License Agreement and Limited Warranty CardShop Plus! is licensed for use only in accordance with the accompanying license agreement and limited warranty.
PLEASE READ THE LICENSE AGREEMENT AND LIMITED WARRANTY CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SOFTWARE.
No part of this manual may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of The Software Toolworks, Inc. Except as specifically provided in the license agreement, you may not reproduce the software without the written permission of The Software Toolworks, Inc.
Use of Text and Graphics
You may incorporate text and graphics from CardShop Plus! into documents for personal, non-commercial use, but you may not remove any copyright notices contained in or generated by the program or copy, distribute or otherwise use the text or graphics contained in or generated in the Program in violation of Toolworks or its suppliers copyrights (even if said information or graphics do not contain a copyright notice). If you are interested in using the text or graphics from CardShop Plus! for commercial purposes, you must contact The Software Toolworks, Inc., 60 Leveroni Court, Novato, CA 94949.
The Software Toolworks and logo are registered trademarks and CardShop Plus! is a trademark of The Software Toolworks, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Corp. HP and DeskJet are registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company.
Chapter 1 Introducing...
Welcome to CardShop Plus!, your card and stationery shop in a box. How often have you wanted to send a greeting card, but didn't have time to go shopping or could not find just the right card? Now you can create your own professional-looking greeting cards, certificates, awards, signs, and personalized stationery right in your own home for just pennies a piece. CardShop will let you and your whole family create quick and easy designs for every occasion.
Greeting Cards
Greeting cards are a convenient way to say ìI care about you to someone else. People usually send cards to celebrate a holiday or other kind of special occasion. Cards also express personal feelings, which might be more easily said in a card. You can also create party invitations, thank-you notes, and announcements with CardShop's many occasions.
Personalized cards are the latest card trend. Now you can make your own personalized cards whenever you want, for a fraction of the cost of the do-it-yourself kiosk cards.
Certificates and Awards
So your friend just got a promotion or your son hit a home run? You can use the Certificates and Awards occasion to create your own special commemorations. Certificates and awards look best printed on high-quality paper. See Ordering Paper later in this chapter.
Stationery & Letterhead
Now you can have all the personalized letterhead, stationery and note cards you can use for yourself or to give as gifts. The Any Day occasion provides borders and clip art you can use to decorate your full page images.
Add your name and, if you like, your address and phone number in a decorative font. Or create note cards by adding art to a blank card, leaving plenty of room for writing personal notes.
Signs
Need to announce a special event? You can create signs for any occasion, such as a Valentine' s Day Dance or Christmas Bazaar. You will also find art and borders in the Any Day occasion that you can use in your signs. Make the text large enough to read from a distance. You might also consider mounting your finished signs on cardboard backing.
Special Features
Everything you need is on one main screen. CardShop's special features give you lots to work with:
All of these special occasions to choose from Easy drag & drop elements a child can use abundant array of great-looking art Hundreds of message sentiments
Predesigned greeting cards, certificates, and awards
Decorative fonts for fancy lettering Color-It outline art for coloring in yourself. Art especially designed for monochrome printers.
Ability to import graphics
Messages you can personalize with names
Full-page printing for signs, stationery, and certificates
High quality paper you can order directly from the High Desert Software paper outlet
In Color or Black & White?
CardShop art is designed to look superb on both color and monochrome output. If you have a color printer, your cards will print in the colors your printer can produce.
If you have a monochrome printer, your cards will come out in rich grayscale tones. Here are some tips:
Special black and white art, like art deco designs and penguins, make striking monochrome cards.
The Color-It occasion has outline art for coloring in with felt pens, colored pencils and crayons.
Add color to your cards by printing on colored paper, available for order from High Desert Software.
Ordering Paper
You can order our special environmentally friendly paper and matching envelopes in assorted colors for your greeting cards, certificates, stationery, and signs.
Paper is 81/2" x 11", 28 lb. recycled bond, designed to work well with laser and ink jet printers. You can order flat sheet or pre-scored paper for easy folding of cards. Matching A2 envelopes are available for the 51/2" x 41/4" card size.
You can order paper by the 100-sheet pack or try the Sample Pack to get smaller quantities of all available colors.
