Printmaster Alternative

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Shanta Plansinis

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Aug 3, 2024, 12:03:31 PM8/3/24

to mitulyser

I have not been able to upgrade The Print Shop for Mac software from MacKiev since it seems that The Print Shop for Mac 4 is only sold to schools. I see there are many other that have had the same issue and I was wondering if anyone has found a similar/ better alternative of software they are using? Frustrating!

This information is helpful. I will check these out. And I made that mistake... well, not really a mistake but decide to try the other "Print Shop" from Broderbond and it sent me back to the Dark Ages. Not a good alternative. Thank you for your response!

Yes, as a longtime Print Shop MacKiev user, I am another very frustrated customer over the near impossibility of getting v4 or even the v4.1 update from MacKiev so it will run on Catalina & later versions of macOS.

As a substitute for MacKiev's PSM, I have been using Swift Publisher 5 (available in the Mac App Store). It does nearly all that Print Shop for Mac does except that it doesn't come with nearly as much clip art, and of course you cannot open any Print Shop for Mac projects that you may already have.

Google Cloud Print was first announced in 2010. It approximately coincided with the release of Chromebooks and Chrome OS. Since Chrome OS is browser-based, it made sense for Google to develop a solution that enabled printing over the internet.

This was all fine when the solution was just being used on Chromebooks. But, eventually, it reached mixed fleet environments. Because Google Chrome quickly became one of the most popular web browsers. Since the browser could be accessed with any device and OS, Google Cloud Print found itself in a situation where it was wanted on Windows and Mac devices. Which is fine if accessing documents via the Web. The tricky part was users wanting to print from native applications.

Part of the reason Google said bye-bye to Google Cloud Print was to encourage printing from Chrome OS. 100% Managed Chromebook environments can simply use CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) for Chrome OS to deploy printers through G Suite.

PrinterLogic is a serverless SaaS solution with print management features and is a highly recommended Google Cloud Print alternative. It has a Chrome extension for simple migration from Google Cloud Print and is recommended by Google. You can test it out with a 30-day free trial.

Printix is a subscription service for wireless cloud printing. As well as offering print management functionality and Google Workspace integrations, it also has an inbuilt driver updater and is recommended by Google. You can get started with a demo or a free trial.

Google had one option of taking over the Google Cloud Print infrastructure and making it internal only. Their other option was to build a new solution or find a print management solution from a third-party provider. They went with the latter and they went with PaperCut software.

I have a document which will print on a single sheet of A4 paper. I want to produce multiple copies of this at the A5 size. I wish to do this by printing two copies of each page per A4 sheet. Then later I shall manually trim the A4 sheets in half, creating the A5 handouts that I desire.

The trick is to think 'print pre-processing':First print job is to concatenate the pages you want. use one of the many 'print to pdf' printers. Windows 10 has one installed from Microsoft. An alternative is 'DoPDF'.With this print-to-pdf you can best create one or two pages full. In your case 4 times.

Assuming you are printing from the image file (JPEG, PNG, ...). Trye creating two copies of the same file in a directory. Select both and choose Print. Then repeat the same process you were doing in your screenshots with the same settings.

I had a single page PDF document that I wanted to shrink, printing multiple copies on one page. Because the document has only one page, Microsoft's printing dialog would not let me enter pages or page ranges: the 1,1,1 trick was not applicable.

I expect this trick will work with multiple pages also. E.g. if we had a three page document each of whose pages we wanted to print in quadruplicate on a single sheet, we could open it as a three-layer image in Gimp, then duplicate each of the layers, ensure they are in the right order and save as PDF.

Writing checks makes me angry. Not because it represents a withdrawal from one of my accounts. I'm OK with that. I just really don't enjoy engaging in the physical act of sitting down and scribbling on a piece of paper, knowing that there are much better ways to relay money these days. I'm all about efficiency, and check-writing is all about... something else.

But, there are still situations in life where cutting a check is still the best or only option. They're becoming fewer and far between, but they still exist - occurring often enough to be annoying/frustrating/anger-inducing.

