I had The Print Shop Deluxe and remember thinking it was the future, and that we woull all be making our own holiday cards, signs, etc. in no time. Every holiday, I'm amazed that everyone I know (including me) is now back to using store-bought cards. I was surprised to just find out that there is a modern version, though it is Windows-only.
I remember the Print Shop as a kid! Yah I guess specialization won out. We don't even have to see our holiday cards now. Upload a photoshopped picture and mail merge and start getting compliments from friends and family a week later.
Probably a huge factor. Its just a pain in the ass to occasionally print something. In the 90s we actually printed a lot more stuff. We printed maps, letters to mail, forms to fill out. Everything that was typed for school would be printed and turned in. I would print excerpts from groliers to read later. I printed recipes for my parents. So printing cards etc made sense because the printer was so frequently in use. I actually printed a few things this Christmas and it was annoying, required multiple reboots of the printer, a paper jam and a new warning message.
Yeah I love my laser printer. Actually earlier this year I bought an ink tank printer because I've had to print a number of things in color and have been really pleased with that.
But it's very difficult to beat the cost of a laser printer, especially for infrequent prints.
You can make your own cards with online services now. I've used Greetings Island many, many times to make custom cards. They have many perfectly good templates you can use for free. You can just print them out on a color laser printer after saving as PDF.
Store-bought cards offer some things now that you can't (easily) get with a laser-printed "card", though, such as 3D shapes (such as pieces that unfold when you open the card) and music-playing modules.
If you did want to take another stab at home printmaking, buy an Epson.
The EcoTanks share a lot of capabilities of the SureColor lines, have some great design software, and can do real borderless printing. It's the ecosystem and compatibility that make it.
They make great backgrounds for collage and pair really well with things like linotype and block printing, which there are a lot of models for if you have a 3D printer.
