How to Print Greeting Cards at Home: The Complete UK Guide

A printable greeting card sounds almost too good to be true: buy it online for a couple of pounds, and thirty seconds later the file is in your inbox, ready to print. No postage, no waiting, no 6pm panic in the supermarket card aisle.

But then comes the question everyone asks: will it actually look good printed at home?

Short answer: yes — brilliantly — if you follow a few simple rules about paper, settings and folding. This guide covers everything: the best card stock to buy in the UK, exact printer settings, UK card sizes explained, and what to do if you don't own a printer at all.

What You'll Need

  • A printable card file (PDF or high-res JPG — every card on The Greeting Shelf comes as both)
  • An inkjet or laser printer — any home printer from the last decade will do
  • Card stock or photo paper (details below — this is 80% of the result)
  • Scissors or a craft knife if your design needs trimming
  • A ruler or bone folder for a crisp, professional fold

Total cost per card, including paper and ink: roughly 20–40p. Compare that with £3.50–£5 for a shop card plus £1.70+ for a stamp, and the maths gets very friendly, very fast.

Step 1: Choose the Right Paper (The Most Important Step)

Ordinary 80gsm printer paper is for letters, not cards — it flops. What you want is card stock, and the magic number is gsm (grams per square metre), which measures thickness:

Paper weight What it's like Verdict for cards
80–120gsm Standard printer paper ❌ Too flimsy
160–200gsm Light card ✅ Good — folds easily, feels like a proper card
220–250gsm Greeting-card weight ✅ Ideal — what shop cards use
280–350gsm Heavy card ⚠️ Lovely, but check your printer can feed it

What to buy in the UK: search for "A4 white card 250gsm" — available in every supermarket stationery aisle, The Range, Hobbycraft, WHSmith, Ryman or Amazon UK for a few pounds per 50 sheets. That's 50 cards' worth.

Matte vs glossy? Matte or satin card stock is the safe choice: colours look rich, and you can write inside with any pen. Glossy photo paper makes colours pop beautifully but can smudge with ballpoints and usually only coats one side — fine for flat cards, awkward for folded ones.

Step 2: Get Your Printer Settings Right

Two minutes here transforms the result. In your print dialogue:

  1. Paper type: set to "Card stock", "Heavyweight" or "Photo paper matte" — this tells the printer to use more ink and feed the paper slowly.
  2. Quality: select "Best" or "High" — never draft.
  3. Scale: choose "Actual size" or 100% — not "Fit to page", which can shrink or stretch the design and ruin fold lines.
  4. Colour: ensure colour printing is on (sounds obvious; has ruined many a card).
  5. Paper tray: thick card feeds best through the rear or manual feed tray if your printer has one — it avoids the tight bend of the main tray.

Pro tip: print one test copy on cheap paper first to check size and position. It costs a penny and saves your good card stock.

Step 3: Understand UK Card Sizes

Printable cards typically come in a few sizes — here's what they mean on this side of the Atlantic:

  • A5 folded (from A4): print on standard A4, fold in half → an A5 card. The classic UK size; fits standard C5 envelopes.
  • A6 folded (from A5): a smaller, sweet card; fits C6 envelopes (the most common envelope size in UK shops).
  • 5x7 inch: a US-origin size that's become the standard for "premium" cards. Fits 5x7 envelopes, widely sold in the UK online and in Hobbycraft.

Every card on The Greeting Shelf includes print-ready files sized for home printing — check each product page for the sizes included. Buying envelopes? A pack of C6 or 5x7 envelopes from a supermarket or Amazon costs a couple of pounds and keeps you ready for every future card emergency.

Step 4: Fold Like a Professional

The fold is what separates "homemade" from "handmade":

  1. Score first. Lay a ruler along the fold line and run something thin and blunt along it — a bone folder, the back of a butter knife, or an empty biro. This compresses the fibres so the card folds cleanly instead of cracking.
  2. Fold away from the score, aligning the corners exactly.
  3. Sharpen the crease by running the ruler's edge (or the bone folder) along the fold once.

That's it. Ten extra seconds, shop-quality finish.

No Printer? No Problem

A surprising number of card-printing options exist in the UK for the printer-less:

  • Supermarket photo kiosks (Asda, Tesco, Max Spielmann in Morrisons): print your JPG as a 6x4 or 5x7 photo print for pennies, then mount or fold it. Instant, cheap, glossy.
  • Local libraries: most UK libraries print A4 colour for around 50p–£1 a sheet — bring the PDF on your phone or a USB stick, and ask for their thickest paper.
  • Print shops (Rymans, Mail Boxes Etc., local printers): they'll print your PDF on proper 250gsm card while you wait — usually £1–£2, still cheaper than a shop card.
  • Online same-day photo printing: several UK photo services offer 1-hour collection at their in-store kiosks.
  • A friendly neighbour with a printer: the original print-on-demand service. Payment in biscuits.

Troubleshooting: Quick Fixes

Colours look dull or washed out? You're on "draft" quality or "plain paper" mode — switch to high quality + card stock setting.

Card jams in the printer? Your stock is too heavy for the main tray. Use the rear/manual feed, or drop to 200–220gsm.

Design prints off-centre or the fold line is wrong? "Fit to page" is on. Switch to "Actual size"/100% scaling.

Ink smudges when writing inside? Give laser prints a minute and inkjet prints five minutes to fully dry — or use a matte stock, which absorbs ink faster than gloss.

Edges look unfinished? If the design has a white border, trim it with a ruler and craft knife for a clean full-bleed look.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it cheaper to print greeting cards at home? Considerably. Home printing costs roughly 20–40p per card in paper and ink, versus £3.50–£5 for a typical shop card — before adding postage. Even buying the design (ours start at £1.75), you're saving more than half, and it's in your hands in minutes.

What is the best paper weight for greeting cards? 220–250gsm card stock is the sweet spot — the same weight as most shop-bought cards. It feels substantial, folds cleanly when scored, and feeds through nearly all home printers.

Can I print greeting cards on a normal inkjet printer? Yes — any standard inkjet or laser printer handles greeting cards well. Just set the paper type to "card stock" or "heavyweight", select best quality, and use the rear feed tray for thicker paper if your printer has one.

How do printable cards work? You buy the design online, and the high-resolution files (usually PDF and JPG) are emailed to you instantly. You print at home, fold, and write your message — the whole process takes about five minutes.

Ready to Put This Guide to Work?

You now know more about printing cards than most people who sell them. All that's missing is a card worth printing.

Every design on The Greeting Shelf is a high-resolution, print-ready download — birthday cards, anniversary cards, wedding cards and a whole last-minute shelf for days when the occasion arrived faster than expected.

Browse all printable cards →

Stuck on the message once it's printed? Start with our guide to what to write in a birthday card.