OT: Printing home made card to look professional

[Dcclerk]

I spent far too much time last night working on designing my DS's birthday invitations. I have a few versions but really want to see how they will look all printed out before I decide on which one. I designed them on Photoshop Elements so I could just print them on photo paper but that's not the look I want. I would much prefer for them to be printed on regular invitation cardstock, but I have no idea how to do that. (I do not have a printer that would print very well.)

Do you have any suggestions for how to print on cardstock? Maybe someplace where I could email my invites and they do it for me? Thanks much!

ETA: I've designed it as if it is a 4X6 postcard, so the usual cards that open up like you get at Clubphoto and the rest wouldn't work. This is obviously not the invite, but it kind of gives you the look that I am trying for....

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/4649.jpg

[s_gosney]

I'm not sure I'm totally understanding, so my ideas may be off, but I had a couple of thoughts. If it's in color and you made it 4x6, you could just save it on a disk and take it to walmart/walgreens or somewhere else with a digital pic printer setup and just print as many as you need. It will be on picture developing paper, so it will have some sturdiness, but not too much. It would cost you about a quarter per item.
I've also taken things to kinkos to be printed onto cardstock, and they can easily cut it down to size for you too. The only thing is that if you're getting color copies, the cost will add up quickly.
I'm not sure if there are any online options. Maybe someone else will have better ideas. HTH!

[momma_boo]

I made my own invitations as well using a picture of DD. I saved it on a cd (file was too big for disk!), went to Kinko's and had it printed on glossy card stock. Honestly, even with the color printing, the cost wasn't too bad. I had formatted the size so that it was 3 invitations per 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. They came out pretty nicely and they cut them for me also.

[houseof3boys]

I would design it as letter or tabloid size so you have multiple invites on one page, take it to Kinko's or somewhere like that (Office Depot) and have them print it on cardstock. It costs more for thicker paper or you could call and ask them if you brought your own paper if they would charge you the regular color copy paper price. It depends on what kind of color copier they have as to how thick the paper can be but most new ones can handle about 110 lb card stock.

By designing it on larger paper, you will only get charged for that click or sheet. It costs more for the larger sheets, but depending on how many invites you want this will work out better.

I sold color copier/printers for way too many years!!!!

This will look fantastic if your announcements are an indication of your invites! I'd love to see them when you are done. :)

[August Mom]

We printed out own photo invites on greeting card cardstock. I bought the Avery brand at Sam's Club for $8.00 for 50 or 100 cards. It was way more than we needed but was cheaper than buying the same stuff in smaller quantities at Office Max, et al. We imported the file from Adobe Photoshop Elements to Picture It and laid out the card.

If you don't want to print it yourself, print shops can do it for you as noted above.

Also, there is a postcard option at www.snapfish.com. You can do a 4 1/4 x 6 or 5 x 7 postcard there.

HTH

[Dcclerk]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions-- so funny that it never occurred to me that Kinkos and the like could do it! It looks like I'm going to need to try to figure out how to make it a different size to fit multiple invites on a page. Can anyone explain how to do that or point me to a link that would explain it? I have found the Photoshop book to be exceedingly unhelpful. :(

[hellokitty1]

Kerry-

I tried to PM you but your profile is disabled...

If you want, you can email the photoshop file to me. Assuming you've fixed it so the size of the image would allow for two on a regular 8.5x11, DH and I (DH) can put the image in Pagemaker and place two per page (or even more if you are really shrinking it but as a 4x6, only two fit). Then we'll just convert it the pagemaker file to a PDF and email the PDF to you and you can take it some where to print the PDF.

We did our birth announcements and invites ourselves and printed on card stock (we have a color laser). We sized them as exactly half an 8.5x11 so we just cut in half and bought a box of envelopes sized just for 8.5x11.



Just PM me if you want help.

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/4724.jpg

[Dcclerk]

Vivian, that is an amazing announcement! I love it. I'm at work right now and the invite is at home, but I will take you up on your offer. Thanks so much for your generosity :)!

[hellokitty1]

One thing I meant to mention before is that if you want the print to "bleed to the edge", you will likely need to cut the edges. I'm not sure I'm using the exact terminology, but I'm referring to how the color on the announcements goes all the way to the edge. Most standard printers won't print to the edge so you'll have some white border. Maybe if you take it to Kinkos to print they would be able to print to the edge. But if not, you could have them cut the edges for you. Worse case scenario, you can get a really inexpensive paper cutter for under $10 and cut it yourself. Personally, I think it looks a lot more professional and sharp if you can print to the edge.

I'll look for your email.

[houseof3boys]

Bleed to edge is the same thing that people will refer to as "full bleed". Some printers will print that way and you'd only have to cut one side of it but I wouldn't let that be the driving force to design since it might be off a little bit (if the copier needs servicing) and then you'd have a lopsided card or might have to trim it anyway. Most larger copy shops are going to have cutters/trimmers so they normally let you use them for free. I would go check out your local Kinkos (or call on the phone) or the like and ask questions before you designed around it and went in there to have them done.

Although a paper trimmer is a nice thing to have! I got one at Michael's with the 40% coupone they have all of the time. It does decent edges, but not as sharp as the big cleaver looking ones!