Deluxe Edition

by Eric Holroyd

This program was originally released in 1986 and has now been re-released with the 'Deluxe' tag. The new version has several enhancements over it's predecessor including improved printer drivers and the very handy option to return to the previous screen you worked on by pressing CRTUC.

The program itself has a lot in common with Teddy Bear-rels of Fun. It's from the same company and is very similar in operation. If you and the kids have learned one program then you can operate the other one, it's that simple.

Basically, this is a program to create and print posters, pictures, stickers, labels etc. for printing on a variety of printers in black and white or colour (if your printer supports it of course).It offers over 200 pieces of artwork, including borders, and has several typefaces ( or fonts ) for writing captions or stories.

There's also the same facility as in Teddy Bears to make a continuously moving slide-show of your pictures which then scroll sideways across the screen and which is great for making your own comic cartoons and stories. Garfield can have his friends with him in the pictures, including Odie and Jon, and there's a good selection of 'poses' available of all the characters. There's also a set of pre-programmed captions within this program, or of course you can make up your own. The accompanying leaflet with my review copy said that there's a Garfield Activity Sheet included to help you get started with ideas, and you'll soon think up dozens more uses of your own.

The list of printers is apparently common to both Create With Garfield (Deluxe Edition) and Teddy Bear-rels of Fun and supports a good range of printers including the latest colour printers. You need to set up your printer definition before starting to print and the manual helps you here. It's always a matter of trial and error to set up your printer if it's not listed by name but it seems that no software company can possibly cover all of the hundreds of printers on the market so what they do is cover the main ones, knowing that other brand printers will most probably work using one of the printer drivers listed in the program. If in doubt consult your printer manual or your printer supplier. Both programs support the automatic ice interface. It's always a matter of trial and error to set up a printer as no software company can possibly cover all of the hundreds of printers on the market, so what they do is cover the main ones, knowing that other brand printers will most probably work using one of the printer drivers listed in the program. If in doubt consult your printer manual or your printer supplier.

The printouts cover pretty much the same range of options as does Teddy Bears, including 'outline' or 'filled in', and it was this and other similarities in operation that prompted me to experiment with the possibility that the two library disks might be interchangeable. To my delight they were, and I was soon making Garfield pictures with Teddy Bears in them and vice versa. I even tried mixing the graphics from the two master disks and they worked too! So, if you buy both programs you can do all that yourself and mix up all the characters any way you like and make some very interesting picture-stories and cartoons etc.

My only gripe with the Garfield printouts was the fact that it puts a credit line in small print at the bottom of the picture saying 'C. United Feature Syndicate 1978' and I didn't think that they should claim copyright on something which I'd just created! I realise, of course, that they're claiming copyright on the Garfield character due to the strict licensing arrangements, but due to my experimentation with swapping the library disks I found a way to eliminate that one. I just used the Teddy Bear printout mode, it doesn't have the copyright line on its pictures!

If you're a Garfield fan (and who isn't?) then you'll like this one as much as the Teddy Bears, so why not add both programs to your sofware library? The added bonus of mixing and matching the two will give endless hours of fun for you, your family and your friends.

Available for Apple ll, llc, lle at RRP $67.98 ($59.95 excluding tax where applicable) at good stockists everywhere.

CREATEWITHGARFIELDI Deluxe Edition is distributed in Australia by: Dataflow Computer Services, 134 Barcom Avenue, Rushcutters Bay, NSW 2011 Telephone: (02) 331-6153.

Back To AAR Article Index

�@