Best Greeting Card Software for Mac 2019 - Make Printable Cards

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We are sharing best free graphic design software who want to create graphics and design for free without spending a single penny. As, Graphic designing has attained great scope as well as popularity in youths of 21st Generation. Though it doesn’t have editing tools that are as robust as those for paid programs, Apple Photos is a free, fun and very easy-to-use app for accessing, organizing and sharing your photos and videos. The programs we tested range in price from $10 to $50. Our favorite greeting card software for Mac landed near the bottom of that price range at $13 and has the best selection of templates and graphics. Some of the $40 programs have better sharing options and editing tools, but if you don’t need thousands of templates, we suggest checking out the low-cost software we tested.

We've tested Mac greeting card software for over seven years and have spent another five years researching greeting card software for PCs. Recently, we spent close to 40 hours testing these programs, and based on our results, we think Canva is the best option. Canva updates its online platform regularly and gives you access to a large library of stylish, customizable templates. It’s also easy to use and navigate.

Canva

Canva’s online graphic design platform includes hundreds of thousands of stylish images, over 50,000+ templates and easy drag-and-drop design tools. The full service costs $12.95 per month, or you can use the limited free version.

Greeting Box for Mac

While it isn’t as good as the free version of Canva, you can access Greeting Box for Mac’s full program for about one-fourth the cost of other greeting card software.

Hallmark Card Studio

Hallmark Card Studio may have fewer graphics than Canva, but unlike our top pick, you can use it to create traditional single- and multi-fold cards. Also, Hallmark’s graphics and templates are high quality and stylish.

Best Overall

Canva

Canva is a simple, online graphic design program. Instead of using intimidating, overwhelming tools, you create your cards mostly by dragging and dropping design elements onto your project. You can choose from hundreds of thousands of images and more than 50,000 templates.

Canva is the best place to design greeting cards if you have a Mac, but you can also use it to create hundreds of other projects, including business cards, flyers, book covers and infographics.
In addition to being stylish, Canva’s images are high quality – you can move them around and resize them to fit your design without causing pixilation or creating jagged edges. And if you can’t find the right graphic in its huge library or you want to share a personal photo, you can upload your own.
However, Canva is missing some basic photo editing tools, including a cropping tool and a red-eye remover, so you need to edit your images before you upload them. Also, it doesn’t have templates for traditional multi-fold cards like those you find in stores. Instead, it has templates to create flat, postcard-style cards.
Another potential drawback is Canva is a subscription service. However, it’s easy to cancel your membership, so depending on the scope of your projects, it can end up costing less than some of the other programs we tested. There is also a decent free version, though it includes limited access to graphics. The service’s excellent support pages make it easy to figure out which membership is right for you or your business – its support information is searchable and detailed.

Best Value

Greeting Box for Mac

Greeting Box comes with so few templates, backgrounds and graphics compared to other greeting card design software, that using it is almost like working with a blank canvas. It includes only 110 templates for major holidays and significant events, and its clip art isn’t very attractive.

Still, if you prefer to use your own photos and images and want to create quarter- or half-fold cards, Greeting Box may be a good fit.
Since Greeting Box doesn’t have photo editing tools, you need to use another application, such as Apple’s Photos, to correct red-eye and crop images before you upload them. Once the images are in the software, you can only drag, layer, rotate and reverse them. There’s also a transparency option, but compared to Hallmark Card Studio’s design suite, which includes more effects and filters, Greeting Box’s tools are very basic.
This program’s biggest benefit is its price – it only costs $9.99. Other greeting cards programs cost between $40.00 and $50.00. Our best pick, Canva, is a subscription service with a fee that, over time, can make it cost even more. While Canva has a limited free version, it can be frustrating to only have access to some of the features and graphics, and Greeting Box gives you full access with your initial download. Also, you can order more clip art directly from Greeting Box for a few extra dollars.

Best For Traditional Greeting Cards

Hallmark Card Studio

We were initially a little disappointed with Hallmark Card Studio for Mac because we’d already tested the PC version and liked it better. The Mac version has fewer features, and its interface isn’t as well organized or attractive.

