I want to mail friends a New Year’s card that says “Let’s hope that 2009 can’t be any worse than 2008”. It would be good to illustrate this with some cheerful photos, e.g., Wall Street tycoons hauling their billions in bailout cash up to Greenwich, CT, our elected officials getting handcuffed, etc. Given that I forgot to move all of my money into T-bills a year ago, price is a concern.
What’s a good service to use for high-quality photo printing into greeting cards? Here are some constraints…
- does not require me to prepare camera-ready PDF files (i.e., I want to give them JPEGs to put into a template, not pretend to be a competent user of Quark or Adobe tools) or color separations
- reasonably cheap for quantity 200 (don’t have that many friends)
- will send out a proof and then the total print run within a couple of weeks
Thanks in advance!
I use Send Out Cards for this.
Disclosure: I’m a distributor for them although it’s just coincidence that I’m responding here. I’ve been following your feed for eons.
You upload your photo to create a new card then enter who you want to send it to and what you want it to say and that’s it. They print it, stuff it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and drop it in the mail.
If you want to send yourself a card to see the quality (at no cost to you) then give me a shout and I’ll walk you through it. (289) 385-0120 or the email address above. At retail pricing, each card will cost about $1.50USD plus postage
I used Vista Print to make save-the-date cards for our wedding. They use JPEGs and turn around can be as quick as 3 days. I think 200 save-the-date cards ran ~$50 including 2 day shipping.
http://www.vistaprint.com
PsPrint.
VistaPrint will stick their URL on your cards whether you want it or not.
I used WinkFlash to print my family Christmas Cards this year, and it worked great. They were really fast and I’m pleased with the quality of the finished cards. I created the pictures in Photoshop and just uploaded them as big JPEGs, and they did the rest. They even have an AJAX photocropper app that shows you just what the finished card will look like.
Who cares about quality for a teeny print with snowflakes or the like on the edge? I used Walgreens- I uploaded a jpeg with a pithy holiday greeting instruction while indolently lounging on a couch in my house. Picked up the cards the next day (only 100 as I have even fewer friends)
Expect a sample on your doorstep in the near future
Fazal,
I just looked at the cards I had printed two months ago and they do not have the VistaPrint URL on them.
Have you tried Costco? They have an app you download (Windows only) which has all sorts of templates and previews, or you can just do it online. Then you submit the job electronically and pick it up at your local store or have it mailed. The pricing information is at http://www.costcophotocenter.com/help/default.aspx?q=Product_Pricing_and_Shipping_Information.htm
Eric – I had thank you cards printed 2 weeks ago (I uploaded custom artwork I made in InDesign, and paid the premium fee for that), they did have the URL on the back. I called to complain but they wouldn’t budge, so I asked for my money back. It’s one thing to print their logo on their “free” business cards, something altogether different on a $180 order.
The best quality cards are from http://www.minted.com — their designs are great and the paper and print quality are by far the best. They have some nice designs that allow you to showcase several photos inside as well as one on the front, and the paper is heavy and traditional, so it feels like paper (not glossy) and you can write a note on it. Unfortunately, they don’t meet your cheap requirement, probably costing a back or two a card. Tinyprints has similar pricing but neither the designs or quality are as good.
For more cost effective choices, I agree with the costco suggestion, and I also think http://www.shutterfly.com has a decent product. Not nearly as nice as minted, but if good enough is good enough, they’ll get the job done.
When you find your printer, this David Brooks entry is a worthy addition to the
back cover:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/opinion/12brooks.html
I like Smugmug’s greeting cards:
http://smugmug.com/prints/5×7-folded-cards
Though you’ll need a Smugmug account to make use of them. But they offer a 7 day free trial.
ModernPostcards.com, VistaPrint.com and Zazzle.com. All three have been offering discounts on printing, search for coupon codes. Zazzle is very easy and shipped very quick. Vistaprint seemed to offer low prices but made up the difference on shipping. Modern has very good style templates, thicker stock and very good print quality.
Walmart:
http://photos.walmart.com/storepage/storePageId=Cards
$66 for 200
Printing greeting cards through iPhoto isn’t the cheapest route ($150 for 85 5×7 cards), but you get access to a variety of stylish designs and the resulting cards feature good-quality printing on solid card stock. It only takes a few minutes to pick a template, drop in an image, add your text, and click the “order” button.