christmas cards......

Southerngal · Sep 18, 2007

Im sure this is probably the wrong place to ask this, but I asked before in another forum and didnt get much feedback. I have seen so many great greeting card templates lately on other photographer sites and of course none of them will return my inquiring emails....lol. Im wanting some sort of template program that I can upload on my computer design a few samples with my past works and hopefully sell some for the holidays.

Im wanting very new and trendy cards.

Here is an example of what I talking about. I blacked out the picture b/c it isnt mine. I have seen this template on a few photographers websites.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. :wink:

NJMAN · Sep 18, 2007

You can easily do some templates in photoshop, illustrator, or indesign. If you only have photoshop, that will do just fine also. If you have seen some designs from other sites, try to use them as examples and design your own flavor of greeting card(s). The layout you want, based on what you are showing here is probably 4x5. If you are designing in photoshop, you need to set your new document as 4 inches height and 5 inches width, at 300 ppi. Then do your designing in layers. Add the rectangle objects, then add text, and position everything the way you want it. 4x8 cards are popular also.

I have designed several, and I let my customers choose from a set of about 20 premade designs. I change them up a little bit each year too. The customer then decides what portrait they want inside. Once you insert the image into the design that your customer wants, save it as a high res file, and send it off to a lab that you trust to get quantities printed. I use mpix.com.

Southerngal · Sep 19, 2007

NJMAN said:
You can easily do some templates in photoshop, illustrator, or indesign. If you only have photoshop, that will do just fine also. If you have seen some designs from other sites, try to use them as examples and design your own flavor of greeting card(s). The layout you want, based on what you are showing here is probably 4x5. If you are designing in photoshop, you need to set your new document as 4 inches height and 5 inches width, at 300 ppi. Then do your designing in layers. Add the rectangle objects, then add text, and position everything the way you want it. 4x8 cards are popular also.

I have designed several, and I let my customers choose from a set of about 20 premade designs. I change them up a little bit each year too. The customer then decides what portrait they want inside. Once you insert the image into the design that your customer wants, save it as a high res file, and send it off to a lab that you trust to get quantities printed. I use mpix.com.

Thanks for the advice. The template above is actually 5x7. The company is local and she only offers 5x7s. I have a client that would like 4x6 cards.

Here are a few that have done today.

I guess I was just wanting a simpler way....lol. Im fine w/designing them myself. Just was curious how everyone else does it.

NJMAN · Sep 19, 2007

I should also mention that mpix offers card and calendar software that you can download and use for free.

http://www.mpix.com/productsinfo.aspx

On that page, scroll down to where it says "Download Cards and Calendars Software". I've used it a few times, its pretty cool. But I prefer to design my own in photoshop.

Southerngal · Sep 19, 2007

NJMAN said:
I should also mention that mpix offers card and calendar software that you can download and use for free.

http://www.mpix.com/productsinfo.aspx

On that page, scroll down to where it says "Download Cards and Calendars Software". I've used it a few times, its pretty cool. But I prefer to design my own in photoshop.

I also use mpix. I also think I prefer to design my own over theres. Thanks, though. :wink:

I think theres are kind of cheesy. I was looking for something very modern and new.

NJMAN · Sep 19, 2007

Southerngal said:
I think theres are kind of cheesy.

I agree. ;-)

I think yours look great! And people will appreciate that you put the work into designing them yourself. I would even advertise them as such.

Big Mike · Sep 20, 2007

I have seen several of them at the labs I use...but they are also cheesy. Just make your own...the hard part is the design ideas, once you have a design in mind...actually making it with Photoshop or Illustrator should be a snap.

Southerngal · Sep 20, 2007

Big Mike said:
I have seen several of them at the labs I use...but they are also cheesy. Just make your own...the hard part is the design ideas, once you have a design in mind...actually making it with Photoshop or Illustrator should be a snap.

I have been working on several. I actually posted a few above. Coming up w/the ideas and colors can be difficult, but Im actually enjoying it.

Christie Photo · Sep 20, 2007

I've been selling StylArt for years. They sell themselves.

-Pete

bellacat · Sep 20, 2007

I have always made my own for the same reason you all mentioned, some templates are just cheesy. It looks like you are off in the right direction in your samples.

trieschman · Aug 6, 2008

I'd love for you to visit my blog. I am a graphic designer and I sell Photoshop Templates to professional photographers. I also have a few free templates on my site.

I'd be happy to work with you to create something new and unique.

The Christmas cards that are currently posted are for 2007 but the date is easy to change and I'd be happy to do that for you. - Just let me know.

Anyway, take a look and if you have any comments or feedback I'd love to hear from you.

http://itsplanetjanet.blogspot.com/

Thanks in advance!

coffeelover23 · Sep 6, 2008

I've heard of people I know having mixed success with this, but you could probably find some sites online that you can put your photos on and they have the templates to choose from. It's worth a shot but maybe read reviews of the places before you decide to go with one.
Here's a site I found with a bunch of coupons: Christmas Cards

Lisanico · Dec 17, 2008

Very nice pictures and templates! I though of doing christmas cards this year as well especially after reading this article on creating your own christmas card or even a photo calendar.
Just great!

dtornabene1 · Dec 18, 2008

I prefer to use Illustrator. This way resizing is never an issue. Then I use InDesign for the layout. This gives me different size templates all in one file.

I agree the pre-made templates on the labs' sites are pretty lame.

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