By: Chelsea Nicole
Submitted: 2011-09-19 02:24:47 | Word Count: 721
Everyone is telling you what to do when it comes to designing and printing your cheap greeting cards, but little has been said on what NOT to do. Knowing the bad practices in printing custom greeting cards is an equally important lesson to learn. It is in mistakes that we really can understand the real concepts involved in creating great works like greeting cards.
So for your sake, I will tell you here in this article what NOT to do when it comes to designing greeting cards. Once you remember all these items, you should at least be able to avoid the big pitfalls in greeting card design and hopefully succeed in developing a good decent and even remarkable kind of custom greeting card for people. Let us start with some basics.
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1. Never use web based images – There lots of great and appealing images on the Internet. It can be tempting for anyone to actually use these for their own prints such as greeting cards. However, you must know that copy-pasting images in this way for your greeting card designs is something you should not do.
Besides the obvious copyright issues that this will cause, it also results in a bad greeting card printing. This is because web images are not optimized for printing. They will show their pixels or dots once you mass produce those greeting card designs with those images attached.
2. It is best not to use clip-arts – Many newcomers to printing greeting cards are tempted to use clip-arts. It is just so easy to insert these read made images, and in most cases they are highly appropriate for the greeting card design. The issue here is that lots of people are also tempted to use these clip-arts.
So you might find that other prints and greeting cards will be using those same images as well. This basically eliminates any originality in your greeting cards, making for a really boring type of print. So you should avoid clip-arts at all costs.
3. Do not use built in fonts – Now, you might have a ton of standard fonts in your software for designing greeting cards. My recommendation though for this is for you to not use those built in fonts. This is because those standard fonts are what other amateur greeting card designers will be using.
However if you download a fresh new font style that is a bit more customized, then you will get better results and of course have your greeting cards look more original. So try to avoid those local fonts as much as possible.
4. Do not insert copied or derivative content – When it comes to content, try to write something on your own. Do not insert copied content or derivative content that is just a mix of past others. With original content your greeting cards will shine, while with rehashed content it will just be dull and boring. So never ever insert copied or derivative content in your greeting cards.
5. Never overload your greeting card – Do not overload your greeting card with different design elements. One background and one foreground feature is typically enough. DO not waste time loading every kind of beautiful picture and title possible in the greeting card. Having a crowded greeting card is a sign of an amateur, so you should avoid it at all cost.
6. Never use thin paper materials – Greeting cards are cards for a reason. They must last a bit longer and of course should be a bit tougher when being distributed. So never use those think paper materials even though they are cheap. Greeting cards will really not work appropriately without that proper and durable material.
7. Do not design for yourself – Finally, try to avoid designing your greeting cards just for yourself. Remember that it is not about what you deem is beautiful and appealing. It is about what your target readers deem beautiful and appealing. So make sure that you review your designs always and create a design for your readers and not just for yourself.
Great! Now you know what you should avoid with your cheap and customized greeting cards. Review and remember these items well.
