Free design proof on every custom order: no templates, no stock SKUs
Standard greeting cards are flat. No center fold, no crease, just a single panel printed front and back on heavy cardstock. That simplicity keeps production fast and the finished card rigid enough to mail or display without bending. A practical choice for postcard-style greetings, save-the-dates, or any message that doesn't need an interior panel. Matching envelopes are included, sized to the card.
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Not every greeting card needs to open. A standard greeting card skips the center fold that defines a traditional card and stays flat. A single rigid panel printed on the front, the back, or both, closer in construction to a heavy postcard than a booklet. That difference in construction changes what the format is good for: without a fold to worry about, the card can be handled and mailed like a postcard, and the message has to work within one panel rather than being spread across an interior spread.
Because there's no fold to reinforce, cardstock weight is what gives a flat card its structure and feel. A 14 pt to 16 pt stock is a reasonable starting point, giving the card enough rigidity to resist bending in the mail or in a stack, while a heavier 18 pt to 32 pt stock reads as noticeably more substantial. Worth considering for a card meant to double as a keepsake, like a save-the-date or an announcement people are likely to display rather than discard. Since the entire card is a single flat sheet, the front and back can both carry full-bleed printing without needing to account for how a design will look once folded, which gives a bit more design freedom than a folded card offers.
Finish options work the same way they would on any printed card: a gloss laminate for vibrant color and shine, a matte or soft-touch laminate for a more restrained, contemporary look, or an uncoated stock if part of the back is meant to be written on. Rounded corners are a common upgrade on flat cards specifically, since the format's simplicity makes small finishing touches (a corner treatment, a subtle emboss, a foil accent on the front) more noticeable than they might be on a card that's already visually broken up by a fold.
Standard flat cards suit a specific set of use cases well: announcements, postcard-style greetings, save-the-dates, or any message short enough to fit on one surface without needing an interior for elaboration. For a message that benefits from more space. A longer note, a multi-part design, or anything meant to be opened as a small reveal. A folded card remains the better fit. Matching envelopes, sized precisely to the flat card's dimensions, are typically included so the finished piece is ready to address and mail without any extra sourcing.
A greeting card is handled deliberately, stood on a shelf and often kept, so it needs enough stiffness to stand unaided. Below about 250gsm a folded card slumps rather than standing. From 300gsm upward it holds its own weight cleanly. Uncoated and textured stocks are common here because a card is frequently written in, and a coated surface rejects pen.
Will my card stand up on a shelf? From 300gsm folded, yes. Lighter than that and it leans, which is the most common complaint about cheap cards.
Full color outside is standard. The inside is the decision worth making deliberately: printed with a message, printed with a light pattern, or left completely blank so the sender writes their own. Leaving it blank is not a saving so much as a choice about who the card is for. A blank interior is what makes a card usable for any occasion.
Should the inside be printed? Print it if the card carries a fixed message. Leave it blank if the sender writes, and make sure the stock takes pen.
Coating changes both the look and whether the card can be written in. Gloss lifts photographic artwork but rejects pen entirely, which makes it wrong for a card meant to be signed. Matte and uncoated take ink cleanly. Foil, emboss and spot UV are all common on the outside, where they do more work per pound than extra color does.
Can I write in a gloss card? Not reliably. Ink beads and smears. If it gets signed, the inside must be matte or uncoated even if the outside is gloss.
Folded cards are scored before folding so the stock bends along a controlled line rather than cracking its coating at the spine. The envelope is ordered alongside rather than afterwards, because matching a card to an envelope later is difficult and a card that does not fit its envelope arrives creased. Undoing everything the stock choice was for.
Do envelopes come with the cards? Order them together. Matching size, color and stock afterwards is far harder than it sounds.
A single panel with no fold. Printed front and back on heavy card. That simplicity is the point: it costs less, it posts flat and light, and it reads as contemporary rather than traditional. The trade-off is that there is no interior, so the message has to share the back with whatever else goes there, which suits announcements and thank-you cards more than occasion cards.
Where does the message go? On the back, alongside anything else printed there. If the sender needs room to write, leave the back largely clear and uncoated.
Ask for samples before a run. Whether a card stands on a shelf and whether it takes pen are both decided here, and neither shows on screen.
Metallic foil pressed into the card. On a greeting card it works hardest on a single element (a word, a shape, a border) against an uncoated ground, where the contrast between matte stock and bright metal does the work.
The card pressed into relief. Blind embossing with no ink at all is the quietest premium finish available and suits formal and sympathy cards, where restraint is the point.
A raised gloss varnish on selected areas of an otherwise matte card. It is visible only as it catches light, which makes it more interesting in the hand than a printed effect can be.
