Palka Valentine

Palka Valentine allows you to take a photo, put it onto a Valentine and email the card to friends. The app starts in camera mode. There you can either take a photo of someone or take a selfie— or pressing the back arrow, you can choose a photo from your gallery. Using face detection, the photo appears in the right place in the Valentine. However, it can’t be seen right away. It has to be revealed. Instead, we see a heart with a lacy pattern on it. Multiple clicks on the right side of the heart reveals the photo in the center of the heart. (Clicking on the left side moves us backwards through the sequence.) The icons in the picture allow you to reposition the photo, add and position valentine messages, draw or write on the card. Items in the pull-down menu allow you to modify the drawing, email it to friends or just hide the icons on the picture. (The icons aren’t included when the card is sent.)

In taking a photo, be sure that the person is well-lit and is the only person in the scene.

The top row of icons do the following: (1) Translate (move) the current object (photo, text or drawing), (2) Scale the current object (photo or drawing), (3) Choose the face for translating or scaling, (4) Show “Be My Valentine” text and make it accessible for translating, (5) Show “I’m Yours” text and make it accessible, (6) Show “Happy Valentine’s Day” and make it accessible, (7) Turn on (or off) drawing mode.

The bottom row of icons do the following: (1) Clear the selected element of the drawing, (2) Show a gray background for drawing upon (allows you to draw your card from scratch), (3) Turn the latest drawn element into a polygon and allow you to choose a color. Having no icons highlighted allows you to choose an element in the drawing to color, clear, translate or scale.

At the bottom of the menu is the option to email your card to friends. The emailer scans your smart phone and gives you a list of email addresses to choose from— or you could type in new ones.

This app has no advertisements.