Making Notecards

[jsachs]

I have been experimenting with creating notecards from photographs lately, based on printing on letter-size (8.5 x 11) paper. There are two standard notecard sizes in the US, one based on two notecards per sheet and the other based on one notecard per sheet. Each notecard is folded in half and fits in standard greeting card envelopes which are widely available. Depending on whether the image is in landscape or portrait orientation, the fold is either above the image or the the left of the image. An optional caption is printed on the back of the notecard. For 2 cards/sheet, the maximum image size is 3.75 x 5; for 1 card/sheet, the maximum image size is 5 x 8.

To automate the process of creating notecards I have created a set of script files (see attached) that let you specify the image you want to include and then you can edit the Layout transformation to add a caption if desired. The final image is 8 x 10.5 inches which must then be printed with 0.25 inch margins on all sides. This places a 0.25 inch margin around the image. Depending on the Layout settings, you can opt to fill the available space entirely with the image which generally involves cropping it to fit (you will have to adjust the cropping rectangle manually) or you can fit the image to the panel which will include the entire image but will have different top/bottom and left/right margins. If you print two notecards per sheet, you need to cut the sheet in half to separate the two cards by making a cut in the middle of the 11 inch side.

You can purchase sets of cards ready to print along with matching envelopes as a set (e.g. Avery 8315 or 8316). For the 8315 cards (2/sheet) the paper is perforated so the two cards can be separated without using a paper trimmer and scored to make them easier to fold. Or you can just print on your own favorite paper and buy envelopes separately. Personally, I prefer using a heavy matte paper such as Hahnemühle Photo Rag.

It should be possible to modify these script files for A4 size paper, but I am not sure about standard metric notecard sizes or the availability of envelopes to match. Perhaps someone educate me on how the rest of the world does this.