Skip to main content

Uncategorized

Help and FAQs

We've pondered and mused and attempted to conceive of every possible question that you might have about Touchnote. If we've not managed to address your question in the reams of information below, please get in touch.

 

Anchor

How are greeting cards printed?

Greeting cards are printed on thick, glossy card and are posted in premium ivory envelopes. We’ve spared no cost to make sure that our greeting cards look fantastic.

 

How are postcards printed?

Postcards are printed on thick, high-quality card and have a high-gloss finish to ensure that they are resilient to damage.

 

How long does it take to for Touchnote to dispatch a card?

We guarantee that any card will be printed and posted within one working day of your order being placed.

 

How do I see the status of my card?

Sign in to your Touchnote account and check your "postbox”. Each card that you have sent will have its status indicated.


How long will my postcard take to arrive?

Delivery times vary depending on the local postal system and the accuracy of the address provided, but in our experience, the cards should take the following times to arrive:

·     USA - 1 to 4 working days;

·     UK - 1 to 3 working days;

·     Australia - 1 to 3 working days;

·     Germany - 1 to 3 working days;

·     Western Europe - 2 to 4 working days;

·     Rest of the World - within 1 to 3 weeks.

 

How long will my greeting card take to arrive?

Our greeting cards are printed and posted from the UK. Delivery times vary depending on the local postal system and the accuracy of the address provided, but in our experience, the cards should take the following times to arrive:

·     UK - 1 to 3 working days;

·     USA - 5 to 8 working days;

·     Western Europe - 2 to 4 working days;

·     Australia - within 1 to 2 weeks.

·     Rest of the World - within 1 to 3 weeks.

 

On which days do you post cards, and where from?

We print and post cards from Monday to Friday (unless there is a Public Holiday).  The cards are printed and posted from our printing facilities in the USA, UK, Germany or Australia (depending on where the cards are being sent) and are always posted using 1st class mail.

 

Can I track my card?

It is not possible for us to track the cards after they have been posted. If your card hasn’t arrived within the expected time frame, please check that the address was correct and please get in touch with us.

 

Are my cards being placed in envelopes before they are sent?

If you ordered a greeting card, yes. It will be sent in a premium, ivory envelope. We send postcards in the traditional way: photo on the front, message and address on the back, and with no envelope.

 

Where can I send cards?

You can send Touchnote postcards to any country with a functioning postal system.

 

What do I do if my card hasn’t shown up within the expected time?

Get in touch and tell us the order number of your missing card. We will confirm the date your card was posted and if it hasn’t arrived within the expected time frames we will resend it for you, free of charge (of course).

Anchor

Making a card

What are credits and where can I get them from?

Credits are used to purchase Touchnote cards. A postcard = 1 credit, and a greeting card = 2 credits.

You can buy credits through your app or at www.touchnote.com/credits.

If you just want to send one or a small number of cards, you can pay for these credits only after making your card.

 

Can my card be anonymous?

It’s up to you. Your name will only be included on your card if you add it. We will not automatically include your name or address on any part of the card. If you are using the Touchnote app to send a postcard, you can choose to include a map showing where you are sending from. Again, this is up to you to add.

If you have plans to become someone’s secret admirer (please, no stalkers), go for it and send an anonymous card.

 

Do my photos have to be a certain size?

Yes they do.  Photos should be at least 432 x 306 pixels in order to be of good enough quality to make a card. If your image is smaller than this it will look grainy on the printed card.   

If you click on your photo and select properties you can see the resolution.  Once you have uploaded your photo you can resize and rotate it. This means you can use both portrait or landscape photos. Have fun!!

To ensure we print at out maximun resolution (300dpi), we recommend that you use photos of at least the pixel sizes listed below.

 

What size are the postcards?

14.8cm x 10.8cm, or 5.83 inches x 4.25 inches, including a white border. Pixel size is 1629 x 1161.

 

What size are the greeting cards?

15cm x 10.8cm, or 5.91 inches x 4.25 inches. Pixel size is 1819 x 1335.

 

Can I get text printed in other languages with non-Latin characters?

We support all languages that flow from left to right.

Unfortunately we don’t currently support languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu.

 

Does Touchnote retain any rights to the photos that I upload?

We do not. Your photos belong to you.  We store them in your account so that they are easy to be re-ordered, but only you will be able to re-order these images. Your photos are safe with us!

 

What happens if I share my postcard on Facebook?

When you send a card, and are signed in to Touchnote using Facebook, you can choose to share the image from your postcard on Facebook. If you do so, we'll publish your card on your Facebook wall with the name of the person you're sending it to. Your friends get to see your lovely postcard.

Anchor

 

Prices and payment

 

How much do credits cost?

