By request: business cards and labels

We got this request in the mail:

hi pls add business card makers, labelers, and the like. pretty please :) thank you :)

How could we resist?

DesignPro is a freeware app from Avery that helps you design binders, mailing labels, other types of labels, media labels & inserts, photo ID, card products, specialty products such as T-shirts, name badges, business cards, and dividers & tabs. As you might expect, a program that does so much weighs in at a hefty 329 MB — so consider yourself forewarned.

At first glance, DesignPro appears to give a lot of bang for the buck with plenty of templates to choose from. But we would recommend using them as the basis for you own designs if you have any talent in this area, as we found many of the designs provided by Avery to be on the cheesy side. Compare them, for example, with the gorgeous templates found in the iLife suite.

DesignPro gets credit for going the extra mile for Mac users by integrating access to your iPhoto library. There are also libraries of clip art and stock photos, but — again — you should think twice before using them if you want a truly professional look.

It’s worth noting that Avery makes much of the fact that this program is for use with Avery products. In other words, once you’ve designed your labels, they’d love it if you would print them off on the physical Avery labels. Unless we’re mistaken, though, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why you couldn’t use products from a different manufacturer.

Posted Sunday, December 28, 2008 in Reviews