Rating: Summary: Big Disappointment Review: This program is EXTREMELY slow. I have had no problems running any software programs on my computer (and I own A LOT of them) until I bought this particular program. The graphics and templates are of great quality but the CD continually shuts my computer down and/or takes forever to run, when it does run (and this is not very often). I am constantly e-mailing back and forth with Sierra Software (the manafacturer)...SAVE YOUR MONEY. There are many scrapbooking programs available out there. I think that there were some "glitches" that were not worked out by the manafacturer before releasing this program. :-(
Rating: Summary: It's worth it for the graphics and layouts Review: This was the first Scrapbook program I bought (I know have three, this one, Scrapbook Factory, and Microsoft Picture It) and I was really disappointed with the user interface - especially the part about cropping photos. I don't do traditionally scrapbooking where you have to use scissors and glue (yuck!). I was also upset to discover that you can't bring in cropped images because Hallmark Scrapbook Studio loses the transparency. But the graphics are beautiful. The layouts are very good starting points. And, I just export everything to another program. One last thing, the licensing agreement allows you to use the graphics for business use as for as I can tell. So I can't recommend it to as THE scrapbooking program to get but then again I couldn't do that for any of the programs that I've tried. I plan on getting Scrapbook Studio 2 - just to get more graphics.
Rating: Summary: Great software! READ THIS TO FIX THE PHOTO PROBLEMS! Review: To anyone deciding whether or not to buy this, first of all, it is made by Sierra, so it works like Print Artist does. So, if you like Print artist, then this will be easy for you to use. This software, like Print Artist, lets you change the colors of the graphics, which I love. This software includes beautiful predesigned projects, the especially great ones are the baby themes, holiday themes, and heritage themes. The graphics included in the predesigned projects can be replaced with other graphics if you want to. The bad part about this software, just like Print Artist, is when you put photos in, it resizes it to fit the box, which means most of the time it will be distorted in some way. The best solution I have found is to edit your photos first, which means if you click on the square or rectangle, the bottom right hand corner will tell you the size of that rectangle. So then, you go resize it in a photo editing software by either making it that exact size or something equivalent to that size. So, if the box is 3in. x 4in., then you can use that size or 4.5in x 6in(1.5 times original) or 6in. x 8 in (2 times original) or anything else equivalent. This process might seem too hard at first, but after you get used to it, it goes pretty fast. This seemed to be the big problem for people, and for the price of the software, I think it is totally worth it even if you have to take that extra step for photos. The other solution is to add the photo by itself (insert graphic), then place it in on to of the photo spot- this doesn't work that well for frames. I, myself, don't usually print out photos in the photo spots, because I print the pages on cardstock, and you don't get great photos when printed on cardstock, so I cut out the spot for the photo and then put a printed or actual photo behind it. The great graphics include: realistic looking fabric and quilling, buttons, and gorgeous backgrounds. Totally worth it!
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