Tutorial·about five minutes to read, two to do
Five steps: pick a design, add the photos, write something, choose the envelope, send the link. This walks through each one, and flags the few places people get stuck.
1½ minutes on a phone, slightly sped up, no narration to sit through — the whole thing from picking a design to a link you can text.
Each step below has its own clip at normal speed, so you can watch just the part you are on.
Start with the occasion — Christmas, Birthday, Family & friends, Thinking of you, Thank you, New year, or Everything else — and the gallery narrows to it. Tap any design to see it open the way your recipient will see it — that matters more than the cover art, because the cover is only the first two seconds. Then Create with this template.
Three filters sit above the designs:
Signature cards carry an animated video cover instead of a still one; they are Card Pack designs too. Not sure yet? You can go back to the Card step and pick another design before you create the card.
This is the part the whole thing exists for. When the card is opened, the photos fall out of it — the way prints do when you pull them from a paper envelope. Upload from your device, drag them onto the page, or take one on the spot with your phone camera.
Send the real file, not a screenshot. A photo up to 8 MB is stored exactly as you sent it, so whoever receives the card can download the original and print it properly. A bigger file is offered a print-quality reduction so it fits, and an iPhone HEIC is converted to a full-quality JPEG on the way in. A photo that only looks right on a screen is a photo you have half lost.
A free card takes three photos; a Card Pack card takes fifteen. The 8 MB per photo is the same on both.
There are three text fields, and you do not need all of them. A greeting at the top, the message itself, and however you sign off. Fonts run from serif to handwritten to plain; you can move any text box, resize it, recolour it, and add a shadow if it is sitting over a busy photo.
A voice message is free on every card, and for grandparents it is frequently the part they replay. If a card-sized message is not enough, a long-form letter behind the card and a video message both come with a Card Pack.
Stuck for words? Card message ideas has wording you can lift, and what to write when the card is hard covers the difficult ones.
A card made with a Card Pack credit does not simply load for the person receiving it. It arrives as a closed, addressed envelope, sealed with wax; they turn it over, break the seal, and the card slides out. The end of the Make it step shows the envelope your card will arrive in, and Customise envelope opens the Envelope Studio.
Four things to choose, and the envelope redraws as you pick each one: the paper (a stock and a colour — a linen, a felt, a vellum), a stamp from the seasonal sheet, the handwriting the address is written in, and the colour of the wax seal. Light inks are kept off dark papers so the address stays readable. Once the card has been opened, its envelope is set for good.
Free cards open with a simpler entrance and no envelope — it is the one part of a Card Pack that changes the experience for the person receiving the card rather than for you. The envelope, in detail.
Preview shows exactly what arrives at the other end — the card opening, the photos falling out, the voice message. Worth doing once, if only for the small satisfaction of it.
On the Ready to Share screen, Customize your card link lets you choose the address the card lives at. The link is generated from the card by default; type your own — from-tim-to-tara — and that becomes the link they tap. It is set when the card is created and cannot be changed afterwards, so read it once before you hit Create Card. Then send however suits the person receiving it:
No account is needed on their end, and nothing to install. They can also download the card as a single file that opens years later with no internet at all — what keeping a card means.
A screenshot of a photo is a fraction of the file. Find the real one, even if it takes a minute longer.
Three that mean something beat fifteen from the same afternoon. The card is not a camera roll.
One shared memory or private joke does more than a paragraph of warm generalities.
It is free, it takes twenty seconds, and it is the part older relatives play back more than once.
Not for a free card, and never for the person receiving one. Card Packs are a one-time purchase, not a subscription — there is nothing to cancel.
Three on a free card, fifteen on a Card Pack card. Each photo can be up to 8 MB on either.
JPEG, PNG and HEIC — so straight from an iPhone is fine. HEIC is converted to a full-quality JPEG on the way in. A photo up to 8 MB is otherwise stored exactly as sent; a larger one is offered a print-quality reduction to fit.
Until it is opened. Once the recipient has viewed the card it is locked, so what they saw is what stays — fix the typo before you send the link, and use Preview to catch it.
One button inside the card, and the photos come down at full resolution. They can also save the whole card as a single file that works offline afterwards.
Two things: the photos arrive at the quality you sent them, and the card can be kept as a file you own rather than a link that eventually dies. The comparison piece puts us next to the alternatives.
The first card is free — three photos and a voice message, no account needed to start.
Read next
The other side of this guide — from tapping the link to the photos falling out.
If the person on the other end is the reason this is complicated, start here instead.
The designs with an animated cover, for the occasions that warrant one.