Customer Reviews

The Print Shop Deluxe 15 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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).

This is the 4th or 5th version of The Print Shop that I have owned. The last few have been very buggy, causing my computer to freeze up, generally at the worst possible time. But this version is the worst. This one froze up my computer during the install.

I was lucky. Windows XP repaired itself for me. I looked at Broderbund's web site for information on how to get the product intalled and decided not to even try their work around. I've simply run out of patience with a product who's audience is the average user, which demands guru-level computer skills just to install the software.

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!

Having used previous versions of this software, I was disappointed and frustrated by this program. The lack of a manual is a major headache, as searching the help function is like looking for a light switch in the dark. The inability to access and use graphics I've used from previous PS versions is just unbelievable. I've also found numerous bugs in the program, such as the fact that some of the the Avery label templates actually don't work, believe it or not, even when applied directly to the prepackaged PS 15 label projects. The labels print progressively lower until they're off the page at the bottom. I called Broderbund several times, and after 30 minutes on hold each time, they attempted to use the same templates and encountered the same glitch. I got no help, even when the Product Manager was called in. For some graphics projects, I've actually found it more productive to use the MS Word table function with Avery labels - a sad commentary.

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.

This is one piece of lousy software. There are bugs all over the place. However, my chief complaint is that it won't print correctly. What you see in print preview is NOT what you get. My biggest disappointment is with technical support. Basically, my problem was ignored and I received no help at all. I asked repeatedly if Broderbund would write a fix for my problem - my problem was never acknowledged or addressed. What little bit of feedback I did get was to suggest/indicate that I didn't know what I was doing and the problem was me. After going through all of their "suggestions/solutions" I was right back where I started and still didn't get my problem resolved. I was sent to their on-line solutions - which was not a solution. I finally gave up on technical support and on this software. I would really like a refund on this product, but will never get any satisfaction out of Broderbund. This is one of those cases in that you get what you paid for...not much!

I have used this program for almost a year and find it the easiest program I own to create a variety of print projects. I also have Microsoft's Office Suite Professional version which includes Publisher, etc. I can't do nearly as many creative things with that extraordinarily expensive suite of programs as I can with The Print Shop. Try designing a greeting card as an example. In most programs you are limited to the format of the particular template, whether quarter fold or half fold. In Publisher I had to design my own template to do a top fold half fold card. Moving graphics or text in Publisher or Word is a nightmare of formatting, etc. In The Print Shop, I can place anything I want in any position I want. I can rotate text or images any direction I like. In addition, if the many images that come with the program are not enough, you can simply go to the Microsoft clip art page online and either copy/paste any clip you like or just drag any clip right into The Print Shop project you are working on. Not many other programs are that easy to get along with. I don't use it to do my photo editing and I don't believe it is marketed as a photo editing program. However, there are some effects that can be applied to photos that I don't know where else I could find. This program, for a few dollars, has put hundreds of dollars of software on my computer out to pasture. It really does it all and does it well. Worth many times the price they charge.

Honestly, it is not easy to use this product. No printed user guide. Only help file. But if you spend more time on it- trial and error, you will find this product instersting!

For the amount of graphics and projects available, this product rocks! From childish clip art to fine art - everything you can imagine, you can find them in this product. I espcially like the search function which allows me to type keywords like "flower" to find projects and graphics. You have 4749 choices for "flower"! 638 for "family"! 237 for "romantic"! 518 for "moon"! 6330 for "food"! 180 birthday card readymade projects, etc! Awesome!

For ease of use, this product has room for improvement. NoPrinted user manual. Only help file. No internet user forum. Sometimes the labels printed by it are not fit. But that's because I am not using any avery products. If you are patient enough, go to "tools" menu and run the "custom paper wizard", then you can creat the right size label you want. That's not bad. You can use this wizard to creat any custom paper: card , envelopes, labels, banner, etc...

i recommend users better use a piece of paper to test if the program prints right first. Then adjust to fit. Not convenient huh? But I believe that no software would print exactly the way if you do not do some page setup.

As for the "BUG" issues, I have not encountered any so far. This program has never hang or automatically closed (my experience). I am using M$ Win200 OS. My machine is 2 years old.

50 bucks for such hugh graphic collections (4 CDs)and paper stock included in the package is really reasonable. BUT, if you are graphics collecting freak, then try Art Explosion 150,000 or 600,000.

By the way, I bought the retail box set in Hong Kong - Very satisfied!

I purchased this because I enjoyed Print Shop 12. Most of the graphics for Version 15 are on line not on the CD. Graphics I used to get from 12 were no longer on the CD but on line. You have to download the images to your hard drive. Many of the advertised additional graphics are cheap photos or ugly clip art images. Version 15 also uninstalled version 12 and my disks would no longer install it when I removed Version 15 in disgust. Broderbund offered no help with this and never responded to a written complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau. The amount it would have cost them: 10 dollars to send me replacement disks to reinstall Print Shop 12. What a terrible way to treat a customer!!!

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.