The greeting card is a common sight in supermarkets, department stores, and gift shops. Millions of greeting cards are purchased every year by consumers who seek the perfect message about various subjects for colleagues, friends, or family. You may believe that designing and printing a greeting card is too complicated and expensive for your personal or business use, but by commissioning a printing company to do some or all of the work, you can achieve your design goals at a reasonable cost. The following five greeting card design tips should help you get started.

1. Decide on your greeting card type. Do you want a flat greeting card or a folded greeting card? A flat card is more appropriate for less text and graphics. A folded greeting card has enough space for more text. Typically, a printing company will give you the option to print on the front and back of a folded greeting card, and on the inside of the card. A folded greeting card can also be designed to leave more blank space for hand-written signatures and brief inspirational phrases that have become popular for certain types of cards.

2. Pick a theme. Greeting cards can be for birthdays, major holidays, and also for other reasons such as anniversaries, graduations, and weddings. Non-standard greeting cards might be designed to put the reader in a better mood when friends or family know he/she is depressed or discouraged. Some cards are simply “thank you” messages for a favor or gift. When you pick a theme, make sure the design matches it. For example, a Christmas card should generally have appropriate holiday-style trim on the outside edges of the card.

3. Choose your design options. A printing company will probably give you three greeting card design options. You can design your own card by uploading the print-ready design and any artwork, text, and photos, or you can choose from pre-made design templates that you can download from the printing company’s website. The third option is to let the printing company design the greeting card for an additional fee. If you want, you can still upload images for the designer to incorporate into the finished creation.

4. Select additional options from the printing company’s website. You can add a high gloss UV coating to the greeting cards for protection from dirt and moisture, or opt for a non-UV coating that is more matte in appearance and easier to write on with a pen or pencil. A folded greeting card may include an option on the printing company’s drop-down menu to “score” only, or “score” and fold. A score is a crease created to allow for easier and more attractive folding results.

5. Before the printing company prints your greeting cards, you can typically select an electronic proofing option from the drop-down menu. For an additional fee, the printer sends you a PDF file showing the crop marks and fold/score lines. This allow you to make certain the design you want is what will be printed, and avoids any nasty surprises if the communication between you and the printer was not as good as you thought.

Alex Vartanian is a Master Printing Specialist at http://www.printfirm.com . Printfirm\’s services include high quality greeting card printing.

Alex Vartanian is a Master Printing Specialist at http://www.printfirm.com . Printfirm\’s services include high quality greeting cards.

Author Bio: Alex Vartanian is a Master Printing Specialist at http://www.printfirm.com . Printfirm\’s services include high quality greeting card printing.

Category: Advice
Keywords: greeting card design, greeting card printing