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Charles Moore Reviews HappyHolidays! 2.1 Greeting Card Software
•Hot Topics •News •Reviews •Graphics/Design •MooresViews •Comments •Tell-a-Friend
HappyHolidays! is a lightweight photo greeting card software application from 24x7 Digital, the folks who also develop the HappyNewYear! custom calendar creation software I reviewed here earlier this yearthat lets you combine on your own photo images with a standard CD jewel case to make very attractive little desk calendars.
While it's possible to make greeting cards from scratch using word processors and paint/draw graphics applications, a program like HappyHolidays! makes the process, much slicker and easier.
Using HappyHolidays!, you can choose create a new photo card by choosing one of the provided pre-made card templates, or one of the blank template fields in which you can enter and configure your own photos and text.
Starting with a pre-made card template makes the card creation process much easier. Simply choose a card template, then customize your card by changing the text, font, colors, and photos.
Unlike some card creation programs, HappyHolidays! is limited to making photo or postcard-type cards as opposed to the single or double-fold cards possible with several more expensive card creation programs, but if that motif suits, the price of HappyHolidays! is a very reasonable $10.00, and the program works very well - indeed i would rate it the easiest to use card creation software I've sampled.
You can print your HappyHolidays! photo card with your own inkjet or color laser printer, or at any photo center that prints digital photos, because HappyHolidays! supports saving your photo card as a 4x6 jpeg photo file. Printing 4x6 prints is very inexpensive - as low as $0.12 each with no minimum order.
To create a card with HappyHolidays!, first use the template picker to choose a card template with the layout that you want for your card. With the version 2.1 release, HappyHolidays! includes 16 sample templates with photos and sample text for occasions like birth announcements, Father's Day, Mother's Day, apologies and other events.
Frankly, I'm not terribly smitten with any of the provided samples, but they can serve to kick-start the creative process of designing your own cards, which is really the point of this program. There are also eight variously-formatted blank card templates in vertical and horizontal orientations and picture/text arrangements. A size adjustment slider in the Template Picker window allows you to zoom the sample previews.
Select the card template you prefer by clicking on it, then click the Choose button to open a a new card creation window based on the selected template. To import an image to your new card, just drag the image file into the image field, Or use the Add Image button in the Toolbar to bring up a navigation dialog and select from there. Tiff, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PICT, and Photoshop (PSD) documents all worked when I tried them, and perhaps other formats will as well.
In the left pane of the card window are controls for choosing the card's margin width, the number of images (either one image or a collage of four), and the background color, the image rotation angle with 360° control, and infinite zoom and scaling controls.
Click in the text field of the card preview, and a text properties pane opens with a field in which to type your text message, plus buttons to select fonts, font color, custom characters, text mode (Do Not Wrap; Wrap Text; and Shrink to Fit), text orientation (0°, 90°, 180° 270°) and text alignment (Top, Bottom, Center). You can write part or all of your text message in any language supported by Mac OS X.
There are also Zoom buttons in the toolbar, which is user-customizable.
When you're satisfied with your card creation, You can save it to disk, print it, or export it to a JPEG file or to OS X Mail App. HappyHolidays! allows you easily email your photo card using Apple's Mail application, and will convert your photo card into a 4"x6" 72dpi JPEG file and automatically adds the JPEG file as an attachment to a new Mail message.
As I noted above, all of this works quite well, and I found the program quite intuitive. If you do get stuck, there is a good, searchable online help module to answer your questions.
HappyHolidays! starts up quickly, and didn't seem to have any bug issues. It's quick and lively on my 1.33 GHz PowerBook , and It's an easy download at just 3.8 MB for the compressed disk image file.
The downloaded software operates by default in demo mode, and superimposes watermarks until you've entered a registration key, which must be done with your computer connected to the Internet. You also must register online using a credit card for payment. Once registered, officially the program must be used on that computer.