However, it’s hard to ignore that some of the graphic design tools Hallmark includes give you more control over your creations than even Canva, our best pick, which only has basic drag-n-drop tools. Also, it has more filters, fonts and effects than Canva, though neither program has photo editing tools such as those for cropping images and removing red-eye.
Hallmark Card Studio comes with significantly fewer clip art choices than Canva, as well as some of the other greeting card design programs we tested. However, its graphics are high quality, so they are easy to resize and alter for your design. Though not quite trendy, there are a lot of cute and attractive graphics and templates that cover major and minor holidays and events as well as a host of other types of projects you can make, including ornaments, certificates and business cards. Unlike Canva, Hallmark includes templates for traditional single- and multi-fold cards.
Hallmark Card Studio also offers a lot of support to help first-time users, including a searchable index, video tutorials and an in-software link to its website. In addition, it is one of the few services we reviewed that offers technical support over the phone.

Best Photo Editing

PrintMaster Platinum 8

PrintMaster Platinum has a basic but important selection of photo editing tools. This program crops photos, adds filters and fixes red-eye.

There is a plethora of photo editing tools that come with Mac computers, but it’s easier creating greeting cards when tools are in the same program. It has more than 165,000 royalty free images and 4,800+ templates to help you build a customized card for any occasion.
All the editing tools are on the main page, which looks a bit cluttered. You hover the mouse over each tool for its name if you are having a hard time deciphering the images. You can print and export your finalized projects, but PrintMaster Platinum doesn’t have a sharing feature for popular social media platforms.

Best Editing Tools

Greeting Card Shop 4

Greeting Card Shop 4 has a user-friendly workflow and a great list of fun design tools.

The eyedropper tool copies the color of any single pixel in the editing window and allows you to auto-populate a color wheel and create a custom palette. There’s also a photo analyzer tool to help you identify the dominant color in a photo to make a more informed design choice. Using these advanced editing tools takes some practice, but once you figure them out, you can create high-quality and customized cards from scratch.
The biggest downside of this program is the lack of templates and graphics. Although, the included graphics are high-quality and showed no signs of distortion or pixilation when we moved and resized them to fit our test designs. This is a great greeting card software if you have basic design skills and want to create customized cards from scratch.

Why Trust Us?

Top Ten Reviews has reviewed and tested Mac greeting card software for over seven years. Our testers have graphic art backgrounds and their familiarity with these kinds of programs enables them to effectively evaluate and compare the variety of convenient features and helpful tools of each program.

How We Tested

We downloaded the available Mac greeting card programs – there are only six we could find that keep their software up to date and seemed safe to download – and tested them over the course of several weeks. In total, we spent about 40 hours designing cards and playing with the programs’ features so we could make well-informed comparisons between them. We created some event and holiday cards from scratch and with the provided templates. In each program, we also made invitations to a summer ice cream party to see if the software could help us make the designs we had in our heads a reality.

As we tested each program, we evaluated the quantity and quality of the graphics and templates it includes. To check clip art quality, we flipped, rotated, resized and recolored images. Both during the design process and after we printed our final designs, we made sure the graphics retained their shape and that they didn’t pixelate or have jagged edges. We also uploaded our own pictures to create personalized designs and to make sure the programs didn’t distort or corrupt our files.

After we finished our designs, we checked what file formats each program can export as. We also evaluated whether the software makes it easy to share projects on social media, make at-home or in-store prints, and create folded cards.

Programs with lots of training materials make it easy to use all their cool features to their fullest extent. We visited each software’s webpage to search for phone and live chat support information. We also visited each application’s help and support page and walked through tutorials to see how useful they are.

How Much Does Greeting Card Software for Mac Cost?

The programs we tested range in price from $10 to $50. Our favorite greeting card software for Mac landed near the bottom of that price range at $13 and has the best selection of templates and graphics. Some of the $40 programs have better sharing options and editing tools, but if you don’t need thousands of templates, we suggest checking out the low-cost software we tested.

Features To Look For In Mac Greeting Card Software

Templates & Graphics
The number of included templates and graphics varies widely from program to program. We suggest avoiding programs with fewer than 5,000 templates and fewer than 10,000 graphics. However, this is less of an issue if you plan to upload your own graphics and designs and just want a program for its tools and blank templates.

While having enough graphics and templates to choose from is important, you should also consider their quality. Before you buy, find out what resolution the software’s graphics are and if the program includes scalable vector graphics, the latter of which can be resized without quality loss.

