Creating Postcard Designs the Easy Way

Sometimes, there will be those situations where you will need to create designs for postcard printing quickly. This can be because of a fast approaching marketing opportunity, or maybe there are important holiday dates coming up that require some customized postcard printing. Whatever the case, the need for speedy custom postcard designs is there.

Luckily for you, I am going to teach you how to fast track your color postcard designs to get them immediately to those postcard printing companies. Just follow the steps below and great custom designs for postcard printing should be with you in an hour or less.

1. Get the free standard postcard template - To make your postcard drafts faster, you will want to get those free standard postcard templates. Templates act as a quick foundation for your design. With all the pre-sets ready when you get those postcard templates, all you really have to worry about is your content and layout. So try to get those free templates if possible. There should be plenty of free standard postcard configurations in printing websites and design blogs.

2. Get your customized/personalized image - Once you have the template ready, your next step is to get that full color postcard image. The image is the main feature of color postcards of course and in most cases, you should already have an idea of what you want to use for your own custom postcards.

If you are making personal postcards, you can easily scan up some personal images to make those cards a little bit more special. If you are making a business postcard for marketing, you should get high resolution, royalty free full color images at sites like flickr.com and morguefile.com. Just choose the best one that you think is best for you and scan it up or save it up.

3. Write your custom content - Next, before you start your layout, it is good to first write out your custom content. It is best to do this first so that later, you can focus on the layout itself. So just write out your custom content in a word document. Make sure you proofread it and if possible have others check it as well. It should be short, sweet, easily understandable and of course straight to the point.

4. Combining all the elements together - Once all the materials you need are done, it is now time to combine all the things together. Since you already collected the needed elements, all you have to do is to basically assemble them. Load up the template first in your design software. Then insert your main postcard image. Make sure it fits and if possible scale down and enhance it a bit for the best printing results.

Afterward, just insert your text and adjust its font size, font style and basic formatting. Don't forget to customize the back part of the template as well since you may want some custom content printed at the back of your custom postcards.

5. Fast reviewing and checking - Once everything is assembled, you should do some fast reviewing and checking. The best way to do this is to print out some samples using your own printer and then have your family and friends look at it. Gather their feedback and improve your color postcards when possible. Once all the weaknesses have been kicked out, you should have a good draft for postcard printing.

Great! That is how you create your color postcards quickly. By following these steps, one by one, you should have a nice postcard draft ready for printing in an hour or so. Just be focused and it should be fast.

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Date Published : Feb 3 2011

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