Custom Folded Greeting Cards
Custom folded greeting cards on heavy card, creased before folding so the spine stays clean, with a matching envelope in the same stock, from 100. Proof and price the same working day.
The fold is the part that goes wrong
- Board
- Uncoated, coated or textured card 300–400gsm; cotton stock on request
- Builds
- Single crease portrait or landscape; gate fold; French fold
- Sizes
- A6, A5, square 148 mm, 5 x 7 in and custom
Get a price for Folded Greeting Cards
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Creasing, and why folding alone fails
Card over about 170gsm cannot simply be folded. The outer fibers stretch, the coating splits, and a white line appears down the spine — worst on a dark or heavily inked cover. A crease made with a matrix rule compresses the fibers first so the card folds around a channel instead of tearing along one. Every folded card we print is creased, and on stock over 350gsm it is creased twice, a hair apart, so the spine has room for its own thickness.
Sizes, and the envelope that has to match
The envelope is cut to the card plus 5 mm each way and supplied in the same stock family, so the set looks like one thing rather than two purchases.
| A6 folded (105 x 148 mm) | Flat A5, folded once. C6 envelope. The everyday card. |
|---|---|
| A5 folded (148 x 210 mm) | Flat A4. C5 envelope. Formal and photographic cards. |
| Square 148 mm | Flat 296 x 148 mm. Square envelope, which costs more to post in some markets. |
| 5 x 7 in | Flat 10 x 7 in. A7 envelope. The US standard. |
Which way the card opens
- Portrait, creased on the long edge — the traditional card, opens like a book.
- Landscape, creased on the short edge — opens upward, and suits a wide photograph.
- Gate fold, two creases — both panels open from the center; a wedding or an announcement.
- French fold, two creases at right angles — printed one side only, which halves the print cost on a photographic card.
Printing inside a card that will be written in
Most of a folded card is left blank for handwriting, so the stock has to take ink from a pen as well as a press. Uncoated and lightly textured boards do; a gloss laminate does not, and a customer who cannot write in your card will not buy the next one. We print the inside on the same pass and leave the writing panel unvarnished. Our greeting card range and its packaging covers the boxes and sleeves that sets are sold in.
A dark inside panel looks striking and cannot be written on in anything but a gel pen. Say which matters more.
Finishes that survive a rack
Cards are stood in racks and flicked through, so the leading edge takes the wear. A matte laminate on the outside protects it and still allows writing inside; foil and a blind deboss on the cover both survive handling better than a heavy ink coverage, which scuffs at the fold. Cards for retail are usually cello-wrapped with their envelope, which we can supply flat or wrapped.
Folded Greeting Cards — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Board
- Uncoated, coated or textured card 300–400gsm; cotton stock on request
- Builds
- Single crease portrait or landscape; gate fold; French fold
- Sizes
- A6, A5, square 148 mm, 5 x 7 in and custom
- Creasing
- Matrix-creased before folding; double-creased over 350gsm
- Envelopes
- Matched stock, card plus 5 mm; printed liner optional
- Full color outside and in; writing panel left unvarnished
- Minimum
- 100 cards
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. Both sides as standard on cards, tags and leaflets.
- Color
- CMYK with spot colors for a brand match. Uncoated and cotton stocks print noticeably lighter than coated ones.
- Tolerance
- Trim plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut. Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding.
- Tooling
- A die only where the piece is shaped, perforated or drilled, made once and kept. A plain rectangle needs none.
- Food contact
- Food-safe inks on menus and counter print that will be handled where food is served.
- Sustainability
- Uncoated and unlaminated stocks recycle without separation, and FSC papers are available across the range.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build folded greeting cards on
Sheet print is judged in the hand more than a box is: the weight, the surface and whether a pen works on it. These are the stocks we run for cards, folders, leaflets and stationery.
Coated card 300–400gsm
The workhorse. Sharp full-color print, matte or gloss, laminated where it is handled. Does not take a pen unless the finish is matte.
300–400gsmUncoated card
No clay coat. Colors read softer and warmer, a deboss goes deeper, and it writes on with anything. Photographs lose punch.
