Well, here it is Christmas day, and I'm working on holiday cards. I'm not normally a procrastinator, but I always seem to be doing these at the last minute. This season, though, I'm getting it done much faster and more economically, and they look better too.

My wife and I have backgrounds in journalism, so for over twenty years now we've published something called "The Hoffmann TImes," a card that looks a bit like a newspaper front page with a photo and highlights of our year. It's a bit unique in its style, so we've always created the cards ouselves rather than use one of the many (now online) services.

In the past I've made the card on the computer, put the file on disk and taken it to a print shop. It would be about 5 by 7 inches in size, so two could be printed on a letter-sized sheet of stock, then cut down. They usually cost $1 to $1.50 each, and took one to two weeks to have done. While the quality was good, it was rarely great. So this year I decided to do it myself.

I make the card in Photoshop, but you can do it in Elements or any editing software that supports custom document sizes and text. First I prep out the photo we've chosen, usually about 4.5 by 3 inches, at 200 PPI, with a little sharpening added. Then I create a new document the size the card's going to be (5 by 8 inches), at 200 PPI. I then drag the photo into the new document and position it where I want it, and start adding text.

When the card's done, I save it, create a new document that's letter-sized, and then drag two copies of the card onto the new document. A bit of pushing them around to align them nicely and I'm done. Now for the printing.

If you want the card to have the heft of a commercial greeting card, you'll want to use good photo paper. Matte's a good choice, as it has a nice feel to it and is about one-third the cost of glossy or semi-gloss paper. Fifty sheets of matte can be had for well under $20, where glossy will cost over $30. And those fifty sheets, once cut in half, make one-hundred cards. You could also use "photo quality" inkjet paper and save a bit more money, but the cards will be pretty flimsy. Ink is always the biggest cost when printing, but since the photo itself is small, it takes surprisingly little ink. I did about 100 cards this year and didn't even come close to needing to change cartridges.

So, yes, here it is Christmas day and once again my cards aren't done. But they will be in a few hours, and they'll go out in the mail first thing tomorrow. Our friends will get a unique card, and the postman will thank us for lessening his load during the holiday rush. In fact, we're not slow getting our cards out - we're just trying to make life easier for the Postal Service!