Credits are used to purchase Touchnote cards. Each credit costs £1.49 or $1.49 or €1.49, depending on your location. 

You can buy credits through your app or at www.touchnote.com/credits.

 

How much does a postcard or a greeting card cost?

A postcard = 1 credit, and a greeting card = 2 credits. The prices include postage to anywhere in the world.

If you buy credits in bulk the price per card goes as low as 99p or 99c per credit.  To buy credits in bulk and get the best deals, visit our Credits page.

 

What to do if I want to pay for one card only?

You can start creating your card and you will be able to pay for it at the end of the order completion.  

 

Are my credit card details saved on the site?

If you wish it, PayPal will store your credit or debit card information securely to enable you to purchase your next order more easily.  However, Touchnote does not store any of your financial data – we leave it to the experts.

 

Which currencies do you accept?

We accept British Pounds (GBP), Euros (EUR) and US Dollars (USD).  The currency we charge you in is dependent on your billing address.

Please note that if you have credit in your account you will not be able to change currency (please contact us - we can change it for you).


Are there discounts for bulk orders?

Discounts apply if credits are purchased in bulk. There are several options:

  * 5+1 pack - if you purchase 5 credits you get 1 for free.

  * 8+2 pack - if you purchase 8 credits you get 2 for free.

  * 15+5 pack - if you purchase 15 credits you get 5 for free.

  * 50+25 pack - if you purchase 50 credits you get 25 for free.

Click here to purchase a credit pack.

If you want to purchase more than 100 at the same time, please get in touch.

 

Can I get a refund if my postcard arrives damaged, is really late, or if I just don’t like it?

Of course you can.   If you are not happy in any way, please let us know and we will do everything that we can to fix this. Please get in touch.

 

Do I have to pay by debit card?

No. Credits can be purchased via PayPal, a credit card or a debit card. We don’t currently accept payment from Discover, AMEX or Maestro cards.

 

Are my debit card details safe?

You bet.  PayPal, the market leader for internet and mobile payments, manage all of our payments.   If you’ve got any concerns, please let us know.

Anchor

 

Touchnote accounts

How do I sign up for an account?

You can sign up for an account either at www.touchnote.com on your PC/Mac, our mobile app or our Facebook app.   The sign up process will take just a few seconds.

 

Do I need to have an account to send a card?

Yes.  This allows us to offer you the best service possible.  Signing up for an account takes a matter of seconds.

 

What if I forget my password?

You can request a new password at the signing in stage, both on the website and the mobile app.

 

Can I upload addresses using an Excel or CSV file?

If you plan to send a large number of cards (minimum 250 cards), we can help you upload the addresses from an Excel or CSV file.   Email help@touchnote.com for more details.

 

Can I save addresses that I use?

Addresses used on the website and in the app are automatically saved in your account.  You can access addresses saved to your account from the website and from the mobile app.

 

Can I view my orders?

In “postbox” you will find a list of all of the previous orders you have made (and the photos and designs you have used).

    You can see:    

    - The date the order was made; and

    - The order ID

    - For all iPhone and iPad users, you will only be able to see your order history from the point that you created your account on your device.

 

What if I want to cancel my account? Will all my details be erased forever?

If you would like this to happen, please get in touch with our customer service team.

 

I *love* Touchnote.  Where can I buy official merchandise like T-shirts and coffee mugs?

You can go wild and buy official Touchnote merchandise at our (un)official store.

 

Middle-weight PHP dev

About Us

We're a startup specializing in print on demand, which is making a big name for itself in cutting edge mobile apps, and conventional online eCommerce. Our dev team is run in an Agile/Scrum process.

If you join us you'll:
- Interact directly with product owners, to make sure we understand the business requirements
- Develop using the CakePHP framework
- Use SVN, TRAC and Basecamp to manage your work
- deploy to cloud based hosting architectures
- Be exposed to some seriously good puns and word plays
- Argue over who's in charge of the music today, and who has the worst taste (hint - it's the guy who has a thing for 80s pop)

We'll help support and assist you to grow your skills and knowledge, and there's plenty of scope for responsibility and personal ownership of various aspects of the business.

About You

We're looking for a middle weight PHP developer, with at least 2 years commercial experience.

