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Making Cards
One of those things I view as a necessary evil, is making cards with some of my images on them. It’s such a great idea on the surface to showcase your photography by having cards that you use to send thank-you notes to people and that you can sell. Ideally people see the images and decide they need to buy a print too or hire you in some capacity. But the thing is that actually printing the cards often takes more time than it’s worth. By the time you do the layout, hoping that the margins actually come out the way you envision, print the card, and then crease it if you’re using regular inkjet paper, you know there has to be a better way.
Out of curiosity I decided to open iPhoto and use the card option. I accessed my Aperture images by going to File >Show Aperture library. I chose the Card option and a dialog appeared with all sorts of templates for both postcards and greeting cards. Some are a bit too cutesy for my personal taste, but I think there’s probably a style in there that will suit most people. After you choose the theme, there are options to change the background color and/or to use a variation of the overall design. Some of the designs include an option to add text both on the front of the card and inside. I opted for a basic greeting card with what appeared to be a double mat style on the outside and a small picture that I added a wash to on the inside. When the card appeared to be reasonably designed, I clicked “Buy Card.” The price wasn’t bad - it’s $1.99 per card, but the shipping is an additional $2.49. The shipping charge stays the same for up to 9 cards, so it makes sense to order several at once.
I confess I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of quality. A few days later a package arrived with my cards contained in a plastic protective envelope, and they looked really nice! The double mat is just an illusion with shadow lines, but it still looks acceptable. I was impressed and it’s definitely the way I’ll go about making cards now.
One thing that you may want to do is make sure that you generate a high quality preview for the images you want to use on the cards. iPhoto uses the Preview to make the card, so choosing the highest quality preview in Aperture makes sense. Normally I use a more moderate quality and size setting for my Previews so they don’t take up too much storage space. But once you know you want to use an image for a card, go to Preferences in Aperture, change the settings, select the image, hold down the Option key and choose Images >Generate (or Update) Preview. Then change your Preview settings back in Preferences.
I actually wish Aperture had a more professional version of the card option. I’d love to be able to create numerous cards at once and order in bulk. And I’d love to see a few more upscale options for the cards. Customized cards featuring your own images are a great promotional item.
I print my own using print templates in lightroom (I use a single line around the image and have to rotate the image upsidedown). Pre scorred card paper can be bought at various vendors (I use red river papers). Works well for me.
I second the request for a card generator tool in Aperture. I use my photos for custom greeting cards all the time. This is the only reason I use iPhoto anymore. Since they already have the infrastructure in place, I don't understand why they don't allow you to print custom cards and calendars in Aperture. As a professional-level program, I would expect to have more versatility with Aperture, not less.
Hello Ellen,
first of all I like your articles and tips.
For making postcards I use the little application posterino.
It works well with the Aperture library and you can sen real postcards with a real stamp.
Best wishes from Germany
Volker
Aram, indeed there are lots of ways to print cards yourself, but they all involve some degree of fiddling around to make certain the image prints with the right size borders, centered in the desired space, etc. Once you have a system worked out, that's fine and it may be more economical than ordering from a service. However I really do like the time-savings and flexibility of design that are available by using the iPhoto templates.
Ideally as R. Jackson said, I'd like to see a card option in Aperture that would have options to print in bulk for reduced costs, individual plastic sheaths, and more professional templates.
Volker, thanks for the kind words. I was not familiar with Posterino but just took a look. The posters and postcards look intriguing, but the postcards seem rather expensive relative to the cost of a card. Have you also tried the iPhoto cards? I'd be interested to know you think they compare in quality.
Thanks for a very usable, practical tip! I have been exploring different ways to produce cards recently (using Ptotographer's Edge, Crane's new Museo cards, and ImageKind) and it turned out to be a more frustrating process than I expected it to be.
This seems a very reasonable solution, is available without the need of new software beyon what every Mac user already has, and I am certainly going to give it a try. Don't want to make this a long post - for more info on the card-printing solutions I tried, what worked and what didn't, see my blog.
Hello,
another great option I tried out last xmas is the cards on moo.com.
They integrate nicely with flickr, and if the price is a bit high, the print quality is crazy. The colors are superb and the paper is glossy and silky to the touch. It feels like they were really printed by print-lovers.
They also do great "mincards" which are great as business cards, because people keep them just because of the picture on them ;-)
Hello Ellen,
excuse my laid response.
Yes I have used the iPhoto cards with iPhoto 7 and compared with Posterino.
The apple card is not bad but posterino card has the feeling of a real postcard - so in my opinion better. Apple cards arrived to me after ten days and the posterino card is after two days by your friends or clients - the prices of the card includes the price of the stamp and the company send it from the post office to the adress you have written. It works also together with apples adressbook.
Hope this helps you.
one more thing - what´about a AP 2 book from you?
I would like to see it and wish me a workflow solution together with CS3 and the plugins you use in AP2.
Volker, thank you for asking about an Aperture 2 book from Josh and me. We're still planning a PDF based downloadable book, but we're running behind due to travel and a revision of my Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers book that's in the works. In addition though, I'm in the midst of creating 8 hours of video training on Aperture 2 for Virtual Training Corporation. I'm not sure of the expected release date on that, but I'm hard at work recording them now! I'll definitely include a suggested workflow in both the video and the PDF.
I love to print out cards at home or draw picture son cards because of the homemade feel and look.