By Mark Kellner
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Like Diogenes searching for an honest soul, I keep looking for good - or, perhaps, even better - applications for the Apple Macintosh. I found one, while another fell a bit short of expectations.

Business Card Composer, from BeLight Software of Odessa, Ukraine, is a remarkably capable program aimed at a specific need. For $39.95, you get a program capable of designing and printing business cards via inkjet or laser printers. It's written to work with Mac OS X, and it performs well.

Once the domain of private eyes such as television's Jim Rockford, the need for fast printing of business cards is now being experienced by entrepreneurs, mobile executives and hobbyists. Business Card Composer (details at www.belightsoft.com) features templates and suggested layouts, horizontal and vertical, as well as the ability to design your own card.

Using some artwork at hand, I set to work on a blank form and designed a card in about 20 minutes. It wasn't as intuitive as some processes might have been, but the result was fine and customizable.

If one truly wants to be creative, it is possible to add a photo background, which is popular in some circles.

The software also can integrate with Apple's Address Book application. This would let a company set up a standard card design and then print cards for employees as needed. Uniformity, an essential in the world of corporate branding, can be maintained easily with this approach.

Another impressive feature is that this program will create a version of your design in the Adobe Acrobat PDF format, which a commercial printer could use to create cards on higher-grade paper stocks.

I don't know of another, similar program for Mac users, and as such, Business Card Composer has the market pretty much sewn up. For those needing this kind of function, the program should be a welcome addition.