The relationship between computing and art is much richer than we think. The advances in audio and video during the '80s accelerated the creative development of an entire generation, and over the years, software tools improved their accessibility notably. One of the most remembered examples is BannerMania, which allowed us to create all kinds of posters, ads, and logos with special effects, without needing additional programs or programming knowledge.
The early days of the IBM PC and its clones in the multimedia universe were not entirely good. In fact, it's no exaggeration to say that in the second half of the '80s, these systems were lost in the desert. While "home computers" (think Commodore 64/128, the Amiga family, and Atari ST) offered excellent sound and superior palettes, PCs could barely work with four colors and an internal speaker.
However, the situation began to improve. In 1987, the AdLib card appeared with its FM synthesis, the VGA standard made its first steps that same year, and software didn't lag behind, presenting friendly tools and a more elaborate graphic profile. One of those tools was BannerMania, a precursor to what we know as WordArt. BannerMania gave every user a unique opportunity to create logos, ads, signs, and posters in just minutes, freeing their inner artist.
BannerMania: Custom Posters and Logos in the Late '80s
BannerMania was a development by Presage Software Development, Christopher Schardt and Dane Bigham for the Pixellite Group, and distributed by Broderbund Software, the same Broderbund behind Prince of Persia, Carmen Sandiego, and Myst. From a technical point of view, BannerMania wasn't the first software of its kind: Broderbund launched The Print Shop in 1984, and its subsequent updates allowed it to incorporate additional functions, but BannerMania remained in its original version, with a total of 19 fonts, 34 effects, 27 shapes, and a maximum of 16 colors. In essence, BannerMania can be interpreted as a 'lite variant' of The Print Shop.
Documentation about BannerMania isn't very abundant beyond the official Broderbund catalog, but we know it was available for MS-DOS, Apple II, and classic Mac OS. The May 1991 issue of Boys' Life magazine confirms in a small article that the official price of BannerMania for DOS and Apple II versions was $35, while Macintosh users had to invest $60 (adjusted for inflation).
Just like The Print Shop in its time, pirated copies of BannerMania spread almost immediately, thanks to the absence of copy-protection mechanisms and a relatively small size (a low-density floppy disk). Its extreme ease of use also contributed to its popularity: trying an effect and undoing changes took a few seconds, even on slow computers. The only advanced technical aspects were the printer selection (more than 120 preconfigured models), the port (with support for LPT and COM), the paper size, and the color confirmation for printers that supported it.
To finish, I'd like to highlight two functions in BannerMania. The first was the Transmogrify mode, to combine patterns and effects randomly. If the first poster wasn't entirely satisfactory, Transmogrify could turn it into a completely different design. And the second was the preview, a "print simulation" that helped visualize the size and number of sheets. In reality, this only confirmed something we already knew about BannerMania: It was an absolute ribbon destroyer.
"What if I want it on Windows?"
With the appearance of WordArt in 1991 and the launch of more advanced graphic tools, programs like BannerMania lost relevance quickly. However, The Print Shop never went away, and it's still available for modern versions of Windows. On the other hand, the web offers free online versions of WordArt, and there are alternatives like InkPx and CoolText that work quite well. Do you think there's another current program worthy of being BannerMania's heir? Leave a comment!
