The Stationers Guild

Being a stationer, I am repeatedly questioned if digital Christmas holiday photo greeting cards are “a lot better” compared to 4″x 6″ pictures mounted on a customized holiday photo card. There really isn’t any easy reply to this question, however I will share a couple of observations that could be useful take into consideration when making your choice.

While the print quality of digital prints has improved significantly, photos produced commercially continue to have an advantage. This is really not unexpected since commercially produced photographs are developed under the finest possible print conditions working with paper stock produced to make uniform quality photographs. Though I have come across outstanding digitally reproduced photos utilizing high definition printers on archival papers, producing quality prints should be left to experts.with the appropriate printing and developing equipment.

Digitally-printed Christmas holiday photo cards are generally less costly than photos placed on Seasonal greeting cards. The cost of digitally printed photo cards is generally a function of the paper quality and originality of the design and style the card templates. Although some photo cards seem like commercially manufactured junk mail, several quality printers and designers have exquisite window frames to showcase your photograph.

There exists a wide-spread misconception that “it’s easier” to decide on a digital Christmas card rather than a classic photomount holiday greeting card. This is certainly not the truth. When you make digital prints you possess an almost limitless array of coloring alternatives. We have frequently seen the stress than develops when a buyer is faced with a great number of design options to print their digital photographs. Engraved and printed frames from prominent printing companies and designers are usually of superior reproduction quality than the constrained web template alternatives provided by most online print companies.

William Arthur, two of the leading Christmas photo card designers and printers, give the consumer the option for using photo-mounts or having the picture imprinted digitally on the same high quality cardstock. The price of both Crane’s and William Arthur’s Christmas photo card is the same regardless of printing process is elected. While the quality of photo prints is preferable to digitally reproduced images, printing your photo card digitally can save you time and $0.19 per photo print.

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

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

A great way to utilize your favorite wedding picture is with your annual Christmas card. It’s a great way to capture the joy of the wedding ceremony and share those happy memories again with your good friends. It is hard to visualize a much more fitting photo to celebrate your first year as a married couple.

Newly married couples are finding that their favorite wedding photograph performs double-duty when printed digitally on a Christmas card or attached to a Christmas photo card having an eye-catching frame to show off your photograph.

Should your wedding photo has been taken by a wedding photographer, you will likely require agreement from your photographer to reproduce the photo digitally on a photo greeting card. Alternatively, have your photographs commercially printed and mount them on Christmas photo greeting cards using adhesive tape that is usually already affixed to the photo card.

Even though it is certainly more convenient to imprint your holiday greeting card digitally, the print quality of commercially printed photographs is generally far superior. If you’re planning to use a photomount holiday greeting cards, 4”x 6” photographs normally work best. Most photo cards are created to accept photos in either a vertical or horizontal orientation.

Consumers generally have the option of selecting a greeting from several recommended by the printing company. With a lot of the better known printing firms, you may also supply your own customized greeting. When you are adding your family names, it’s traditional for the woman’s name to be first. In the case of a wedding photograph, it’s perceived as correct to add the date of the wedding.

If you are planning to use your wedding photograph this holiday season, there are quite a few printing and design companies you will want to take into account. Definitely, Crane & Co. and William Arthur offer both photomount and digitally imprinted photo greeting cards along with the Stationers Guild affiliate program with Printswell offers some cost-effective alternatives to print your wedding holiday photo card.

Sheila May is the owner of Therese Saint Clair and writes frequently about wedding invitations and holiday photo cards.

Together with the convenience of digital photography and breakthroughs in offset printing, this Christmas quite a few families will digitally print family pictures on their annual holiday greeting card. What could possibly be faster and easier? Just upload your picture to an online printing company, find a design template, edit your image, click the print button and your printed Christmas cards will be shipped to your home.

This sounds like an idyllic situation, but photography purists believe that digitally-printed holiday cards aren’t nearly as attractive as pictures mounted on the greeting card. One experienced stationer and amateur photographer remarked, “Digitally reproduced holiday cards simply do not have the quality and print image resolution of photos developed by a commercial printer. Some digital Christmas photo cards may be appealing, but if you do a comparison side-by-side, the difference is obvious: Photomount holiday photo cards win hands-down.”

Not all people would go along with this evaluate, but clearly if you factor in the “efficiency factor” and lower overall cost, it is no surprise that buyers have migrated toward digital holiday cards. “Let’s admit it,” said this seasoned stationery store owner, “you are receiving a nice quality photo card – maybe not the best quality – but you avoid the hassle of mounting the photographs with adhesive tape.”

Due to this difference in consumer purchasing tendencies, main-stream printing companies have shifted rapidly to boost their digital printing capabilities. The truth is, market leaders, Crane & Co. and William Arthur now provide clients the choice of imprinting their photo on the Christmas photo card or placing their photos on beautifully-crafted cards – often embossed – with pre-applied adhesive tape.

To appreciate the variations in both printing processes, it is wise to go to an experienced stationery store in your area to check out printed examples personally. Regardless of what option feels like a fit, a number of printing companies happen to be in the midst of their holiday card sale. Save anywhere for 20% to 50% by buying your holiday photo cards before the end of September.

Sheila May is the owner of Therese Saint Clair, a stationery store located in Greenwich, CT. She writes frequently about photo greeting cards and holiday greeting card trends.

