Programs for creative printing and computer crafts are primarily designed for desktop printing and simple Web publishing. While professional desktop publishing software can create the same types of projects, home publishing software comes with features and a price tag aimed at the non-designer with little or no desktop publishing skills.
Used for:
Typical home projects include greeting cards, posters, banners, and photo albums. These programs may also be used for family newsletters, party decorations, bookmarks, bookcovers, scrapbooks, and similiar computer crafts.
Used by:
Programs in this category are generally tailored to non-designer consumers and sometimes children.
Features:
Ease of use, templates or design wizards, plus large font and clip art collections are characteristic of this class of program. Usually missing any commercial prepress and printing features, they do provide a cross-section of tools for creating, placing, and editing graphics and text and producing projects suitable for desktop printing. Web publishing features as well as email photo or file sharing capabilities are also common with some of these programs.
Primary Software in this Category:
Although these programs may also have features that make them suitable to other sub-categories of desktop publishing, they are generally the best choices for the projects and users described in this profile.
- The Print Shop
- PrintMaster
- Sierra Print Artist
Secondary Software in this Category:
SOHO Publishing software such as greenstreet Publisher, Serif PagePlus, and Microsoft Publisher share several characteristics with this category of software such as ease of use, templates, clip art, and a lower price than professional-level desktop publishing software.
Alternative Software:
There are numerous specialty purpose programs that focus on just one or two types of projects typical of this class of software including Calendar Design, Greeting Card Design, and T-Shirt Design software programs.
Disclaimer:
The specific software programs described in this profile are not the only software suitable for these tasks. They are, however, some of the most widely used desktop publishing programs that fit this category.