As we tested greeting card software, we found that some of the programs have outdated, unstylish images and backgrounds. We recommend browsing the program’s library, or using a free trial if the application offers one, to see if its designs align with your tastes.

Editing Tools
Because Apple includes applications for photo editing and creative projects in its macOS, we found most of the Mac greeting card design programs we tested have fewer editing tools than their PC-compatible counterparts. This means you may need to edit photos in another application before you upload them to your greeting card software. A few of the programs we tested have some basic editing tools, such as those for cropping and fixing red-eye, but those same programs have lower quality graphics.

While it’s convenient to be able to find, upload, edit and incorporate images into your designs all in one space, none of the programs we reviewed have the full package of tools we looked for. As such, if you’re a dedicated Mac user, we recommend choosing greeting card design software based on the quality and style of its graphics rather than on its photo editing tools. If you also have a PC, you can check out our reviews of the best Windows-compatible greeting card programs, which have a better balance of editing tools and graphics.

Sharing Options
After you’ve spent hours choosing and customizing greeting cards, you probably want to share them with someone. Be it through email, a link to a photo hosting site or through social media, there are myriad ways to share your creations.

As with editing tools, Macs have built-in sharing features you can access through your Apple account. When you save a file to your computer, you can use Finder to connect to social media or iCloud and share your projects from there. Because of this, most Mac greeting card applications don’t include features that let you share your finished cards to social media directly from the software.

There are also plenty of photo hosting sites you can use to store your image files online, including Google Photos, Dropbox, SmugMug and Photobucket. Most of these sites offer basic free storage for a small quantity of files, and they make it easy to label and organize your images as you see fit. Different sites have different features, but most offer premium paid services that may better suit your needs.

If you’re simply wondering where to share your images online, check out any popular social media site. However, some of the popular options are specifically designed for visual media, including Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Ello and Snapchat.

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Why use graphic design software?

We’ve tested graphic design software since 2009. In our most recent testing, we spent over 50 hours comparing these programs' features, tools and interfaces to determine which software creates the most professional work while still being affordable and easy to use. We’ve determined that Corel PaintShop Pro is the best overall program because it offers both vector and pixel-based tools in one inexpensive software.

Best overall

Corel PaintShop Pro

Graphic design software with a vast array of tools

Corel PaintShop Pro’s powerful mixture of photo editing tools and vector-drawing tools, coupled with its relatively low cost, makes it the best overall graphic design software we tested. You’ll find over 650 photo filters that you can apply to your projects, as well as vector brushes, pen tools and the ability to create custom brushes. This software might be a bit daunting at first because it has so many tools to learn. But the interface is easy to navigate, and the company provides plenty of learning resources to help you become a proficient user.

Although you’ll find advanced photo editing tools, like panorama stitching and HDR image creation, this program does not include automatic vector tracing. This means you need to hand-trace raster images if you want to turn them into vectors. Although this software is compatible with most major image file types, it doesn’t work with SWF files, meaning you can’t make that kind of animation file. PaintShop Pro is only available for Windows, so Mac users will need to look elsewhere.

Best Budget

Affinity Designer

Best Drawing Program For Mac

A one time purchase graphic designer that provides value

If you’re familiar with Adobe Illustrator but you’re not keen on paying for the expensive monthly or yearly subscriptions, Serif’s Affinity software is the solution. Affinity Designer only requires a one-time payment, and it’s the least-expensive program we tested. However, there is no free trial period, so you cannot test the software before buying it. This software is comparable to Adobe Illustrator; both are vector-based design programs that are built to work alongside a photo editing program and a desktop publishing program.

Because you’re supposed to use this program in conjunction with Affinity Photo, a photo editing software, pixel tools are limited. However, unlike Illustrator, Affinity Photo has a few pixel-based tools, like a pixel brush and shape tools, which you can access in the Pixel Persona mode. That way, you’re not completely dependent on an outside program for basic image editing tools.

This software’s advanced pen and vector tools allow you to adjust stroke and line density, as well as node and curve positions, to truly give you creative freedom when you’re working on your projects. Many of the tools are the same as Illustrator’s, and many even have the same hot keys. One thing that is missing from Affinity Designer is automatic image tracing, which would turn a raster image into a vector at the click of a button. Affinity’s forum mentions that the company hopes to implement this feature in later versions, but for now, you’ll have to hand-trace images.

