We’ve all gotten craftier than ever this past year. Beautiful cards are the beginning of new business adventures and perfect heartfelt handmade gifts. When you dive into creating your custom greeting cards, however, it’s necessary to choose the right paper stock so that your card looks great and pops. Learn about the various types of greeting card stock for inkjet printers, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and how to make the right choice for you.
When you go to the store, you can find thousands of different designs and weights of greeting cards. Traditionally, greeting cards are printed on paper with a weight of 200 to 400 gsm (grams per square meter), averaging around 350 gsm. However, that’s for professional cards. The best greeting card stock for inkjet printers depends on many factors, all of which come down to what your specific printer can handle.
It’s time to choose the paper. Cardstock tends to be more rigid than paper and is a cross between paper and cardboard. Not every printer can handle cardstock. If you need cardstock alternatives, choose heavyweight paper. You’ll likely want weight between 44 lbs and 60 lbs, or between 200 gsm and 290 gsm. On the other hand, 80 lb, 90 lb, and greater are cardstock-level weights. If your printer can handle cardstock, choose heavier stock than the above. It’s important to check to avoid a paper jam!
Some people select photo paper because it’s thick and one side is glossy. If you have a photo printer, playing with the opportunities shiny photo paper presents is fun. It also carries some significant drawbacks though. Photo paper will get fingerprints all over it when touched. The backside is not made for printing, could bleed, and will not have the same texture as the photo side. Be aware when you try it out.
Consider what type of finish you like. Paper comes in gloss, luster, and matte finishes. The finish you choose is purely a matter of choice. Most professional greeting cards would use a luster or semi-gloss finish.
The benefit of lighter paper is its accessibility. From 20 to 60 lbs, almost every printer out there has no problem feeding it through. The downside is it will not have the professional-grade thickness of a greeting card.
On the other hand, cardstock is the perfect professional choice, but it may not feed through your printer. If you are a business owner, consider what printer you have and if you need to purchase an option to fit your needs. The variety of cardstock weight gives great flexibility for anyone looking for a personal touch on design and texture.
Finally, photo paper looks great on the outside, but the downside is that the back of photo paper, which usually feels very soft, isn’t made to take ink. Photo paper is also often marked with the brand on the back, so we do not recommend it for professional use.
We urge you to play with different papers, test out your options, and explore different features. If you are seeing issues with the ink quality be sure to check out our guide to ink cartridges. Need some more professional advice on cardstock printers? Give Vegas Ink and Toner a call today and create stunning, professional-grade greeting cards.
No matter what you love most about Christmas cards, companies like Rifle Paper Co. , Minted , and Zazzle can help you design a card that will bring a smile to someone's face this holiday season.
"Some best practices with selecting the type of card is to allow the card to reflect your personality or your family's personality," etiquette expert Elaine Swann tells PEOPLE. She suggests sending different cards for various groups in your life to best fit those relationships — one for work colleagues, close family and friends, etc. "If you look at it from that perspective, you can have a lot of fun picking out different types of cards and sharing the same holiday cheer," Swann says.
Perhaps you'll send a photo card covered in memories from the past year or a goofy message signed by the dog to get some laughs. Maybe there's a vintage card that reminds your older family members of simpler times or a pop-up card, which brings the holidays to life in a three-dimensional fashion.
There's a seasonal magic that happens when Christmas cards start arriving in the mail — a feeling of anticipation as you open the mailbox to see if any bright red or crisp, white envelopes are waiting to be opened. They might contain greetings, photographs, or updates on loved ones, both near and far. "Even in today's modern world, with instant communication at the touch of a button, there is still something so special about receiving a holiday card in the mail," etiquette expert Jodi Smith tells PEOPLE. "Knowing that someone took the time to think about you and send greetings from afar…it is like a little hug in an envelope."
Minted
Minted
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While classic Christmas cards often look best on a mantel, it's the funny ones that people tend to remember. Minted has an entire collection of Christmas and holiday cards and loads of creative templates that can be customized for a traditional or contemporary (and humorous) vibe. Swann says it's fun to "send something that's custom made," like a photograph with your greeting card.
