Nova Development US Hallmark Card Studio Deluxe 2017 2017 - Old Version

EDIT (8-29-2017): After writing the below review, I did some more looking and found the templates for starting with a blank card. I did not find all the clip art included in the pre-made cards -- but admittedly only went through a tenth or so of the clipart files. They may be there. So I added back in the half-star I deducted (3.5 stars) ... I can't add a full star because I still can't change fonts without the program closing on me. So I rate the program 3.5 stars with 1.5 stars off for this glitch. If the seller helps me figure it out successfully, I will re-post.Original review:Sigh. I am really disappointed with this Hallmark Card Studio Deluxe 2017. I am giving three stars because it does make cards and other items, and it does have a good variety. However, the reason I deducted two stars is for a glitch that makes personalizing cards difficult, sometimes impossible, and a basic feature that doesn't seem to be included. I was debating two stars or three, and decided to be generous.Over the past 20 years, I have used many different printing and card programs, from Win XP to Win 10, and PC's from Pentium 1 to intel i7. I have had Hallmark programs before as well as other brands. I recently decided to start making my own cards again, and no longer had a program to do so. After reading many online reviews, both professional and customer, it seemed that the Hallmark Card Studio would best suit my needs. While if I am in a hurry, I will choose a pre-designed card and just change a few things, I really like to design my own, and that is where this program fails miserably. There isn't even a choice for a blank card to put the clip art in -- and the clip art included does not include the art that is on the designed cards. None of the hundred plus reviews I read mentioned this, and apparently I made an assumption that ANY good print program would allow you to do this. Alas, not. So half a star is off for this (only half, because the assumption was my error).A star and a half comes off because I cannot choose my own font. The program itself has this capability, however, every time I open the font box and scroll, the program shuts down (losing any work I haven't saved). I have tried re-installing it, trouble shooting, work arounds, all to no avail. I am stuck with the default font in any design, or any font that shows in the font box without scrolling. For new text, Arial is it. Incredibly frustrating, and for me, makes this program almost unusable.It is possible this issue is unique to my computer, though a glitch rarely is that specific. I am running it on an i7 HP laptop, 8gb ram, with Win10 on it, so there "shouldn't" be any issues, but there are.

I bought this for a family member who likes creating mailing labels, stickers and other printer art. She's not really much of a card maker but this app seemed to have a good selection of projects and good support, so I bought it for her. I'm pleased to say that this tech-illiterate lady managed to get some labels printed in no time just by fooling around with the templates, and I (with a bit more tech savvy) was able to create my own custom label on a whim in less than five minutes with this program. It really is simple but reasonably powerful.The two biggest downsides to this program are that it takes a LONG time to start installing it from the CD, especially if you're on an older, slower computer. I sat for what must have been 20 minutes with a screen that was doing nothing, thinking the program was a dud, on her ancient computer. Finally I killed the installer and brought it to my newer PC and it still took a good 10 minutes to do *anything* before I could actually see any kind of progress on the installer. No idea what was going on, either — it just sat, with the CPU idle and the hard drive mostly inactive.I did finally get it installed on her old computer, and it took a good 1.5 minutes after installing for the program to start up the first time, but after that it got a little speedier. So be aware that it might be a LONG time before it is up and lumbering under its own weight.The other complaint is, after registering the program I was immediately bombarded with solicitations from the developer to upgrade to their Deluxe 2018 program, offer at a "discount" for an immediate download, along with several "value added extra" apps.I thought that was a rather chintzy move on Hallmark's part to immediately begin pushing me to spend more money, but She Who Must Be Obeyed said to get it, so I did. For what it's worth, the upgrade process was very, erm, obtuse. All the "free" extra programs came with their own unique keys/codes/whatnot that had to be copied or printed out, and many of them only allowed installation on one computer, one time only. So if that computer dies, she will lose all those extra applications. Not that it will mean much, most were useless crap.Although this 2017 program is perfectly adequate, if you're comfortable buying and downloading software online, I'd actually recommend getting the 2018 version. It has more templates and a few more features even when you discount all the extra, mostly useless, software bonus apps. It also installed quicker and loads faster than the 2017 version.

I was hesitant. There is a lot to learn. I had been using Create a Card Gold from back in the 90's this is quite a step up. Also I like how well this works with my printer.UPDATE 2/10/ 2018: Is there more than Five Stars???Okay I didn't have a lot of time for review last time and same is true this time However I think I'll add some pros and cons.PROS: * Has Address book once you find it ;) You can get via event planner. * Works flawlessly with my printer. (One hiccup though was printer error issue, will know better next time. If you get low ink message wait until after printing to click again.) * Self mailer option both Half and Quarter fold cards. (This alone will save me a ton on buying overpriced envelopes) * Mostly logical layout and totally user friendly HELP with detailed explanationsCONS: * Address book should have hotlink by itself, but easy to have work around by just going to Event Planner CTRL-L and then address book.Lastly: This was a total replacement of my old American Greetings Card program as I could not get that to work at all with Windows 10 upgrade to my computer. I did not receive any discount on my purchase, I'm not vine voice or any of those other things. Oh also I would recommend NOT paying for any extras that you will receive offers for via email as this program is fairly complete. If you find you use up all the cards, make some new ones ;)

More images is great

I just love this program.