 "In
my day,"...they used to offer multitudes of free greeting
cards on the Internet. Well, it wasn't that long ago, but
we do miss oodles of free greeting card choices!
You
can print up--and email--quality, customized greeting cards
with this software program. It's not free, but it's fun and
convenient. In fact, you can also customize and personalize
envelopes, invitations, stationery, and even stickers with Hallmark
Card Studio Deluxe too. With
this program, "tweaking" and adding your own sense of
style to greeting cards and print projects is particularly
rewarding, simply because you get to start with
high-quality templates--which not only includes nice images, but
also professionally-written text. Featuring
Hallmark-quality clip art images, "sentiments", and
fonts, this program offers all the tools you'll need to express
yourself on possibly any occasion you can think of. The samples,
or templates, are rather inspiring. You can personalize the
program's pre-made templates, or, if you're bold, you can start
from scratch. The program is fairly simple to use. Examples
of categories and options: The themes and categories range
from "Just Because" cards to "Today's
Stepfamily" ones. The Birthday category, for example, even
includes "holiday birthday" cards for those lucky (or
unlucky!) souls whose birthdays fall on a holiday. Holiday cards
are also covered. You can refine your search for cards within a
category to things like "sentimental", "simply
said", "funny stuff", "sweet stuff", and
so forth. Some
notes about the program: Be prepared to dedicate a fair
amount of hard drive space for this program. The
"recommended" install takes up 1.6 GB, but the benefits
of this include not having to disc-swap -- there
are 3 CDs in the set. Another option is to install all but the
clip art images, which requires 1.3 GB. The "compact"
install requires about half a gig, but remember that, with this
last option, you'll have to move around CDs every now and again as
you move through the program. Extras:
The software also contains an
Event Planner that allows you to keep track of birthdays,
anniversaries, and any other day that might call for a card! It
also gives users the ability to easily create mailing lists. The
Event Planner provides notifications of special events that you've
inputted.
E-cards, complete with sound and/or animation, are another option. A
new photo editing application is included. This allows you to
import photos and then "tweak" them (remove red-eye,
resize, flip, brighten, or enhance color). A
color printer is pretty much an artistic necessity with this
program. The program
features a Kid Lock option--if you'd like to password-protect your
program, you can. There is nothing really raunchy in the program
that warrants much concern, but there are a few slightly
"questionable" phrases. A starter
package of specialty Hallmark papers is included in the box of
this deluxe edition. For
more information, user reviews, or to buy, follow this link:
Hallmark Card Studio Deluxe 2003
More screens
from the program -- these are some of the many, many greeting card
covers:
Pros:
- Wide variety of greeting
card styles and designs to choose from, most of which
are high quality.
- Fairly easy to use.
- Rather flexible for
those who enjoy tinkering with images and text.
- Photo-editing program
included in the package.
- Starter kit of Hallmark
print materials, including envelopes, card stock, and
more.
|
Cons:
- If you are looking for a
program with top-quality clip art, this one may
disappoint.
|
Back to
Family Fun & Learning Guide
| For Windows |
By: Sierra Home |
Ages 8-up |
Published: 2002 |
|
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