Web-to-Print for Invitations and Greeting Cards

Why do printed and online invitations both still matter?

Many people now send invitations by email or SMS because it is convenient. Printed invitation and greeting cards still leave a lasting impression, and many people keep choosing them for friends, family, customers and business partners.

Paperless invitations are growing too. An online invitation is sent by email or opened in a browser; people use it to save costs and to plan a greener event without paper. The original article lists its practical benefits:

• Create and send from home: find, design, personalize and send without trips to the store or the mailbox.
• Manage the guest list easily: track who has replied from one dashboard instead of calling or texting each guest.
• Care for the environment: no paper waste.
• Save time: personalize, send and track invitations quickly.
• Share the details that matter: gift registry, directions or nearby accommodation, without a separate email.

A web-to-print store for invitations can serve both: customers design online, then either have the cards printed and posted, or send the invitation by email.

What should an invitation maker offer?

Invitation maker software comes with templates for each occasion, so designing an invitation is easy. Customers add their message and photos to a template and change the font, text size and photo size. A good invitation maker also lets customers upload and change images, change the background and choose from a library of templates and decorations.

How did a German card printer personalize invitations with Printcart?

WIRDRUCKENKARTEN.de is a German business that prints birthday and wedding invitation cards. Customers choose the product and quantity, create the design online with their own photos, text and colors, and send the order.

They found Printcart while looking for an online designer for their printing website, so that consumers could personalize birthday and wedding invitations. With the Printcart WooCommerce product designer, the admin creates pre-made templates and adds custom fonts and clipart; consumers choose a template, edit the text and upload images.

They then asked for customizations to fit their business model:

1. Hide the design and edit-options buttons on the cart page, and show the quantity as a dropdown.
2. A new backend field for a product key: when the admin downloads the design as PDF, the file name includes the product key and the ordered quantity, so the admin knows the product and quantity without opening the order dashboard. This avoids mistakes on busy days and saves time when double-checking orders before printing.
3. Multi-page designs are downloaded in a way that does not leave the admin searching for each page of an order in separate PDF files.

The full story of this project is in Invitation card printing for WIRDRUCKENKARTEN.

How did a client build a paperless invitation maker with Printcart?

Another client sold invitations online and asked for an invitation maker that lets users design an invitation online and send it to their guest list by email, with an editor simple enough for buyers who only edit text. Because Printcart already had its design tool, the team customized it rather than building a new one.

Normally, buyers choose a template and edit it: add or edit text, add clipart or upload a photo, or start from a blank page. They click Process to see a preview, add the design to the cart and pay.

For this client, the editor page has three tabs: Formatting, Typeface and Color. Buyers can only edit the text of the template: alignment, size, letter spacing, line height and text effect.

The store admin adds the available fonts and the color palette from the backend; buyers choose from them. After clicking Process, buyers enter the event details: host name, event name, location, date and time. The admin can set these fields to fit the business.

Next, buyers choose how to deliver the invitation:

• By email: enter each recipient's name and email address, or upload a CSV file with the recipient list.
• By post, directly to guests: enter each guest's name and address, or upload a CSV guest list.
• By post, to the buyer: enter the number of invitations to print; a guest list can be uploaded to print guest names.

All data belongs to the store admin, who manages customers and orders from the dashboards.

What makes an invitation store easy to use?

The easier the design tool, the more customers finish their invitation: pre-made designs they can edit, their own images, and only the options they need. If you want to start a website selling printed or paperless invitations, contact us at support@printcart.com.