You're a developer who's:
- Familiar with agile practices and procedures, and industry best practices
- Can describe patterns such as model/view/controller and abstract factories with ease
- Know their stuff in DB design, data normalisation, query optimization
- Has heard of including cloud server hosting, DB clustering and sharding, and wants to know more
- Knows their cookies from their cocoa
- Is looking for a challenge in a fast paced, growing business
- Is communicative, personable, and friendly
- Is looking to "up their game" to the next level
- Knows web like the back of their hand
- Excited about emerging technologies

Essential skills
- 2+ years commercial experience in PHP & MySQL
- Good all round LAMP skills, i.e comfortable on the command line
- Familiar with a PHP MVC framework
- Some Javascript / JQuery experience

Highly desirable skills
- Knowledge of the CakePHP framework
- SVN experience (branching and merging etc)
- Good front end skills (HTML / CSS)
- comfortable with basic Apache setup/config, and nix sys-admin skills
- PHP Unit Testing

If you want to work in a friendly, non stuffy environment, for a company that's becoming a industry leader in the mobile app and web ecommerce offering, and you have the skills and the passion to join a team that's about to hit the mainstream, send your CV now...

Jobs and vacancies

We need good people

We're constantly on the lookout. If you're bright, driven, love challenges and want to change the world, Touchnote could be good for you.  Send us your CV.  

If you want to make an ever better first impression, send us a postcard to: Team Touchnote, 17-19 Bonny Street, London, NW1 9PE, United Kingdom.

Current vacancies

 

A little about Touchnote

We're the world's most popular postcard-sending service.  

Our mission is to be the best way to send meaningful messages and gifts to the people you care about.

We started in 2008 in London and have since sent millions of postcards to over 200 countries.  Our apps and website have been featured in the world's leading press, in Google Play and iTunes, and on grandparents fridges worldwide.  

Touchnote is the postcards partner of choice of the leading mobile brands including Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, HP (Palm) and Nokia.  Our Android app was pre-installed on millions of Sony Ericsson handsets.  

Our app is available on the iPhone, iPad, Android mobiles and tablets. Users can also send postcards from Touchnote.com and on Facebook.

 

How to apply for any postition

Send your CV, a portfolio if appropriate, and links to your digital footprint to jobs@touchnote.com

Create your own personalised pop art card

Posted in

Have you tried using colour effects and filters on your photos when you create a personalised Touchnote card?

Having been inspired by the pop art work of famous artists such as Andy Warhol and our own Touchnote artist Pearl Clarke, we thought it would be a nice idea to show you how you can easily transform your own images to make them look 'pop arty' too for your own personalised postcards and personalised greetings cards.

The process is really easy and simple. All you need to do is upload your picture on to the Touchnote site and once it is uploaded choose the option to add a filter. Here you will have the option of various filters that you can apply to your image to create an original personalised card. Look at this photo below, it looks completely different with each filter.

normal1

 

 

 

 

 

 

hue-and-saturation-11

 

 

 

 

 

 

blur

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fish-eye

 

 

 

 

 

 

tint

 

 

 

 

 

 

twirl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The look of your image can be completely transfomed and look very artistic without much effort.

Try it out on your own birthday cards, anniversary cards or personalised postcards.

We hope you enjoy this!

The Touchnote Team.

 

 

Our favourite artist Pearl Clarke

Posted in

Photography with a pop art retro feel is very much the trend at the moment and a style which we really like here at Touchnote. Artist's such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein offer fantastic examples of this style with numerous recognisable works, as seen below.

 

warhol3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would like to celebrate one of our own pop art photographers, Pearl Clarke who has offered a mix of interesting pop art images to the touchnote gallery for people to create personalised cards with.

 

pearl-1pearl-2

 

pearl-3Pearl-4

 

According to Pearl, she has always had an artistic flair, she remembers that as a child she always loved drawing and rather than play with dolls she would draw people, cut them out and play with them instead. She developed an interest in photography and always took her Pentax 1000 with her. Now she is very much into pop art and loves the fun aspect of the style and the bright colours that are used.

Pearl's work is often used to make personalised cards, particularly valentine's day cards, birthday cards and baby cards. We hope to see more designs from her soon.

The Touchnote team.

 

Picture perfect silhouettes

Posted in

Last week we tried to lift peoples spirits with some photography tips on how to photograph the beautiful red sunsets that will result from the volcanic ash which has recently taken over our skies. Hoping that this was interesting and helpful, we would like to add one more tip to the list in order to help you capture the best sunset images you possibly can.

blog-image-12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding a blacked out silhouette to a sunset picture can make it much more interesting and really allow the colours of the sunset to stand out. As well as this, a sense of mystery and emotion can be evoked by including a blacked out silhouette as the viewer of your photo is unaware of the entire story of the picture and therefore, can use their imagination to wonder.

