How To Make Your Classic Looking Custom Greeting Cards

Craving for custom greeting cards with that classic effect? Want your greeting card printing to look very poignant with a little of that nostalgic effect? Well, trying to make custom greeting cards look classic or old is very simple. You just use a few effects and some color know how. In this quick guide, I will show you four simple tricks that should help.

• Losing the color - The simplest thing you should do to make custom greeting cards look classic and old is to lose all color information. Changing the color mode of your color greeting card design to "gray scale" makes it look like the images were done in a time when black and white images were all the rage. Of course not only does this make the design look dated, it will also accent the darker and lighter parts of your designs more clearly. This adds that great classic effect that makes designs look meaningful and poignant.

• Adding texture - Plain pictures are hardly classic looking until you add some texture. Texture in images is basically the effect of adding a "material" behind or into your design making it look like it was printed or is made of a specific kind of surface. Satin effects, canvass effects, brick effects and all other texture overlays can have an old and dated effect on custom greeting card designs. As long as the texture matches your theme and design concept you should have that used looking effect through the texture.

• Adding noise - For a more "worn out" effect for your greeting card design, you should try and add some noise. Little scratches, tears, holes and other specific design elements can do this. Moreover adding filter effects that add more noise should do a good job. Filters like "dust and scratches", "despeckle" and the general "noise" effect filter should be okay for most designs. Just try to adjust the intensity of these filters so that they match the theme you are going for. Most of these effects should be found in common publishing and print design programs.

• Other special options - Now, if you are bored with these effects, you can explore alternative options for making things look different, poignant and classic. You can actually combine effects if you want. For example, you can try using black and white, plus adding noise to really create an old style effect. Sephia tones plus a little adjustment of the brightness and contrast settings on images cast a soft, warm, classic and dreamlike effect that is also great. Just try to mix and match these special effects and you'll bound to get that nice classic effect you are looking for.

Great! I hope some of these tips were useful to make your custom greeting cards look the classic way you want them to be. Good Luck!