An excellent way to utilize your best wedding photo is with your annual holiday card. It’s a great way to capture the thrill of your wedding ceremony and share those experiences again with your close friends. It is hard to imagine a much more fitting picture to celebrate your first year as a couple.

Newly married couples have found that their desired wedding picture works double-duty when printed digitally on a holiday card or attached to a Christmas photo card using an appealing border to showcase your photo.

If your wedding photograph has been taken by a wedding photographer, you will likely have to get authorization from the photographer to reproduce the photo digitally on a photo greeting card. Then again, have your pictures commercially developed and mount them on holiday photo cards using adhesive tape that’s normally already affixed to the photo card.

Even though it is definitely more simple to print your holiday card digitally, the print quality of commercially produced photos is normally superior. If you intend to utilize photomount holiday cards, 4”x 6” photographs normally work best. Most photo greeting cards were made to accept photographs in either a vertical or landscape orientation.

Consumers have the choice of picking out a greeting between several suggested by the printing company. With some of the better known printing companies, you may even supply your own customized greeting. When adding your family names, it’s always traditional for the woman’s name to be shown first. In the use of a wedding photograph, it’s thought to be correct to add the date of the wedding.

If you plan to use your wedding photograph this dhristmas season, there are several design and printing companies you may want to consider. Definitely, Crane & Co. and William Arthur provide both photomount and digitally printed photo greeting cards along with the Stationers Guild affiliate program with Printswell presents some cost-effective alternatives to imprint your wedding holiday photo card.

Sheila May is the owner of Therese Saint Clair and writes frequently about wedding invitations and holiday photo cards.

Together with the simplicity of digital photography and advances in offset printing, this Christmas quite a few households plan to digitally print family photographs right on their annual Christmas card. What can be less demanding? Just upload your photograph to an online printer, pick a design template, crop your photograph, click on the print option and your printed Christmas cards will be sent to your residence.

This sounds like an idyllic situation, but photography enthusiasts are adamant that digitally-printed holiday photo cards aren’t nearly as captivating as photos attached to the card. One seasoned stationer and amateur photographer remarked, “Electronically produced holiday photo cards simply lack the high-quality and print image resolution of photographs developed by a commercial printer. Some digital photo greeting cards may be appealing, however, if you compare them side-by-side, the actual difference is apparent: Photomount holiday cards win hands-down.”

Not every person would go along with this assessment, but plainly if you consider the “convenience factor” and reduced price tag, it is no shock that customers have migrated toward digital holiday photo cards. “Let’s face it,” remarked this knowledgeable stationery store owner, “you receive a good quality holiday photo card – perhaps not the best quality – however, you avoid the hassle of mounting the photographs with adhesive tape.”

Due to this difference in consumer buying behavior, the leading printing firms have moved rapidly to enhance their digital printing capabilities. The fact is, market leaders, Crane & Co. and William Arthur now offer buyers the option of imprinting their picture directly on the holiday photo card or mounting their photographs on beautifully designed greeting cards – often embossed – with pre-applied adhesive tape.

To see the differences in both printing techniques, it’s wise to go to an experienced stationery store in your area to check out printed samples personally. Regardless of what option feels like a fit, several printing companies happen to be in the middle of their holiday card sale. Save anywhere for 20% to 50% by purchasing your photo greeting cards prior to the end of September.

Sheila May is the owner of Therese Saint Clair, a stationery store located in Greenwich, CT. She writes frequently about photo greeting cards and holiday greeting card trends.

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

Each year at Therese Saint Clair we help hundreds of families select a holiday photo card for their traditional holiday greeting.  For the most part, our clients will mount a 4″x 6″ family photograph on a photo card that they have had personalized by one of our many fine paper companies.  In some cases the photograph has been taken by a professional photographer, but generally a friend or family member has taken a family portrait with a point-and-shoot digital camera.

While most digital images produce very high quality photographs, we occasionally run across a few problems when it comes to cropping.  For reasons that are far beyond my level of technical competence, the “aspect ratio” of a digital camera is different to the traditional 35mm camera.  Specifically, the 35mm camera has an aspect ration of 3:2, which will reproduce a 6″ by 4″ photograph with no distortion.  Unfortunately the point-and-shoot digital camera  has an aspect ratio of 4:3 (does not apply to digital SRL’s). 

What this means is that when you take your digital image to a commercial printer it will automatically crop your digital image to create a 6″x 4″ photograph.  In effect you lose just under half an inch (about 10%) of the image off the top for a horizontal photograph.  While you might think that you can easily correct this in a photo editor and crop the photo to the desired size, it will inevitably create a distortion in your photo since the aspect ratio will change.  Found below are two images.  The first image is the actual digital image as seen in your photo editing program, the second image is the actual  4″x 6″ photograph reproduced at your local photo store.   This image comparison is courtesy of Ritz Photo in downtown Greenwich.

Actual Digital Image

Cropped Digital Image after Resizing

Perhaps an experienced photographer can crop to size and preserve the aspect ratio, but most of us do not have the time or experience.  For those of us who prefer to avoid frustration, we suggest that you leave an extra margin of space around your desired image so that it may be cropped to size without losing the top of someone’s head.   If anyone has a better solution, please let me know.

Richard May
Founding Member