Touchnote is a free app for iOS devices that will allow you to create and send a postcard to anyone in the world. I’m not talking about an electronic postcard, but an actual printed card with a stamp on it. Let’s check it out.
Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.
I tested Touchnote on my iPad 2, but it can be used on iPhones and an iPod Touch as well.
The interface is very easy to use as you can see in the image above. To personalize your card, you can choose an image from the photo library on your device, or from your Facebook photos. After you choose your image… you can only use one unfortunately… you can resize by pinching and zooming. You can also rotate the image, change it to black/white or sepia tones or even draw on it. There is also an option to add a text caption. All of these customization features are very easy to use. Unfortunately, they are too simple in my opinion. You can’t move the text caption, can’t specify the font, font size or color.
The options for customizing the back side of the card are limited as well. You can add your note, but do not have control over the the font, color or size of the text. You can sign your name with your choice of 12 colors including white… which is odd because it wouldn’t even show up on the white background. The recipient’s address can be selected from your existing address book on your device, or can be entered manually. There’s even an option to have a small map added to the card to show where it came from. That’s a nice little touch for vacation postcards.
In order to send the cards, you’ll need to purchase some credits through the app. You can do this using a credit / debit card or your PayPal account. A credit is $1.49, £1.49 or €1.49 and will allow you to send 1 card. If you purchase 5 credits, you’ll get 1 extra credit free. Purchasing 8 credits will get you 2 extras and purchasing 15 credits will get you 5 extras for a total of 20 credits / postcards. The price really doesn’t seem too expensive since postcards can cost up to a $1.00 or more and US postage to send a postcard is currently $.29
The app saves a history about the cards that you’ve created and sent. You also receive an email confirmation after ordering a card.
According to the app, cards are printed every weekday at 10am UK time and mailed 3hrs later that same day. Cards sent to US and UK address are supposed to arrive at their destinations in 1-4 days. Cards sent to other parts of the world can take longer depending on their local postal services. Of the three cards that I’ve sent (2 to myself and one to Janet in North Carolina), two arrived in 6 days (one of mine and Janet’s). I’ve yet to receive the 3rd card that I sent to myself. I created it on 11/29. I’m guessing that I will receive it tomorrow on day 6.
The cards are nice though. They are 6 x 4.25 inches and printed on glossy card stock. I wish the image could be printed edge to edge instead of leaving a white border. But the image is clear and the colors are nice.
The back side is just as nice, but I did notice that the address on the map image was incorrect for my location (I’ve blurred out the addresses in the image above to protect the innocent).
I like this app, but wish it had more features and of course, I wish it that my postcards would arrive quicker to their destinations. I’m hoping that new features will be added as the application matures. It’s still easy to use and very convenient to send a card right from your iPad without having to buy a physical postcard, find a stamp and then get off the couch to go put it in the mailbox. 🙂
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You know, just like the other ‘Send a card thingy’ that Janet reviewed a month or so ago, I think, feel, believe we are losing the whole idea of sending cards. I think that printing up labels is as automated as I really want to get on sending personal correspondence. I mean, getting one of these myself in the mail, I’d kinda consider it like some kind of advertisement or something that wasn’t given much thought. Emails are good for everyday communication, but really, something sent through the mail to a friend needs to have a little bit of humanistic quality, or are we really losing the human touch, that possibly we are not as clever as we thought in our cleverness to be more human by being more productive.
@Bob I don’t agree when it comes to the Apple Cards and this Touchnote app. They allow you to send custom cards with your own text and photo instead of something someone else has created for you. And they take more effort and thought than an email or an email greeting card.
Like Mr. DeLoyd, I’m nostalgic for the days of handwritten letters and cards with exotic stamps, but have sadly accepted that it’s a parade gone by. So, in the 21st century I’ve become a big fan of Touchnote. The ability to take a holiday picture and then send it to multiple addresses is a huge bonus, no buying postcards that look like they are leftover from the 1970’s, carrying an address book or labels, purchasing stamps and then finding somewhere to post them. I intend to use Touchnote as a way for the young’uns to send a photo personalised “thank-you” for all their Christmas presents. In regard to postage times, it’s worth remembering that none of the postcard apps print or post over the weekend, so if you upload on a Friday afternoon, your order won’t get printed and despatched until Monday. I posted an ordinary birthday card with a stamp and that took two weeks to find its way across town! I also like combining this App with others such as PicFrame and Lifecards to allow multiple pictures on a single card. Tip: It’s worth following @touchnote and @utnfc on Twitter. There are often opportunities to win free cards and price promotions, currently there is an offer for 15 for the price of 10 cards, which means just 99c per card, including worldwide postage.
