Version 3 of Chronos’ labelling software is a hit. SOHO Labels replaces Labels and Envelopes and for a good reason; SOHO Labels doesn’t just do labels and envelopes. It now also does DVDs and jewel boxes. I was wary of this new capability, with Disc Cover and discLabel being long-time values in this market, but SOHO Labels fares well, very well indeed.

SOHO Labels 3 builds further on the success of its predecessor. It still uses the HUD type Inspectors, and the Smart Inspector HUD which pops up the right Inspector for each individual job. Better still, you can now set the gap between the object you’re working on and the Inspector, so it doesn’t sit in the way.

SOHO Labels 3’s support for label types is huge, with Dymo, HP CD Tattoos, and direct CD/DVD printing on some HP and Epson models included. It has the right, intuitive interface in a unified window, with the main object sections --Graphics, Text Styles, Barcodes and dynamic text, etc-- neatly organised in tabs running across the right side of the window. The Graphics tab has the traditional iPhoto library access, masks, and vector graphics in smaller tabs across the top.

Dependent Fields for Skipping Empty Lines

One word of criticism here: supporting the iPhoto library only doesn’t cut it, in my opinion. Chronos should deliver access to those other libraries as well: Aperture and --why not?-- Lightroom. Because SOHO Labels is not for simple minds. It has the complete set of creative tools you need to make excellent labels, envelopes and even matching letter heads. And those tools require more than just iPhoto access.

To prove my point that SOHO Labels 3 isn’t just for playing, version has additional support for Seiko and Brother label printers. That means all major business label printers have been covered. Also new is that you can use all fields available in Mac OS X Address Book. Furthermore, you can set the appearance of fields dependent on the presence of data in them. With SOHO Labels 3, it is possible to set up a field on a label or envelope, CD or letter head, and then not show that anything related to that field if no data is present. On address labels, for example, you can thus skip empty lines.

But of course, the biggest news with SOHO Labels is that it now enables you to create and print CD/DVD labels. It is very clever of Chronos to have waited so long before offering this capability. First of all, its labelling product has been established as excellent value for the money for some time now. Secondly, the application has been refined, both in feature set and ease-of-use to a point that makes it easy to add whatever labelling capabilities you like without sacrificing these unique selling points.

Consequently, the CD/DVD labelling capabilities of SOHO Labels can make use of all the features and dynamic capabilities other labels can use as well, with the added extra that you can just print to a label sheet or even directly to the medium itself if your printer allows. I was particularly interested in seeing whether I would have to calibrate my printer to get decent results, but that proved to be unnecessary. The labels came out perfect.

The only thing now missing from SOHO Labels 3 is the ability to print to LightScribe, but given the very slow uptake of LightScribe by the market, I don’t see the lack of LightScribe support as a huge problem. The inclusion of direct to CD/DVD printing is far more important, and that is available as a standard.

Earlier in my review I said SOHO Labels 3 is no toy application. I did imply that you can use SOHO Labels instead of Illustrator, for example, and get the same results. With a vector Bezier tool added for good measure, SOHO Labels lacks nothing that you need to create creative and outstanding labels, envelopes, and letter head. Granted, Illustrator has more creative effects in-house, but here SOHO Labels doesn’t fall far behind by using all the juicy Core Image filters that are available in Mac OS X.

As a professional labelling application, SOHO Labels even offers online printing through its own print shop service, right from within the program.