Digital BW, The Print

The cost of supplies isn't worth worrying about if you send as few 
cards as I do. But I haven't found pre-cut card stock and matching 
envelopes which I like. So I'm a cut-up too. And therefore have to 
mix and match the card stock and envelopes for myself.

A complementary sheet of stationery is also needed if you want to 
sometimes enclose a letter. I used to just get all three pieces from 
Crane's, usually by calling 1-800-5CRANE6 rather using Crane.com, to 
make sure everything was in stock. And just lived with the dot gain 
when printing on their all-cotton uncoated card stock.

Except for their card stock, I still do. For it, I'm now substituting 
the heavier two-sided Eclipse Bright White, which seems to me to 
match Crane's Fluorescent White well enough. In that shade (only) of 
white, the stationery sheets can be gotten in 8.5x11 un-watermarked 
28lb/105gsm with Crane's "Imaging" finish. Which I think is simply 
smoother (on one side), not coated. In the case of the envelopes, I 
use the A2, A6, and A7 square-flap announcement envelopes; the square 
flaps seem easier both to design for and to print on. But for a more 
panoramic image, Crane's also has square-flapped Monarch and #10 
envelopes.

Typically I print on both sides of the card stock; otherwise I'd try 
to use Crane's Museo instead of the Eclipse. And often I mail cards, 
even holiday cards, as postcards rather than enclosed in envelopes. 
Otherwise, I'd try to use the heavier-weight two-sided PhotoRag Duo. 
But I've heard it probably won't stand up as well in the hands and 
machines of the USPS.

Sam McCancless               samcc@...


> >
> > I found that precut paper to be terribly expensive for a run of
> > cards.  I selected the A7 size as a good compromise between
> > image area and convenient size to handle.
>
>I agree it's pretty expensive.  Although I do like the A7 (5x7)
>size, I decided to go slightly smaller.  I take 13x19 paper and
>cut it up into 4 pieces giving  6.5 x 9.5 so the resultant card
>is 4.75 x 6.5 instead of 5x7.  I still use the A7 envelopes.
>
>Roy
>
> >
> > What I do is print letter size paper on my 1160 or 1280 and
>then
> > trim to 7 x 10 with a niffty plastic paper trimmer which cuts w/a
> > single edge razor.  I found this device at PhotoPlus 2yrs ago.
> > The rumor was Kaldess/Brandt (sp?) was going to distribute it.
> > You can stack 5 sheets to cut at once.
> >
> > For paper, I was using EAM until the logo appeared on the
>back.
> > Then I switched to EHM.  I'm using the last of my
> > Weber-Valentine paper (there's a piezo profile), but I don't
>much
> > care for the paper.  PhotoRag can be a bit difficult to write on
>the
> > back depending on your writing implement.  Museo is nice, but
>I
> > don't like the way it prints.
> >
> > Staples does not carry A7 envelopes unfortunately.  These are
> > the ones I'm using from APEC:
> >