Cooking up a custom envelope

Custom envelopes are a popular choice for various direct marketing campaigns and formal business communications. They provide a good “cover” type presentation for letters and other marketing materials so that readers can be attracted to read them. That is why a lot of effort and imagination are invested in envelope printing designs so that they can capture the attention of these potential readers before they decide to throw the mail as junk. For people just starting out in making custom envelopes, below are the 7 steps on how to cook up your own envelopers. Before that though, you need to know the “ingredients”.

Custom envelope ingredients: White Envelopes (printer compliant) or full color envelopes (if you want), a Computer, Printer, Imaging Software (i.e. Photoshop), Publishing Software (Microsoft Publisher/Word), Envelope Template (optional), Company or Project image, Supplemental images.

1. Write down or type up the envelope content – Before doing anything, you need to first decide on what you actually want to put into your custom envelope. Do you want to print the company's name and address? Do you want to add the company's slogan? Are there any other details that need to be written down? Just write them up on a piece of paper for reference. Better yet, you may want to type them in the Windows Notepad application so that you can copy and paste it later.
2. Look for your images – Next, collect the images that you want to use for the envelope. Typically you may want to obtain a digital file of your company's logo to act as an identifying mark one custom envelope. Besides that, if you are going to use an advertising image on the envelope, try to have that image ready for insertion later on. Make sure that your images are in a high resolution format so that you can prevent some pixilation to occur.
3. Download templates (optional) - If you want an even easier time in envelope printing, then you can look for an online envelope printing service over the Internet and see if they have any templates for envelopes. Most printing companies should have a few ready for display. Some might even offer the templates free for download. Just try and look for the best envelope template that you can which matches your concept for your custom envelope. Gather what you can and then fire up your image editing and publishing software.
4. Start up the Wizard (optional) – If your software has a setup wizard, then you should have no trouble in making a custom envelope. Start your wizard and then enter the details of the software as each question is displayed, including the images. Once you are done, you actually will have a custom envelope already for printing.
5. Enter details into your software – Of course for those who don't have a wizard in their publishing software, you will need to do this by hand. For starters just type in the pertinent details for your custom envelope designs in your document. Don't go for full formatting yet at this state since you may get lost easily in the process. Just type in or insert all the text and image details that you want included for now.
6. Formatting your Layout – Once you have the raw data in your custom envelope document, start formatting the elements that we inserted. Try to block the sender's address and receiver's address on appropriate but unique places. Experiment with your fonts and images so that they compliment the overall look of the page. Determine the right text color your envelope covers and messages. Basically make sure that everything is pleasing to die and has a professional stuff.
7. Print – Once your envelope design is done, all you have to do is to print them up. Most of the printers today have special slots and settings that you may need as you print your custom envelopes. If the printer feature matches, then you should already have no trouble in printing them. Make sure that you are envelopes are printed in the best envelope paper available as well to maintain print quality.
8. Paste (optional) – Lastly, depending on the envelope that you created, you may need to paste the various corners of your actual envelopes so that they look like a normal envelope. Place the past and fold the corners of the envelopers to make it ready for delivery. Otherwise, if your printer is high-tech, then it can print your custom envelopes even though they are folded.

Great! Follow these steps and you should have a nice custom envelope that you can create in your home or office.