macs. The Print Shop’s matching DVD labels fit Apple’s themes.

Label-Free Printing
There are a number of Epson and Canon printers which have a special tray for blank CDs and DVDs. You can print directly to the disk. The Print Shop will let your Mac print directly to the disk for compatible Epson and Canon printers (check the list).

Specifications
The Print Shop is fully a Mac OS X application and takes advantage of Tiger’s built-in graphics goodies. There’s over 9,000 templates, over 19,000 images (photos and vector graphics), those 240 lovely custom fonts, and much more.

Mackiev, the developer, has their act together and made sure The Print Shop will even work on the upcoming Intel-based Macs due in 2006. Slick. These are the same folks who bring you World Book, Dr. Seuss, and Kid Pix Deluxe, so they know their way around the Mac.

Not bad for $59 and you can buy online. My only complaint, and it’s valid from someone with an art and font addiction problem, is the number of graphics elements; photos and vector art. There needs to be more, or a companion disk with 2-million pieces.

That’s what I’m used to. Click Here and judge for yourself.

Jack D. Miller
Carol, I thought we had an understanding. No more fonts.

Bambi Hambi
This is a quality package, not just of art and fonts, but of the tools to make them work for you in OS X. Five stars.

Alexis Kayhill
I’m with Carol. The ONLY complaint I have is that there isn’t 2-million photos, bit maps, and vector art graphic elements. That’s it. This is superbly designed by Mac folks.

Tera Patricks
Carol, I feel your pain. I have about 50 CDs with different clip art packages, most of which don’t work on OS X (thankfully).