The cards from Minted are completely customizable, with several personalization options, including photo cards. They also offer free recipient addressing and quick shipping in recyclable packaging. Whether you're in the market for a lovely flannel-bordered card, something with seasonal greenery, or an ornament-style card, Minted has something for all festive appetites. Keep in mind that you can't purchase fewer than 25 cards. Prices range from $1.26 to $3.64 per card, depending on the type of card, size, and quantity you choose.
Rifle Paper Co.
Rifle Paper Co.
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Imagine opening a holiday card and finding an ornate painting inside. That's what Rifle Paper Co. specializes in — beautiful Christmas cards with artistic images that some may argue belong at The Met. Examples of the imagery you'll find include a wintry city street, a gingerbread house, and a letter to Santa.
There's even wrapping paper available with the same creative prints. A single card costs $6, but if you have a long list of recipients, you might consider buying sets of eight for $24 to reduce the overall price. Though not entirely customizable, you can share a spirited greeting with gorgeous art to match through Rifle Paper Co.
Shutterfly
Shutterfly
View On Shutterfly.com
Featuring geometric shapes and a wide variety of photo templates, the contemporary Christmas cards from Shutterfly have a little something for everyone. Customization options include foil color, card color, trim design, and cardstock quality, and almost all of the options feature photos. If you want something that speaks to the winter season in a subtle way, consider this sophisticated Plaid Pairing Holiday card. Or perhaps you might lean toward a more contemporary option like the Elegant Oval Frame card.
Regardless, each personalized card is available as a single card or a set of up to 1,000 cards, so no matter how long or short your list is, you can find the best card for your crowd. Prices range from $.98 to $2.79 per card, and shipping is fairly quick, so it's safe to assume Shutterfly is committed to helping you get your cards sent out on time.
Amazon Prints
Amazon
View On Amazon
Amazon Prints allows you to access holiday cards from several different companies in one place. Canopy Street, Current, Sustainable Greetings, Best Paper Greetings, and others are all found on Amazon Prints. Simply log on to Amazon and upload images to create your custom holiday cards. You don’t have to be a Prime member to use the service, but if you are a Prime member, you‘ll get free delivery and unlimited storage for photos you upload for your cards.
While there are fewer card styles available on Amazon Prints, it’s easy to create cards on the site and have them delivered quickly for a reasonable price.
Zazzle
Zazzle
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Take a step back into a different time with Zazzle's retro Christmas cards, featuring scenes like a vintage red truck hauling a Christmas tree and Santa climbing out of a chimney into his waiting sleigh. If you want something more contemporary, perhaps offer a modern take with a greeting like "Making Spirits Bright." The artistic style, colors, and genre of characters all add to the whimsical nature of these timeless cards.
You can order just one or up to 1,000 cards depending on the length of your list. One card costs $2.66, but with larger orders, the price drops to $1.33 per piece. While there aren't recipient addressing options, the cards ship quickly, so you should have plenty of time to address the cards before sending them.
Vistaprint
Vistaprint
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Foil cards from Vistaprint provide enough sparkle to compete with the Christmas lights adorning your home. Available in gold as well as silver and glitter, this brand's vast collection of foil cards, as well as other Christmas cards, offers a series of templates with eye-catching script that jumps off the page. "When you are partial to photos, Vistaprint, Shutterfly, and your local pharmacy (CVS/Walgreens) will do," says Smith, noting that she does not have any paid or professional relationships with these companies and that these are her personal preferences.
Most of these templates include photo backgrounds, which add a nice contrast against the text (especially foil text). For many of the cards, there are also personalization options, with a full design suite to help you pick each customization. Shipping is fairly quick, and recipient addressing options are also available. Vistaprint doesn't offer single card options, and prices per card depend on the number of cards in your order (10 to 10,000) — the more you buy, the lower the cost per card.
Papier
Papier
View On Papier.com
If you have a short list of friends and family you want to touch base with this Christmas, consider buying a set of boxed cards to treat everyone to a higher quality card for less. Papier has a vast selection of custom and standard cards, including gorgeous boxed sets adorned with ornate, creative, and whimsical designs like a tunnel of star-lit trees, a snow tiger, and an ice-skating scene set in Central Park.
