Had you sat a QuarkXPress user down in front of this latest version of Business Card Composer six years ago, they'd likely have got a mad glint in their eye and refused to relinquish the mouse.
Support for transparency and opacity? Check. Configurable drop shadows? Check. Snapping to other objects on the page? Check. Live rotation? Check. Configurable image masking? Yes, siree.
All of this makes creating stunning business cards an easy task. The system hooks into Address Book, and by default uses your own card to populate the fields. And the key word there is 'fields'; in creating your card, you're not just inputting static blocks of text. So once you've designed a card, you can either change the person it's for from the File menu and have the design simply pull in their details from Address Book, or print a range of cards - say, for a small team - by selecting an Address Book group and checking the appropriate people; it can even merge in the contacts' photos.
It boasts a huge list of print templates too for the likes of Avery and Decadry - or you can customise layouts - and you can calibrate your printer to ensure the edges meet up. There are many preset designs and a broad selection of clip art, even in the download version. While a few are odd, US-centric, or just plain vile, there's enough variety that some will prove useful.
As well as using graphical elements from the bundled clip art, you can pull in photos from your iPhoto library, search the Internet from inside the application, or even drop in EPS logos.
There's no gradient tool unfortunately, and while you might think you could use an image mask to overlay a fading solid colour over another to approximate the effect, it turns out that the mask tool doesn't work on shapes drawn in the application itself.
There's a tendency among designers to use heavyweight tools for every job, but even they should invest in Business Card Composer. It's fast and easy, while its ability to pull information directly from Address Book is a real boon.
Author: Christopher Phin
Business CardComposer 4