Birthday Greeting Cards

Fifty folded cards cost about what a handful of drugstore singles do, and every one in the run matches. The 5 by 7 fold is the shape people expect from a birthday card. Anniversary, graduation and holiday cards share these stocks on greeting cards printing.

A studio sending one card a month needs a set of 50 at $56.02; a brand mailing every customer needs thousands, and the per-card price keeps falling on the way to 100,000. The tiers below total each step so you can size the run to the list.

What Are Birthday Greeting Cards

Birthday greeting cards are folded cards printed full color in 2 sizes, a compact 4.25" x 5.5" and a classic 5" x 7", on any of 17 stocks. People print them in a run instead of buying singles: studios sending client birthdays, brands dropping a card into a customer's month, schools and teams marking a whole roster of dates, and families printing one design for a big party. Because you control the stock, the fold and the printed inside, the card reads as made for the moment. For premium finishes, the Raised Foil Greeting Cards and the Velvet Greeting Cards take the same folded card up to foil and soft velvet touches.

What Size Should a Birthday Card Be

The right size comes down to how much you want to say and what envelope you need. The 4.25" x 5.5" folded card is compact and fits a small A2 envelope, ideal for a short greeting and a photo. The 5" x 7" folded card is the classic greeting card shape, with room for a longer message inside and a bigger image on the front. Need something in between? Set a custom size up to 10" x 7". All the sizes, 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. For other celebration cards in the same format, the Anniversary Greeting Cards and the Graduation Greeting Cards share the same sizes and stocks.

The spec sheet below sets the card; the three choices after it make it personal.

Birthday Card Printing Options

Four decisions set the spec sheet on this job: the fold, the size, whether the inside prints, and the stock. Nothing else changes the price much.

• The fold. This product is a half fold card, printed flat and creased once down the middle, which is the fold a birthday card is expected to have because it stands up on a desk. The 8.5" x 5.5" sheet folds to 4.25" x 5.5", and the 10" x 7" sheet folds to a classic 5" x 7". If you want a flat card with no fold at all, that is a postcard job rather than this one, and the wider greeting card range covers the other folds.
• The size. 4.25" x 5.5" is the everyday card: cheaper per piece, lighter to mail, and the size the A2 envelope is cut for. 5" x 7" is the one that stands out on a mantelpiece and gives a designer a real front panel to work with. Custom sizing runs up to 10" x 7" flat.
• Inside printing. Three ways to run it: full color on the front with a blank inside for handwriting, full color front with black inside for a printed greeting you sign under, or full color on both sides when the inside carries artwork or a photograph. Decide this before you design, because a blank inside needs the artwork bleeding to the fold and a printed inside does not.
• Coated against uncoated. Coated stocks, gloss and silk cover with an optional High-Gloss UV Coating, hold photographs and dense color and wipe clean, but a ballpoint will skate on them, so keep the coating off any panel meant to be signed. Uncoated, recycled, soft touch and white linen take pen ink instantly and feel like stationery in the hand. Metallic pearl in ice, champagne, silver and gold sits between the two: the shimmer comes from the sheet, not the ink, so it shows most where the artwork leaves the paper bare. This card runs on 17 stocks in total.

Print Birthday Cards in Bulk for Your Business

A birthday card from a company is the one piece of direct mail nobody treats as direct mail, which is why client birthday programs keep outperforming the holiday card everyone sends in the same week of December.

• Run the year in one order. Print the whole year's cards in one run and store them, then send them month by month. It is one setup instead of twelve, and the per card price is set by the size of the run, dropping from about $1.12 each at 50 toward under $0.05 as a run climbs to 100,000.
• A different name on each card. Ask for variable printing when the run needs the recipient's name inside, and send the list as one clean file with one column per field. A card that opens with the customer's own name reads as a note from a person rather than a mailing from a department.
• Quantity breaks. The unit price falls at every step up the run, so it is worth counting the real list once rather than ordering 50 now and 50 again in March. Two runs of 50 cost more than one run of 100 and take two turnarounds.
• Reordering a saved design. Keep the approved file and the stock, size and fold from the last order and the reorder is a repeat rather than a new job. Same artwork, same 5 business day standard turnaround, with same-day rush there when a birthday sneaks up on you.

