US Patent 7290705 System and method for personalizing and dispensing value-bearing instruments

To personalize a value-bearing instrument, such as a gift card (100), a user-operated station (200) is provided. The user provides funds to the gift card (100) via a fund receiving module (287). The user then selects a set of merchants for which the funds are to be used via a user-interface. The user then authors a graphic arrangement on a template (233) presented on a display (230) of the user interface. When the graphic arrangement is to the user's liking, it is printed on an indicia carrier (105) by an instrument printer (215). The completed gift card is dispensed to the user via an instrument dispenser (220).