How to create a Greeting Card

Question

I recently noticed that you can buy a greeting card from your local CVS online. It only cost $2/card, but it's another $1.50 for orders under $5. A one-off $3.50 card ain't bad, but not great..also here are the down sides:

• The web interface is clunky and adds too much stuff that I don't want.
• Sometimes the colors seem a bit off at these places.
• $3.50 sounds like a lot for just a few prints put together.
• Entering text is a huge pain. However, with a little help from GIMP, it's possible to hack together some nice JPG's with text in them already. But it's not simple

What are some good alternatives to CVS? Most stores want you to register and even upload photos before you can even try their clunky web interface. I probably don't make enough cards to justify buying a printer, but if someone found a good, cheap printer and reasonable quality card stock, please tell. Otherwise maybe share experiences with places like Target or Shutterfly.

Thanks

Answer 1

Do you need actual 'fold down the middle' cards or just pictures with card stuff on them? I print out cards and invites all the time by pulling a picture into photoshop, adding text and graphics and re-saving it. I've never had any problem getting these printed from Sams Club or Target. Pretty much any site that will let you upload pictures and have them printed will work. Plus it works out to be like $.15 - $.25 per card depending if you use standard 4x6 or bump up to 5x7.

If I'm going to print a bunch, I'll usually do one or two of a couple of different sizes to make sure they print out right and have enough border and what not and when I'm sure they are ok, I'll have the chick at the counter run of 30 or 50 or whatever.

Finding envelops that fit isn't always easy, for 4x6 we usually end up using envelops that are are longer or matting them onto some memory book paper so that they fit a bigger envelop without any gaps.