Die-Cut Postcards

What Are Die-Cut Postcards

A die-cut postcard is a postcard cut into a custom outline with a steel die instead of a straight rectangular trim. At 4OVER4 die-cut postcards print full color in 6 shapes, five at 4 by 6 inch (Rounded Corners, Rounded One Corner, Leaf, Half Circle Side, and Oval) plus a 4 inch Circle, on any of 6 stocks, with the shape, ink, and finish set in the live configurator.

A steel die stamps the outline, so instead of the usual straight-cornered rectangle you get rounded corners, a single rounded corner, a leaf curve, a half circle side, an oval, or a clean 4 inch circle. The shape reads as deliberate the moment it lands in a mailbox or a hand. Want a silhouette built around your own logo or product outline? The Die-Cut Any Shape Postcards cut to any shape you upload, at a higher starting price.

What Shapes Can a Die-Cut Postcard Be

4OVER4 die-cut postcards come in 6 set shapes: five run 4 by 6 inch (Rounded Corners, Rounded One Corner, Leaf, Half Circle Side, and Oval) and one is a 4 inch Circle. Rounded Corners is the default. Each edge is cut with a die, so the outline is clean and repeatable across the whole run.

Rounded Corners is the softened take on the classic 4 by 6 mailer. Rounded One Corner nips a single corner for an off-kilter look. The Leaf and Half Circle Side shapes curve one or two edges, the Oval loses the corners entirely, and the 4 inch Circle turns the card into a coaster-sized disc. Five of the six shapes hold the full 4 by 6 inch footprint, so you keep the room to say something, while the circle trades size for a shape nobody expects. If you need the extra real estate of a bigger mailer, the Oversized Postcards go larger. All 6 shapes, both finishes, and the full stock list are grouped below exactly the way the live configurator presents them, so you know what you can change before you change it.

Round postcards here are the 4" circle. You print it full color on the front, on the front with a black back, or on both sides, on any of the 6 stocks from 13pt Uncoated Cover to 16pt Gloss Cover, waterproof 15pt Synthetic Plastic among them, finished Standard or with High Gloss UV. Order from 50 up to 20,000 across 24 tiers on the 5 business day standard schedule, and build your art on the blank template for the circle so the type stays inside the curve.

Already have your artwork? Skip the editor and download a press-ready blank instead. Each blank postcard template is built at the real trim with the cut line, the 1/8" bleed, and the safe margin already drawn in, so your details never ride the shaped edge. Grab the one that matches your shape below, drop your art in, and upload.

The 6 Die-Cut Postcard Shapes

Six shapes are already cut on our floor, five of them from a 4" x 6" footprint, so you pick one in the configurator and print. Here is what each one is actually good at.

• Rounded corners. The quietest change you can make. It reads as a considered card rather than a novelty, it survives a mailbox and a pocket without dog-earing, and it is the safe choice when the brand is conservative but the stack is not.
• Single rounded corner. One corner softened, three left square. The asymmetry is what the eye catches, and it costs nothing extra in design time because your existing rectangular layout still fits.
• Oval. Frames a face or a single product photo the way a rectangle cannot, and it is the shape people associate with invitations and salons rather than mail.
• Leaf. Two opposite corners curved into a leaf. Landscapers, garden centers, spas and anything seasonal use it because the silhouette says the category before the copy does.
• Half circle side. One full curved end, which makes the card read as a tag or a ticket. Good for event admission, loyalty cards and anything meant to be kept rather than read once.
• 4" circle. The one nobody can file flat, which is exactly the point. Coasters, menus, product hang cards and table drops.

All six take the same 6 stocks, the same full color on one or two sides, and the same 5 business day standard turnaround, so the shape you choose does not change the schedule.

How Die Cutting Works

A die is a steel rule bent to the outline of the shape and set into a board. The printed sheet goes under it, the press comes down, and the rule cuts the whole stack in one strike. That is why these six shapes are inexpensive: the dies already exist and sit on the floor, so there is no separate tooling step and no die charge added to the run. A one off outline you draw yourself is a different job, because someone has to build the die first.

Laser contour cutting is the other route, and it works the opposite way: no die at all, a beam follows a path from your file, which suits short runs and shapes nobody has cut before. It is slower per sheet and it can leave a faint edge on some stocks, so for volume the steel die still wins on both cost and edge quality.

What that means for your file: extend the artwork past the cut line by the bleed the template asks for, and pull type, logos and anything that must not be clipped well inside it. Cutting has a small tolerance, so a border that sits exactly on the cut line will look uneven on some cards in the stack even when the press is running perfectly. Download the template for the shape you picked and build on it rather than resizing a rectangle by eye.

How Much Do Die-Cut Postcards Cost

Die-cut postcards start at $34.05 for 50 at 4OVER4, and the price scales with quantity across 24 tiers up to 20,000, so a larger run drops the per-card cost fast. On bigger runs, 100 run $51.62, 300 run $71.40, and 1,000 run $164.75. A 16pt gloss cover, a High Gloss UV coat, printing the back, or a rush speed shift the total, and you see every change in real time. Want a side-by-side quote? 4OVER4's Price Match will beat a real competitor price by an extra 10% - the 110% price-match guarantee.