Pick a stock that feels like a gift

A metallic pearl stock in gold or champagne catches light and reads celebratory, a soft touch cover feels velvety in the hand, and a heavier uncoated stock takes a handwritten note beautifully. The default 14pt Gloss Cover keeps a photo crisp and the cost low, and a High-Gloss UV Coating makes a bright birthday image snap.

Print the greeting inside

With 4/4 ink you print full color on both sides, so the message inside is part of the card instead of a handwritten afterthought. Add a name, a photo or an inside joke and every card in the run carries it.

Design it without a designer

Start from a professionally built layout in our design templates, then change the colors, photo and message in the online editor. Every layout there is one of our free design templates. The fold gives you four panels: a front image, an inside note and a mark on the back.

How Much Do Birthday Greeting Cards Cost

Past the $56.02 starting set of 50, a run of 800 costs $241.65 and 7,000 cost $608.50, well under a dime a card, and the price keeps dropping toward 100,000. Move the slider below to your list size for the set total and the price per card.

Can You Print Inside and Add Envelopes

Yes. Choose 4/4 ink and your birthday card prints full color inside and out, so the greeting is part of the print instead of something you write in by hand. Add matching White Wove A2 blank envelopes and the set arrives ready to address and mail. You also decide the fold: have 4OVER4 score and fold each card to the finished size, or ship them scored and flat so you fold them yourself. Splitting a big run across people or events? Bundle the finished cards so they arrive sorted. Pair full color inside with a metallic or soft touch stock and a plain drugstore single starts to look small.

Envelopes and Getting the Cards Mailed

• The matching envelope. White Wove A2 envelopes are available on request and are cut for the 4.25" x 5.5" fold, so the card slides in without forcing and without swimming. Ordering the 5" x 7" fold instead? Ask for the matching envelope with the card and it gets quoted alongside the run, rather than being hunted down in a stationery aisle after the cards land.
• Closure. A plain gummed flap is the standard and it is the one to take for a handful of cards signed at a desk. If someone is sealing several hundred of them, that is where a self seal flap earns its cost in an afternoon, so say how many you are sending when you ask about envelopes.
• Blank or printed return address. A blank envelope gets opened out of curiosity, which is exactly what you want on a personal card. A printed return address gets your name on the outside and gets the undeliverables back to you instead of lost, which is what you want on a client run of any size. For a mailed program of a few hundred, printed wins.
• Preparing them to mail. Hand address or print the addresses before you sign the cards, because a wrong address on a signed card wastes the card and not just the envelope. Keep the front of the envelope clear of artwork so the address and any barcode have room. Order envelopes at the same time as the cards so both arrive together and the whole batch can be stuffed in one sitting.

Envelope options in depth sit on their own pages: invitation envelopes for the sizes cut to fit folded cards, and printed envelopes when the return address or full artwork prints on the envelope itself.

How Do Birthday Cards Compare to the Rest of the Range

Premium foil, a velvet finish or a card for another occasion are the closest alternatives to this everyday birthday card, and the chart below shows where each one starts.

See How a Finished Birthday Card Lands

Gloss, soft touch and pearl each change a folded card the moment it opens. These are greeting cards we printed in-house across sizes, stocks and finishes; take any idea you like. Tap any print to see it larger.

How Fast Can You Get Birthday Cards

Birthday cards print on a 5 business day standard turnaround, and when a date sneaks up you can move that to 4-day, 3-day, 2-day, Next-Day or even Same-Day production. 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 day, and across all orders 99.8 percent arrive on time with 82 percent shipping early.

See the Rest of Our Cards

Birthday cards are one stop in a much larger lineup, and you can scan the full print product range any time. If a different occasion, a premium finish or a heavier stock would serve you better, the rest of the family is one tap away. Each option shows its own starting price and links straight to its product page, so finding the right fit takes seconds. Marking another occasion? The Christmas Greeting Cards and the rest of the occasion range print on the same stocks and sizes.

Around this product: greeting cards printing covers every occasion and fold we run, greeting card printing is the general product when the card is not a birthday card, and the birthday printing collection gathers the invitations, birthday banners and party pieces that go out with it.

Print Your Birthday Cards Today

At 4OVER4.COM, quality comes first, and it is backed by a satisfaction guarantee and 25+ years of printing since 1999. A folded card with the greeting printed inside and a stock with some weight is the one that stays standing on the mantel after the party. Need them before the big day? Our Same-Day production keeps you covered. Print your birthday cards today.