#create-a-card

Executioner Man

DARK/Lv 7/Warrior/Fusion/Effect/2580 ATK/2230 DEF

There was a period in America (around 1994) at the where you could go into any department store or many grocery stores, and there was a touchscreen kiosk attached to a 5 foot tall printer and print out a personalized card on 8x11 paper you had to fold yourself, but it had the American Greetings picture and template you chose and your own words on it. They were totally cheaply made but it was the greatest thing in greeting card technology at the time because YOUR DIRTY SARCASM WAS ON A CARD. It was basically gone by 1997, replaced by home PCs. They even started bundling OEM licsensed Create-A-Card software with Gateway PCs and some printers.

Many creative people don't realize that they don't have to go out and purchase personalized stationary or are at the mercy of their word processing programs.

There are several software programs available for this purpose. The advantages of using these programs are many and once you get to your program you will find the ease of use to a great advantage. Some programs that come to mind are Create-A-Card and Printmaster. Both programs have mail merge, but that only works within the program. They have some editing abilities within the program so you don't have to have a second program to do simple photo or graphic editing. Another really nice feature is that these programs have "Themes" if you don't know what you want you can browse through their themes section and choose something that you like. Then you can take it and customize they way you like. The more you use the program the more your style, likes, dislikes, page layouts will take shape. Then you can branch off and start creating from scratch.

There are other desktop publishing programs available that are capably of more personalization, these include MS Publisher, Home Publisher and others. They do support mail merge from within the MS Office collection. It is also important to note that the above mentioned programs also have templates available for newsletters, business cards (using Avery Product Numbers), envelopes, letter head and more.

When making your letterhead take into consideration your contacts, are these professional, casual professional a mix of both? Choose a font that is clear to read and not too fancy. Many people get turned off if they can't read the information quickly without trying to decipher your font. Choose graphics or logo's that are simple, but convey your business and don't grab the attention of your stationary. You don't want the reader distracted by colorful graphics and fancy fonts this takes away from your message. A nice slim border is nice or a side bar border would work. You have to experiment and see what works for you. Also it is important to keep in mind that leaving "white space" is a good idea, the theory of less is best does work.

Many years ago we were quite content using productivity software such as Print Artist, Create-A-Card, Hallmark and others. Fast-forward to the present and we are looking for more. We are learning to make our own graphics, rather than someone else's. With this yearning many graphic software programs are in use more than ever. Our fascination and surprise when we create a graphic urges us to learn more. When we wander down the software aisles there are many programs to choose from, each offers customization, creating graphics from scratch. Some are for printing, while others are for web pages and email. What programs do we want? Are they easy to use? Are they affordable? All these questions run through our mind and usually create complete overload.

My articles are going to focus on different programs, what they can or can't do and why. Also there are several graphic software programs available on the Internet for free. I'll be translating techno lingo to layman's terms and sharing sites and reviews about free programs, third party plug-ins, tutorials, add-on's and many other programs that will enhance and work together with graphic software. At first this may be an overwhelming experience, but the more informed you are the easier it will become to create your own graphics for personal use, web pages and for selling your creations.

I will be referring to my articles on Computer Crafting frequently as the ideas I've presented in those articles can be taken a step further by replacing already made graphics with your own.