Printing Greeting Cards

iPhoto's third printing style offers two options for printing folded greeting cards (Figure 6.6). For better results, check out iPhoto 6's new capability to create and print cards (see Chapter 7, "Cards, Books, and Calendars").

Figure 6.6. iPhoto's Greeting Card style lets you choose between single-fold and double-fold greeting cards. Unfortunately, it doesn't let you enter text.

Uses for greeting cards:

• Print your own holiday cards rather than buying pre-printed ones.

• Make custom birthday cards for friends and family.

• Print invitations to a party.

Tips

• You can choose between single-fold and double-fold greeting cards. Single-fold greeting cards print the photo on half the paper; double-fold greeting cards print the photo on one-quarter of the paper.

• Cropping a photo to an aspect ratio of 8 x 5 increases the size of the photo for a single-fold greeting card. However, cropping to 5.5 x 4.25 for a double-fold greeting card doesn't make a noticeable difference because it's so close to the original aspect ratio of 4 x 3.

• There's no way to prevent photos from printing right at the folded edges, which looks particularly amateurish with double-fold cards. Easy Card (see sidebar) does a better job.

• iPhoto doesn't let you enter text inside the greeting cards or print a photo on the inside of the card. Consider one of the alternatives mentioned in the sidebar to work around this problem.

• You can buy special photo paper for greeting cards that's pre-scored for easier and more attractive folding.

Greeting Card Alternatives

So you want more control over your greeting cards? Here are some options:

• Use iPhoto 6's new capability to create cards, which you can order directly from Apple. You can also print them on your own printer, though you must manually flip paper over to print on the inside. See Chapter 7, "Cards, Books, and Calendars."

• Buy a copy of Script Software's $30 Easy Card, which does a great job of creating and printing greeting cards and custom envelopes. You can even drop photos into it from iPhoto. Download a copy of Easy Card from www.scriptsoftware.com/ecc/.

• Buy a copy of Nova Development's $49.95 Print Explosion Deluxe or $49.95 Greeting Card Factory, which are designed to create greeting cards, along with a wide variety of other printed materials. Find them at www.novadevelopment.com.

• Write your message inside the card by hand! (Perhaps that's obvious.)