Hey there! I just tried printing a postcard myself and to be honest, I am impressed. The quality is still lacking cause, I am trying this for the first time. I designed it myself, both the front and back. The pictures, I have some pictures I took myself but this one, I tried it with a picture took by Reine. All the pictures that I will be using is taken by either me or Reine and the design itself is made by me with the app Canva.
I used my Epson printer and a glossy paper. Honestly, I did not think it will turn out this good but because of my low expectation, I actually like how it came out. The inks are messy but it is not visible from far, you can see it if you look at it closely.
I had fun and overall it was a great experience, from designing to thinking about the sizes. Also thinking about what paper to use and imagining how it will come out. The design and what pictures I will be using.
If you have any suggestions, ideas, opinions and/or advices, please do tell.
Great! I think Brunei is considered a rare country on Postcrossing, so you can take more pictures of famous places and ofc the less known places in Brunei to “introduce” in form of postcards. Some collectors I see collect UNESCO WHS, maybe it would be great if you may print some about that as well
I’m not a design expert, but I think the 260 to 300 GSM thickness are usually used for postcard (cardboard). Some of them have lamination (glossy or matte) but I think it doesn’t matter much. As for the picture of the card maybe it would be nice if there’s name of the location. Some postcards I bought have explanation about the picture on the back side (in smaller font, bottom left) , maybe it could be great too if you can add it. This might be just my own personal taste but, imo the “Brunei Darussalam” font is a bit too big and too close to the edge
as TwasBilling said, mail it to yourself or find someone who is far away to mail it to - to see if the card survives. how is the surface… I fear the sortingmachines might scratch off the ink in the process of sorting… I often already experienced such problems with cards by redbubble or zazzle… so that might be an issue too.
it looks beautiful indeed, but still an professional offset print will be always better. But only my opinion.
Thank you for the suggestions. I will try making better designs and also, the reason I am not writing any facts to this postcard is because this is my first batch of design. It only includes pictures I randomly took. I will take note of your suggestions.
Day 2 of trying to make my own postcard. Hmm, it is a bit disappointing than the first one. I think there is something wrong with the printer but let me share first what I want to print.
I tried printing this, a picture of our frontliners getting ready to get the patients. This is the first time I saw them working with so many people at once and I only managed to get this picture, sadly.
As you can see, the printing is bad. I will check my printer next time. This time, I took @catchycat suggestions on making smaller font size for “Brunei Darussalam” and made it not too close to the edge. Also, I’m not sure of what to put as the title of the picture so I just typed “COVID-19”, I will think of a better one🤷🏻♀️.
Abd please be sure that you were allowed to take pictures of them… I do not know how the law in Brunei is. But here in Germany you could get severe problens if you publish a picture of a person that do not want this.
Thank you for the title idea and your concern. Since I am also one of the frontliners and they also asked me to take pictures for them that day (for the sake of memory they said), there wouldn’t be a problem😊
Your printer might need a self-cleaning or alignment…usually lines in the printing may mean that. For a heavier cardstock, once you get the print color down, I might suggest a watercolor paper that is heavier than cardstock. You could even cut it down to the size you want. Thin cards get chewed up in the mail sorters. I always love to receive cards that people made on their own! Good luck!
That was helpful! Watercolor paper, I will try it next time and yes, my sister told me to clean my printer. Not now though, volunteering makes me really tired these days. But thank you so much for telling me this💖
