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 To prepare artwork for stamp making it is best to use a computer graphics program that can output to a laser printer. Most programs available on the market today such as MicroSoft Word and MicroSoft Publisher deal with bitmap images (pixel based images). The limitations of working with bitmap only based programs is that they cannot import or edit Vector images (lines).
The two industry standard programs that allow editing of both forms of graphic and used by most graphic designers are Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. The drawback with both these programs are price plus an overload of features that will never be used, both are also computer resource hungry. Of the two Coreldraw is our pick and less resource hungry versions (version 9 and below) can sometimes be found on ebay at the right price.
A less expensive solution at about $70.00 AUD ($50USD) is a program called Draw 5. Draw 5 has been developed to work with both bitmap and vector images, is not resource hungry on older computers and has all the features we need for stamp making. It is not surprisingly very similar to CorelDraw. The full version of Draw 5 is supplied on the CD accompanying the Craft Stamp Maker and will operate for 30 days before registration and payment is required.
 If you wish to start using Draw 5 you can download it here. (23.8mb) Download Draw 5 Graphics Program
Stamp Making Templates
The CD supplied with the Craft Stamp Maker includes stamp making templates for both CorelDraw and Draw 5, the supplied templates make it very simple to set up your stamp images for printing to the size of the InstaPlate sachet.
The vellum on the right shows how images are printed from CorelDraw or Draw 5.
Also supplied with the stamp maker is a hard copy of a template in the event you would like to recreate it in a program not mentioned here.
Printers
We recommend HP or Canon laser printers, the above example was printed using a $130 HP1020 laser printer ($115 USD).
Included with your stamp maker is a printed A5 piece of vellum print so you can compare your printers quality with our printed sample. Attaining the darkest print possible is very important.
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