If you weren't around during this era, it's absolutely impossible to understand what a killer app Print Shop was.
It was like a... like a meta killer app.
It was available on all major platforms so it wasn't a killer app for one platform; it was like a killer app for HOME COMPUTING IN GENERAL at a time when regular people still weren't exactly sure wtf these newfangled machines were good for.
Sure, everybody knew you could play games on computers, but you could also do that on a $100 Atari VCS that in some ways outperformed a $2,000 Apple II setup. You could do spreadsheets, but honestly most people didn't know what spreadsheets were. You could do word processing, which was obviously pretty useful, but early word processors didn't even have things like spell checking and it wasn't immediately obvious that they were that much better than just using a typewriter and a bottle of correction fluid.
But Print Shop?
It was brilliantly easy to use, and the ability to print out signs -- and banners! -- was just revelatory. Even the 62 year-old secretary in primary school could use it, and she absolutely did.
It's a strong contender for the most influential home computing app of all time, and it has zero peers in terms of how underrated/overlooked it is in the history of home computing.
It was like a... like a meta killer app.
It was available on all major platforms so it wasn't a killer app for one platform; it was like a killer app for HOME COMPUTING IN GENERAL at a time when regular people still weren't exactly sure wtf these newfangled machines were good for.
Sure, everybody knew you could play games on computers, but you could also do that on a $100 Atari VCS that in some ways outperformed a $2,000 Apple II setup. You could do spreadsheets, but honestly most people didn't know what spreadsheets were. You could do word processing, which was obviously pretty useful, but early word processors didn't even have things like spell checking and it wasn't immediately obvious that they were that much better than just using a typewriter and a bottle of correction fluid.
But Print Shop?
It was brilliantly easy to use, and the ability to print out signs -- and banners! -- was just revelatory. Even the 62 year-old secretary in primary school could use it, and she absolutely did.
It's a strong contender for the most influential home computing app of all time, and it has zero peers in terms of how underrated/overlooked it is in the history of home computing.