May, 2006
By: Barbara Mende
Manufacturer: BeLight Software
Price: $39.95 boxed, $34.95 download
 If
you need to create a lot of different business cards, Business Card Composer
v.3.2 is a great way to do it. It’s extremely easy to use, whether you
use the Business Card Assistant or start from scratch. It has every editing
feature you should need.
Design Choices Galore
When you start with the Assistant, you can choose from six
style categories or from the twelve subject areas. Styles include Classic,
Conservative, Sophisticated, Text, CD-R, and Folded. There is also room in the
menu to add custom categories. Select any category and you can pick from a long
list of designs. You have to look at each design, because it’s hard to
decipher the odd titles without seeing them. Titles such as Bland, Communistic,
Handy Dragon, and Poison Ivy, may not yield what you think, and Gaudy could
apply to quite a few of the designs.
Create Cards in Minutes
After you pick a design or open a blank card, you fill in the
appropriate data from scratch or from your Address Book. The onscreen instructions
incorrectly state that you can drag and drop from the Address Book, but in fact,
when you click on a name in the panel, the information is automatically filled
in. When you work with a blank card, you just click the Text button in the
customizable toolbar and a shortcut menu lets you choose where to put your entries.
If you want to use the design for several people, choose Print for Several People
in the File menu. Basic editing functions, such as moving, resizing, rotating, and
changing color, are intuitive. You can easily turn out a card in five or ten minutes
because they include card stock templates from most of the popular vendors. You can
also submit your creation to an online print shop.
The latest version, adds support for double-sided cards and duplex
printers. They’ve added rulers and the ability to select several fields at
once for resizing or moving. This Universal Binary version runs natively on Intel
Macs, plus works in Mac OS X 10.2 or later. MacUpdate.com lists Business Card
Composer as shareware, but don’t believe it. Until you purchase a license,
your printed cards feature the message, Made with Business Card Composer across them.
Plenty of Artwork
The downloaded version has 700 clip art images and 400 templates
vs. 23,000 images and 500 templates in the boxed version, but how much clip art
do you really need? The program also lets you select art directly from your iPhoto
library and other folders. (Editor’s Note: I was glad to find that their
images included a number of Apple products and some interesting masks. I was able
to produce a soccer ball in the form of an Apple logo and place it on an Apple
mouse in the right size. - ilene)
Not For Everyone
Even though the software is a snap to use, how many of us really
need to create different types of business cards? Large corporations have centralized
printing, and individuals and small business owners generally don’t change
their cards often. The product literature describes typical users as people who
want special cards to give out at trade shows or events, those whose cards
haven’t arrived from the printer yet, businesses that need cards for temporary
staff, or people who have several jobs. If you’re not in one of these groups,
you may do better with a multifunction package like MacKiev’s The Print Shop,
which also does calendars, letterhead, greeting cards, posters, and CD labels, or
with the templates and clip art in MS Word.
Those who want to create other products can save money on BeLight’s
bundles. One of them includes Business Card Composer, Swift Publisher, Mail Factory,
and the new Disc Cover for $99.95 boxed.
 The good ...
Very easy to use. Integrated with Address Book and iPhoto. Good editing tools. Company responds to user feature requests.
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 The not-so good ...
One-purpose application. Only installs on startup drive. No uninstaller. A little expensive for a one-trick pony. Support via email.
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