Card Making Software and Packages

You know it's time to buy some card making software when the free software available doesn't quite do what you want. Perhaps you want a more sophisticated layout or better range of paint brushes and inbuilt features? If that's the case, then consider some of the packages outlined below.

If you're only going to make your wedding invitations on your computer and never make cards or invites again, then I'd strongly advise the free wedding invitation software that's available. It's perfectly suitable for basic invitations and it will save you a fortune, whilst giving you a professional finish to your layouts.

For those of you embarking on a new found hobby of card making though, then a full on card making package would be better.

With exciting tools, plenty of paint brush styles and lots of other features, these packages will be great for all your card making, and digital scrapbooking needs.

Two main software packages

There are two main packages for editing and manipulating images: Photoshop Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro. Both are great and both are leaders in their field, but there’s much discussion on the internet about both of them. Which one is best? That’s personal preference really.

With each of these two packages you can set up documents to be greeting card templates, use downloadable digital scrapbooking images and manipulate and edit to your heart’s content.

There are also hundreds of tutorials around for both packages, so if you get stuck, you can easily find a tutorial to help. These products are also great for digital scrapbooking and other design projects.

Corel’s Paint Shop Pro actually offers a free trial. So if you’re not sure which to go for, you can at least try this out first. You can find the free trial of Corel’s Paint Shop Pro here.

If you get stuck with your free trial of Paint Shop Pro, then there’s a great tutorial from Scrapgirls.com.

It takes you through all the basics and shows you how to use this package to make the most of your greeting cards and scrapbooking projects.

Specific card making software

There are also specific card making packages on the market that come with hundreds, if not thousands of templates that you can follow. They’re for hobby use only, so you can’t resell the invitations or cards you make, but they’re great if card making is going to be something you continue.

The main contender in this area is Greeting Card Factory Delux which offers thousands of templates for greeting cards and lots of tools to customise your cards. It’s good fun to use, simple, easy and there’s a template for you can use for any occasion.

If you're in the US, then the same company offer similar software from Hallmark. You can find the Hallmark version here.

If you’re not ready to invest in card making software, then why not try using some of the free packages available. They’ll certainly help with your card making projects and make your life easier. Find out more about free card making software.