From the team over at Chronos and costing $39.99, or $19.99 if you have registered 1.x and want to upgrade SOHO Labels & Envelopes 2.0.1 is as neat a way as I have come across to generate all those exciting labels and envelopes on your Mac.
Their claim? “SOHO Labels & Envelopes is the fastest way to design and print professional labels and envelopes on your Macintosh. Its next generation design eliminates the headaches typically associated with label and envelope printing so you can focus on your business.”
Now I can’t say that I ever get a headache from this type of activity, but I will admit that I usually find things like this pretty slow and laborious. I have reviewed label software before but it isn’t something that I get excited about. SOHO clearly states that its target market is the small business AND anyone looking to print labels on a Mac. I can see how a product like this makes sense for the small business, but in this day and age do many people really have that great a need for labels and letterheads, and as for envelops I send about 6 letters a year!
That said it is a really easy application to use, and it interacts very well with your Macs content (addresses, pictures, images etc). Organised into four projects; Labels, Envelopes and Letterheads are self explanatory but the Matched Sets is a really neat feature. “SOHO Labels & Envelopes does more than its title suggests. You can also make letterhead that matches your labels and envelopes for a consistent and professional company identity. As an added BONUS, SOHO Labels & Envelopes comes with many matching letterhead, envelope and label sets to get you started.” I particularly liked this feature – must be the frustrated graphic designer lingering deep down in some past career consideration!
It isn’t an application that I would imagine that you would use every day, really if you do please let me know, but if you have ANY requirement for any of the tasks then this is a really good application that you wont go wrong with.
For those of you already using 1.x this is what is new in 2.0.1:
SOHO Labels & Envelopes includes a completely redesigned interface and 14+ MAJOR features to make professional results EASIER than ever to achieve.
NEW! Smart Inspector. Unobtrusive and context-sensitive inspector makes designing easy
NEW! Project Wizard. Get started in 3 easy steps with full previews
NEW! Favorites Bin. Store and re-use your most creative design elements
NEW! Text Bin. Store and re-use text styles like titles, headings, captions, etc.
NEW! Single Window Interface. Streamlined interfaces makes work fun
NEW! Group/Ungroup. Group objects together to create intricate designs
NEW! Layers. Organize design elements on separate layers
NEW! 100+ Super-Masks. Mask images with fine-grain control for a pro-look
NEW! 30+ Special Effects. Use one-click effects on images like Sepia, Gaussian Blur, etc.
NEW! Photo Fine-Tuning. Adjust the brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc. of any photo
NEW! Photo Cropping. Dynamically crop photos using any shape or even text
NEW! Grid Overlay/Underlay. Display an alignment grid above or below your artwork
NEW! Lock/Unlock. Lock objects on the design canvas to prevent accidental alteration
NEW! 2 Arrow Smart Shapes. Easily create arrows of any size and proportion