Avery Design Pro is great for creating soap cigar bands and other labels that are compatible with Avery's design templates. Avery design template can even be used to create labels that are not in their design roster with a few tweaks. The software is a free download and it accepts different types of graphic formats, including JPG, TIFF and PNG formats.

In order to use Avery Design Pro to print labels that are not in their design roster you will have to think outside the box. I use Avery Design Pro to print regular sized labels such as a 2.5 inch circle and the 5x3 inch rectangle. These standard label sizes are typical Avery compatible label sizes. But what do you do to create soap cigar bands that are approximately 3 inches x 8 inches?

See below for instructions for creating soap cigar bands in Avery design Pro.

The software takes up from total of 200MB but it recommended that you have at least 800MB free on your hard drive. The program is compatable with Windows 7, XP, 95, 97, ME and Vista.

Pros:

The software is easy to use

Its free, which is great for those who do not have expensive software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create labels

Labels print to any Avery compatible type label. Avery labels are the standard for home printing label needs for the novice at home printer. In addition, Avery pro is great for designing basic graphic layouts for such items as product hang tags and gift tags --- all of which can be printed on card stock or other stiff material and then cut out.

This software has all the nuts and bolts to make designing a breeze, with features such as:

• insert shapes and boxes
  
• insert text on top of graphics and shapes
  
• rounded corners and line fills
  
• text on a rounded path (text in a circle)
  
• graphics that stretch and can be resized
  
• design possibilities that the very makers of the software have no clue to-;
  
  Cons:
  
• There are not many tutorials available to help figure out the software so you are on your own.
  
• The program is fairly easy to use but has many functions that you just have to play with to understand.
  
• Some folks claim that the software does not recognize the file types that it claims. That is a easy fix as you have to specify the file types in the file import dialog box so it will look for that file type.
  
  Directions for using Avery Design to create soap cigar bands and other labels
  
  1. Download Avery Pro from website (It is a free program)
     
  2. Check your Avery label and make a note of the label number, you will need this to find the particular label template you will working on - For these examples we will use the full sheet label template to create soap cigar bands - the Avery label you would use is Avery® 6465™ (however when printing, print on regular paper or card stock)
     
  3. Create a new document in Avery Pro:
     DESIGN FROM SCRATCH --------- scroll to find 8 1/2 x 11 full page ------ click OKAY
     
  4. Click zoom button to zoom into the page 100 -200%
     
  5. If you have an image - insert image onto template ---- GOTO ---- INSERT ------ IMAGE FROM FILE
     
  6. Make sure "all files" option is selected so that you can see all the file types in your folder. The program has several glitches, one of which is that it opens files such as PNG files, even though it is not listed as a supported file type.
     
  7. Resize image to fit the space. Typically, three cigar bands fit on a 8 1/2 x 11 inch page.
     
  8. Alternately if you do not have a high resolution image or a cigar band template, you can still create a soap cigar band in this program.
     
  9. But to finish the band lets add three cigar bands ------ RIGHT CLICK ON FIRST CIGAR BAND IMAGE AND COPY AND PASTE ----- IMAGE ----- ARRANGE the three labels on the 8 1/2 x 11 space.
     
  10. SO IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN IMAGE you can still create a simple cigar band. To do so, start a new file and choose DESIGN FROM SCRATCH -------choose a 8 1/2 x 11 template.
      
  11. To create the shape of the cigar band select DRAWING -------- RECTANGLE----- use the rectangle drawing tool to draw a rectangle on the page --- a good size for each cigar band is 3 inches x 8 inches.
      
  12. To customize each cigar band right click on the edge of the line to add a fill color, fill pattern, line thickness, or to create a box with rounded corners, etc.
      
  13. To insert text ------GOTO INSERT TEXT------- explore the options to create text on a rounded path, to customize font type, colors, etc.
      
      To download Avery Design Pro, visit Avery Dennison