Banner Mania

Banner Mania is a DOS graphics utility devoted to the surprisingly important art of making banners, signs, headings, and other large pieces of text. Before modern desktop publishing made decorative typography almost effortless, creating a decent-looking banner could involve considerably more imagination and patience. Banner Mania offered users a way to produce oversized lettering and visual messages using a printer and a personal computer, turning an otherwise ordinary document into something with a little more personality. The software belongs to the wonderfully practical category of programs that solved very specific problems, often with tools that seem quaint today. There is something charming about preparing a banner on a DOS machine and sending it to a printer, probably while listening carefully to every mechanical clunk. It may not be glamorous software, but it captures the creative side of early home computing surprisingly well.