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A Printshop Equivalent for Unix?
mcorliss asks: "I'm trying to convince my wife to switch from Windows to Linux. However, one program she loves is Broderbund's
PrintShop, which I haven't found a Linux equivalent of yet. Does anyone know of such a product, preferably one that's free and fairly easy to use?" For banner creation, there's Gozer and AAType, but they aren't the easiest of things to use. Unless you consider The GIMP, software for designing greeting cards (another PrintShop specialty) seems to not have appeared for Unix. So is there an all-around equivalent for PrintShop for Unix users? If not, can you get close to that same functionality using a specific set of Open Source software? If it turns out neither of the first two questions produce encouraging answers, would anyone be interested in starting an Open Source project to fill this niche?
My Aunt is a bigtime print shop poweruser. She gets updates in the mail. They send her reams and reams of disks. I swear she can do things with it that can't be done in Photoshop...
The sad part is, she has actually shown a strong intrest in Linux.
I tried to get Print shop running under wine but was stopped dead by what else, Linux's dismal printer support.
You want to get mad, try loosing all your formatting in a program that essentially does nothing more than formatting.
I think that is the key though. Print shop does little but formatting, with some stock pictures, formatting templates and a heavy dose of ease of use thrown in.
Keep that in mind if you think of something that might work. Whatever replaces print shop, must replace print shop, not quark.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
She could always use a color FIGlet and output to a printer. ;-)
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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
heh. i remember playing around with printshop 1 and 2 back on old apple II's back in 2nd and 3rd grade. fun stuff.
moox. for a new generation.
PrintShop isn't free, but you use it. Why must a Linux program be free?
This attitude explains why there are so few Linux versions of software.
...so I don't know what it can do, but you could take a look at xwgui.
This is an arrange the photos and print them out type of software, but it lets you do other things besides, and it has some assistents for specific tasks, that I presume you can add to.
Unfortunately, it uses the XForms widget set, so it looks pretty ugly. Also I had to mess about with my fontpath to put my 75dpi before everything else in order to see some of the dialog boxes properly.
I would love to see this app ported to qt or gtk, and a few other features added.
Actually its Linus that Sucks as a developer, he handed him a big mess...its no surprise that Linus wanted out of 2.4 and on to 2.5 since beta was the only place he was gonna stableize the mess...
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Maybe he likes Linux more than Windows?
Maybe they only have one computer.
Why not?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Sound like a good project. The great thing about Linux is that if you want something you can write it yourself. You can do the same for windows but it is just not as much fun. If someone does this they could be a huge hit with the schools. Who knows maybe you could even sell it. Or at least sell the mannual.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Certainly, first when she has a problem with her machine I have a much better chance of fixing it with Linux than Windows. Secondly, I want to use her machine as well as my own, and let's just say I'm not a Windows enthusiast. Third, using Gnome and Nautilus (although it's slow) gives a user-friendly desktop which in many ways resembles the Windows interface. Fourth, open office, abiword, and gnumeric are all good replacements of microsoft office.
Really, the only problem I see with her using Linux is that there are a few applications which Linux doesn't have an equivalent of (or doesn't have a user-friendly equivalent of). I don't agree with some of the other posts, that maintain these aren't important applications for Linux. If Linux is ever going to become a mainstream OS then it's going to need to offer these applications (if you don't want them, then don't install them).
So, I guess the bottom line of my rambling is, why shouldn't I try to convince my wife to switch from Windows to Linux?
- Certainly, first when she has a problem with her machine I have a much better chance of fixing it with Linux than Windows.
That's a very selfish reason. Perhaps you should learn to use Windows effectively for her benefit then.- Secondly, I want to use her machine as well as my own, and let's just say I'm not a Windows enthusiast.
Another very selfish reason. If her computer runs Windows, and you want to use it, you should be considerate of her choice and just use it as she has it set up.- Third, using Gnome and Nautilus (although it's slow) gives a user-friendly desktop which in many ways resembles the Windows interface.
But it is something she is not used to, and has no reason to change to. Let her use what she is comfortable with!- Fourth, open office, abiword, and gnumeric are all good replacements of microsoft office.
But again, not what she is used to. And they are hardly 'good' replacements (consider how well Office integrates its components in comparison, for example.)- Really, the only problem I see with her using Linux is that there are a few applications which Linux doesn't have an equivalent of (or doesn't have a user-friendly equivalent of).
Does that not strike you as an excellent reason for her to continue using Windows, quite apart from the most fundamental reason which is that she wants to?- I don't agree with some of the other posts, that maintain these aren't important applications for Linux. If Linux is ever going to become a mainstream OS then it's going to need to offer these applications (if you don't want them, then don't install them).
