The information you will find below describes how to use any of the Button Design CDs offered by Dr. Don's Buttons, and answers frequently asked questions about their use.
Graphics Programs
To use the designs / templates found on our Button Designs CDs, you will need access to our Online Button Design Studio, which includes the "CD Template Studio" or a graphics program that can work with .jpg files. Examples of programs that can work with .jpgs files are Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Print Artist, Microsoft Publisher and even Microsoft Word.
Using the CDs
To use the images on any of our Button Design CDs, first insert your copy of the CD into the CD drive on your computer. If the graphics program you are going to use isn't already open, go ahead and open it. Then open / import the file on the CD you wish to use to create your button.
Working with "Ready-made" Button Designs
(designs that already include text)
Some of our CDs contain "ready-made" button designs like the one shown above.
To use one of our "ready-made" designs, simply open/import the file you wish to use and then duplicate that design as many times as you wish to fill the page using the"copy/paste" method. The Online Button Design Studio will do this for you automatically.
When you have the page set-up the way you want, send it to print.
Working with Button Templates / Button Backgrounds
(designs where you wll need to add text)
All of our CDs contain "button templates" and "button backgrounds". These are simply designs where you add text to complete the design (such as the one shown above). You will use your graphics program to add text or a graphic. To add curved text to a template or button background, your graphics program must have that capability, which the Online Button Design Studio does.
Questions and Answers about using our Button Design CDs
Q. I inserted the CD into my drive, but it didn't install anything on my computer. Why not?
A. Our Button Design CDs are not applications, so they will not install anything on your computer. To access any of the files on the CD, you will need to use your graphics program to open / import the file(s) you wish to use. If you wish to copy a file or files from the CD to your computer hard drive, refer to your computer manual for information on how you transfer files from CD to your hard drive.
Q. When I open any of the designs on my CD, the image nearly fills the page and are much larger than they should be. Can you tell me why this is happening and what to do about it?
A. Some graphics programs are intended to be used with "low resolution" graphics, such as those that are used for the Internet. When one of these programs encounters a "high-resolution" graphic (like those on our CDs) the program may respond by enlarging the image nearly 4 times larger than it should be.
There are three work-arounds to solve this problem.
The first is to use the CD Template Studio portion of the Online Button Design Studio. It will handle the designs the way they are supposed to.
The second method is to see if your graphics program has a scaling feature. If it does, you can select the image and through trial and error see what percentage you need to use to "scale the image" back to its proper size. (this action is similar to what you do on a copy machine that allows you to reduce or enlarge copied images.)
Once you determine what the percentage of reduction needs to be, you should be able to use that same figure every time you wish to use any of the files on your CD.
If your program doesn't offer a scaling feature, you may be able to manually re-size the image with your program.
If you don't how to do this, please check the instruction manual that came with your graphics program to determine how this is done.
If you prefer not to do either of these work arounds, you might see about using another graphics program to design your buttons, one that was designed to with high-resolution images.
Q. I'm new to computers and I don't know how to do what you just explained. Is there anyone in your office who can help me?
A. I'm sorry, but we are unable to offer that level of support.
There are literally hundreds of graphics programs on the market today and they all do things differently. So there is simply no way we can possibly offer this type of assistance to our customers.
The best suggestion I can make is to read the instruction manual that came with your graphics program. Or if you have a friend who is experienced with computers, you might ask them to assist you in learning how to use it.
* * * * *
To return to our Button Designs CD page, click here¬Ý
