New Template for the New Year

Over the course of the last month or so I've been digging out some of our old family photos and snapshots to use in personalized calendars, and while doing so I ran across a bunch of those photo envelopes that used to come with your photos and negatives from the various photo-print shops. Some print shops use generic type envelopes, while some of the larger ones had their own logos and designs branded onto the envelopes. Most of you over the age of 30 or 40 will remember these - there were hundreds of styles and designs and some of those were marvelous graphic designs.

What came to mind as I sorted was the possibility of creating one of these for handing out some of my own prints, so I put a few of them aside to look at later. These are not the sort of thing you'd likely want to mass produce unless you happen to provide photo prints from other people's digital files. In that case, you'd most likely already have a bulk-supplier where you can get these. But for those of us who produce proof prints or small prints from our own files, these branded photo envelopes can add a nice touch and provide something a little different to clients.

This completed envelope uses a few pictures from a couple's wedding on the front, with floral borders in orange and red (that matched their fall wedding colours). On the large back flap is a larger version of my business card. This example has the "front" with a white background, and while I'd normally print the background envelope as one solid colour, I've made the back and back flap black here, so you can see how you can adjust the folds to fit your needs.

The template itself is simple and basic - but be sure to remove the text and "fold" lines before you print your finalized photo envelope. Start off with a sample layout of your own, run a draft print on paper, cut and fold the envelope to see where you want to adjust the fold lines. The larger flaps are designed to fold back and forth like an accordian, which allows the portion of the envelope that holds the photos to expand to hold more photos than a single-fold tab would. If you don't intend to use these for larger numbers of photos, you can cut those larger tabs down to a single-fold tab. Once you are satisfied with your "envelope", run your print on 11 /x 17" paper - preferably a heavy-weight, smooth grained paper, or if you want a very heavy envelope, use photo print paper.

If you aren't planning to customize the envelope for an individual event or couple, you can take your final layout and design on a card or disc to a print-house and order the envelopes in bulk.

To download the template (only available as a .png file) use this link.