Today is the time to buy your Christmas photo cards

http://www.eholidaygreetingcards.org/photo-cards-online/
Today is the time to buy your Christmas photo cards
Most everyone likes to share their family photos at Christmas time. We receive in excess of a hundred Christmas greeting cards, christmas photo cards, Christmas letters from friends and family from all over the world. Needless to say, people want to share their family news in different ways, but we generally love to receive a photograph or image of the family to keep track about how fast the kids have grown.

For people who like to get a jump on the Christmas season, now is a great time to get your Christmas photo cards and holiday photo greeting cards. Although many like to place a few choice photographs in a newsletter, most prefer to send a greeting card with a digital photo or collage of photos imprinted directly on the card. Others choose to mount a photograph directly on the greeting cards. Whatever process works for you is great, but found below are a few recommendations you may wish to consider when selecting your holiday photo card.

Utilize the Correct Resolution for your Holiday Photo
Almost all photographs are taken with smart phones or digital cameras. Even though image resolution - as measured by metapixels - are generally quite high many phone owners don't know the best way to change the photo resolution of their phone camera to achieve the finest quality photograph. Those that do know how to modify the resolution, usually have it set to internet quality to help reduce the file size of photographs to preserve memory. Images uploaded to Facebook or Flickr commonly are not ideal to be printed digitally on a photo card or for a photograph. Without getting unnecessarily complicated, do try and create images of no less than 300 pixels per inch for one's family photo - the higher the better.

Enhancing your Photos
Okay, you have taken a fantastic family photograph and are now anxious to use some of those wonderful croping and editing tools embedded in your cellphone or camera. Please don't! Save the high resolution image on your disk drive and, if need be, do your editing and enhancing on a copy of the photograph. Without being too technical, what is important to learn is that the aspect ratio is frequently different on digital cameras than it is on 35mm cameras. The aspect ratio of a 35mm camera is 3:2 while the aspect ratio of a digital camera is 4:3. What this means is that you will lose some of your digital image if it is produced as a 4x6 photograph. Many beginner photographers crop the photographs too closely and quite often lose the tops of people's heads when the photograph is printed.

Printing images and Resolution
A lot of families are astonished that their printed digital image doesn't look the same as the image on their camera or computer monitor. There may be any number of explanations, but monitor resolutions, printers and the type of paper that is used will most certainly change the quality of the print. If you want to send out a Christmas newsletter on copy paper, your embedded images will probably be of inferior quality. Inkjet printers tend to produce higher quality photographs than color laser printers.

Photomount vs Printing
Commercially printed photographs on specialized photo paper still have a far higher quality than digitally reproduced photos. While it may take a bit more time, you are assured a superior quality reproduction in case you print your photograph and mount it on a card. Digital holiday cards tend to have a lower quality but are a lot more flexible in making a collage. If printing digitally, a 2x3 photograph will be sharper than a 4x6 photograph.

Greeting Cards and Photo Cards
Photo cards continue to be popular, but there is a tendency to revert to more traditional holiday greeting cards. The reasons for these changes are many, but one suspects that we now have simply too many family photos circulating in social media. In fact, many families choose to highlight the religious significance of the season rather than sending a photograph of their family. Most printing companies offer both standard holiday cards and photo card options so pick the one that best works for you.

Savvy buyers recognize that shopping for Christmas photo cards during the Summer and early Fall is a sure way to spend less. Nearly all printers don't really gear up for the holiday season until the first week of November. In order to stimulate buyers to shop early, many printers offer exceptional promotions which can help save anywhere from 10% to 50% which can result in significant savings. Moreover, by taking advantage of these seasonal promotions you save the anxiety of doing it at the last minute. While many people will begin their search on the internet, it is generally a good idea to vist your local stationer store. Many of these retailers have terrific specials through the end of September and you can be confident that you are working with vendors that have been properly screened. For those that shop online, it is often best to skip the ones showing the largest discount promotion since print quality is likely to be suspect. Check around and make note of two or three companies with a good selection of photo greeting cards.