Customize these premium cards by choosing a flat or folded format. You can also personalize the cards by adding photos and a message on the back. Papier doesn't offer single card options, and most sets of 10 cards are $28, with the option to order up to 1,000 cards. Shipping is fairly quick with most cards, even personalized ones, arriving about a week after purchase. Everyone who receives a Papier Christmas card will be treated to a beautiful holiday greeting.
Artifact Uprising
Artifact Uprising
View On Artifactuprising.com
Like a gallery in card form, Artifact Uprising Christmas cards have stunning photography templates to display your best photos and memories from the past year. Made with recycled paper and a minimalist approach to design, these cards are mainly in a neutral color scheme with white backgrounds to better highlight your photos. With photo grids, film strip designs, full portraits, and more, these cards will beautifully show off your favorite photos, whether you're highlighting one image or 10. They also offer recipient addressing so they're ready to mail.
One of our favorite cards is the Ornamental Foil Holiday card for its geometric design and gold foil accents. And the Feel the Fa La La card presents your year-end memories as a film strip in a fun display. Choose between 10 and 300 cards, with prices ranging from $1.45 per card for larger orders to $2.40 for smaller quantities. Add a little personal flair with your choice of greeting, printing style, and envelope colors. While they are a bit pricey, these minimalist cards let your photos do the talking, so all you have to decide is which images to feature.
Walgreens
Walgreens
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Whether you want to send out a funny, generic, or religious card this holiday season, Walgreens has got you covered. With options for text color, trim design, card type (glossy, matte, cardstock, or magnet), photo templates, and added details like foil, this collection offers complete personalization. You can also write your own signature to include each family member, like on this Merry Christmas card dressed with holly and pine cones for seasonal whimsy. Plus your photo can be the background of the card like this Happy Holidays card, or it can be neatly framed like the Elegant Foliage card.
While these cards only come in sets, you can order between 20 and 500 cards — and the higher the number, the lower the price per card. There is no option for recipient addressing, but the shipping is quick, which helps in a time crunch. There are also cards available for multiple holidays so no matter what you're celebrating this season, there's a card that can spread your greetings to loved ones near and far.
Paper Culture
Paper Culture
View On Paperculture.com
View On Paperculture.com
Paper Culture has a wide array of creative and sophisticated templates to help you design the perfect Christmas card this year. For instance, the Looking Back card provides the perfect template to highlight memories on the back with a "Year in Review" section. Comparatively, the Sign of Joy card creates photo moments on both sides with less messaging, letting the photos speak for themselves.
Some personalization options include changing the card from a Christmas card to a generic holiday card should you want to select one set for one group of friends and another for a different group. The cards are made with recycled paper and sets range from 10 to 1000 cards with the price per card decreasing with higher orders. Paper Culture also offers free address printing so you can save your penmanship for other things, and they offer free designer assistance to help spark some creative ideas should you find yourself undecided between various design options. Shipping times vary depending on the shipping method and type of cards selected, and economy shipping can take as long as two weeks for holiday cards.
Etsy
Etsy
View On Etsy
Etsy offers a huge selection of unique and creative Christmas cards from different sellers across the platform. This can be ideal when you're price hunting for the best deal and are interested in many types of Christmas cards because this platform has them all — flat cards, folded cards, sets, generic cards, personalized cards like the Photo Christmas Card Template card, and more. Whether you're looking for a comical card from the pet like the Peace, Joy, & Wags card or a card that wraps the religious and commercial sides of Christmas into one card such as this We Saw That card, there are endless options on Etsy.
The flip side of that benefit is that there isn't a locked-in price or shipping estimate. It all depends on the seller, so if you're based in the U.S. and your seller is abroad, the shipping for one set of cards might take significantly longer to arrive than one purchased from a local seller. Alternatively, some Etsy sellers provide free shipping. The same concept applies to price — cost will vary depending on the Etsy store you purchase from. But regardless of that, it's a great platform with a massive assortment of options so you can find the perfect card to send out this season.
Tiny Prints
Tiny Prints
View On Tinyprints.com
Sometimes classic greetings like "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas" can feel a little stale. Tiny Prints has a unique greetings collection featuring phrases like "new feels, new dreams, new chances, new year," these cards allow your personality to shine through. If you prefer a traditional greeting, try a non-traditional design like the Elegant Gold Leaf Happy Holidays card.
