Stamp Page Design Software

Is there any stamp page design software that will let me put a stamp on the page with a caption above and a multi-sentence description below? I can't find any software that lets me do this.

Hi apastuszak

A friend of mine does exactly that, especially when he does an exhibit. The software he uses is Microsoft Publisher. He did find in some rare occasions it was easier to layout something in WORD drawing mode and copy it into Publisher to finish.

Jerry B

I'm using Scribus to do it now. But it's not an easy process. There is too much setup. I was hoping for software that just had a dialog box where I type in caption, description, and then add a picture and it does the rest.

Hi apastuszak

Do you know any type of Visual Basic programming? If so, MS Publisher has VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). With that you can write your own DialogBox. Unfortunately I do not have Publisher so I cannot do it for you if you cannot do it yourself. Maybe there is someone on SCF that programs and has Publisher that can do it, if you beg nicely.

Jerry B

I could probably code something to do what you want in Publisher.

Hi PostmasterGS

I suggested a VBA macro because apastuszak wanted to "push a button" and have it do everything. Thinking about it, it too easy to do everything in Publisher without a program. You are going to have to type everything into text boxes anyways. I have the MS Picture It! (poor man's Publisher) and I can do what he wants.

Maybe all apastuszak has to do is record his steps as a Macro and put the Macros on a Custom Toolbar. The Macros might be a little bloated but they would work.

Do you know VB.NET (not C#)? I am learning it on my own as I know VBA and VB6.

Jerry B

I don't know VB.NET. The more I think about it, the more I agree that Publisher already makes it so easy that coding it would probably be overkill. After all, it's already as simple as clicking and dragging two text boxes and a photo box.

I use Microsoft Powerpoint to design stamp album pages. It's easy to draw boxes to scale, and put text anywhere you want (above, below, within, change font, size, etc.). Design your own frame if you want, add images and other embellishments. It's important to set up the page size (eg. 8.5 x 11 inches, portrait orientation) before you start adding boxes and text. The Align function allows you to perfectly align the boxes, and distribute them vertically or horizontally. This produces nice symmetrical display pages, and its very easy to copy & paste a whole page as a starting point for a new page.

I've also done it successfully in Excel. Just set the column and row width and heights to suit the framework for your stamp borders and the rows below or above can be used to type in whatever text you'd like.

Ok, first off. No Windows in my house. Only Linux and Mac. I am doing stuff in Scribus. I tried MS Publisher 2010 and it does not allow me to add captions above and below a picture. That needs to be done by hand. Then I have to drop guides down and line stuff up.

apastuszak,

I threw this macro together in Publisher. Is that close to the behavior you're trying to get?

Blow it up to full screen to see what's going on.

With some tweaking that might be what I am looking for. So, now you're going to make me install Windows and MS Publisher.

Sorry!

Here are a few current limitations. If either of these is a problem, I can try to find a different method.

(1) The initial placement on the page is hardcoded. This is the easiest way to ensure the three pieces are aligned upon initial placement.
(2) The initial heights of the text boxes are hardcoded (the widths are not -- they are linked to the width of the photo)

Since I made the video, I've figured out how to automatically center the text in the text boxes and set the default font, though those settings are in Publisher's settings not the code. I'm working on linking the macro to a button on the ribbon so it's one click away.

Feel free to let me know exactly how you'd like to see it work and I'll see what I can do.

While I'm thinking about it, do you need the stamp images to be full color or greyscale?

Hi




Now that is clever. I would never, in a million years, have thought of PowerPoint as a "graphics design" program. How did you ever come up with using it.

Jerry B

Hi PostmasterGS



Get the current cursor position and do everything based on it. Any writing to a document in MS Office is always at the current cursor position.



Use 2 Textboxes, 1 for width and 1 for height. That way you do not have to hardcode anything. Setting box limits to the image width and/or height is not good. The actual image size could be huge. I found that out when I did one of my stamp programs.

In one or two of my VBA progs I actually execute a toolbar/ribbon button. The button does not have to be visible. In your program you can execute any number of toolbar/ribbon buttons with one form button. I have a program I found that lists the commands for a MS Office program. I'll dig it up, and the code to execute a button, and send it to you. You need it to find out what the button "number" is to execute it.

If you want the program send me your e-mail address and if I find the code I will send it on.

Jerry B