Label: Buttercraft Software
Price: £5.99
Memory: 16K/48K
Reviewer: John Gilbert

Do you still have one of those dinky ZX printers or, perhaps, a chunky Alpahcom 32? Do you wanna print posters using that shiny silver paper? I thought not, but Buttercraft has other ideas with ZX Big Shot, its Palaeolithic printer program.

Your poster is created in an on-screen window and the width and height can be varied by adjusting that window. To put a message on the screen press 'T' for the 'L' cursor and type in a maximum of 32 letters. Press 'P' to call the texture palette and select one of 26 patterns. Your input text will expand to fill the window which you can then move to position another message on screen.

You can fill windows with background textures, to complement text, or add to original textures by over printing one pattern onto another. Shadows can be added to the text to give it a 3D effect.

Superprint mode dumps your poster to paper. But first choose the text magnification by selecting one of six horizontal and vertical enlargement factors.

Once you've got a printout you can turn your creation into a poster using the instructions in Buttercraft's tacky cassette leaflet - the cover shot shows the miracles you can perform with the utility.

Separate the printout into strips, trim off the left edge of each strip and apply adhesive to the right edge. Then stick all your bits of paper to each other. Buttercraft recommends Scotch spraymount but I found sticky back plastic gave a finer finish.

ZX Big Shot is a waste of money, unless you intend to run large numbers of village fetes, or own a small business and can't afford a typesetter. It does everything it is supposed to do, but that's not much. At such a high price Buttercraft should be ashamed of itself.