I was intrigued by this as I haven't seen a "poster printer" type program since the days of the Commodore 64 - "Print Shop" if memory serves me right, which could print enormous multi-page posters and banners in what was 'for the day' quite good quality (for dot-matrix printers). I remember printing a life-sized picture of a Page 3 glamour model... I do recall a need for something like this about 15 years ago and being unable to find anything for the PC.

I'll try to avoid duplicating Karl's review; downloaded, extracted, installed and activated without issue on a Windows 7 64bit system. Software opens on pleasant pale blue window, with the options of starting a new document from a template, blank document, or previous project.

The Settins option allows a small degree of control and customisation over the interface: a choice of language; theme (interface colours - I like the default Office 2007 Blue); and units of measurement (mm, cm, inches). Grid settings can be changed to lines or dots, colour, and size. Screen rendering and printing/export quality from draft, normal, best.

There are a fair few templates included, grouped under sections as diverse as Propoganda, Banners, Kids, Business, Events and so on. Each has 10-30 templates. Parents might like the Coloring Book templates, to print out pages and posters children can colour in.

If you opt to start from a blank document, a dialog box opens prompting for size and quality settings. Quality is limited to setting the dpi, and only allows for 72, 96, 150, 300 or 600 dpi. Size defaults to 297mm x 400mm, and a flyout box has presets for US Letter, A4, A3, Medium (457x609mm), and Large (609x914mm) page sizes, in horizontal and vertical aspect.

The interface is quite slick. There are a variety of tools icons presented, without cluttering the interface. Its quick, easy, and quite intuitive to use. The right hand side of the UI shows properties of the current image, and lists tips for common tasks. This properties pane is context-sensitive, and shows properties for the current layer; for example, when using Text it has options for font, size, alignment, placement. When using special text, font, size, radius, bulge, and so on.

There is a lot of control over text and images. Text can be entered as plain text - using the system fonts - or as special text (arcs, waved, circular or projective), and then aligned in any dimension. Images and clip art can be resized and rotated. A selection of clip art is included. Images can have borders and shadows, and the opacity can be changed to allow text and background to show through.

The program accepts all image formats (I haven't tried anything other than jpg or bmp), and supposedly imports text from Word or Excel, although this uses copy and paste. A small number of drawing tools are included; lines, squares, circles.

The program uses layers to assist in placing and arranging both text and pictures, each new item of text or picture is placed on its own layer. Layer control is basic (front, back, forwards, backwards, lock/unlock, group/ungroup, hide) but functional. It would help if the Properties sheet displayed the design layers to make layer selection easier, a-la Photoshop and the like.

Exporting and Printing.

The UI falls down on saving work. It offers 4 options to save work: Save, Save As, Save As a Template, and Export. Save As a Template saves the current work as a template, useful if you wish to create a series of documents with the same layout but different content. Save is self-evident, save the current document with the current file name. Save As is for saving with a different name. In each case the document is saved in .rpd file format.

However, both Save and Save As use the standard Windows Save box, and offer the option of saving in .rpd or .jpg. If you select the later and 'save', it brings up an error message "Operation Aborted, to save as jpg use File -> Export!'

Its a minor niggle, but one which could be avoided if instead it simply bought up the Export dialog box! Exporting a file gives the user limited control over the jpg quality (10%-100% in steps of 10%) and the image size and file name. It appears that other export options may be possible as Export prompts for the destination file type (jpg).

Printing is where the software comes to a stop. Designs which fit on one page are printed using Windows system printers. Designs which span multiple pages - such as large posters - use Ronyasofts printing system, which is not included. Selecting Muti-page printing oens an error box "Ronyasoft Poster Printer not installed. Please download and install Ronyasoft Poster Printer software". This costs $20.

Without it, the use of the Poster Designer is limited to single page designs, printed at the maximum size of your printer page. That said, no GAOTD offer is really free; companies participate to increase brand awareness, and lets be frank, to tempt GAOTD users to buy their software, so it is understandable. However, I would like to evaluate whether their printing system offers advantages over using the Windows printer system and manufacturer printer drivers; if you ever used an Amiga you might remember PrintStudio, which offered massive improvements over the system printers and was well worth the price.