To order paper:
Call our toll-free number: 1-800-796-9469 and place your order, or
Mail your order to:
Peacetree Recycled Paper
523 N.E. Davis
Portland, OR 97232
About This Guide
Making cards with CardShop is so easy you probably do not even need this manual to create your first image. You will find detailed information in the chapters:
1: Introduction general information on program features and how to order special paper.
2: Designing Great Cards suggestions for combining art and messages,
writing your own messages and other bright ideas for using CardShop.
3: Starting Up the basics of running CardShop on your computer.
4: Creating Your Own Cards specific instructions for creating images, from starting a new one to printing it and in the case of greeting cards, how to fold it.
Lore of Greeting Cards
It was the Egyptians, not the big card companies, who started the tradition of giving greeting cards. They exchanged New Year's greetings on papyrus scrolls.
The Chinese and Romans also celebrated the New Year with messages on scrolls and glazed clay tablets. European immigrant Louis Prang, dubbed the Father of American Christmas Cards, was the first to perfect the process of four-color printing. Prang' s cards were renowned for elaborate art, but had very simple messages. By 1885, he was printing five million Christmas cards a year and had added Easter, NewYear's, and Valentine cards to his line. Then came the young card entrepreneurs of the early 1900' s who formed the large greeting card companies in existence today. The focus shifted to the
appeal of the message, with popular verse and biblical quotes used to entice buyers. Today, billions of cards are sold every year.
Chapter 2 Designing Great Images
A successful image has a certain zing to it. Visually and verbally, it
immediately conveys a sentiment, bringing cheer and warm feelings to the receiver.
What Makes a Good Image?
By combining art and messages effectively, your cards will be top notch and your other designs will have impact.
The best cards have:
1) One single idea
2) A simple, direct message
3) Art and words that work together
4) Visually dynamic layout
5) Coordinated colors
About Art
CardShop comes with hundreds of professionally-created card designs, decorative borders, and clip art for spot illustrations. Most occasions also have art especially designed for monochrome printers, and the Color-It occasion has outlined art you can color in yourself.
As you create a card, you can change the assortment of available art by choosing a different occasion. You can also import graphics from other popular applications.
You won' t be able to change the colors of images.
About Messages Each occasion offers an array of professionally written messages with funny, serious, and general tones. Messages are displayed in pairs, showing suggestd Front and Inside messages for a card, but you can place one or more messages on any side.
You can completely change the way a message looks on a card by changing its text attributes. You can even enter your own messages. See Chapter 4 for more information.
You can use art from one occasion and a message from another. For
example, if you want to create an extra-mushy birthday card for your sweetheart, you could use Birthday for the art and Valentine' s Day for the message.
Combining Art & Messages
Art and messages work together, whether on a card, sign or your personal letterhead. As the greeting card industry well knows, it' s the artwork that grabs the shopper and the message that captures the purchase.
Beginning with the Message
Usually, it' s the message that guides the selection of art. For example, suppose you want to say Mom, you' re always there when I need someone to talk to for a Mother's Day card. You want to convey appreciation for her friendship as well as her motherly love, and so the art you choose will reflect those feelings.
Beginning with the Art
Sometimes, it' s the art that suggests the message. The tone of the message you choose should be compatible with the art. For example, if you choose a whimsical animal for a Christmas card, a light or humorous message, rather than a more formal greeting, will fit best.
Designing Your Images
You design a greeting card one side at a time.
The Front side usually has the main piece of eye-catching art and an opening message.
The Inside shows both portions of the inside fold. Traditional cards often leave one half of the inside fold blank, but you can place art anywhere. For fun, try filling both sides of the inside fold with a single, enlarged piece of art.
The Back side is a good place to give yourself credit for your cards and perhaps place a personal logo you've imported.
Using Colors
Colors in cards are usually kept bright and pure, with few shadows and neutral tones to muddy the card' s visual impact. Even pastel cards have that fresh look that makes a card so desirable. When choosing text colors and art for your cards, keep color harmony in mind.
Primary colors are the three completely pure colors: red, yellow, and blue. Other colors are mixtures of the primaries.
Harmonious colors (blues and purples, for instance) lie next to each other on the color wheel and always work well together.
Complementary colors (like yellow and violet) lie directly opposite each other. They work well together in small doses or where one of them is dominant and the other used as an accent.
