Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to Software

When Cliff Carle heard his friend's hilarious homemade answering machine message back in 1983, he decided to one-up him and create a funny message of his own. The competition that ensued ended only when Carle and his friend decided to turn their messaging fun into a collection-and to start a company to publish it. CCC Publications was born in Chatsworth, California, when it printed its first book: No Hang-Ups: Funny Answering Machine Messages.

No Hang-Ups met with nationwide popularity, and Carle and his partners decided to expand the company. CCC now publishes 30 titles a year, mostly humor books.

For covers and interiors to the books CCC publishes, Carle works closely with graphic designers. And the key to those relationships is flexibility-which Print Shop Pro, Broderbund's desktop publishing software, affords him in spades.

"I need to be able to make instant changes-larger images, smaller images, different colors, take something out, put it back in," Carle says. Print Shop Pro gives him the speed to make his changes in a flash, but not at the expense of advanced imaging capabilities. "The easy-to-use gradient tool lets me create images that seem three-dimensional."

Print Shop Pro can print right to film format, so Carle doesn't have to fuss with a complicated process. The former stand-up comedian would rather be finding the next book to make people laugh.

This article was originally published in the November 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: <i>Entrepreneur</i>'s Complete Guide to Software.