Reviews by SoftSign™ Users…

“You guaranteed I'd be satisfied and I most certainly am!! Both sigs look great! Many, many thanx!”
— SY

“The…signature you sent me looks & works GREAT! I’ll sing its praises to other computer users I know…. Thanks again…”
— CG

“I received my [signature] in the mail today and it looks great! The printout looks like I just signed it myself and my wife says it is MORE legible than usual. (Phycicians are not known for great penmanship, you know). Thanks again for a great job and PRONTO service!”
— JO

“I just received my [signature] from you today, and I'm very pleased. Your turnaround time was extremely short and [it] looks great. If you ever need a reference, please give anyone my name.”
— JG

“I received your program…And I think it is just Great! I will be doing a review this month for my newsletters, do you want to sent me some stuff for the groups and some special prices for the group only?”
— TS

Given these kind words, we quickly accepted his offer to review out signature software. The following review (with updated contact information in brackets) by Thomas Siblo appeared in the April, 1992 issue of Worm’s View (Vol. 14, No. 4), the monthly newsletter of Apple Squires of the Ozarks, Inc.

Have you ever wished that you could sign your letters that you create with your word processor before they’re printed, either by simply typing the first letter of your last name while using your own personal font or by pasting in a graphic of your signature? Well, so did Bob Welch, president of Queen City Computer Press, Inc., a small (as in one–man operation) DTP/graphics design company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Earlier this year, he began working on the concept. Being extremely creative and quite knowledgeable in the graphic designs area, he created a way of taking his own signature and transforming it into a Macintosh PICT format. The result of all his hard work was the ability of pasting his signature to any document created by an application which accepts PICT graphics (that’s almost all Macintosh applications). Best of all, he could print his signature smoothly, any size — without the jaggies — on his PostScript printer.

He immediately realized that other Mac users might like to be able to paste their own signatures, prepared the same way, into their documents. So he began advertising his product as “MacSignature” on America Online (where I met him), offering fast service and a thirty day money–back guarantee of satisfaction. To establish a reputation of exceptional service for his small Cincinnati company, Bob always ships his personalized software disks by first class mail within 24 hours of receiving orders.

Queen City has continued to develop their product by also offering their personalized signature software to IBM/PC users too — and by offering it in both font and graphics versions to both Mac and PC users. Expanding to a wider market, the product is now called “SoftSign.” SoftSign Fonts disks sell for $40 per signature and SoftSign Graphics disks for $25 per signature. PC users may specify a preference for shipment on 3.5" or 5.25" disks.

All SoftSign Fonts disks contain a personalized font in both the PostScript type 1 format (compatible with ATM) and the new TrueType format which does not require a PostScript printer to print smoothly. (PC users will be able to begin using TrueType fonts within the next few weeks, when the next version of Windows is expected to ship.) Many programs permit designating screen and ink colors for selected text, which means that SoftSign Fonts offer potential for a wide range of colors.

SoftSign Graphics disks contain an EPS graphic, which may be ordered in a choice of colors — blue, red, green, violet, brown or orange. (For best results with non–color printers, black is the recommended color.) The Macintosh version also contains a free copy of the original MacSignature Scrapbook (i.e., special PICT with PostScript code) in both System 7 and pre–System 7 formats. (While the old Scrapbook file will work with System 7, its System 7 creator, type and icon are different and its System flag is set; rebuilding the desktop with the older version of the Scrapbook file in the System Folder will not automatically make these changes.) All versions are guaranteed by Queen City Computer Press, Inc. to give the same fine results — smooth printing, any size without the jaggies.

To get more information about ordering SoftSign: (1) Drop a note to Bob Welch at Queen City Computer Press, Inc., [4945 Kenridge Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45242], (2) or send him email [rwelch1@cinci.rr.com], where he rarely misses a day checking his email, or (3) call him [any time at 513–205–3631]. I highly recommend this product, first and [utmost], because it really works (I own the product), and also because Bob is a good friend and a small one man operation trying to compete against the larger established software companies. Give him and his product a try, and I'm sure you would be quite satisfied with both.

Since this review was written, new graphic and font technologies have become available and the Internet has become the world’s communication channel of choice. We now develop SoftSign™ as versatile TrueType fonts and can deliver them even faster (and free) via email.