The Stationers Guild

As a stationer, I am often asked whether digital Christmas photo cards are “better” than 4″x 6″ photos mounted on a personalized holiday card.  There really is no simple answer to this question, but I will share a few insights that might be useful to consider when making your choice.

While the reproduction quality of digital photos has improved significantly, photographs developed commercially still have an edge.  This should not be surprising since commercially developed photographs are produced under ideal printing conditions using papers specifically designed to create uniform quality prints.    While I have seen exceptional digital prints using high resolution ink-jet printers on archival papers, this printing technique is best left to professionals.

Digitally-reproduced holiday photo cards are generally less expensive than photographs mounted on Christmas greeting cards.   The price of digital photo cards is generally a function of the paper stock and quality of the design templates.   While some photo cards resemble commercial mailers, some leading design companies have beautiful frames to enhance the setting of your photograph.

There is a common misconception that “it is easier” to select a digital holiday card than a conventional photo-mount Christmas photo card.  This is certainly not the case.  When you print digitally you have an unlimited range of color options.   I have personally witnessed the frustration than sets-in when a buyer is faced with so many design and color options to print their digital photographs.    Pre-designed frames from leading paper companies are generally of much higher quality than the limited template selection provided by most online printers.

William Arthur, one of the leading holiday photo card designers, provides the consumer with the option of using photo-mounts or having the photo imprinted digitally on the same high quality paper stock.  The price of William Arthur’s holiday photo card is the same regardless of which printing  process is chosen.  While the quality of photo prints is better than digitally reproduced images, printing your William Arthur photo card digitally can save you time and $0.19 per photograph print.

To see all of the printing options available, we suggest that you contact a Guild member store in your neighborhood to see which printing process works best for your family photograph this holiday season.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair