Avoid these characteristics of not so good postcard templates
Even if you are just aiming for some simple and cheap postcard printing, you should not take any risks by using a bad type of template, even if it is free. Let me describe for you the five key characteristics of bad postcard templates. Take note of these as you try to acquire the template you need.
1. Embedded author watermarks and logos – The first thing that you should check are embedded author watermarks and logos. Many of those free providers pull fast ones on the public and put in their marketing logo and image within those free templates. While it is a small payment to get something free, it can actually ruin your design if you are not careful. Since there are typically others without these, you should just move on to those instead of settling for these market templates. Believe me. You will be better off without such.
2. Missing printing bleed dimensions – Another thing that you should watch out for in color postcard templates are missing print bleed dimensions. Some bad templates do not have printing bleeds, which make them practically useless for many designers. The design bleed or the printing bleed is a small extension of the design, which is reserved as an allowance for printing inconsistencies. Without it, some white lines or blank areas will appear around the edges, especially if it has a color background. So try to not to pick such with these missing bleeds.
3. Non-standard dimension settings – it is important to have standard dimensions settings. Standard dimensions keep the postcard size legal, helping it to be accepted by most mailing services. However, if your template has non-standard dimension settings to achieve a special effect, you should be wary about using it. While some services might still accept it, others might actually regret the deployment. It is best to play it safe and use non-standard dimension settings.
4. Lack of proper guidelines and grids – You may also want to look out for proper guidelines and grids within. If the template that you want does not have this, you might run into a little difficulty formatting your design in the best and most correct manner. Other templates provide these guidelines free, so you might as well go for those instead of settling for one that does not have them.
5. Too specialized file format – Finally, some are given free, but are saved in a specialized file format. Some software companies do this so that you are forced to but the software for the free template, which of course is just not ideal. If the template you discovered is in a file format that is hard to open, it is best to just leave it alone and user another one. There are tons of free others out there that you can use with whatever design application that you have.
You must avoid these are the kinds of templates Make sure you remember these so that you will not waste your time and effort in the wrong template.