However, developer spokesman Mark Yamashita tells me that while the product nominally only supports a single computer license, an exception is made for users want to use the software at work and home, or on laptop and desktop. The default registration allows you to install the software on 2 computers, even though the license says it is a single computer license. The online registration procedure is a bit of a bother, and I guess if you change computers after the two allowed registrations are burned off, it will be necessary to contact the developer, 24x7digital; and see about getting registration switched over. As one who tends to keep software for years, or even decades, the lack of portability doesn't enchant me.
However, that's about all I found not to like with HappyHolidays!, and if you're content with the non-folding card motifs supported, this little program is a very good value at $10.00
New in version 2.1:
• Universal Binary
• New templates for Father's Day, Events and Baby Announcements
• Template Picker improvements
New in Version 2.0:
• Card templates make it easier than ever to create your own great looking photo card.
• Card templates for Mother's Day
• Card templates for Birth Announcements
• Card editing improvements: you can now resize the card window and also zoom the card preview in and out. The text editing area is also larger and its background color corresponds to the background color of the card.
Requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
$10.00 Shareware
For more information, visit:
http://www.24x7digital.com/happyholidays/
Appendix
HappyHolidays! control options in detail:
Margin:
The margin is the empty space between the edge of the card and the contents of the card (the image and text message areas). When exporting to JPEG and having your card printed by a digital photo lab, the developers recommend using a margin of at least 1/4", or no margin at all. Digital photo labs may crop a small portion of your card.
Images:
This setting controls the number of images in the main photo area of the card. The photo area can contain a single image or a 2x2 grid of images.
Background:
This control lets you change the background color of the card. Click on the colored rectangle to the right of the Background label and the color palette will open. Use the color palette to choose the card's background color.
Changing any of these settings can be undone. To undo your last setting change, choose Edit > Undo.
Changing the text message
Edit the text message:
It is important to decide whether to use line breaks (the Return key), or to just type and let the text wrap in the text editing area on its own. Line breaks tell HappyHolidays! exactly where you want one line to end and the next to start. If you type a line longer than the text editing area, the line will auto wrap in the text editing area. The text message size on the card and the text mode will affect how a long line like this will look on the card.
You can change the formatting of your text message by using the Format menu.
Fonts Button
Use the Fonts button to show the Mac OS X Font panel. The Font panel can also be used to change the font family, font typeface, font size, and even drop shadow effects.
Colors Button
Use the Colors button to show the Mac OS X Colors panel. Select your text in the message area, and apply a different font color from the Colors panel.
Chars Button
Use the Chars button to show the Mac OS X Special Characters panel. Use the Character Palette to insert symbols and shapes into the text message area.
Text Mode:
Shrink To Fit
In this mode, your message may be scaled down to fit the card both vertically and horizontally. You must add line breaks (use the Return key) in your text if you want to have multiple lines of text. For long lines without line breaks, the line will not wrap. Long lines of text may cause horizontal scaling so that the entire line will be visible without wrapping. Adding many lines of text (using many line breaks) may cause vertical scaling so that all lines are visible.
Wrap Text
In this mode, your message will never be scaled down to fit on the card. Add line breaks (use the Return key) in your text if you want control where one line ends and another begins. For long lines without line breaks, the line will automatically wrap when it is too large to fit on one line. If your message is too long, or your font size is too large, your message may be clipped on the card. To remove any clipping, make the font size of your message smaller, or make your message shorter.
Do Not Wrap
In this mode, your message will never be scaled down to fit on the card. You must add line breaks (use the Return key) in your text if you want to have multiple lines of text. For long lines without line breaks, the line will not wrap. If your message is too long, or your font size is too large, your message may be clipped on the card. To remove any clipping, make the font size your message smaller, or make your message shorter.
Text Orientation:
This controls the orientation of the text message on the card. You can change this setting and your text message will be rotated to the orientation you choose.
Vertical Alignment:
This controls the vertical alignment of the text message on the card. You can change this setting and the vertical alignment of your text message will be aligned based on the alignment you choose.
Any changes to these settings can be undone. To undo changes to any of these settings, choose Edit > Undo.
For more information, visit:
http://www.24x7digital.com/happyholidays
Charles W. Moore
•Hot Topics •News •Reviews •Graphics/Design •MooresViews •Comments •Tell-a-Friend
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