The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Corel Print House Magic Deluxe
Bernadette Houghton
 bernieh@iaccess.com.au

If you felt a sense of déjà vu when you read the title above, you're right: I have reviewed Print House Magic before (PC Update, June 1998). But that was then, and this is now; only two months in calendar terms, but a lifetime for computer software. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit here: Print House Magic Deluxe isn't so much a new edition as a re-packaging of the old. It includes all the components of the original Print House Magic suite - Corel Print House 3, Corel Photo House 2 and Corel Family and Friends, and of course all the clipart, photos and other oddments.

So what is the difference between the Deluxe edition and the original? In a word: more. More clipart, more photos, more this, more that, more everything. To bandy around some figures, Deluxe includes 50,000 more photos, 15,000 more clipart, 75,000 more graphics (presumably this means backgrounds, backdrops, symbols and the like) and 400 more objects. All this fits onto four CD-ROMs, with a bulky manual displaying all the graphics in full colour. One thing, though, is that the thumbnails would be better called "pinkynails" - they're so small that you really need to strain to see them.

Some selections of clipart presented in a montage format, produced using the system

Deluxe also includes access (via Print House) to Corel's Animated Online Greeting Cards on the Web. For some reason, I couldn't access this site, despite repeated attempts over three weeks. However, according to the documentation, the site includes 100+ cards which you can e-mail to your family and friends. Just in case you don't have a Web browser to view the site, Corel has bundled Netscape Navigator 3.0 as well.

My original verdict on Print House Magic was that it is a good choice for those who need an entry-level drawing program with some basic image-editing tools. That is true still, and Print House Magic remains freely available; however Print House Magic Deluxe's extra goodies are very tantalising, despite the higher cost.


Figure 1. Corel Print House


Figure 2. Corel Photo House


Figure 3. Corel Family and Friends

Reprinted from the August 1998 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia