Like Holiday Postcard, this app allows you to add borders to your photo. Here, though,
they’re rather more useful and attractive, featuring cards on cork boards,
burnt edges and so on. The designs are innovative and fun, and not all tied to
specific holidays.
The contrast of your photo can be adjusted,
but that’s about all the control you get over the picture itself. You can
choose the font, and this is one of the few apps that lets you see both the
front and the back of the card at the same time, which adds to the sense of completeness
(try doing that with a real postcard). You can send the same card to up to
eight recipients simultaneously.
The
contrast of your photo can be adjusted, but that’s about all the control you
get over the picture itself.
Credits cost $1.99 (about £1.24), or $23
(about £14.27) for 20, and it costs one credit to mail a card within the US or
two to anywhere else. The first card is free.
Price: $2.47
per card, Free for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Arrival time: 7 days
Quality:
Edge to edge glossy front, matt back, for a proper postcard feel, US postage
stamp
Postcards
The App With the most frill free name it’s
developed by Vukee, if you’re trying to track it down also has the most Spartan
interface. It opens directly to your Camera Roll for you to choose an image for
the face of the card, although you can also get images from Instagram or
Facebook. You can’t, however, choose images from other albums in your photo
library or from your iCloud Photo Stream, a frustrating restriction. Once an
image has been chosen, it can’t be cropped, panned, rotated or adjusted within
the app.
Your text, addresses and signature are all
added through additional dialog boxes, rather than directly onto the back of
the card. And while a large window appears for you to sign your name, that
signature isn’t then reduced to a sensible size on the card itself: it takes up
fully half the width available.
On the plus side, Vukee charges you a flat
$1.99 (about £1.24) to send a card anywhere in the world. There’s no bulk
discount, though, because you can’t buy credits; every time you send a card,
you have to go through the process of paying for it by PayPal, Visa or
MasterCard. It would almost be quicker to buy a stamp - and it must cost Vukee
a fortune in fees.
Price: $1.99
per card, Free for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Arrival time: 5 days
Quality:
Good. Glossy front and matt back German stamp Vukee is based in Germany, and
not, incidentally, on the planet Kashyyyk
Cards
NOT TO BE confused with the Apple offering
- this one’s from Lifelike Apps here’s another postcard app that doesn’t
actually post cards. But it’s worthy of mention for its innovative interface,
which presents you with an, urn, lifelike postcard stand. Rotate this to get a
new set of views.
Rotate
this to get a new set of views.
The images are sourced from Flickr, with
‘collections’ relating to special events available. All the options are
included in the price of the app, but you can alternatively install a free
version of the app (seen here) and buy cards for 69p each. Considering that
you’re not paying for them to be mailed anywhere that seems pricey.
The
images are sourced from Flickr, with ‘collections’ relating to special events
available.
You can fill in the back of the postcard
just as you would in real life, and it’s then sent by email or uploaded to
Facebook. Cute, and as entertaining as browsing real postcard racks.
Price: $3.7
for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Lifecards
Though Subtitled ‘Postcards’, this app is
one of those that doesn’t mail cards for you — but it’s the ideal tool for
creating them (or at least the front of them), then sending with one of the
other services on test.
You get to choose from a vast range of
templates, some containing a single image, others accommodating additional
small shots arranged in a film strip or some other layout. This is much more
flexible than any of the card-mailing apps. You then add text into the preset
slots and/or create new text directly on the image. You can colour both the
fill and the stroke of the type, as you wish, and use any of the jUS system
fonts. There’s even an envelope distortion function that allows you to bend the
text into just about any shape. The results may be hideous, but it’s fun.
This
is much more flexible than any of the card-mailing apps.
Images can be panned and zoomed, and you
can apply special effect filters as well as a comprehensive Levels control for
increasing contrast and balance. You can paint directly onto the image, add
vignettes and frames, and much more. Once the card is finished, you can share
it via email, Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr or, in our case, you can add the
completed design to your photo library, so you can then import it into any of
the regular postcard apps, ready to complete and post.
The only issue is that artwork will need to
be enlarged slightly to allow for bleed when printed by the other apps, so the
edges of your design will be cropped off, and Lifecards’ templates don’t always
allow for neat trimming. It’s up to you to anticipate this and compensate for
it in your design.
Price: $2.2
for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Mr Postman
A Real Curiosity, Mr Postman doesn’t send
cards, but letters. Real, printed letters, in envelopes, with stamps on them.
So... why? The point is that there are some people you may have to write on
paper, usually for legal reasons, and being able to do it from your iPad means
you can skip the hassle.
A
Real Curiosity, Mr Postman doesn’t send cards, but letters.
Mr Postman helpfully includes a database of
such people, from energy suppliers to local councils, banks to water companies.
Pick one, and it will appear with its address already entered. There are a few
anomalies only Lon don councils are listed, and not in alphabetical order - but
the idea is sound.
You can then write from scratch, or choose
from a range of pro-forma letters. A small range of fonts is offered, and
there’s a space where you can add your signature, either by writing it with
your finger or using the built in camera.
You
can then write from scratch, or choose from a range of pro-forma letters.
Letters are mailed (to the UK only) first
class for $1.35 each, using PayPal.
Price: $1.35
per letter, Free for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Arrival time: 2 days
Quality:
Good print, with reasonable looking signature. Barcode printed on letter is
irritating. Some templates oddly drafted do check before sending