Best for professionals

Adobe Illustrator

A professional standard illustrator tool

Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard for vector-based graphic design software due to its powerful, professional-grade tools. One of the best features of this software is the raster image tracing, which lets you convert pixelated images into editable vectors with the click of a button. When working with vectors, select the white cursor tool to rearrange node placement and curves. This gives you far more control over vectors than many other programs allow.

Adobe intends this software to be used in conjunction with Photoshop, so it doesn’t really have photo editing tools. This means it lacks color correction, content-aware fill, lens correction tools, HDR image creation and panorama-stitching features. However, you have access to masking tools, a history log and a few templates.

You can test this software using the seven-day trial. This is shorter than the average 30-day trial, but it’s better than nothing. As with most other Adobe software, this program can be used only through subscription payments. You can choose between monthly payments and yearly payments, but there is no way to make a one-time purchase.

How much does graphic design software cost?

You can typically find basic graphic design software between $30 and $100. There are more advanced programs, which can sell for as high as $300 or require a subscription. Some, but not all, of the less-expensive software provided fewer tools. However, other affordable programs, such as Corel PaintShop Pro, have just as many design tools as more expensive software. Just determine which tools you need most, and then purchase the program that provides them.

Why trust us on graphic design software?

In our most recent evaluation, we spent over 50 hours testing and comparing graphic design software to see which programs were the easiest to use and offered the most creative freedom. We also evaluated the tools and features of each program to see if they warranted the cost of the software. To get further insight, we reached out to a professional graphic designer, Brooklyn Parks.

How we tested graphic design software

When you are learning how to use new software, you focus on how easy it is to use and if it can complete your desired tasks in a timely manner. To evaluate the software, we focused on both the illustration tools and the image editing features of each program. We determined which tasks we were able to complete, how long those tasks took and how easy the software was to use.

To explore the different effects the software offered, we used the same three images for all of the programs: a portrait, an image of a landscape and a still image. Then, we used common design tools – such as those for cropping, inserting text and resizing – and applied them to each of the images, noting how long it took to complete each task. The software interface played a significant role in how quickly we could find the tools, with clean and user-friendly workspaces helping the most.

To test the illustration tools in each program, we created a brochure that included text, graphics, gradients and shapes. These common tasks required a combination of tools. We evaluated how quickly we were able to do each of these tasks, as well as the speed of the software and the quality of the image after we had manipulated it. All of these factors made up each program’s ease-of-use score. Programs that lacked illustration tools, such as the pen tool or vector brushes, required more time to create design elements.

Overall, most of the programs performed similarly, but some outshone the rest. If you are looking for software to create dramatic effects on your photos, consider the number of photo filters the software has. Some programs, like Corel PaintShop Pro, provide dozens of filters.

The workspaces and tools differ from one program to the next. However, most allow you to customize your workspace, which helps you navigate the software. We looked for software that came with both predesigned templates and support within the application because these factors make the software easier to use. CorelDRAW comes with hundreds of such templates.

Best Art Program Free

Your specific uses for the graphic design software will determine which program will work best for you. We created an ease-of-use score that reflects how quickly we could complete common tasks. You should also look for a program that has all of the tools you need to create your designs.

Printing: how important is the finished product?

When you’ve finished designing a project and you want to present it to others, you need the best printing features. For printed articles, you should set up your page to “bleed” so that the creases of your magazine appear continuous and colored. Equally important is the option to show your printer’s marks. This will help you immensely in the package-and-print process.

Digital Art Programs For Mac

The best graphic design programs offer on-screen color proofs that allow you to preview the colors on your page. For example, it confirms that a rose-red heart you created will print as the right color, and not a dark shade of pink. Using a Pantone swatch significantly helps with this, as Pantone creates the colors with an exact chemical process that ensures the colors print the same anywhere. Another important feature is prepress support, which automatically ensures there are no errors before the project is sent to the printer and alerts you of any necessary changes.

Importing & exporting files: Will you use other files on your software?

Compatibility can be an issue with graphic design software. When you share files, you want people to be able to open them no matter which program they use. Most software supports different file types, especially common ones such as JPEG, BMP and PDF. The more file types the graphic design software offers, the more versatile it is. You should not let file types limit your designs or your learning.

Free Art Software For Mac

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