PostcardsPLUS!

Instructions for Creating a Custom Postcard, using Design Your Own Series (DYO).

Design Your Own Series lets you upload your designed image to the non-address side of the postcard. This series is for more advanced users, capable of making custom graphics on their computer. PostcardsPLUS! can not create a custom postcard design for you. If you are unable to perform the qualifications above, please use another postcard series.

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Detailed Instructions below...

Table of Contents

Overview
Recommendations for Graphic Design Programs
Postcard Dimensions and Specifics
Sample Downloads

Overview

DYO Series postcards require one (1) postcard image for the postcard non-address side (Front Side) to be uploaded, you will be unable to type any text or upload any additional images on the postcard. You can choose any graphic program to complete this process, however we do recommend several programs. The final exported, uploadable graphic must be a JPG,JPEG,TIF,TIFF,BMP,GIF,PNG,WMF,EMF,EPS,PCX or flatten PSD file. The maximum outsize must be less then 2.0 megabytes. Normally, uncompressed TIF, TIFF, BMP, EPS and PSD files exceed this limit, therefore you may need to convert the image to a JPG with a compression of 65% to 75%.

While using DYO series, you assume all responsibility of color, margin and layout design in your custom postcard, including but not limited to cropping of text and/or images inside the designated margins, pixilation of images or text, lamination quality, or RGB color conversion to CMYK color. Specific instructions and sample layouts are provided below.

Recommendations for Graphic Design Programs

We we recommend several programs to complete your designs, however any graphic program capable of producing the Postcard Dimensions and Specifications can be used.

Rating	Name of Program	Link
1.	Adobe Photoshop 5.0 - CS2	Link
2.	Adobe Illustrator 8 - CS2	Link
3.	Quark XPress	Link
4.	Adobe Indesign	Link
5.	Jasc Paint Shop Pro	Link
6.	Adobe Photoshop Elements	Link
7.	Gimp (freeware under GNU)	Link
8.	Publisher XP and 2003	Link

The programs are recommendations only, we do not provide support for these programs,
guarantee the accuracy of the hyperlinks or guarantee compatibility with PostcardsPLUS!.

Postcard Dimensions and Specifics

Requirements Non Address Side of Postcard

	Jumbo	Standard
Size (h x w)	6" x 9"	4.75" x 6.1"
Resolution	150 - 300 dpi	150 - 300 dpi
Margin	¼" at 300 dpi	¼" at 300 dpi
Gutter/Bleed	¼" at 300 dpi	¼" at 300 dpi
Margin w/Bleed	½" at 300 dpi	½" at 300 dpi
Color	CMYK or RGB	CMYK or RGB
Crop Marks	Not Needed	Not Needed
Sample Downloads (Image - Photoshop - Publisher)
Downloads	JPG - PSD - PUB	JPG - PSD - PUB

* Above measurements are in inches - Right-click and choose "Save As" for file downloads above.

We recommend 300dpi, CMYK color for all final graphics, if your program can not provide 300dpi CMYK graphics, quality issues and pixilation could occur. Postcards can be full bleed, or partial bleed (colors or background images can extend into the margins), we do not recommend black bleeds for lamination quality control.