Greeting Cards

Unlike a postcard, a greeting card opens. It has four printed faces (front cover, inside left, inside right and back): a cover that gets the card opened, an inside that carries the message, and enough weight that people stand it on a shelf instead of recycling it. That is why cards get used for mail that is supposed to feel personal: a holiday greeting, a thank-you, a donor acknowledgment, or an appointment reminder that reads like a note. Because cards print on heavy cover stock, we score the sheet before folding so the coating bends cleanly instead of cracking along the spine.

Size is the first decision, and every option here is a single-fold card measured at its finished, folded size. A2 (4.25 x 5.5) is the compact note-and-thank-you card; A6 (4.5 x 6.25) is the all-purpose greeting that suits most holiday and acknowledgment mail; and A7 (5 x 7) is the roomy invitation and photo card with the most cover to work with. Custom trims are available when a program needs its own size. The flat sheet before folding runs twice the finished width and folds once down the center, and each finished size is built to slip into its matching announcement envelope (the A7 card into an A7 envelope, and so on) so the card and the thing that mails it are designed as a set.

Stock and coating set how the card feels in the hand and how the inside behaves. The cover weights are 100lb Gloss Cover, 100lb Cover, and 14pt, all heavy enough to stand up and score cleanly, with a different hand to each. Coating is your call: AQ on both sides gives durable, crisp color that survives the mailstream, while None / Uncoated leaves an inside that takes a pen, so a signature, a handwritten line, or a personal note reads as genuinely written rather than printed. On heavy cover, the score line is what keeps a coated fold from cracking, and preflight checks that the score, the bleed, and the safe area all land correctly across the fold before anything runs.

Printing can be 4/0 Full Color Front Only, when the cover carries the design and the inside stays clean for a message, or 4/4 Full Color Both Sides, when all four faces are in play. Either way, variable data personalizes the program in a single pass: the inside message can address the recipient by name, and the same list drives the address on the envelope, so the card that says "Dear Sarah" arrives in an envelope addressed to Sarah. That is what turns a card from a keepsake into a mailable, trackable program: personalized donor thank-yous, patient recall reminders, and customer loyalty touches that each land looking one-to-one.

Card orders go through the same steps as our largest mailings. Your artwork is preflighted for fold marks and score placement, bleed, resolution, and the safe area across the spine; the list is CASS-standardized and deduplicated (NCOA updating is an option); the envelopes are addressed with the variable data, the cards are scored, folded, and inserted, and the job is entered Full-Service with an Intelligent Mail barcode for the automation discount and tracking as the mail moves. Reorders start from the saved artwork sized to the exact product it ran on, so next year's holiday drop matches this year's without re-setup.

• Folded finished sizes: A2 (4.25x5.5), A6 (4.5x6.25), and A7 (5x7), plus custom trims; each is a single-fold card
• Cover stocks: 100lb Gloss Cover, 100lb Cover, and 14pt, all heavy enough to stand and score cleanly
• Coating: AQ on both sides for durable color, or None / Uncoated when you want the inside to take a pen or a signature
• Printing: 4/0 full color front only, or 4/4 full color on all four faces
• Heavy cover is scored before folding; preflight checks the score line so the fold doesn't crack the coating
• Variable data personalizes the inside message and the envelope address in the same program
• Mails as a letter inside a matching announcement envelope; the envelope carries the address block and barcode clear zone
• Qualifying nonprofits can send acknowledgments at Nonprofit Marketing Mail rates; reorders start from saved artwork