Adobe Illustrator (1988) 160 Graphics Unix MacOS

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. It was often sold as a companion product to the bit-map/photo editor Adobe Photoshop. Illustrator was originally released in 1987 for the Apple Macintosh. Early versions were ported to NexT, Silicon Graphics, and Sun Solaris.

• 5.5

Microsoft Works (1986) 89 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

Adobe Acrobat (1993) 63 Publishing Windows Unix MacOS

Adobe Acrobat, first released in 1993, is a tool for creating portable electronic documents. Its documents retain complex formatting when used across differing systems, so that they appear identical when viewed on screen or printed to a printer. Acrobat accomplishes this by encapsulating Adobe's PostSript printer language in to a document file format and offering the ability to embed fonts that are not present on the target system.

• 3.x

CorelDraw! (1989) 54 Graphics Publishing Unix

Corel Draw is a vector based drawing and illustration program. It is primarily a Windows application, but was ported to Mac OS, Mac OS X, Linux, CTOS and OS/2. It competed against Aldus Freehand, Adobe Illustrator, and Micrografx Designer.

• 3.5 (Unix)

The Print Shop (1984) 35 Publishing DOS

The Print Shop is a home oriented publisher capable of creating calendars, banners, greeting cards and other printable goods. It started off on the Apple II and Commodore 64 where it became popular for its simplicity and ease of use. From day one, it featured interactive editing, on-screen artwork/layout selection, print previewing, and a library of customizable clipart.

• For IBM PC (DOS)
• The NEW PS (DOS)
• Deluxe

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 28 Graphics Engineering DOS Unix

AutoCAD, from Autodesk and first released in 1982, is a powerful Computer Aided Design tool. It was, and still is, often considered the standard for CAD tools. Primarily for the IBM PC platform, it was ported to x86 machines with higher video resolutions such as the Zenith Z-100 and NEC APC. Intermittently, versions for the Macintosh appeared. Later versions use a dongle copy protection.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• r10 (DOS)
• r10 (Unix)
• r11 (DOS)

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 25 Graphics Publishing Novelty DOS

Instant Artist, later renamed to Print Artist, is a greeting card and sign creation program that uses vectorized graphics. It was created by The Pixellite Group, the original authors of The Print Shop, and published in 1992 by Autodesk. It was later sold by Sierra On-line. It features a high quality set of generic reusable clip art. The clip art uses vector based technology that was also used in BannerMania.

• 1.0 (DOS)

Procomm Plus (1985) 23 Communications DOS

ProComm, from Datastorm technologies, was a powerful and very popular telecommunications program for DOS and Windows. TERMULATOR, written to fill the gap left by shareware PC-Talk when its author died. protocols for uploading and downloading, and automatic redial. The commercial "ProComm Plus" includes a scripting language, more terminal types, additional file transfer protocols, context sensitive help, support for 8 COM ports, and a professionally written manual (telecommunications)](/product/microsoft_access_business_information_access_program), Crosstalk, Relay Gold, and PFS Access. Later, it competed with QModem and Telemate.

• 1.1 (shareware)
• 1.1
• 2.x (Shareware)
• 2.x

LapLink (1987) 19 Communications DOS

LapLink, from Traveling Software Inc., enables users to easily and quickly move files between two DOS computers using only a serial null-modem cable or a special parallel port connector. No other hardware is needed. Laplink was extremely popular.during the late 80s and early 90s. It was infinitely easier to set up any two arbitrary PCs (often portables or laptops) with LapLink than other methods, such as DOS based networking. MS-DOS 6 bundled a similar set of file transfer tools called INTERLNK and INTERSVR.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

DR Draw (1983) 15 Graphics DOS CPM

DR Draw is a shape-based drawing program that uses Digital Research's GSX graphics library, making it portable across CP/M and DOS architectures with different video systems.

• 1.x

Mathcad (1989) 12 Mathematics DOS

Mathcad is an easy to use graphical calculation program targeted at engineering professionals. It supports a wide variety of mathematical functions. There were versions for DOS, Macintosh, and Windows.

• 2.5

PFS First Choice (1987) 11 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Database DOS

PFS First Choice is a simple, easy to use integrated office suite marketed towards new users. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, database, and telecommunications. First Choice is similar to, but not as feature rich as, the standalone PFS office products. It competed against AlphaWorks/LotusWorks and Microsoft Works.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x

3D Studio (1992) 9 Graphics DOS

3D Studio, not to be confused with the later "3d Studio Max" product, is a DOS-based tool from Autodesk for creating 3d models and animations.

• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.x

Freelance Graphics (1985) 9 Presentations Graphics DOS

GCI/Lotus/IBM Freelance Graphics is a vector based presentation and graphing package developed for DOS, OS/2, and Windows. It was intended for use alongside Lotus 1-2-3. Later versions were part of SmartSuite. Before it was acquired by Lotus it was known Freelance, from Graphic Communications.

• 1.0 (DOS)
• 2.0 (DOS)
• 4.0 (DOS)

AutoSketch (1987) 8 Graphics DOS

AutoSketch is a 2D vector program sold by Autodesk. Unlike artistic drawing programs, AutoSketch is specifically geared towards engineering applications. Although not as powerful as AutoCAD, it can work with 2D AutoCAD files. Autodesk also produced AutoCAD LT, a higher end 2-D drawing program. But unlike AutoSketch, AutoCAD LT was based directly on AutoCAD and worked similarly.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

Lotus Symphony (1984) 8 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database DOS

Lotus Symphony is a an integrated software program that combines five tools: spreadsheet - word processing, graphics, database management, and data communications - in one package. The spreadsheet has similar functionality to Lotus 1-2-3, however it uses a different software "engine". These releases are of the original suite produced by Lotus. For the unrelated suite produced by IBM under the same name, see "IBM Lotus Symphony".

• 1.00
• 2.00
• 3.00

QuickLink (1990) 8 Communications DOS Windows

Quick Link Fax, from Smith Micro Software, is a program for receiving and sending Faxes under DOS and Windows 3.1 with a compatible FAXModem. It competed against Delrina WinFax. On the Macintosh, Smith Micro provided MacComCenter.

• II 1.0
• II 2.0
• II 3.2 (Win)

Harvard Graphics (1986) 7 Graphics DOS

Harvard Graphics, from Software Publishing Corporation and initially called Harvard Presentation Graphics, is a graphing/plotting/presentation creation application for DOS. It was extremely popular in the late 1980s. At release, it competed against many graphing products such as PFS:Graph (AKA IBM Graphing Assistant ), Microsoft Chart, ChartMaster, and Cricket Graph, just to name a small few. A Windows port was released in 1991, but it lost out to Microsoft Powerpoint.

• A.00
• A.01
• 2.x
• 3.x

DeluxePaint (1988) 7 Graphics DOS

DeluxePaint, from Electronic Arts, is a bitmap pixel graphics editor that was ported to DOS from the Amiga.

• 1.x
• 2.x

New Deal Office (1999) 6 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations DOS

Based on GeoWorks, New Deal Office was a graphical operating environment for DOS which later became Breadbox Ensemble. New Deal adds a Windows-95 like user interface with a task bar and start menu. New Deal Office targeted low-end 386 and 486 computers that were not up to the task of running Windows 95. It was also released in a "WebSuite" edition only includes the internet connectivity and web browsing tools.

• 3.1b
• 3.2a
• 2000

Publish-IT (1988) 6 Publishing DOS

Publish-It! is a WYSIWYG desktop publishing tool originally created by the UK based GST Software for the TOS/GEM Atari ST system. There were versions for IBM PC/GEM, Apple II, Macintosh (as "Publish-It! Easy"), and later Microsoft Windows. desktop publishing tools, it is not a full word processor, but rather imports text and focuses on high-quality formatting and printing. budget title for home users. SoftKey also released a version branded as Key Publisher

• 1.x
• 2.0

GEM Draw (1985) 6 Graphics DOS

GEM Draw, from Digital Research, is an easy to use Vector based drawing program for the GEM Desktop. It features the ability to open two drawing windows and drag objects between different drawings.

• 1.x
• Plus 2.x

Packard Bell Navigator (1993) 5 Utility Other DOS

Packard Bell Navigator is an alternate user interface that replaces the Windows 3.1 Program Manager shell. It presents the content of your computer as a series of rooms.

• 3.5

Terminate (1997) 5 Communications DOS

Terminate was a shareware modem terminal and host program for MS-DOS and compatible operating systems.

• 5.0

PFS First Publisher (1988) 5 Publishing DOS

First Publisher, from Software Publishing Corporation, is a WYSIWYG desktop publisher for DOS that excels at producing extremely high quality text and graphics print even using dot-matrix printers. This program originated as T/Maker Clickart. In 1991 Software Publishing Corp sold their PFS series to Spinnaker Software, where it became Easy Working Desktop Publisher.

• 2.0
• 2.01 for DeskMate
• Art
• 3.0