Art Explosion Greeting Card Deluxe Factory

Installing Greeting Card Deluxe is as easy as inserting the disk into your CD-ROM drive and waiting 10 minutes for the program to install. Along with the initial disk, you also get a CD-ROM containing graphics, photographs, and fonts to add more choices to your greeting-card repertoire. Once everything has been installed, you can get started on any of the many projects available. With an easy-to-use interface and a host of ready-to-use templates, this program is intuitive enough for kids who have some computer experience.

Greeting Card Factory allows you to complete 12 projects including greeting cards, photo cards, announcements, invitations, envelopes, labels, and various crafts. Some of the templates are a bit cliched (i.e., "I'll love you for any reason. I'll love you for all the time. I'll love you for your money even if you didn't have a dime."). However, you always have the option to change the text and keep the graphics. The software also comes with a searchable sentiment database for everything from birthdays to Boss's Day.

While Greeting Card Factory is not a sophisticated photo- and image-editing application like Photoshop, you can take advantage of the included basic editing tools. Trimming graphics, adding shapes, applying gradients and textures, and importing photos are some of the options available to ambitious users. The photo editor lets you adjust colors, fix flaws such as dust and scratches or red-eyes, crop images, and add special effects to your pictures.

If you're a serious designer or photographer, Greeting Card Deluxe will probably not meet your expectations. However, if you are looking to save money on store-bought greeting cards, or you have some projects you'd like to complete with your family, Greeting Card Deluxe is an enjoyable and easy-to-use application. Gisele Toueg

Amazon.com Product Description
Greeting Card Factory Deluxe has everything you need to send personalized store-quality greeting cards to friends and family. Featuring a wide selection of cards, graphics, and sentiments, there are literally millions of possibilities for greeting-card layout and design. You'll get thousands of cards, projects, graphics, and sentiments, and hundreds of fonts. There's a searchable sentiment database, special effects for text, and more. Import your own images from any source--disks, CD-ROMs, scanners, and digital cameras. Choose from ready-made templates, or build your own card from scratch. Besides greeting cards, make announcements, invitations, photo cards, thank you notes, envelopes, stationery, party theme sets, gift tags, labels and stickers, and more. You can even create electronic cards to e-mail. This Deluxe version of Greeting Card Factory includes advanced drawing tools to make simple or complex shapes, freehand curves, textures and gradients, and effects. You can also use the built-in digital photo editor to customize photos, fix scratches or flaws, remove red-eye, use cropping tools, and enhance color.

Tried to get customer support, but the rep. was not very knowledgeable - kept telling me they were following Microsoft's recommendation and there was no way to change the location of "My Pictures" folder.


Great Program   June 26, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I just bought three greeting card programs. Creatacard, printmaster, and art explosion. The art explosion was the best. Very easy to use. I didnt have to read the instructions. Wonderful variety, great graphics and text. They had craft ideas that the other programs didnt. Much more cards to choose from and easier to use formats. I would recommend this program for all the people that want greeting card programs.


good but not great   May 28, 2003
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

This program was easy to use and had nice graphics, but I can believe it had no calendar section! You could make a party hat, but not a calendar! Go figure. It was a waste of my money.


I love this software!   May 16, 2003
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I've had four different software packages to make greeting cards, and this is the best I've encountered. It offers a wide selection of graphics and sentiments, and it is easy to navigate. I should qualify that remark by saying that I have a fair amount of experience working with graphics, but if you can read directions, you shouldn't have any problems. I find the Greeting Card Factory to be comparable to Microsoft Publisher as far as ease of use. You can easily switch to other windows and paste in objects from your clipboard. I mention that because I have had other programs that didn't allow that. Another consideration is that there are two options for installation. One loads all of the graphics, and the other offers minimal installation, which takes up less memory on your hard drive. Then you pull the graphics from the CD-Roms. I can't comment on how that works because I opted for the full installation. All in all, this is a great package that offers a wide selection for creativity and your own personal touch.


Awesome   November 15, 2002
R J (Baltimore, MD)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

I have several greeting card programs. I will have to say that the Greeting Card Factory is the best by far of any that I have. Would recommend it to everyone.