Most campaigns do not need 20,000 cards at once, so the real question is how big a slice of your mailing list one drop has to reach. Drag the slider below to set your count and watch both the set total and the true per-card cost update live, then find the point where one more step up barely moves the budget.

What Paper Stocks and Finishes Can You Choose

4OVER4 offers 6 paper stocks for die-cut postcards: 14pt Gloss Cover, 16pt Gloss Cover, 14pt Uncoated Cover with 30% post-consumer content, 13pt Uncoated Cover made from 100% post-consumer waste, 14pt White Linen, and 15pt Synthetic Plastic. Finish is Standard or High Gloss UV Coating. Ink prints 4/0 front only, 4/1 front plus black back, or 4/4 full color on both sides.

The shape does the talking, but the stock decides how the card feels. The default 14pt Gloss Cover keeps colors bright and the price low, and 16pt Gloss Cover steps up the weight for a couple of dollars. Want a matte, writable surface? The two uncoated covers give you that, one with 30% recycled content and one made from 100% post-consumer waste for a greener order. The 14pt White Linen adds a woven texture you can feel with a fingertip, and the 15pt Synthetic Plastic is waterproof and tear-resistant for a card that survives a pocket or a puddle. For finish you pick Standard or a High Gloss UV Coating that makes color pop, and you set ink coverage to 4/0, 4/1, or 4/4 depending on whether you print the back.

What Do People Use Die-Cut Postcards For

Die-cut postcards work as direct-mail pieces, event invites, product and menu cards, coupons, hang tags, and promotional handouts. The custom shape makes them stand out in a stack of standard mail and easy to notice on a counter, and the waterproof synthetic option widens where they fit.

Because the shape breaks the rectangle, a die-cut postcard gets picked up where a plain mailer gets tossed. Direct-mail campaigns use the odd outline to lift response rates. Restaurants send a 4 inch circle that reads like a coaster. Real estate agents mail an oval with a property photo, and investors writing to sellers can start from our 13 we buy houses postcard ideas. Event planners hand out a leaf-shaped invite. Boutiques punch the rounded-corner card into a hang tag. The synthetic plastic stock even holds up outdoors or in a bag. The shape you pick follows the job the card does.

How Do Die-Cut Postcards Compare to Other Postcards

A die-cut postcard is the value way into a shaped mailer, but it is not your only route off the rectangle. A fully custom outline or a bigger canvas each land a little differently in the hand. The chart below lines up die-cut postcards against their closest siblings, including the everyday Standard Postcards, the mailbox-filling Oversized Postcards, and the free-form Die-Cut Any Shape Postcards, so you can compare the starting price on each before you choose.

What the shape costs you per card

The honest comparison is per card at the quantity you actually intend to order, not per set. A die cut set of 50 starts at $34.05, about 68 cents a card. Push the same artwork to 5,000 and it lands around 7 cents each, and at 20,000 it is roughly 6 cents. The curve flattens fast, which is the part most people get wrong: the shape costs the most when you order the fewest.

So a small test run of 50 to 250 is where a standard rectangle is meaningfully cheaper per card, and where you should choose the shape only if the shape is the idea. Above a couple of thousand the gap narrows to a fraction of a cent per card, and at that point the question stops being price and becomes whether being the one card in the stack that is not a rectangle is worth a fraction of a cent. Price both at your real quantity in the configurator before you decide, since the crossover sits at a different number for every stock.

See How a Finished Die-Cut Postcard Lands

Look at where each design stops short of its cut in the prints below, and how a circle or an oval holds a photo. Our own customers printed every one of them with us in-house, across different shapes, stocks and finishes. Tap any print to see it larger.

How Fast Can You Get Die-Cut Postcards

Die-cut postcards print on a 5 business day standard turnaround, and when a mail date sneaks up you can move production to 4-day, 3-day, 2-day, Next-Day, or even Same-Day. The cut is the extra step, since the cards print first and then run through the shaped die before they are boxed. Each step buys back time for a set amount on top of the base price, so you only pay for speed when you actually need it. Same-Day orders need to be approved by noon EST to ship that afternoon from our NYC plant. 99.8% of 4OVER4 orders land on time and 82% ship early, so the date is not a gamble, even with a die-cut edge.

See the Rest of Our Postcards

Die-cut cards are one stop in a much larger postcards printing lineup, and you can scan the full print product range any time. For a different shape, a heavier stock or a bigger mailer, each card below opens its own product page with its starting price.

The full postcards printing range holds every size, stock and finish we run. If none of the six stocked shapes is the one in your head, any shape postcards cut to an outline you supply. And if the shape turns out not to be the point, standard postcards put the same artwork on a rectangle at the lowest cost per card.

Print Your Die-Cut Postcards Today

At 4OVER4.COM, quality comes first, and it's backed by a satisfaction guarantee and 25+ years of printing since 1999. Whatever shape, stock, or finish you pick, these die-cut postcards are built to come off the die clean and land the way you drew them. Need them before a mail date or an event? Our Same-Day production keeps you covered. Print your die-cut postcards today.