Color Tips
Choose images that have similar color schemes, so your card doesn' t become a hodgepodge of too many colors.
Coordinate text and art colors to unify the image. For instance, black text would ruin the look of a softly-colored, New Baby card done in lavenders and yellows. Using a different shade of the one of the dominant colors would support the art nicely.
Try combining black and white art with colored text if you want a message like CONGRATS! to jump out at the viewer.
Use of Space
Space on a card is divided into positive and negative shapes. Positive shapes are the dark areas of form on the card, while negative shapes are the light, empty areas. Make sure to leave enough negative white space on the card to rest the eye and avoid a cluttered look.
Layout Tips
Here are some hidden rules from professional card designers:
Visual elements must lead the eye towards the message, never away from it. For example, if your art shows a person, put the message where the figure is facing or looking, not over their shoulder or behind them.
Most messages are placed at the top, top right corner, center, right bottom corner, or along the bottom of a card side. They are very seldom placed along the folding
side of a card.
Symmetry can be boring. Counterbalance symmetry by adding a touch of asymmetry. For example, if you have a border framing a message, place another image over one corner of the border to off-set the balance of the design.
Placing Art
You can position and resize art to create lots of effects. Here are just some ideas:
Crop an image. For a zoomed-in look, enlarge a graphic and then move it so that portions of it are shoved off the card side and not printed.
Layer objects. Enlarge a border design to fit the perimeter of the card side, and then position another image to slightly overlap it.
Layer text over art, but make sure it' s dark enough to print clearly.
Repeat objects. Decorate a card with several small copies of an image, or place a tiny copy of the main image on the back side near the card's credits.
Enlarge an image. Resize a single image to fill the entire card front or one or both sides of the inside for a dramatic effect.
Use accents. Use smaller, simpler pieces for accents and borders.
Use no art. Emphasize an important message by placing no art on the inside of the card. Bright Ideas Jazz up your cards with big numbers. Combine the receiver' s name with numbers to create the art for the card. Then add small accents like balloons, borders or a present.
Create an initial capital letter on a message you enter yourself by making the first letter a separate text block. Change its font and make it bigger than the rest of the text. Scale a border small enough to frame the initial cap for added emphasis.
Use big numbers to create your own Great Year cards. Look at the
predesigned cards from the Great Years occasion for ideas.
Save money by creating holiday gift tags. Copy a tiny graphic, like a candy cane or trumpeting angel, and place it on the page several times. Type To and From next to each copy in a pretty font. Print the page and cut out the tags. Hole punch their corners and tie them to your gifts with ribbon or yarn.
Who Me, Write?
You can add your personal touch to CardShop's prewritten card messages by editing them, or by writing your own.
Before writing a message, think about the person you' re sending it to. It' s often little details that make a successful card message, such as someone' s golf handicap, their love of spaghetti, their pet, or something they' ve done or dream of doing. Write down the ideas that come to you and use them in your message.
Make the Message Sparkle
The best card sentiments are simple, direct and honest.
Write a catchy, attention-getting opening line (Wanna know a secret?).
Use key phrases instead of sentences for a conversational tone.
Drop the I pronoun to start messages (Heard you' re having a Birthday not I heard ).
Use contractions to lighten the tone (You' re a party animal not You are a party animal).
Loosen Up
Whenever you feel stuck, doodle with words to loosen up. For instance, if you' re writing a Cheer Up card to a friend with the flu, these words might come to mind: get well, take care, thermometer, cough syrup, daytime soaps you get the idea. Use your words to generate phrases. Some people will do anything to stay home and watch daytime soaps!
Chapter 3 Starting Up
What You' ll Need
You' ll need this equipment to run CardShop:
Macintosh LCII series or higher with at least 4 MB RAM
Hard drive with 12MB free
Macintosh System 7.1 or higher
Apple or 100% Apple Macintosh compatible printer (grayscale or color)
Installing CardShop Plus!
Installing CardShop is easy. Follow the steps on the Installation Card and you' ll be able to print a greeting card or other design in a few minutes CardShop works just like your other Macintosh applications. If the computer is new to you or you' re unfamiliar with such terms as folder, icon, command keys, clicking, etc., please read the owner' s manual for your computer.
Starting CardShop Plus! You start CardShop Plus! in the same way as your other Macintosh applications.
