So this is the New Year! Do you still have a big stack of Christmas cards on the desk, some of them still unopened? Are you (like me) just too overwhelmed by the season to get cards done until after the holidays? Have you forsaken cards altogether for computer-generated newsletters? Here’s some Christmas card tips and ideas to close out this year, or be early and ready for next year.

Ready to dump that stack of holiday cards into the trash? Wait! There’s valuable information in there! Amidst the photos and mind-numbing chronicles of family adventures, there’s actual news you can use. People move. They have babies and grandchildren and weddings. They get divorced, they shuffle off the mortal coil. Heaven forbid, they may even change ISPs and email addresses. Sometimes, this is your only chance to keep track of and update the what/where/why/how/when of your friends, family, and loved ones.

Each year, I take the time to compare the names, postal and email addresses, and other pertinent information in Christmas cards I receive, with the data I have for that person in my computer’s contact manager (address book). This serves many purposes. If I haven’t yet sent them a card, I can perhaps avoid the delay and cost of sending to an outdated address. Perhaps I can avoid an awkward “Hope you and Trish are doing great!” greeting when Trish actually ran off (on a motorcycle) to “find herself” this year. You get the drift.

With my contact manager, I can assign a keyword, group, or category to each record. For example, I can create a group of everyone on my Christmas card list. (Admit it, you don’t necessarily send cards to everyone you know, and sometimes don’t send someone a card who hasn’t sent you a card in awhile). Anyway, when it comes time to print a list of addresses, or envelopes, or address labels, I can do that with one click.

With the advent of consumer desktop publishing you see a lot more computer-generated family newsletters chronicling the family’s exciting activities and accomplishments. Debbie (16) made the Varsity Cheerleading Squad. Wally Jr. (13) won his Boy Scout troop’s Pinewood Derby. There are often photos – at least they appear to be photos. It’s hard to tell sometimes. They’re either too dark, too light, or too fuzzy. Why?

The ambitious newsletter-maker, armed with a dazzling array of clip art and snapshots, prints their masterpiece on their home color inkjet printer. They marvel at the deep, rich color. They then realize that to print forty or fifty of these, front and back, will quickly deplete their ink supply. Ink is expensive.

Off to the local office superstore to make color copies. Oops. They’re REALLY expensive. So, what’s a proud mother/father of a cheerleader/Boy Scout to do? Make black-and-white copies, of course. They’re far less expensive.

Problem is, there’s an ugly transformation that takes place when deep, rich, inkjet photos are photocopied, due to the nature of the process. Unless there is a lot of contrast between color areas, the dark areas tend to meld together. You can try to correct this on the spot by using a lighter setting on the photocopier, but other areas start to wash out.

If you know you’re going to be making black-and-white newsletters, use your photo editing application to remove the color (it’s called desaturating) in the photos before you place them into the newsletter. Also consider sharpening the image, and make it a bit lighter than normal to compensate for the darkening effect of the photocopier. OK, so the photos aren’t color, but the people in the photo will be distinguishable from the background, which is always nice.

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski