Adobe Acrobat (1993) 7 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

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 6 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)

CorelDraw! (1989) 6 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)

Microsoft Works (1986) 5 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)

dBASE (1983) 4 Database DOS Windows

Ashton-Tate dBase was an early popular database management system for CP/M and MS-DOS. It was regarded as one of the killer applications for CP/M, and achieved good success. At the time of conception Ashton-Tate was a garage based company but quickly grew.

• II v2.x
• III v1.0
• III v1.1
• III Plus v1.0
• III Plus v1.1
• IV v1.0
• IV v1.1
• IV v1.5
• IV v2.0
• 5.x

Clarion (1989) 2 Database DOS

Clarion is an advanced user friendly 4GL DBMS and programming environment for DOS and Windows. It boasted the ability to greatly reduce application development time, featured highly integrated visual creation tools, and a powerful set of program functions.

• 2.X (DOS)
• 3.0 (DOS)
• 3.1 (DOS)

Ability (1985) 2 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database DOS

Originally released in 1984 by the Canadian company Xanaro that went bankrupt, and then by Migent, Ability is an integrated office suite for DOS that includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, telecommunications, business graphing, presentation graphics capabilities, and built in file management. It features good integration between the different components, with the ability to import, share, and dynamically update data between them. It was advertised as a very easy to use and a quick to learn system.

• 1.0
• Demo
• 1.2
• Plus 1.0
• Plus 2.0

The Print Shop (1984) 1 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

PFS First Publisher (1988) 1 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

Lotus Symphony (1984) 1 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

BannerMania (1989) 1 Graphics Publishing DOS

Banner Mania is a banner making program for IBM PC compatible computers, enabling the user to create banners, posters, signs and logos. It can create and print multi-page banners, with 19 different fonts and effects in 16 colors.

• 1.0

PFS First Choice (1987) 1 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

Framework (1984) 1 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Communications Database DOS

Originally created by Forefront Corporation for Ashton-Tate and first released in 1984, Framework was an early integrated office suite for DOS. It has a built in word processor, spreadsheet, database, outliner, graphing, and telecommunications.

• 1.0
• Premier 1.x
• II
• III
• XE
• IV

Print Magic (1988) 1 Publishing DOS

Print Magic is a sign, card, and banner printing program, similar to Print Master. Compared to others of the time, its functionality is rather crude, lacking previews or undo.

• 1.0

The Video Wizard (1986) 1 Database DOS

The Video Wizard, from IntraCorp, Inc., is a database program specifically for keeping track of video tapes. Among other things it has the ability to locate blank space on your tapes. It also includes a primitive video titler for use with IBM CGA composite video out. This program was also available for a number of other platforms such as Apple II, C64, and Atari ST.

• 1986

IBM Architecture And Engineering Series (1989) 1 Engineering Unix

The IBM Architecture and Engineering Series (AES) is a complete, high end, integrated, 3D drafting and information system. Developed by the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) for IBM, this 3D Computer Aided Design system meets the needs of architects, engineers, and builders.

• 1.x

Fontrix (1984) 1 Publishing DOS

Fontrix is a crude single-page typesetting program for the IBM PC that prints high quality custom fonts on a dot-matrix printer. It includes a font editor, and number of font packs were available for it.

• 2.x

New Deal Office (1999) 0 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

Easy Working Desktop Publisher (1992) 0 Publishing DOS

Easy Working Desktop Publisher is a rebranded version of PFS:First Publisher. PFS:First Publisher and the other PFS titles were acquired from Software Publishing Corp by Spinnaker Software in 1991.

• 1.0

Enable (1985) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS

Enable, from The Software Group, is an integrated office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, telecommunications program, and database. It was designed to compete with Lotus Symphony, and was sometimes bundled with Zenith computers.

• 1.10

Oracle Server (1991) 0 Server Database DOS

Oracle Server is an enterprise grade relational database used in many corporations. It was mainly targeted at high end server operating systems, such as IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, HP UX, Digital VMS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows NT. Oracle makes current versions of their software avaialble for download, but older versions usually disappear.

• 6

Xerox Globalview (1992) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Publishing Communications Database Unix

Xerox Globalview is a desktop environment and office suite originally developed for the Xerox Star. It was developed in the MESA programming language on the Xerox Star, and ported to Sun Solaris, OS/2, and Windows 3.1 (The OS/2 version requires a MESA emulator card).

• 1.00 for X / SunOS
• 1.05 for X / SunOS

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 0 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)

LogicTree (1988) 0 Database DOS

Logictree, From CAM Software, is an easy to use Expert System program that makes decisions based on a programmed "tree" of information.

• Demo

The Print Shop Companion (1984) 0 Graphics Publishing DOS

As the name suggests, the Print Shop Companion is a companion product to The Print Shop. It contains extra miscellaneous functionality such as graphics editors and envelope printing.

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