300–400gsmCotton and textured card
Soft, thick and fibrous. Takes a deep blind deboss and reads as an invitation. Foil sits beautifully; four-color does not.
400–700gsmDuplexed card
Two sheets bonded, often with a colored core, for a very thick card with a visible colored edge. The heaviest thing we print.
600–900gsmText paper 100–170gsm
Leaflets, folder inners and booklet pages. Folds without cracking and takes a full-color print on both faces.
100–170gsmManila and kraft paper
Unbleached, tan, and cheap. One or two colors read well; white ink gives a light mark. Envelopes, folders and tags.
90–300gsmSynthetic stock
Polypropylene sheet for tags and cards that get wet, torn or handled outdoors. Prints like paper and does not soften.
200–400 micronBoard-backed
A printed face laminated to grayboard, for a rigid card, a folder back or a display that has to stand up on its own.
1–2 mm boardNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Sheet print takes the widest range of finishes of anything we make.
Matte lamination
Soft, fingerprint-resistant, and it still takes a pen. The default on anything handled.
Gloss lamination
Maximum color depth. Shows every fingerprint and refuses a ballpoint.
Hot foil
Gold, rose gold, silver, holographic or a color. The block is small so the die is cheap.
Emboss and deboss
Deepest on uncoated and cotton stocks; shallow and prone to cracking on gloss coated.
Spot UV
A gloss shape on a matte laminate. Best on a dark ground where the contrast reads.
Edge paint and colored core
Color on the cut edge of a thick or duplexed card. Only seen when the card is picked up, which is the point.
Soft-touch
A velvet laminate on a cover or a folder. Marks on white; excellent on dark.
Uncoated and textured
No film at all. Writes on, debosses deeply, and reads as considered rather than cheap.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing printed sheets, folds and the grain: folded greeting cards
A printed piece is specified flat and finished folded, and the difference between the two is where mistakes live. Send the finished size you want and we work back to the flat.
- Finished size
- The size after folding and trimming. A6, A5, A4, DL, US letter and legal are standard; anything else is cut on its own die.
- Bleed and safe area
- 3 mm of artwork past every trim edge, and nothing important within 4 mm inside it. The guillotine drifts by a fraction on every stack.
- Grain direction
- Paper folds cleanly along the grain and cracks across it. We set the grain to the fold, which is why a sheet is not simply cut from the biggest sheet available.
- Fold allowance
- On a roll fold or a gate fold, the inner panels are cut a millimeter or two shorter so the piece closes flat.
- Creasing
- Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding. Without it the fold cracks and the coating flakes along the line.
- Trim tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Spec your Folded Greeting Cards
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a stock and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about folded greeting cards? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
Will the fold crack?
Not on a creased card. Anything over about 170gsm is matrix-creased before folding, and over 350gsm it is creased twice so the spine has room for its own thickness.
Do you supply envelopes?
Yes, cut to the card plus 5 mm in a matching stock, with a printed liner if you want one.
Can I write inside?
Yes, if you choose an uncoated or textured stock and we leave the writing panel unvarnished. A gloss laminate refuses most pens.
What sizes do you make?
A6, A5, square 148 mm and 5 x 7 inches as standard, plus any custom size.
Can the inside be printed?
Yes, on the same pass. Most cards print a design on the left panel and leave the right blank for writing.
What is a French fold?
Two creases at right angles, so the card is printed on one side only and folded twice. It halves the print cost on a photographic card.
What is the minimum order?
100 cards.
Can you cello-wrap them with the envelope?
Yes, for retail. We can also supply both flat for you to pack.
Which stock feels most expensive?
A cotton or textured card at 400gsm and up. It debosses deeply and takes foil beautifully, and it costs more than coated.
Do square cards cost more to post?
In several markets, yes — square envelopes attract a surcharge. Worth checking before you settle on the shape.
Can I have foil on the cover?
Yes, and it survives rack handling better than heavy ink coverage, which scuffs at the fold.
Do you print a range in one run?
Yes. Several designs on the same stock and size run together, which is cheaper than separate jobs.
Same range
