Sophie’s Cards Inc. has just released version 6 of its card creating software and there are a number of interesting features that should be of interest to those who enjoy creating their own cards, note cards, postcards, business cards, and framable art. The software offers nine different card sizes including US and international sizes.
The application requires a Power PC G5 with at least 256 MB of RAM running at least Mac OS 10.5 or greater. I tested it using Lion and experienced no problems. It is available as a download, a CD, or can be purchased as a download/CD package. The MSRP is US$39.95. The CD is an additional US$7.99. There is also a demo version available for download.
Using The Product
The steps for creating a product are very simple, but they are not in the order that one would expect, i.e., you don’t start by selecting the style. You start by choosing your photo. It can be from the stock options available in software, or you can easily upload your own. The stock option photos are quite lovely, and you can choose by topic or occasion. You do not have to be concerned about size when uploading unless you try to use an image that is just too small. For example, I uploaded a high resolution photo that was 1200 pixels by 1400 pixels and the software automatically adjusted the photo to fit as needed.
After selecting a photo you choose a verse or write your own. Again, you can choose by topic or occasion. There are numerous choices from which to choose.
The next step is to select your format, size, orientation, font, font size, and font color. Once your project has been created you can add borders or accents, such as the butterfly in the following sample.
Typical greeting card
Typical postcard
You can print or e-mail your project and save it or not, as you choose. When creating post cards, you have the option of importing data from the OS X Address Book.
There are preferences that allow you to make choices about the items that appear on the back side of a project.
There are some limitations. You can not control the size or placement of images for business cards other than put the images at the top or bottom of the card. The following samples show the three styles that are offered — Portrait with large image, Landscape with small image, and Portrait with small image.
Sample business card styles
There are also limitations about placement of photos and text. On the other hand, the software is designed to facilitate attractive, well designed products with a minimum of effort on the part of the user. To achieve the one, the other is required.
Do I recommend it?
I do. I had fun creating cards and was quite pleased with the results. The finished products were well designed and the layout was attractive. The quality of the in stock images is very good, and it was easy to upload my own images from my desktop. The verses offered as part of the software were also very nice, particularly the “I love you” selections. Since a full version is available as a trial there is nothing to lose by trying it.