14 DAY TRIAL // As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Now imagine how many words that picture values when accompanied by a worthy frame that completes it and brings the whole ensemble to a unique level of cohesiveness and meaningfulness. The addition of an appropriate frame can beautify any photo and can help add more meaning to the conveyed message. In fact, with a virtual frame, you can literally embed the message without having to send a separate text accompanying that illustration.
These days, when you want to share, for instance, your holiday pictures with your friends, you can be more imaginative than what merely meeting them and browsing through a paperback album implies. You can get a bit of help from Web Photo Album applications or software such as Photo Card Maker that allows you to personalize each and every image captured with your digital camera.
This freeware app will help you design original photo cards by selecting a template then adding the picture (or only a part you select from it) and a custom text. It's that simple. With Photo Card Maker you can make anything from nice Christmas cards, to lovely and loving ones for Valentine's Day or just plain old greeting cards.
The software is very easy to install and anyone can use it, as it welcomes you with a sleek and friendly interface. The main controls are visible and within reach, so you can operate Photo Card Maker with great ease. It doesn't have any fussy menus; just the buttons you need to quickly create nice-looking picture cards you can show off to anyone.
The application comes with 32 built-in templates and with the possibility to download some more for free from the producer's page. The pre-loaded models are equally distributed in eight categories that vary from "Cartoon" to "Travel", so you can select the suitable design for each appropriate occasion. If you need more templates, you can get them from the producer's website by using the dedicated command available in the Help menu. After you download the template pack, click the "Import Template" button and select the ZIP package to add the card models.
Once you settle on a particular template you want to use, the next step is to add the photo and make it fit the frame. This is done quite simply, as all you need to do in order to adjust the picture is click and drag it. The moment you click on the image, a toolbar will facilitate the access to a set of useful editing commands. Photo Card Maker will enable you to zoom in or out, rotate and flip the image as well as mirror it if you want to give the illustration a really unique and different feel from the original picture.
Each template has editable text boxes where you can add your own thoughts to further personalize the photo card you are creating. The text toolbar enables you to easily choose the preferred font, customize its color and size as well as the text alignment. A handy feature of Photo Card Maker is the ability to modify the text box in the same way you do with the picture: click and drag. In doing so, you can achieve one-of-a-kind effects and readily adjust a text that is too long to fit the card. In addition to that, you can put your words anywhere on the card: simply click and type.
After you're done editing the photo card, you can save it in BMP, JPG or PNG image format. However, there is more you can do, because this application will also allow you to save the templates you worked on. Thus, the next time you need it, the model will be ready and customized just as you like it so you don't have to do the modifications all over again starting from scratch.
All things considered, one can safely say that Photo Card Maker delivers what it's supposed to with great ease and a touch of style. Furthermore, it is not as thirsty for system resources as most graphic tools are, occupying less than 6 MB of hard disk space.
The Good
Photo Card Maker is very easy to use and its enjoyable graphical interface makes the creation process more pleasant. The built-in templates offer high-quality frames for your digital pictures and the fact that more card models can be downloaded and loaded into the app is a big plus.
The Bad
In terms of main functionality and looks, there's nothing to complain about. However, a minor downside I noticed is that, when selecting a template, you cannot preview it properly unless you actually load it and this happens because the thumbs are too small. This hitch can unnecessarily increase the duration of the card creation process.
The Truth
The fact of the matter is that Photo Card Maker does the job it's expected to do very well, it's fast, good looking and, on top of it all, you don't have to pay anything for it.
It would be nice to have a few more image editing features, like a red eye removal tool or some image filters to make it a complete toolkit for digital photo card creation and customization. Even so, you're bound to like Photo Card Maker a lot as it is, so you might as well give it a try as soon as you can.