How to include a blacked out silhouette to your image

• Choose a strong subject that has a strong and recognizable shape that will be interesting to look at. As colours, textures and tones of subjects will not be visible; the silhouettes shape needs to be distinct.
• Make silhouetted shapes distinct and uncluttered by only including one object in the image. If you combine two silhouettes such as a person leaning against a tree, they will merge into one shape and the effect will be lost.
• Photograph people's silhouetted profile rather than have them look straight on as this way more of their features (nose, mouth, and eyes) will be outlined and be more recognisable.
• Place your subject in front of some source of light. Instead of lighting the front of your subject, in silhouettes you need to ensure that there is more light shining from the background than the foreground of your shot.
• Set your cameras exposure upon the brightest part of your picture (the background) and not the subject of your image (therefore under-exposing the subject).
• Turn off your Flash and have your camera in automatic mode as your camera is most likely to light up your subject instead of underexposing it.

Here's a few examples. Beautful images such these are great for designing personalised cards for various occasions such as 'thank you cards'.

 

blog-image-21 blog-image-35

 

 

 

 

A volcanic photography opportunity

Although the ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano has caused great disruptions to our hectic traveller's lives, as well as many problems to Iceland's agriculture, there is one unexpected upside to this natural phenomenon. It creates beautiful red sunsets. The dusky-red of the setting sun after a volcanic explosion, is the result of ash, dust and sulphur dioxide released in to the clouds. The mixture of this with light results in spectacular red skies. Volcanic ash can also create the appearance of a blue moon, however a reddish moon is more likely. This is therefore the perfect opportunity for photographers to get out there with their camera and document these beautiful colours. We have put some digital photography tips together to help you out.

sunset-13

sunset-34

Tips

Get out there early - A sunset comes and goes quite fast and you never know when the best and most beautiful light is going to happen. Usually it happens in a one-minute window, which can be any time within 15 minutes before and after a sunset so you need time to set up and be ready for this moment.

Experiment with the exposure of your camera - This makes pictures lighter or darker.

Set your white balance - Automatic white balance can sometimes make your colours too cold, so try setting it to manual and play around until you find the right exposure.

Set your ISO to its lowest setting - The sky at sunset is still bright enough that you can get away with doing this.

Try using your flash - This can illuminate things in unexpected ways.

Get in the right place - Move around as much as you can and find the perfect angle.

Get to a beach - This offers you an unobstructed view of the setting sun on the horizon as there are no mountains, buildings or city lights to obstruct your view. Just a flat horizon and the setting sun as well as a smooth expanse of water to reflect the colours.

Look for interesting silhouettes - Try taking a photograph of a tree or person against the sky or the sun.

Photograph clouds - The most dramatic sunset pictures almost always include clouds.

Most importantly however take lots of pictures and choose the best of them later when you see the results. And for those of you who don't take photographs, just get out there and enjoy the light spectacle!

The Touchnote Team

 

 

Picture perfect personalised cards

Posted in

Although we have numerous wonderful images of landscapes to choose from in our image gallery in the nature and black and white categories, we are always on the look-out for more interesting photography.

Adams, Ansel (1902 - 1984), photographer and environmentalist, was born in San Francisco, California and is known for his black-and-white landscape photographs of the western United States as well as his commitment to the conservation of those lands. His work is fascinating and perfcet for creating beautiful personalised cards with.

Adams is believed to have helped influence photography as an art form and played a key role in the establishment of the first museum department of photography, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He had a true passion for the environment and spent substantial time in the Golden Gate hiking and exploring the land. From his first visit, Adams was transfixed and inspired and he began his photography career using the Kodak No. 1 Box Brownie his parents had given him. His career took off in the late 1920's when he began work as an official photographer for the Sierra Club. Most of his photography is of landscapes at Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Carlsbad Cavern, Glacier and Zion National Parks; and Death Valley, Saguero, and Canyon de Chelly National Monuments.

ansel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ansel-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see more images on flickr. We hope this inspires your card making!

The Touchnote team

Photography at a higher level

Posted in

We are all aware of the usefulness of satellite photos particularly when lost and Google maps come to the rescue. But who would have thought that satellite photos could actually be really beautiful?

The Guardian newspaper now publishes a monthly series of satellite photos of Earth that are really amazing and prove that satellite photos are indeed very interesting photography. The current "Satellite Eye on Earth" features photos from European Space Agency and NASA satellites, as well as pictures taken by astronauts. Normal occurrences such as storm clouds, sandstorms or snow create beautiful as well as overwhelming abstract shapes. Below are two examples of satellite images. The first image highlights sand dunes in the Fachi-Bilma erg (sand sea) in the central-eastern part of the Ténéré desert, whereas the second reveals clouds in an anticyclone over the South Pacific.

sand1

 

 

 

 

 

 

clouds-in-an-anticyclone-0071

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So for those of you who may be getting bored of the same old photography, why not try some from space?                 Sky's the limit!

The Touchnote team.

Syndicate content