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Business
Card Composer
Developed by: Belight Software Ltd.
I don't know about the rest of the world,
but once in a while I need to create a business card. Just
a Business Card. Whether it's for me, or a client or for one of my daughter's
business ideas... And most of the time I don't need the adjoining [standard #10] business
envelope or contemporary letterhead to go with it.
It's times like these that I long for a simple
solution. Something easier than firing up InDesign [or Quark, Pagemaker
etc]; configuring the page size or trying to find the last set of card
templates from the previous time I felt I had to pack up the kids, the
van and half the living space just to drive around the block. [This
is much the way I feel when using a Page Layout software to design and
print a business card].
Business Card Composer from Belight Software
fills that need in spades. In fact it is so complete
and full-featured, in some ways I found myself overwhelmed by the possibilities.
It includes print size templates for all of the standard (and not-so-standard)
label and "print-your-own" business card
paper template companies; comes with a clipart and photo library of logo's,
practical art and scenic scenes to use as backgrounds, logos, and descriptors
for you to build a card with as well as it's most endearing feature -
it has seamless integration with Apple's OS X Address Book.
Simply click on the Text tool, click into place
your text and a window "appears" next to your i-Beam cursor with a list
of headings from the Address Book (Name, Address,
City, email etc) - I built
my first card
using the built-in wizard in less time than it takes
for QuarkXpress to normally open.
Business Card Composer's interface falls into
the "standard" utility window "with drawer" look like a lot of newer OS
X Jaguar Apps do. (similar to MAIL, iTunes
etc.). Another great feature of the interface is that you are only
dealing with one card. When it comes time to print - after selecting an
Avery template [or pick your favorite template manufacture and put them
here] the preview shows what the cards will look like upon printing,
with options for crop marks or dotted lines separators. Very simple and
very elegant. Just the way I like em.
There are very few "improvements" I would
suggest for future versions:
First is the price. Thirty-nine dollars & ninety-five cents ($39.95)
may be the value the programmer feels all the sweat and time is worth -
but for a "one-trick-pony" program [even one as good as this] $39.95 (US)
is a lot of money to fork over. It makes a person 'think too hard too buy'.
It's my experience as a developer and a businessman that you should dazzle
em and then get the money "quick". This program does
the dazzle part excellently. Maybe if it were cut to an even $20 (the standard
withdrawal at an ATM machine), the money would "slide easier from the pocket".
Or perhaps bundle BCC with another good one-trick program that does envelopes
and letterhead. Second, one of the options given in print templates
is a two-sided or folder "tent-style" card - as this is a "1.0" version
of the program I wasn't surprised when I wasn't able to "show and create"
a second page (or more) for that layout. But I suspect this is waiting in
the wings on a future update.
All-in-all, I'm VERY impressed with the Business Card
Composer package. For what it does it is a 99% complete solution...but
at the price point of $39.95 - a lot of people will find it hard to pay
out that much for just the pleasure of making quick, fun, excellent business
cards.
- Review by Michael Briney, AppleGram Editor for
July of 2003 edition of Apple Corps of Dallas
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