subject: Professional Recommendations For Postcard Printing [print this page] Just starting out with custom postcard printing? If you are a bit clueless in the art of postcard printing and design, you need not worry. All people go through the same situation, and you only need a few recommendations and advice from a professional to get your postcard printing on a good track. Luckily for you, I have five professional recommendations that you may find useful in your own stint of creating postcards. Lets start with the most prominent thing in color postcards, the photographs.
1. Use your own photographs One thing that I highly recommend you do in your custom postcards is to use your own color photographs. While using royalty free photographs or digitally created ones are perfectly acceptable in custom postcards, there is still nothing like an original postcard that makes a postcard great. Not only can you dictate the composition and lighting of the shots in your own postcard photograph, you can also always get different versions, angles and styles for the same subject. So it is quite better and more useful when designing your custom postcards.
2. Always enhance your images Besides using your own photographs, you should also strive to always enhance them yourself. Most postcard images today are enhanced one way or another to make it look good for postcard printing. Some people just play with the brightness and contrast settings, while others really overhaul things, changing colors, adding effects and filters. Whatever your style is, image enhancement is almost a mandatory thing already for most postcard designs, and it never hurts to alter your photographs just a little to make them brighter and nicer.
3. Use special effects sparingly As a professional tip for you though, in terms of enhancing images, it is best to use the special effects sparingly. Only amateurs really go all out with the effects, and most professionals recognize the value of simple and almost unnoticeable enhancements. Effects should not distract the readers from the postcard image, it must only enhance the delivery of its message. So whenever possible try to use only simple effects such as the brightness and contrast settings and color correction.
4. Use proper postcard templates When it comes to postcard templates, I usually recommend to people that they must download templates from the actual printing services themselves. Since most online postcard printing services offer the free download of postcard templates, it should be easy for many people to just download them. Templates like these are professionally made, so most will not have to worry if they are ready for use in printing. It has already been designed specifically for that purpose.
5. Use the best materials and inks Lastly, I do recommend that in postcard printing, you only use the best materials and inks. It is only natural to give your best in your printing and spend what you can on quality materials. So try and choose the thickest paper for your color postcards and of course when possible use full color postcards for your prints. This should make your postcards turn out great making them look as professional as they can be.
Good! I hope you learned a lot from these recommendations. You should be ready now for your postcard printing yourself. Good Luck!
