Hack 87 Create Custom Greeting Cards

Create professional-looking greeting cards and even have them addressed and mailed for you .

We all get them, those wonderful holiday cards from our friends or family. They usually have a great candid shot, with a message printed right on the card. Now, it's your turn to impress friends and family with a holiday card printed from one of your digital snaps .

This hack will get you on your way to sending out your own holiday cards that are even fancier, putting you one step ahead of that pesky brother-in-law. There are two ways you can make cards: print them yourself on your inkjet printer or have a photofinisher do it for you. I'm going to focus on using an online photofinisher for a few reasons:

Time-effectiveness

The photofinisher handles all the headaches of proofing and output for you. You essentially upload one file and move on to the next item on your busy holiday task list.

Cost-effectiveness

Yes, by the time you factor in the outrageous cost of specialized inkjet printing paper, ink cartridges, and your time, it's cheaper to use a professional service.

Durability

Pro shops use a modern version of the traditional printing process. Your cards will hold up much better to adverse conditions than cards printed on an inkjet printer.

You might want to see which services your local photofinisher offers. Many photofinishers have great options for printing custom cards. If, however, you'd rather work online, there are many Internet services that let you customize your cards in myriad ways. Ofoto (http://www.ofoto.com), Snapfish (http://www.snapfish.com), ClubPhoto (http://www.clubphoto.com), and Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com) are all worth checking out. Shutterfly is one of the leaders in online image printing, and for good reason. Using Shutterfly, you can create you own cards with plenty of options; they'll even mail them for you!

To get started, sign up for an account at http://www.shutterfly.com. You'll be prompted to upload some pictures during this process; make sure the one you want to use for your greeting card is among them. After setting up your account, log in and click on Create a Card. You'll be greeted by the screen shown in Figure 8-4.

Figure 8-4. Getting started with an online greeting card

Choose which kind of card you want to create. Shutterfly has cards to capture specific occasions, or you can just choose a general card. Note the pricing for the cardsnot a bad deal, especially if you order more than 20. Once you've chosen the kind of card you want to send, you need to decide whether you want the cards boxed and sent to you or whether you'd rather have Shutterfly mail them directly to the recipients.

With the business details taken care of, you can begin to design. There are a variety of borders from which to choose. I've selected the balloon border for my son's birthday invitation . Shutterfly prompts me to choose a picture by clicking it. Ta-da! The image I select appears in the card mock-up, as shown in Figure 8-5. I can also edit the image online, deleting red eye, zooming in, and applying effects. All changes take place in real time.

Figure 8-5. Greeting card with my picture

Once you have your image in place, it's time to create the typography : the font and color for your message. Shutterfly then renders the message according to your specs , letting you preview accurately how the final card will look, as shown in Figure 8-6. Spell checking is not available, though, so make sure you check the wording carefully . Click Back to edit your message, or click Next if you think everything looks fine.

Figure 8-6. Preview of the card's interior

If you want Shutterfly to mail your cards for you, you'll be prompted to build your address list. No worries, though; you don't have to spend a long evening typing everyone's information. Shutterfly lets you import your address list from your Outlook or Palm address book.

And that's it. Your cards are on their way, and you can move to the next item on your holiday to-do list.

Hadley Stern