Tips on printing your photographs as cards

I had an enquiry today about the best way to get your photos printed on cards, to give away or sell for a local church or organisation. Here's my reply:

"Thank you for your inquiry about the way to get best results when printing photos of church windows.

• You can use any program that will allow you to design the outer spread of a card - and the inner, if you are including a greeting. 
• Inkscape is a free software that allows you to design things with pictures, shapes and text.
• Work in Adobe RGB colour space as this is the most commonly shared.
• Make sure that your documents are prepared at a resolution of 300dpi (for an A6 picture on a card, that is about 1600px tall by 1300px wide.
• If you want the picture to go right to the top, right and bottom edge of the card after folding, then make the image 2 to 3mm larger on those sides to allow for trimming
• Save your prepared outer and inner card designs as one PDF or two separate PDFs.
• Consider whether you want a silk or glossy outer finish to the cards.
• Also be aware that the inner should be a surface that can be written on in pencil/pen etc.
• Then either:
• Check out your local printers to see if they can print cards of a suitable thickness from your PDFs.
• If you can visit them and ask for a test print, even if it costs you a couple of pounds for one example - you want to make sure the colour reproduction is good and punchy enough.
• Or search online for card printers. 
• For example, Moo is good for postcards. 
• Again, see if you can get a sample printed to check you like the reproduction.
• Once you know how many cards you want printed and the cost, make sure that you price the cards to cover your costs and possibly earn a little to repay your time and effort.

Do send me a card when you are successful :-)

Good Luck,

Chris"