Fold lines scored so the spine does not crack, and shaped outlines cut where the card is not a rectangle. Both are mechanical operations done after printing and before packing.
Same family, genuinely different jobs. Your current selection is highlighted.
| Card | From | Format | Order it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folded Greeting Cards | $170 | Center score, full interior | Someone writes a note inside |
| Standard Greeting Cards | $160 | Flat, printed both sides | Announcements and thank-you cards |
| Die-cut Greeting Cards | $180 | Cut to a silhouette | The shape is part of the message |
| Custom Greeting Cards | $190 | Square, panoramic or gatefold | No standard format fits the idea |
On the back, sharing the space with anything else printed there. If the sender needs room to write, keep the back largely clear and specify an uncoated or matte surface so pen actually takes.
Cost and postage, mainly. A flat card uses half the stock and posts lighter. It also reads as more contemporary, which suits announcements and thank-you cards better than a traditional folded card does.
Not standing on its own. It needs to lean against something or sit in a holder. That is the real trade-off for the lower cost and postage, and it is worth weighing if the card is meant to be kept on show rather than read and filed.
Heavier than a folded one, since there is no fold adding stiffness. 350gsm or above stops a flat card feeling like a postcard, which at greeting-card prices matters.
Pricing for standard greeting cards starts at $160 and moves with quantity, size, material and finish rather than sitting on a fixed list. Setup is shared across the run, so the per-unit price drops steeply as the quantity rises: the gap between a few hundred and a few thousand is usually the significant one. Send the size, quantity and what it has to do and you get a firm figure back, not a range.
There is a practical minimum rather than a hard one. Every run carries artwork checks, a proof and a press setup, so a very small quantity of standard greeting cards prices poorly per unit even though we will still make it. If you are ordering a small batch, ask for pricing at two or three quantities at once: the curve usually shows that a modest increase costs very little more in total.
The clock starts when you approve the proof, not when the order is placed, which is the part most people are surprised by. You get a proof first: a digital proof showing the outside, the interior and the fold line, with foil, emboss and spot UV marked as separate layers so you can see exactly what is being treated rather than inferring it. Turnaround after approval depends on the finish: anything laminated, foiled or die-cut adds a stage that cannot be compressed without causing problems later. Tell us the date you actually need them and we will work backwards from it rather than quoting a generic lead time.
Print-ready artwork with bleed and a safe margin, supplied as a PDF, AI or EPS. Photographic elements should be supplied at the resolution the finished size needs, not the resolution that looks sharp on screen. If your file is not print-ready, say so when you order. We would rather fix it before the proof than after the run.
Yes. Flat, printed both sides is the standard build, and the dimensions around it are yours to set. A size that sits efficiently on the press sheet often costs no more than a standard one, while an awkward proportion that wastes half the sheet does. Ask before you commit and we will tell you whether a small change to the dimensions saves a disproportionate amount.
In most cases they are the same product under a different name: the trade uses several terms for it depending on the region and the supplier. What actually defines this one is the build: flat, printed both sides. Order it when announcements and thank-you cards. If you have seen it called standard greeting cards printing elsewhere, describe what it has to do rather than which name you found, and we will match the specification.
Yes. We provide free samples, and on standard greeting cards it is worth asking for one, because the difference between smooth card and smooth card is obvious in the hand and invisible on a screen. Most orders run on smooth card, but ask for whichever you are weighing up. You also get a free design proof before anything goes to press, so nothing is printed that you have not seen.
The usual choices are foil stamping, emboss and deboss, spot uv. Finish is not decoration on this product so much as a decision about how long it survives and how it reads in the hand, so it is worth choosing against the job rather than the budget. Tell us where the finished piece ends up and we will say which finish is doing real work and which is only adding cost.
Yes, and that is what almost every order here is. Nothing in this catalogue is a stock item: standard greeting cards are manufactured to the specification you give us, with your artwork on them. Send your logo as vector artwork where you have it, since that scales to any size without softening. If all you have is a low-resolution file, tell us and we will say what it needs before it reaches the press.
Yes, and a repeat run is simpler than the first one. We keep your approved specification on file, so a reorder skips the setup decisions and goes straight to production. If nothing about the artwork or the specification has changed, there is nothing to re-approve. Tell us the previous order and we will match it rather than starting the specification again.
Yes. Regalo Print has been producing custom commercial print for businesses across the USA and Canada since 2008, and every order ships tracked. The tracking number reaches you the day the job leaves, not the day it arrives. If you are working to a fixed date, say so when you order so the production schedule is built around the delivery date rather than the other way round.
