HOW TO MAKE POSTCARDS

Step 1: Incorporate eye-catching images

Whether you want to share the beauty of your favorite destination, or you’d like to send business postcards to your best clients, eye-catching images are a must.

As the backbone of your design, images tie your postcard together. Not sure where to find great images? There are many free options available (like Pexels and Unsplash), as well as paid providers (like Shutterstock).

However, even more than finding the images is placing them correctly within your postcard’s layout. With Lucidpress, you can crop, align & edit image elements (such as contrast or saturation) until they match your vision.

Step 2: Find the right typography

Whenever you’re delivering a personalized message, you need to focus just as much on presentation as you do content. You want to provide a clear and bold message, but one that’s also cohesive. How can you achieve this?

Foremost, keep fonts to a minimum. Too many font styles can make your postcards appear inconsistent, and they can draw attention away from the content. We recommend just two fonts for a design element of this size: one for the main text, and one for the subheadings or complementary text.

Additionally, keep your fonts simple and legible. Flourishes and odd angles can make it difficult to read. This could distract the reader, and it might lead to a less-than-stellar delivery. Instead, choose a simpler font family (perhaps serif), and be sure to keep contrast in mind. Dark font colors look best on light backgrounds, and vice versa.

Step 3: Create a compelling message

A postcard can be the perfect platform for your message. You can control what readers see and keep the focus on the message that you find most important. But, how can you find that message and deliver it compellingly?

• Know your purpose. Whether to inspire, inform or compel the receiver of your postcard, you want to know your purpose prior to creating. This will empower you to clearly craft a message that’s worth reading.


• Set the scene. You have only a few seconds to hook your readers. So, consider what you really want them to know, then set the message so it’s one of the first things they see. To do this, use headings or bold fonts, as well as center alignment.


• Keep it brief. The more compelling your message, the fewer words you need to convey it. This means stating your message concisely and cutting out the fluff. Every word on your postcard should have a purpose and make an impact.

Step 4: Add logos & graphics

A simple way to further customize your postcards is to add personal logos and design graphics—ones that represent yourself or your business.

With Lucidpress, adding your own graphics has never been easier. Simply drag & drop your graphics from your computer folders into the Lucidpress editor, then place them where you’d like them in the design.

To prevent your postcards from looking too busy (after all, there’s only so much space available), we recommend keeping graphics & logos both small and to a minimum (this means two or three at most). Fortunately, you can easily tweak the size and placement of your graphics with Lucidpress’s click-to-edit software.

Step 5: Consider your printing needs

With your postcards created, you’ll now want to focus on getting the exact design from screen to page. But, how?

You can certainly print at home. However, this will take considerable time and resources, and you might be unable to get prints as vibrant and well-designed as they appear on the screen. This is because postcards come in varying dimensions, and it’s unlikely you have the required cardstock lying around. Instead, Lucidpress offers a simpler way.

With Print & Ship, you can leave the printing to the professionals. Enjoy custom-printed postcards (landscape or portrait) and have them delivered straight to your home or office. For even quicker delivery, take advantage of our direct mail service and have them delivered to the mailboxes of your friends & family, a list of clients, or a local area. This takes all the guesswork out of printing your postcards and makes the process that much easier.