You can further personalize your holiday greeting with photo templates and details like trim design and paper quality. Almost all of the cards feature photos, so this may not be the best choice if you prefer a non-photo option. Card prices range from $1.38 to $4.19 each, based on the quantity in your order (one to 1,000). Plus, you can get pre-printed addresses and Tiny Prints has mail options to ship directly to you or mail the cards out for you.
Hallmark
Hallmark
View On Hallmark.com
Whether you're a fan of Hallmark movies or perusing the physical stores, Hallmark definitely has a grip on the holiday season. Its card selection, featuring personalized photo cards, pop-up cards, and flat cards — like this one referencing the iconic movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation — all offer a little something different for varying tastes.
If you're open to many types of cards, Hallmark has a huge selection, but if you're only looking for personalized and custom cards, its inventory is more limited. That said, you can still play around with images and text, and they will even address and mail the cards for you with the "Sign & Send" feature, which you can select before checkout. "When you have the time to add handwritten notes, boxed sets from Hallmark are ideal," says Smith. "With options from religious to fancifully silly, they will have something to suit you."
American Greeting
American Greeting
View On Americangreetings.com
American Greetings has an interesting setup because it has a collection of standard greeting cards available for regular purchase, as well as creatable cards that are held behind a membership. The creatable cards are fully customizable, with options for adding photos, personalizing text, and more, but the membership costs anywhere from $1.67 and $6.99 a month, depending on the length of your plan. Shipping is also fairly quick.
Swann says when choosing her holiday cards, "It varies from year to year. Of course Hallmark always has some great options, but American Greetings is also great too," she says. She particularly loves the collections they have, especially those designed for people of color. So whether you want a simple greeting card like this Ornaments Christmas card or a custom card like one celebrating Dolly Parton, American Greetings has a card for you.
Greenvelope
Greenvelope.com
View On Greenvelope.com
Partnered with the National Forest Foundation, Greenvelope is a completely eco-conscious brand that offers digital cards to send out to all of your loved ones this holiday via email. It offers all the same customizations as other brands (if not more) like envelope design, card design, text, photos, music, and many other features. There is a huge selection of playful designs like a gingerbread city and even a houseplant Christmas card where a cactus forms the tree.
When personalizing each card, you'll first have to sign up for an account, but it's not a membership so there aren't any fees or shipping costs, you'll just pay for the number of cards sent. Prices are based on the number of people you send cards to, ranging from $39 for up to 40 cards to $119 for up to 120. You can also create a contacts list that you can modify every year for easy sending when the season rolls around. For an even further customized experience, you can work with a Greenvelope designer to create a custom card that's designed especially for you. No duplicate Christmas cards this year — yours will literally be one-of-a-kind.
Simply To Impress
Holiday Card.
Simply To Impress
View On Simplytoimpress.com
With over 2,200 holiday card offerings that include custom layouts, sizes, and themes, it’s easy to find a card you adore on Simply to Impress. They offer traditional, contemporary, fun, and vintage styles, among others. Cards are priced as low as $0.60 per card and are available in 12 different shapes and three different orientations (landscape, portrait, and square). Most of the cards are designed to include photos, but they also offer several non-photo card options. In addition to holiday cards, Simply to Impress offers cards for just about every occasion. All cards include envelopes, and discounts are offered for orders of over 25 cards (which is the minimum quantity). Regular shipping is fast (2 to 5 business days), but you can also get your cards shipped on the next business day for an added cost.
Nations Photo Lab
Nations Photo Lab
View On Nationsphotolab.com
If you’re in search of holiday cards that you can customize with photos, Nations Photo Lab is a great place to look. While they don’t offer non-photo cards, they have hundreds of holiday card styles that can be customized with different paper types and font styles. Some designs allow for printing on both sides of the card, while others can accommodate several photos. We like the modern design of the Festive Doodles, or you can go with something classic like Merry Painted Leaves.
You’ll upload your selected images directly to the Nations Photo Lab website to create your custom cards. Each card includes free white envelopes, while other colors are available at an additional charge. Orders must be for a minimum of 25 cards, and shipping is free for orders of $89 and above.
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