The Best Software for Home Printing Projects

By Lauren Treadwell

Home printing projects are a fun way for you and your family to express creativity while creating functional and professional-looking documents. There are many different printing software programs available that can assist you with this. Most programs offer a number of tools and templates to help you format and print out personalized business cards and stationery, birthday and other celebratory cards, and "thank you" letters. There are a few tips that can help your decide what software to buy for home printing.

Print Shop Deluxe

Print Shop Deluxe is published by Broderbund, and -- according to TopTenReviews.com (See Reference 1) -- it is the No. 1 creative printing software on the market. In addition to letting you create projects using its editing tools and some 21,000 preloaded templates, the software also allows you to publish your projects onto a website or send them in an e-mail or online message. According to TopTenReviews.com, Print Shop Deluxe is also equipped with a quality enhancer that can sharpen the details of your project's graphics, photos, and text. The software's cost started at $35.99 as of December 2009.

PrintMaster Platinum

PrintMaster Platinum is another creative printing software producut published by Broderbund, and is also a strong choice for home printing projects. While providing fewer templates than Print Shop Deluxe with 17,000, PrintMaster Plantimun is especially well-suited to creating greeting and celebratory cards, and boasts a huge library of preloaded images that you can incorporate into your projects (according to TopTenReviews.com). The software's cost started at $34.95 as of December 2009.

Print Artist Platinum

Published by Nova Development, Print Artist Platinum is another choice. According to TopTenReviews.com, Print Artist Platinum offers a number of project options that most comparable printing software programs do not, such as the ability to print on T-shirts and other fabrics. However, the software provides fewer templates than those mentioned above (15,000), and is more expensive, starting at $49.95 as of December 2009.

Less Expensive Alternatives

For their price, Value Soft's Print Workshop and IMSI's QuickStart Print Studio Pro are also good software options for home printing projects. Both software programs offer basic editing, formatting and printing options, such as creating greeting and business cards. Print Workshop, which started at just $6.69 as of December 2009, provides 20,000 preloaded templates (according to TopTenReviews.com), which is more than many of the more expensive creative printing software programs offer. QuickStart Print Studio Pro started at $7.20 as of December 2009, but only provides 2,000 templates.

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