I don’t understand the nostalgia for the handwritten note. Times have changed. My wrists are shot, and my handwriting is not as good as it used to be. My hand aches after a few minutes, so I just give up on my letter and never finish it. My daughter was taught how to make cursive letters in 3rd grade, but she was never required to write in cursive because they relied on computers even back then. She either laborious prints, or her handwriting looks like a 3rd grader’s. She’s not the only one in her class that can’t write in cursive.
I put just as much effort into creating a letter or a greeting card on my computer as I would doing it by hand, but it has the bonus of being readable and I can actually finish it. And as Julie says, I can include my own photo to make it even more personal. It’s all ink on paper, and I don’t see how the ink got deposited on the paper makes that much difference.
I’m going to take back what I said about email greeting cards too… After thinking about it, I realize that even getting a generic email greeting card is nicer than no greeting card at all. It’s the thought that counts right? Someone thought about you enough to send something… instead of nothing 🙂
We’ll have to agree to disagree Ms. Cloninger, I still love sending and receiving handwritten missives, and I rarely find the same thought and voice goes into any form of electronic communication. My 90-year-old Mother still writes 2-3 letters a day, with her 70-year-old fountain-pen, and is currently finishing up 200+ Christmas cards, each containing a personal letter!
moby.to/uqht3n
When you write you leave a legacy.
Let’s say you went to a book signing and the author was using a rubber stamp instead of a pen, would you think that okay?
You go up to a movie star or a great person and ask for their autograph and they stamp your napkin. How much would that be worth on EBay?
At the end of someone’s life and you are going through their letters what would you prize more, a handwritten letter from them, or a printed copy?
I could if I wanted to; boilerplate a whole bunch of Christmas cards on a laser printer with each name, a personal note from a data base of “personal notes” and even have my signature electronically printed on each one. This would only take an hour or two to set up and print. Yes, I could do this, but it still isn’t really personal. What I did end up doing is writing a quick note on each Christmas card and signing my name. I did this over a span of a month and did one or two cards a day. I did this because I care for the ones who will be receiving them.
I think, feel, and believe in my heart that you are all mostly wrong when it comes to a personal note, card or letter to friends and family. Emails are fine for day to day communication. We have gotten too clever in our cleverness, and too far away from what really matters.
@Bob we can agree to disagree. :o) I’ve received fancy Hallmark cards that have felt void of any emotion or feeling. So if someone takes the time to create a custom card with a personal picture and a typed out note, it would make me feel 100 times happier than a store bought card with their name signed to it and nothing else. Just sayin…
@Julie I’ll have my Siri call your Siri and they can debate the issue. Just sayin… 🙂
I love love love the written word and a personal message from a friend… that said, on holiday I never send postcards. I’m too busy being on holiday. But this I will try because I also love taking pictures and will enjoy dreaming up pictures for each of my friends and family. No it won’t have the charm of an old fashioned postcard, but it will let my friends know that I’m thinking of them and I plan to make the pictures my personal mark rather than my messy old handwriting. For example: mate X will be getting a picture of my first ice cold beer in the sunshine (usually sent by text) to hang on his fridge and make him extra super jealous of my week in the sun. I understand where you’re coming from DeLoyd because there truly is nothing nicer than the personal touch but this doesn’t have to be a bad thing just because it’s new and different. Personally, I’d be delighted if my friends thought to send me one of these. Especially if they’d taken the time to send an image they knew I’d love.
@Lids I get Happy Birthday and Christmas “greeting cards” from banks, insurance companies, and car dealerships…
Your idea on having a different picture for each person sits very well with me.
What I find distasteful is the boilerplate automated method: Type recipient’s name here_______ Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year! Type your name here_______
I start very early in the year (September) to write a little something personal on a card. I have a place set aside on my desk at home just for this. It is where I can see it when I walk by. When I have idle time I stop at my desk to write a paragraph or more, maybe even just a sentence, to one of the twenty or so people in my life I really care about. The rest get a signed card but with less writing. It’s all doable if you make the time 🙂
Here’s a video that explains elegantly what I’ve failed to convey here with my limited communicative skills.
TED Talk: Lakshmi Pratury: The lost art of letter-writing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG6xlKzFFrI
Hey, I stumbled across this article and though it worth mentioning a 2016 update. There’s a lot more personalised card apps on the market and although Touchnote was one of the first, I think it’s fallen behind in terms of features and customisation options. Let’s take the next biggest postcard app, Postsnap (www.postsnap.com). Those guys have created such a feature rich app as to make hand writing cards almost obsolete! Fully personalisable, multiple fonts, put your text anywhere, lovely designs, great price – the list goes on. Plus while Touchnote does Postcards and a limited range of Greeting cards, Postsnap also includes announcement cards and party invitations to the mix. It is for this reason that I moved away from Touchnote, which I found to be lacking with its single font, single position approach to customisation.