How to Design a Custom Postcard on a Mac
Although a lot of services have found their realization in the digital world, receiving a real postcard as an invitation or an important message of a marketing campaign has its own special vibe and charm. Such notes are an excellent choice to create a nostalgic mood and grab more attention to the deal—you involve more human senses to perceive information, so it will be more easily memorized.
Modern desktop publishing software will help newbies with the process of creating marvelous postcard layouts. Knowing the basics is critical, though. So, here are some crucial dos and don’ts to figure out to design your own postcard from scratch smoothly.
Choose the Right Specifications
The very first task you need to solve is the project purpose. If you are going to print the designed postcard and distribute it through the postal service, then there are particular regulations and rules to follow:
- Thickness—please note the postal service has its own specifications for what can be considered a postcard. According to First-Class Mail regulations, the custom postcard design must be at least 0.007″ thick.
- Shape and size—although there are various silhouettes to choose from, the most common option is a rectangular layout. Postcards shouldn’t be overly large, so ensure you have enough room to include all the details you like. As for the USPS design layout size, 3.5″ height and 5″ length are required as a minimum. In general, standard dimensions of custom-made postcards are 11″ × 6″, 6″ × 9″, 5″ × 7″ and 4″ × 6″.
- Lettering—there are no particular recommendations for custom-made pieces, but font readability has to be ensured.
- Typography and color—you are welcome to apply a bunch of tones and shades in your layout as long as all the written text will be easy to see and clear. Slight background images are fine, but it is always better to keep the area free for notes of significant embellishment.
Choose the Right Tool
Whenever it comes to designing, people have an approximate vision of how their dream postcard should look. To make the challenge less daunting for non-experienced designers, it is best to pick up an all-in-one application and work with the project from its blank sheet stage up to final printing.
The software we recommend allows not only the use of the best lettering and typography but also guarantees the printed version will be of equal quality to its digital original. And this is due in large part to the functionality to transform the RGB color palette to the CMYK one.
Get Inspired
Once you know the process will be flawless since a qualitative application is at your disposal, it is high time to check which peculiarities are worth including in your custom-made postcards. Looking through Pinterest, Behance, Dribble or Instagram search results will be helpful.