All in all, a nice program. Although everything could be done in Photoshop, it can be done much quicker in Poster Designer, and the supplied templates are the icing on the cake. Some interface improvements would add a final polish. I don't know if there are alternatives (paid or share/free ware), but I think I'll keep this one "just in case"! A thumbs-up from me.

Alan  –  9 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+171)

Vertalen

Outstanding review of the product. Enjoyed every word. Based on this review I'll be keeping it too, just in case.

Outstanding review of the product. Enjoyed every word. Based on this review I'll be keeping it too, just in case.
Save | Cancel

Madmaler  –  9 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+30)

Vertalen

Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1.3 Pro 64 bit system. A clean install, many fonts are additional installed:
http://i.imgur.com/cabFHyj.png

An Ukrainian company with address: "RonyaSoft is a privately held company founded in 2003. The company specializes in multimedia software development. Our software and services are used in more than 60 countries around the world by individuals, small-to-medium size businesses and international corporations. ". Some news in the news center.

We had had a previous version some years ago in 2011:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ronyasoft-poster-designer/

Upon start a resizable window opens, in the settings you can select language, skin, grid, rendering options and font view.
If you are familiar with a "draw" program, the controls are familiar. If you are new to layers, transformation of text and images, than this will keep you busy a while until your first poster is ready.

With the templates such a poster is done in a few (one or two) minutes...
http://i.imgur.com/rxBofbr.jpg

Does what it claims, the templates are sufficient for most of quick made posters. Of course you can make your own templates, too. Some glitches, e.g. you cannot use the save dialog to save a poster as JPG, you have to use the export dialog.

I'll keep it, maybe I'll need some sales posters for my pizza...

Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+154)

Vertalen

Downloaded and installed easily. An out dated windows 8.1 type of program UI opens. What is this? In order to print a multi page poster, I need to install their printer software. I can't find a link or something to point me in the right direction.
Like Karl always says. Uninstalled via Smarty Uninstaller.

Paul  –  9 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (-11)

Vertalen

Hi Paul

If you want to print a poster size 30" X 24" inches you will need a software [theirs or another one] to manage the configuration.
The poster have to be cut in many pieces and set on the proper page.
You may print-it on one single page by resizing the poster at a size that your printer can manage.
This software is not a printer manager, simply a poster creator, you can save-it as JPEG [export] and use what ever software you can find [or buy]to print-it the way you need.
If you save the poster [without export]it will be save in their own format.
This software alone can be use for standard paper office poster [as your printer can manage], for fun or for other us, if you need to do very large poster you will need more software or a specialized printer.

Hi Paul If you want to print a poster size 30" X 24" inches you will need a software [theirs or another one] to manage the configuration. The poster have to be cut in many pieces and set on the proper page. You may print-it on one single page by resizing the poster at a size that your printer can manage. This software is not a printer manager, simply a poster creator, you can save-it as JPEG [export] and use what ever software you can find [or buy]to print-it the way you need. If you save the poster [without export]it will be save in their own format. This software alone can be use for standard paper office poster [as your printer can manage], for fun or for other us, if you need to do very large poster you will need more software or a specialized printer.
Save | Cancel

Col-Hectorz  –  9 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+62)

Vertalen

Question:

Does this poster program STILL not have the ability to print?
The last time it was offered here, (July 5, 2011), there was a lot of complaining in the comments re: this, (and rightly so). It's really absurd to have to buy another program for printing what you have created in any type of desktop publishing app. The whole purpose and concept of a poster program, is being able to print the friggin' thing!

I took a look at their site and sure enough, they still list Poster Designer,($29.95) & Poster Printer, ($19.95) separately.

I hope I am wrong and the printer part is included with the designer part and they sell the printer part separately for someone that just has that need. I know that's a stretch, but for the moment I am trying to give the author the benefit of doubt, until I know for sure.

I have used another poster printing program for more than ten years called "Poster". Today it costs $18.00. I assure you, you CAN print your work without paying extra for that ability! Note: I have no affiliation with this program at all.
If you would like to visit their site, the address is www.postersw.com

I do a lot of desktop publishing, (other than posters) and of course all of those programs have the ability to print what you create!

I am hoping the programs author will comment here re: this issue. I don't want to waste my time and hard drive space on this if it can not print. HOWEVER, if it CAN print, I would be very happy to try it out, (and possibly purchase it, if it gives me new capabilities that I don't have now).

Mister Lee  –  9 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+33)

Vertalen