Wednesday, May 2, 2007

How to make postcards

How to make postcards
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN POSTCARDS
by Rico Leffanta, Wild Life Photographer
Postcards are fun ~ fun to send, and fun to receive, but never as much fun as when YOU make the postcard!
• Especially now it is affordable! All you need to make great postcards are: postcards, a printer, and a computer with software permitting adjustment of images and text.
If you don't have a scanner to input your own images, you can always take them to a copy shop and get them scanned onto a disk.
There is no need to buy expensive postcard stock , because most of it will smear - if not in your printer, it will smear when it passes through post office sorting machines. So use postcards designed to hold print, e.g., Mead 4x6-inch Plain Index Cards.
A pack of 50-cards cost less than $1 at the stationery department of almost every store in America, so you can afford to send everyone on your list a postcard, and you can afford to co-ordinate the colour of your scanner/computer/printer so each postcard turns out perfectly.
Many printers don't "accept" 4x6 cards, or print flush to the edge of the postcard, but you can usually trick your printer into accepting postcard stock by using the "Label" or "Envelope" setting.
The best way to circumvent a printer not printing flush to the edge of the postcard is to use a snapshot margin, e.g., on a 4x6-inch card, set a .2 upper and .2 lower margin (I use a .3 upper and .3 lower for the address sideof the postcard).
Instructions on how to adjust your image should be available with the "Help" function of your imaging software. However, if you are going to use a .2 margin, remember the size of your image should be 3.6 x 5.6-inches!
Although many image programmes offer a text function, you can usually do a better job of it using the "Word Art" function of Word, because it allows more creative use and positioning of text. To use WordArt, save your image to the Desktop in .pict format at 300 dpi or less.
If you are not familiar with "Word Art", either "Edit


Comment, as my postcard exploration voyage goes on, I have visited a technically perfect site, giving you in-detail and yet fully clear and comprehensible instructions how to make your own postcards - but of course, you cannot find here the postcards themselves apart from somowhat cruel examples with sharks. My dad used to say - you do know what is hunger and war - if he saw these samaple postcards - anyway, the instructions are very useful and what you get is postcard as this should be.
My rating - no material to assess
Have a nice day mc prague