To start CardShop, double-click on its icon in the CardShop folder. The New Card Type dialog box appears. Select the card fold you want and click OK.
The CardShop screen appears.
If this is the first time your copy of CardShop has been started since it was installed, it goes through a cataloging process and you receive a message.
Screen Quick Reference
Menus
Menus offer an alternative way to do most of the same things you can do with tools. If an option is followed by three dots ( ) a dialog box will appear.
To choose a command from the menu bar, pull down the menu by pointing to its title and holding down the mouse button. Then drag the pointer to the command you want and release the mouse button.
Use this menu: To:
File
Start a new card, open a previously saved card, close the current card window, save or print a card, import graphics, and exit the program.
Edit
Undo or redo actions, cut, copy, paste, clear text and graphics from the window, and select all items on a card side.
Card
Change the view to the front, inside, or back of the card, zoom in or out, show full size, pull objects forward or push them back, enter names for sender and receiver.
Font
Change to a different type font.
Size
Change the size of the font.
Style
Change the appearance of text attributes and justification.
Color
Display a color chart for changing the color of selected text.
TOOLS
Tools are a quick way to do things without menus. Click on a tool in the Tool Bar to do its action.
Occasion Bar
CardShop comes with dozens of occasions you can use to create greeting cards, stationery, signs and certificates. The Occasion Bar shows the holiday occasions you can select, like Birthday, Valentine' s Day, Christmas, Mother' s Day, and Halloween to name just a few. There are also special event occasions like Anniversary, Get Well and Bon Voyage. Any Day provides non-occasion art and Awards gives you borders for commemorating special events. The Color It occasion has art you can color in yourself. Explore the Occasion Bar by clicking on its scroll arrows to view all the choices.
To choose an occasion, click on an icon on the Occasion Bar. Its name
appears above the graphics area. The art, messages and predesigned cards change to match the current occasion. You' re not limited to using just one occasion on a card. Mix art and messages in any way you want. Create an Easter Birthday or Valentine Anniversary card. Experiment with using non-occasion Any Day art for signs, stationery and those just because cards like friendship.
Card Palette
The Card Palette shows icons of ready-made cards you can choose for the current occasion, as well as blank card icons for creating cards from scratch and a full page icon for certificates and awards, stationery and signs.
To choose a blank or predesigned card, click on its icon. The tone of the card' s message is shown with a G for general or H for humorous. (You may have to click on the palette' s scroll arrows to view all the selections.)
Using Your Mouse
A mouse makes using CardShop a breeze. You can do everything but type text with the mouse.
To Select an object
Point to the object and click on it (press and release the left mouse button). Selection handles surround the object.
To Select multiple objects
Hold down the Shift key as you select each item or drag an outline around several objects. To select all objects on a card side, choose Select All (v-A) from the Edit menu.
To Drag and drop an object
Point to the object. Press and hold down the mouse button while you move the pointer to drag the object. Release the button to drop the object. (You drag and drop art and messages to add them to a card or to move them around.)
Exiting CardShop Plus!
Always exit the program before shutting off your computer. You' ll be asked to save your work, if you haven' t already.
To exit CardShop, choose Quit (v-Q) from the File menu.
Chapter 4 - Creating Your Own Cards
CardShop's colorful array of art and huge supply of precomposed messages let you mix and match design elements to make cards and other designs for everyone in your life.
Starting a New Card
There are a couple of ways to start a new card or other image:
Choose a side-fold, top-fold, or predesigned card icon on the Card Palette to make a greeting card, or choose the full page icon to create a certificate, sign or stationery design.
Choose New from the File menu, and then choose Side Fold, Top Fold, or Full Size. If your current image is unsaved, you' ll have a chance to save it before starting a new one. The work area is cleared and made ready for a new image.
Choosing an Occasion
Each occasion has its own set of messages and art.
Click on an icon in the Occasion Bar below the Tool Bar. To see all the
occasions available, click on the scroll arrows at either end of the Occasion Bar.
Choosing a Predesigned Card
It' s as easy as picking a card off the rack. You can choose a fully designed card from the Card Palette. Pre-designed cards have either a top or side fold, which cannot be changed.
