Update! Postcardly has changed its template system so square photos will not be cropped. Instagram lovers like myself can now Postcardly away knowing our precious compositions will be replicated in full, as in the example above. See the comments section for a message from Paul at the company.
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Last month I wrote about Postcardly, a service that converts an email with an attached photo into a postcard and sends it to a designated recipient via the USPS.
In the interim, I've had a chance to try out Postcardly for myself, and I've sent a bunch of postcards to family, friends and myself. The overwhelming response has been positive. Family (especially non-computer users like my grandmother) loved getting mail, it was an efficient and fun way to share one-off photos, and a designer friend deemed the layout of the back "not too bad" and was impressed that his postcard arrived with a real stamp.
The account set-up was straightforward and simple. Once I added as many contacts as I wanted, Postcardly assigned them an unique email address to which I then sent messages and photos to be generated into postcards. (If you want to see what your postcard will look like before sending it out, you can email it to a set preview address to receive a PDF proof in a matter of seconds.)
I was only disappointed with the way the program handled a square image. Instead of fitting it within the standard 4" x 6" postcard template with a border of white space, the photo was scaled to fill the space, resulting in a cropped image. Considering the popularity of apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic that generate Polaroidesque photos, being able to preserve a square image would be a plus. I know the company is working on an update to the postcard template soon, so perhaps this is already being addressed.
Admittedly my trial experience with Postcardly was gratis, thanks to the generosity of the company, but I will happily continue to use it and pay the 99¢ (or less, depending on your monthly plan) for the ability to send spontaneous visual correspondence with my grandmother.
(Images: sample Postcardly, front & back; Postcardly treatment of square image)