Barbie Print ‘n Play

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Create Print Projects With Barbie

A Review of Barbie Print ‘n Play

Judy Pozar

Barbie Print ‘n Play provides an easy way to create and print lots ofpersonalized projects: beautiful greeting cards and party invitations,posters and banners, stationery and coloring books, calendars andstickers. Lots of projects for all occasions are included, to beprinted “as is” or with your child’s personal touches.

Most instructions are spoken, so it easy for children as young as fouror five to jump right in with minimal guidance. The product will appealto older children as well, particularly Barbie fans.

A project usually consists of a picture area and a text area. Separateeditors are used for each. With the Picture Editor, children can add aborder, change from color to black and white (for subsequent coloringwith crayons or markers), draw and paint their own picture, and selectfrom a variety of stamps. An entire picture can be moved around on apage. However, once a stamp is placed in the picture, it can not bemoved. This is a big flaw for a creativity program.

The Text Editor provides a wide selection of fonts and sizes. Textblocks can be resized, aligned to the left, right or center, italicized,and so on. You can even change the shape of the text block, into acurve, for instance.

Up to five names (besides “Barbie”) may be entered on the main screen. These are used to personalize projects (e.g., if you choose the nameJudy, “Judy’s calendar” will appear on a calendar page). All projectscan be saved, but they are not saved under a particular user’s name. When you want to load a particular birthday card, you will see picturesof all the cards which have been saved by anyone. The load screen justdisplays small pictures of the projects, with no text, so it issometimes difficult to determine which is the one you want until youactually load it.

According to the README file, the program does not work with networkprinters. This, plus the limited number of names allowed, mean thatthis is not a good choice for a school. It is aimed for home use, bychildren ages 5 and up.

Parents beware: because so many appealing projects are included, somekids will go crazy just printing them, using very little creativity. Youcould go broke if you don’t limit the amount of ink and paper you’llallow your kids to use. Even with its flaws, Barbie Print ‘n Play willbe enthusiastically welcomed by the legions of Barbie fans.

School House Scorecard

Product:	Barbie Print ‘n Play
Company:	Mattel Media Phone: 888-628-8359 Internet: www.mattelmedia.com/barbie/printplay
Cost:	$29.95

System Requirements:

Multimedia Computer PC (486/33MHz or faster),
Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, 8 MB RAM,
Double Speed CD-ROM drive, 256 VGA monitor,
mouse, printer.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 2
Entertainment Value 3
Graphics 4
Sound 4

Overall Score: