Category: Do It Yourself

Seating place cards are used to assign seats at an important function. As the host of the event, you know with whom your guests are most familiar and you know which individuals, couples, and families will have more fun if they are seated together. This is your opportunity to be creative with both your seating arrangement and your place cards.

For a large event, place cards are printed with both a name and a table number and are arranged alphabetically on a table positioned at the entrance of the reception area. Guests browse the cards and find their names, taking the cards with them to their assigned tables. Upon arriving at their tables, they can choose any seat.

In this article, you’ll learn how to print individual seating place cards using a home computer and an inkjet printer. If you’d rather print 4-Up seating place cards that come four to an 8 ½ x 11 sheet, jump to our Learn How Easy it is to Print LCI's 4-Up Computer Place Cards video.

Our individual place cards come in 50 packs. They are flat for printing and scored for easy folding. There are dozens of individual seating place cards to choose from—those with designs, borders, metallic finishes, and deckled edges—but we’ll keep it simple with our Ecru Place Card. It’s a creamy Ecru color with a smooth finish that matches all of LCI Paper’s Ecru items including invitations and envelopes.

The first step in printing place cards is to download the free Classic, Linen & Metallic Place Cards 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 printing template provided on our web site. You can open the template file in Microsoft Word or with another word processor that reads the DOC format. This includes both OpenOffice.org Writer and AbiWord. The template, with a width of 4.5” and a height of 5”, is formatted to the dimensions of the place card. This takes into account the card is flat; it has not been folded to its finished size of 4.5” x 2.5”. Margins are set to .5” all around except for the top margin which is 3.25”. The reason for the larger top margin is because we will not be printing on the top half of the card. You’ll have a better idea once you see the printed place card.

Go ahead and change the sample place card wording so that it’s relevant to your event. Type the name and table number for one of your guests. Change the font face and size. Perhaps you’ll choose text to match that of your invitation. Since we’re printing on Ecru card stock, we’ve chosen to print brown text.

We’ve set up our template and we’re almost ready to print. We suggest cutting a plain piece of paper down to the dimensions of the place card and use it as a printing test. Load the test sheet into the printer and adjust the printer’s plastic guide to rest flush against the paper.

Before printing, we need to access our printer’s driver and communicate the size of our place card. Otherwise, the printer assumes we are printing on a standard 8 ½ x 11 sheet instead of a place card. Go to File/Print and choose your printer. Click the Properties button to access the printer driver.

Find the area for paper size and enter a custom value using the dimensions of our unfolded place card—4.5” wide by 5” high. Accept the changes and hit OK. You'll find yourself back at the print dialog box. Hit OK once more and print your test sheet. Only the bottom half of the test sheet will be printed. Fold the sheet in half as you would fold a place card. The front panel printing should be vertically and horizontally aligned.

Once you’ve settled on the look of your place card, you should save the template to your Documents folder. At your convenience, you can go back to your customized template and finish typing the rest of your names and table numbers.

You can load your place cards into your printer and print the cards one by one, changing the template wording to show a different name and table number for every card, or you can set up a mail merge. A mail merge requires some extra setup time so we’ll leave that lesson for another article.

Congratulations! You’ve learned how to print professional looking table place cards using LCI Paper’s Word template and your inkjet printer.

Joshua Birch

Choosing a paper that suits your creative project can feel like an overwhelming task. You want your project to have the tone and appearance you imagined; yet finding this appearance in a sea of options may be difficult. Between color, texture, weight, and finish, there are several factors to consider before determining which paper best fits your budget and your needs. With so many options to choose from, it is no surprise that designers and do-it-yourselfers often feel daunted by paper selection. Fortunately, though this task is complex, it does not have to be difficult.

With her article 10 Easy Steps to the Right Paper, Sabine Lenz of Paper Specs most effectively addresses this issue by offering ten tips to simplify the paper selection process.

The article begins with an imperative piece of advice:

“. . .You shouldn’t think about choosing your paper based on the highest quality available, or the highest quality you can afford. Rather, you should figure out the most appropriate quality paper for your needs, because most appropriate equals best.”

In essence, to confidently choose the right paper, you must first examine your project as a whole. Just as paper has many aspects to consider, so does your project design. In coming up with design ideas, you should consider your project’s purpose, audience, and overall tone and appearance. For example, is your creative project a black tie wedding invitation, an invite to a casual baby shower brunch, or a promotional announcement for hundreds? You should also factor in any budget, printing method, or time constraints. The same factors you examine when creating your design can also be used to decide on its paper.

Seen below, Lenz’s ten steps discuss these principles, and can be found in full and original content by clicking the link above, "10 Easy Steps to the Right Paper."

Consider Paper Early On

Due to its vital role in your creative design, paper should be considered at the earliest possible stage of your design. After all, you would not want to have a paper in mind, only to find out it is not available in a certain color, or that you can not print on it. Worse, you would not want to have completed the ideal design for yourself or a client, only to discover it does not physically or aesthetically fit with the paper it is to be printed on.

Project Personality

As mentioned above, your project’s purpose, audience, and overall look and feel will inevitably impact your paper selection. Basically, you want the tone of your project to match the tone of the paper you select. To illustrate this point, the article uses the example of a philanthropic organization seeking donations. Requesting money, the organization should not print its letter on an expensive stock, because the message of the letter and the tone of the expensive stock do not coincide. Similarly, you would not print an elegant wedding or gala invitation on a flimsy, plain white sheet of paper. In this instance, you would seek paper with a weight, finish, or texture that suggests a more opulent event.

Finish to Enhance Project Tone

The paper is not only there to give the ink a foundation, but to enhance the design of the image you want to portray.

An average design can be refreshed and made to portray an entirely different image when printed on paper with a rich finish or texture. With such a large selection of specialty paper to choose from, this is an area that is truly fun to experiment with. In general, matte finishes portray softness, metallics allude to elegance, and textures and patterns can create a theme of their own.

Color Choice

Creative designers may seek a specific color for any number of reasons, including mood, theme, preference, or requirement. When working with color, consider any potential impacts it may have on your design. To illustrate this tip, the article discusses printing on a pale shade of yellow paper, warning readers to be cautious with ink color; i.e. blue ink would appear green. You may also have a certain shade of a color in mind, yet when you see the paper in person, it does not quite match up. In these cases, it is suggested you order a sample first, because back-tracking is never ideal.

Paper Weight for Printing and Mailing Purposes

When deciding on paper weight, you must consider your project from start to finish. First, determine the method of printing you will use. Projects that will be foil stamped or printed on both sides will require a heavier stock. If you are printing with your own laser or inkjet printer, keep in mind you may have trouble with stocks over eighty pounds. However, if you are seeking the services of a professional printer, this is not as much of a concern. Last, if you are going to mail your creative project, you must consider that a heavy stock may require more postage than a lighter one.

Environmental Considerations

With today's emphasis on going green, more people are seeking environmentally friendly papers. Fortunately, paper manufacturers recognize this growing trend and are responding favorably, resulting in far more "green" options than in the past. After briefly researching your prospective paper, you may find that it is both beautiful and environmentally conscious. For more information on LCI's "green" paper, please visit the following:

LCI's Eco Friendly Recycled Paper
Dictionary of Eco Friendly Paper Terms
Interview with Chlorine Free Products Director Archie Beaton

Consider the Printing Process

Without the proper printing equipment, various finishes and textures may be troublesome to print on . Again, if you are using a professional printing service, the printer will likely have the knowledge and equipment to properly print your project. If you are unsure which printing method you will choose, you could always experiment on sample sheets. In this way, if you determine you need the services of a professional printer, you can appropriately plan for this ahead of time.

Price

Lenz sums up the issue of price, with the following:

It has happened to us all. We have champagne taste on a beer budget. Paper averages thirty percent of the cost of a print project. That is not a small percentage and definitely one to take a closer look at, if you work on a tight budget.

Let's be honest. Though a specialty paper can really enhance a project, it can also enhance the price. If you find a paper you love, but it is out of your price range, do not be discouraged! It never hurts to ask for suggestions and suitable alternatives. Also keep in mind that fonts, graphics, and accessories can alter a project's tone as well. Please see the following article for examples of how simple changes in fonts and graphics turned four standard white cards into beautiful invitations.

How To Create Invitations with Microsoft Word

Availability and Additional Time

Stated simply, if you have a specific paper in mind, check its availability ahead of time. You certainly do not want to complete a design, only to find out the paper you wished to print on will not be available for three weeks, or worse, that it is no longer manufactured.

Now that you are aware of the factors to consider when selecting your paper, it is time to browse. Even if you have been briefed on paper basics, browsing through a vast selection of paper can still be overwhelming. Fortunately, LCI has simplified this process by providing tools for easy navigation on its site. These tools include a neatly categorized Specialty Paper Page, a Tip Paper Chart to specifically filter results, the option to order samples, and helpful customer service to answer any questions. For detailed information on this topic, please visit How Do I Find the Right Paper for My Creative Project? on LCI's Creative Blog.

Kristen Desrosier

Laurie in Oklahoma recently submitted a save the date card that she helped create for her cousin’s son Adam and his fiancée Laine. Laurie was kind enough to drop one in the mail and then talk to me about the card's unique format and the process of creating it.

You sent me a beautifully produced card with a glossy finish showing the bride and groom to be in a television studio. Can you tell me how the idea for this invitation came together?

Well the bride is a weekend news anchor and the groom is a weekend sports anchor and that’s a real picture of them on TV together. We placed 'Save the Date...Breaking News' inside the TV screen and the idea was kind of a play off of their job.

Your card is slick and glossy. How did you decide to go that route?

It was printed at a printer and he did what is called coating—like a postcard finish really. But the catch was, when I gave him that, I gave him your purple lined envelope. When we created the piece, the piece was the correct purple. Sometimes when you add that coating, it changes the color a little bit. And I had to make sure with the printer that it didn’t change the color because I wanted the piece to match the purple lining inside of your envelope. I have to play off of what the bride and groom want and they wanted purple. Their whole wedding is going to be purple and black.

Any response yet from folks who have seen it?

They thought it was a pretty cool piece. I had one person that saw it and said, ‘This is by far the best save the date I’ve ever seen.’

Thanks to Laurie for sharing this unique Save the Date that she helped create. To see more customer creations, visit our Share Your Creativity page.

Recommended Link:
White Purple Lined A7 Envelope

Joshua Birch

Today, you’ll learn how to print invitation cards for four different events—a 25th anniversary, a child’s birthday, a wedding, and a Bar Mitzvah. All four invitations will be printed on LCI Paper’s A7 sized Radiant White cards. This popular blank invitation card measures 5 1/8 x 7 inches. By changing fonts and adding simple graphics within Microsoft Word, you’ll find that you can create custom invitations in different moods, from elegant to whimsical.

WEDDING

Our first project is an elegant wedding invitation. When printing a custom invitation card of any kind, the first step is to set up a template to match the card size. We’ll enter a custom width and height--5.13 by 7--to match our invitation card’s dimensions.

The template is now created and we can enter the text that will appear on the invitation. Sample invitation wording for all the events covered in this video is available at LCIPaper.com, so we’ve got you covered.

We’ll use the Century Gothic font to turn average into elegant. If you want to expand your font collection, you can turn to a number of free font archives on the web.

A combination of two different fonts adds another dimension to a wedding invitation. Since the bride and groom are the main attraction, we’ve used the Tagettes font to highlight their names. We’ve also made their names larger than the rest of the invitation wording by changing the font size.

Now that we’re happy with our invitation wording, fonts, and font sizes, there’s just one more setting we need to adjust. By clicking File, Print, and then Properties we’ll access the printer driver and communicate to the printer that we will be loading a non-standard size card into its tray. Under paper size, we’ll enter the custom dimensions of our invitation card.

We’ll print the card in an Epson inkjet printer. Our elegant wedding invitation is shown in our Jumbo purple-lined double wedding envelope.

ANNIVERSARY

Let’s turn our attention toward another formal occasion, a 25th anniversary celebration—the silver anniversary.

We’ve chosen a script font and a rings and hearts graphic available within our version of Word by clicking Insert, Picture, Clip Art.

Whenever we import a graphic or picture, it’s important to format it by right clicking and selecting Format Picture.

Under the Layout tab, we’ll send the graphic behind the text as opposed to wrapping around the text.

Since the theme is a Silver Anniversary, we’ll change the color of the blue graphic to grayscale, giving the graphic a silver look.

To widen the space between each line of text, we’ll adjust the line spacing. Since we’re looking for a fine adjustment, we’ll choose More.

We’ll enter a custom value of 1.15. We reached this decision by first experimenting with different settings of 1.1 and 1.2 before deciding on 1.15.

BAR MITZVAH

The templates for our final two invitation cards will be laid out in the Mac version of Word. First, we’ll design a Bar Mitzvah invitation card.

We’ve inserted a Star of David graphic and formatted it in the same way that we loaded and formatted the graphic used in the anniversary card template.

We’ve selected our text and changed the font to a decorative font suitable for a special occasion.

Since this card will be paired with a silver envelope, we’ll coordinate by lightening up the Star of David graphic. We’ll do this by changing the graphic’s transparency.

Since Benjamin is the reason for the Bar Mitzvah, we’ve enlarged both instances of his name. We also moved “Benjamin” up and in front of the Star of David graphic.

This Bar Mitzvah invitation is paired with a Stardream metallic Silver A7 envelope.

BIRTHDAY

Now we’ll make a child’s birthday invitation using fonts and graphics for a whimsical and fun look.

As with the other cards, we’ll start by typing our invitation wording.

With a font change, we’ll transform the invitation.

Adding a balloon graphic and sending it behind the text adds flare and fun.

We lightened the balloons using the same transparency technique as in our Bar Mitzvah invitation. We used two font colors so that the important information is more fun to read.

Our Carnival Serene Blue A7 envelope compliments the invitation and goes perfectly with a young boy’s birthday party.

Using Microsoft Word to change fonts and graphics is a simple way to create cards for different types of events. With a simple font change and the right clip art, you can create memorable invitations for all of your important dates.

Joshua Birch

In a recent Newsweek article entitled "How to Read a Menu," Jennie Yarbroff writes about her dining experience with restaurant critic and author Frank Bruni as they dine together at The Standard Grill in New York's meatpacking district.

He's lukewarm about food, but the menu gets four stars. "I love the paper stock," he says, rubbing the heavy ecru sheet between his fingers. "It feels like it could have been Elle Woods' résumé in Legally Blonde. If I ever have to send out résumés, I'm going to do it on this paper stock."

I'd imagine that Bruni's excitement is exactly the kind of enthusiasm that restaurant owners and managers are envisioning when they carefully choose the presentation of their menus, starting with a fine card stock. A distinctive and well presented restaurant menu conveys to diners that this restaurant cares about presentation, starting with the menu and presumably carrying over into the food that is served.

As the orders come in for LCI Paper's dozens and dozens of different specialty papers and card stocks, I sometimes wonder how they're being used. Many of our customers are individuals making their own invitations, but we also sell to businesses that want to break through the clutter and present one of a kind mailings for marketing or other business communications. And I've spoken to a number of restaurant owners and managers that regularly order our paper for their menus. Our metallic specialty papers and card stocks, like the Aspire Petallics brand, are popular choices, but I wonder what kind of impact one of our Japanese linens or Gmund Digital brands in their textured finishes would make. If you're looking for a unique specialty paper for your restaurant's new menu, a great place to start is our 8 1/2 x 14 Card Stock Paper, a popular size for menus.

Joshua Birch