Create Customized Cards, Produce Personalized Postage

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Nov 15, 2010, 10:41 ET

Postal Service Makes it Simple to Send Season's Greetings

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Turn precious digital photos into greeting cards and postage stamps with a simple click of the mouse. Create a treasured holiday greeting at usps.com without ever leaving the house.

"The Postal Service's website brings the card store directly to you," said Paul Vogel, president, Mailing and Shipping Services. "With a computer, an internet connection and a digital photo, anyone can design perfect cards and postage stamps."

At CardStore (usps.com/createmail/) customers can create greeting cards using personal photos or choose from more than 50 card designs, including traditional, religious, multi-cultural and non-denominational images. Ordering online takes only minutes and the cards are printed and shipped the next business day. Customers can choose to have the cards sent directly to recipients or to their own address. Prices start at just $0.79 per card.

Other online options for holiday greetings include Click2Mail and Premium Postcards. Click2Mail provides the perfect solution for end-of-year holiday letters and can be sent by First-Class Mail or Standard Mail rates. Premium Postcards can be created in black and white or full color to announce new holiday products or discounts, to send a personal greeting, say Happy New Year!, or to thank customers for their support throughout the year.

Adding the personal touch doesn't have to stop with the card. The outside of the envelope can be personalized as well. Customized postage (usps.com/postagesolutions/customizedpostage.htm) allows customers to create postage using digital photos or images — a family photo from the vacation this past summer, a warm embrace under the mistletoe, or a favorite pet playing in the snow. It can be used on First-Class Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail.

Customers in 1,600 locations across the country can purchase greeting cards at a local Post Office. In addition to holiday greetings, the selection includes cards celebrating birthdays, new babies and wedding anniversaries, as well as those offering encouragement and sympathy.

Select Post Offices also are offering Evergreens note cards featuring artwork from the 44-cent Evergreens Forever stamps, depicting the foliage and cones of four different conifers: ponderosa pine, eastern red cedar, blue spruce and balsam fir. The set of eight blank cards and envelopes comes with eight Evergreens Forever stamps.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Visit the Postal Service's interactive holiday press room at usps.com/holidaynewsroom.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service