:-) You Call That a Smile?
(CPWire) April 14, 1999 -- E-mail is a great way to stay in touch with your parents, with distant friends, or confirm a study session; but until recently it has had a dull, uniform appearance. To add some pizzazz to otherwise generic type, makeshift `emoticons` - crude typed character combinations that look like smiley faces and other icons - were developed by creative e-mailers. But emoticons didn`t really fool or amuse anyone - it`s still standard type.
:-(
So how can you add a little personality to e-mail? A new Internet software service, available at http://www.signature-mail.com, was recently announced and it just may wipe the grins off the emoticons’ faces. Currently available for free, Signature-mail software lets you add your own handwritten ``John Hancock,`` personal credo, holiday greetings or artistic doodles to e-mail messages. You can create your own e-mail birthday cards, love notes and personal letters that rival hand-carried mail; and you can even change the size and color of your hand-drawn creations with each use.
``When my daughter sends me e-mail messages signed with her own handwriting, it makes the entire message a lot more personal and helps to close the geographic distance between us,`` says H. Lee Browne, co-founder of Signature-mail.com. ``In fact, we designed the software to make technology less impersonal.``
Getting the software is as simple as putting pen to paper, according to Browne. You print out an order form, fill in your own handwritten greetings, fax it to the toll-free number and within seconds Signature-mail is ready to download from a secured Web site, which requires your ID and password. Each copy of the software can contain up to 25 user-created signature images. With a few mouse-clicks, you select which image you want, along with its size and color, and insert it into an e-mail, computer fax, or document.
Signature-mail version 1.0 for the PC works with the latest software from AOL, Netscape, Microsoft and Eudora. A Macintosh beta test version is currently available. Further details and information are available at http://www.signature-mail.com.
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