Just a few hours ago there was a similar Ask Slashdot from a high school physics teacher asking how to get a Windows-only piece of software to run under Linux because he wanted to run Linux. Again, the most appropriate choice was Windows because it did what he wanted. The trouble with you Linux zealots is that your priorities get incredibly skewed so that Linux, not functionality and ease-of-use, becomes the most important. Please put things into perspective for the sake of your marriage!- So, I guess the bottom line of my rambling is, why shouldn't I try to convince my wife to switch from Windows to Linux?
Because she doesn't want to, and your reasons for wanting her to do so are entirely selfish.Well actually, she does a lot of other things. In fact, her two biggest applications are web browsing and office. For browsing she prefers mozilla to ie and for office she prefers open office to microsoft office (after a small adjustment period).
Of course, you might ask why I don't just install these on windows. Well, mainly, because she has an old machine with a celeron processor, and both windows 98 and 2000 ran horribly on it. Her machine was crashing at least a couple of times a week. I have now installed Linux on it, and it runs beautifully. So, although she would like to get a replacement for this one application, overall she's happier with Linux than she was with Windows.
I think the point you've been missing in all your posts is that Windows is a restrictive, slow, and unstable operating system. I will be the first to admit there are good reasons to use Windows. But those reasons aren't for me nor my wife (I hate to speak for her, but she's at work right now and doesn't have access to a computer). I posted to slashdot to see if anyone had an answer to my question (I found some good replies already) NOT to have someone tell me I should be using Windows. Don't you think I would have explored this option already. If you're looking for a debate on which is a better operating system Linux or Windows, then perhaps you should post your own question to "ask slashdot".
...the most appropriate choice was Windows...
There's a certain argument that there's a long term benefit to using free software in terms of dollars and customizability.
May we never see th
Actually, I think there are minuses and pluses to Marcelo's work.
It's not a lot of fun to be maintainer of a stable branch -- no glory, lots of bitching if anything breaks...and Marcelo is *young*, and could be doing other stuff.
That said, he does release releases more slowly than Linus (which might be reasonable, given that people were complaining about Linus' lack of QA in the stable branch). I do wish that he would enforce fewer things going into -rc releases, though. There should be one or two -rc releases per version, and only bugfixes in an -rc.
Also, he's had that one high-profile fuckup.
May we never see th
Have you looked at Scribus? I've never used it myself (having only recently decided to look at TeX/LaTeX for my own publishing needs), but it sure looks like it's aiming at the same target you want to hit.
I do not have a signature
I'm trying to convince my wife to switch from Windows to Linux. However, one program she loves is Broderbund's PrintShop, which I haven't found a Linux equivalent of yet
One thing you need to ask yourself is why, if her Windows software does what she needs, do you want her to switch? Remember that what is the right solution for one person, such as yourself, may well not be right for someone else. Are you trying to convince her for an ideological reason of your own, to "convert" her? Because that just sounds like a recipe for strife, particularly since dual-booting is so easy these days.
The point you're missing is that I don't care at all about Windows. I asked a question about Linux/Unix. If there is no application for Linux then I'm fine with that, but save me your pointless and trite crusade for Windows. I just want to know if there is a solution for Linux.
The question is, is that worth $300 to you?
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Even if it's libre (or even gratis!) people buy print shop for the clip art. The functionality is pretty simple, I'm sure any QT or GTK app developer could hack something together in a month. However, it'd be useless without spending the 30 dollars on clip art.
Mind you, were I to do it, I'd probably print to ps and launch a program to print. Not to mention the burden of supporting perhaps one of the true "newbie-type" applications for Linux. "It won't print!"
augh...
I use CUPS for overall printing control.
I generate PDF or PostScript (or raw prn) files from a variety of applications. For a recent birth announcement card, I used Gimp and got very, very good results.
No doubt you could use [La]TeX, too.
and I've never even met anyone who has encountered stability problems with WinNT.
Holy shit! You need to crawl out from under your rock and meet the real world.
That's another part of the dogma that keeps Linux off desktops. Software can be developed for any bloody platform, not just Linux. When someone says 'Oh boy! Linux gives me the freedom to develop any app I want!", they're just mouthing disingenuous propaganda.
What potential Linux users hear is this: "If I want that program, I'll have to learn to program myself, or wait for some anonymous Linux developers to do it for me."
So the choice becomes:
1. Quit my day job and take a couple of years learning to be a competent developer;
2. Wait for someone else to write what I want for Linux;
3. Keep on using a commercial platform and shop around.
Guess which option wins.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Well, now you've "met" me. The company I'm at at the moment has supplied me with a Dell desktop running NT wirh SP6al, and it blue-screens at least once every three days.
It's a really amazing that the incredible engineers at Microsoft were able to make two totally unrelated operating systems run the same applications so well. I'm not kidding here, either.
Me again... if you want to see amazing, look at the job that Apple did moving from m68k to PPC - an operating system that ran on two totally different architectures, but which let you use applications for either.
Or NetBSD - the same kernel and userland ported to more than 30 different architectures.
MS wasn't even able to keep to their original ideal of developing NT on Alpha, in order to remove any x86-isms.