I have both personal and business checking accounts, which compounds the issue. But, I've always historically used QuickBooks to manage my corporate books. The nice thing about QuickBooks is that you can print checks directly from the software. The crappy thing about QuickBooks, though, is that they come out with a new, more expensive version every month and a half. (I kid. It's every year.) And given that I use very few features in the software, I have no reason to upgrade (except when it holds me back from upgrading my Mac's operating system, the situation I'm currently in). Grrr.

I've looked at QuickBooks alternatives several times in the past, typically web-based options. However, each time, the deal-breaker for me has been lack of support for printing checks! (Seriously, I dislike writing checks that much.) I looked around for some sort of stand-alone check printing option, but I couldn't find any. I surmised that there must be some sort of Word/Excel/HTML template out there that would help facilitate check-printing, but I couldn't find one.

So, I finally did what any capable, but frustrated, software developer would do in my situation - I built one myself. And so, I offer you an HTML file that will allow you to print QuickBooks-compliant standard business checks!

I've been using it for nearly a year now with no issues, allowing me to finally ditch QuickBooks all-together. So, if you have any similar need, please head on over to my check-print project on GitHub and download the template. Full instructions are provided on the project page.

I have been using SlickPie online accounting software. In my experience I have shared Its coolest accounting software. Based on my business to customise all fields, keep track of all process. The software works fine and it's indeed pretty simple to use. The invoices are super easy to create. I can send invoices to clients on a daily basis with the help of this. Highly recommend it.

Pretty good. Margins need to be adjusted for other browsers and operating systems. On mine the lines printed a half-inch too high. I could see value in creating a web form so I don't need to type in the fields each time. I spent more time trying to modify the HTML to print one check than it takes to hand-write it.

Hey, thanks for trying it out and for the feedback, Dominic! I totally agree about putting a web form on top of it. For my own purposes, though, I haven't needed it. If it gets enough usage and I get more feedback akin to yours, I'd be willing to put some additional effort into it.

I, too, loath writing cheques and want to escape the horror that is QuickBooks. I'm not particularly tech savvy, so having a web form would be really helpful. I'd definitely donate! Let's be honest - I'd rather send my money to you than the goliath that has held my cheque-printing habits hostage for the last five years.

Too amazing. And simple enough to get the job done. We are non-profit and carrying the cost of Quickbooks when we have a very simple accounting process with only 1-5 checks being written within a month or two; was just not feasible. This is our solution ?

I wasn't aware of Kashoo. Thanks for the heads-up. Their site mentions nothing about printing checks, so I would have had no idea that they offer that functionality if you hadn't brought it to my attention.

Isn't it amazing that we could not find ANY template! I couldn't find one. Then I "got smart" and tried searches honing in on Word. Nothing until I came across you. I'm not sure how to make use of your program. I'm not an HTML editor. Pasted your code into Notebook text editor and an online HTML editor. In both cases I only saw the same code. Even when I opened the .txt file with Firefox. All I saw was the code. Would love to try it with your help. Thanks!

hi everyone, I developed a system where in you only have to export the transaction journal - right after writing the check in quickbooks - in excel then a series of formulas automatically places the values from the exported transaction journal to the rightful place of the values to the check - ready for printing directly to the check. any one interested just let me know

The software is Free for 30 days. But if you like the software and if you feel like purchasing it forever, the cost of registered key or what we call it as licence is INR 3371/- (including the service tax!)

Thanks for the info, Priyanka. However, you should be aware that the vast majority of people that read this article are American. As such, "INR 3371/-" means little to nothing to them (or me). I suggest you simply put pricing information on your site.

After you click on the template link and the page comes up, click on the "Raw" button. This is the HTML file that you want to save (File -> Save Page As...) to your computer (with a .html file extension). To be honest, Firefox on my Mac is the only browser I've tested this with, so I'm pretty sure your browser isn't the problem. Let me know if it works any better for you.