To choose a predesigned card, click the card' s icon in the Card Palette. Scroll the palette to see all the choices by clicking the scroll arrows. The front side of the card appears in the work area. You can print the card instantly or personalize it with sender and receiver names. You can also edit its message and change its art, and then save it as a different card. See the sections that follow in this chapter for information.
If you have a problem printing a predesigned card, check to be sure that the fonts used in the card are installed on your system.
Creating a Card From Scratch
You can create a card from scratch.
To choose a blank card, click on either the side-fold or top-fold blank card icon from the Card Palette.
The front side of the blank card appears in the work area. Choose an occasion, then drag and drop art and messages onto the card' s sides. Compose your own text, if you want. The next sections tell you how.
Creating Certificates and Awards
You can hand out certificates and awards to your friends and family to celebrate their accomplishments.
Choose the Awards icon on the Occasion Bar, and then choose a
predesigned image or the blank full page icon from the Card Palette. Add borders and art from the Certificates and Awards occasion and then enter your own text. You can also use the full page option to create signs and stationery. See Chapter 1 for more information.
Changing Images
Once you' ve picked a card, you can change it to your liking. These instructions (except card sides) also apply to the certificates, stationery and signs you design.
Here' s what you can do with your image:
Change sides
Choose one of the card side tools or choose Front (v-1), Inside (v-2), or Back (v-3) from the Card menu.
Personalize it
Type your name and the name of the person you' re sending the card to in the Receiver and Sender name fields. The names will be printed wherever you see the placeholders <Receiver> and <Sender> in precomposed messages. (You can also enter these name placeholders in your own messages by typing <Receiver> and <Sender>.)
Add art
Click on the scroll arrows alongside the graphics area until you see the art you want. With the Selector tool, drag and drop the art onto the current card side. (To change the art on a predesigned card, delete the art and then drag new art onto the card).
Add a message you want. With the Selector tool, drag and drop the message onto the current card side. The message has all the current text attributes (including size). For information on changing text attributes, see the next section, Fun With Text.
Front and Inside messages are matched sets intended to work together on the card. However, they' re just suggestions. You can add any message to any card side.
To change the message on a predesigned card, delete the text and then drag a new message onto the card.
Enter your own text
Choose the Write tool and then click on the card where you want the text. A text insertion cursor (I-beam) appears. Type in your own words and press RETURN at the end of each line. (If you make a mistake, use the Delete key to delete characters to the left of the cursor.)
Edit a message
Choose the Write tool and then click on a message on the card. A text insertion cursor appears. Use the Delete key to delete characters. Type in your text.
Change look of text
Select the text and then choose a command from the Font, Size, or Style menus to change text attributes. The next section tells you how. (Some attributes also have their own tools.)
Import graphics
Choose Import Picture from the File menu. The Open dialog box appears. Select the name of the file to import, and then click OK. The art is added to the card, and you can then move and resize it.
Reorder objects
Choose Bring to Front or Send to Back from the Card menu to reorder the layering of objects. For example, you can place a small graphic in front of a border design or overlap text and art.
Preview the card
To see all the sides of your card at once on a full screen, choose Print Preview from the File menu. Since all the card sides are printed on one side of the paper, you may see upside-down images in the Preview dialog box. The card sides are separated by fold lines, which are labeled to tell you the first and second folds to make.
Having Fun with Text
Text attributes let you completely change the way text looks on a card. You can change the font, font size, style, effects, and color of selected text. You can set text attributes before entering your own text or change the look of an existing block of text. Text you enter or add after that has those same attributes, until you change them again. Select the text to change and then use the Tool Bar to change attributes one at a time.
Font
Fonts are lettering styles for text. Some of them have little feet called serif and others are straight lines called sans serif. The titles and text of this manual are in different fonts. CardShop comes with many fonts, including decorative fonts for creative card lettering. To see what a font looks like, select some text and choose the font from the Font menu.
Font Style
Choose a style from the Style menu. Choose Plain Text to show the normal font, Italic to show slanted text, Bold to make the text heavier and darker, Underline to underline the text, or Outline or Shadow to show the text with special effects.
Size
Choose text size from the Size menu. Text is measured in points (one point is 1/72-inch). If the text size you choose causes the text to run off the side of the card, you can resize it by choosing a smaller size or by clicking the Font Size tool.
