Print Designer GOLD main screen

 

 

The first step in creating a new business card or label is to use the Design Wizard to select the a layout. The list of layouts includes a wide variety of labels, business cards, post cards, inserts and a lot more.
After selecting a layout in the Design Wizard you can choose a pre-designed card or label from a list of specific-use categories or choose to start with a blank design. Either way, you can fully customize your design by adding or removing the background, shapes, graphics and text after the Design Wizard is finished. You have complete control over what appears in your design and where it appears. Templates are meant as a starting point that can be further customized or used as is.
One of the great features of the Design Wizard is the ability to specify your personal information (name, title, address, phone, etc.) even before the design is created. You can enter this information directly or select a contact from the Names and Addresses database that is built into the software. You can also specify a background for the card, the font to use and a logo for templates that include logos. All of this and more can be done after the Design Wizard is finished as well.
The Layout screen allows you to adjust the layout of your design. The layout includes the number of rows and columns, the space between rows and columns, page margins and other options. Adjustments made on this screen allow you to correct aligment issues on the printer and use custom/proprietary label and paper stock that is not listed in the software.
The Linked Database Wizard guides you through the process of selecting and configuring a database to link to your design. It lets you choose from just about any database your system supports, such as text files, CSV files, Excel files, Access databases and the built-in Personal Databases. Once a database is linked you can pull data from selected fields to be displayed in your design. For example, you may have a field in the database called name which you can use to display the name on each of a set of labels.
After a database is linked in the first step of the Linked Database Wizard you can specify filtering rules. This allows you to include/exclude any records you want based on the data being equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than or LIKE a specified value. You can also simply pick individual records from a list by checking them off. When picking records from a list, only the checked records will be used.
Another use of the Linked Database Wizard is to specify sorting rules. You can sort the records by one or more fields in ascending or descending order. When you print the design records will be printed in the order you specified.
The Pick Picture screen (Select Picture tab) allows you to select a graphic image for use in your design. You can select images from anywhere on your computer or scan them in using a scanner or digital camera. Just about any image you have access to can be used. You are not limited to just the images included with the software.
The Pick Picture screen (Apply Effects tab) allows you to apply effects to an image you have selected. Effects include cropping, mirroring, rotating, brightness control, contrast adjustment and more.
The Background screen allows you to select an existing background, customize the selected background or create your own background. Backgrounds consist of either a picture, a gradient fill, a solid color or a combination of each. You can even add backgrounds that you design to a custom list so they can easily be used in designs you create in the future.
The Print screen is displayed when you choose to print your design. It allows you to specify the number of elements to print, the starting position on the first sheet and the sides to print (front and/or back). You can also choose to print crop and/or corner marks for assitance in cutting the business cards out yourself instead of using pre-perforated paper stock.
The Print screen also offer a way to graphically select which elements on a single sheet you want to print. Using this option is a great way to save partially used paper stock. You simply check the elements you want to be printed.
When there is a database linked to your design the Print screen gives you additional options that allow you to specify the starting record and the number of copies of each record to print. You can now even select a field that determines how many times each record will print.
The Personal Databases are a set of databases that allow you to store contact information and text snipets for easy re-use. For example, you can keep the names, titles, phone numbers, etc. of employees in the Names and Addresses database then easily select an employee to fill in the business card information when creating a card for that employee. Multiple categories allow you to organize you data the way you want and user-definable fields let you store extra information that does not correspond to any of the pre-defined fields.
Sometimes it is more practical to have your design printed professionally by a local or online print shop. The Save As Graphic screen allows you to save a high resolution snapshot of the design as a standard graphic file that can be sent to the print shop for professional printing. You have control over the resolution and format of the graphic so it easy to provide the print shop exactly what they need to print your design.