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While the concept of an e-card is anathema to paper lovers everywhere, I do confess to finding them [sometimes] useful.  If you can't send an actual, physical, beautiful card, I guess an e-card is the next best thing.  The most important thing is to let someone know you're thinking of them, no matter how you do it.

E-cards are like regular cards in that there are so many cheesy, schmaltzy and over-the-top designs it's unbelievable.  If I see one more Blue Mountain design I'm going to rip my eyeballs out. 

Personally, I like the notion of designer email stationery rather than an e-card you have to retrieve off of a website.  The only place I've seen this is at iomoi - let me know what other designers are out there.

Iomoi

I remember seeing Iomoi's ecards years ago, and I'm glad to see they're still at it.  They offer a range of designs and their interface is simple and easy to use.  You choose the font and type color and they'll even check your spelling.   They also sell original - paper!- stationery products and address labels.

• What's Good:  super simple, good personalization options
• What's Not:    designs can sometimes be on the cutesy side
• Price:             $ 15/year

SpreadingTheLove

Unlike Iomoi, who offer e-stationery, SpreadingTheLove offers e-cards that the recipient has to view on their site [like Hallmark, American Greetings, etc.]. They play the "green" card by positioning emails as environmentally friendlier than paper greetings, and while they probably have a point, I'll never give up pen and ink. 

I can't quite figure out what their deal is.  Their mailing address is Spain, their phone number is from London and their prices are in dollars.  Go figure.  They offer a lot of designs by many different artists, which I like, but their site design is crap.  I get a headache just looking at it, which is a shame because they have some interesting functionality. 

   

I particularly like the option of scheduling the email for up to a year in the future.  I can see someone who is hyper-organized [not me by a long shot] sitting down one afternoon and creating birthday emails for the next three months.  God love 'em.  The site also allows you to store addresses and offers a reminder service for key dates you don't want to forget. 

I couldn't test it though, because I kept trying to send myself a free card - as advertised on the site - and they kept telling me I had to subscribe first.  Um, I thought free meant... free... silly me. 

What's Good:  good range of clever, and different, designs; clever functionality

What's Not:    everything else

Price:             $ 18/year

I'll highlight others as I come across them. 

Comments

[Richard]

Hi Gabrielle

I agree with you that paper will always have an important place; but I think that if you're going to send an egreeting, it needs to be something better than a bit of flash animation.

Check out MovieTexts. They're a new kind of egreeting. Little movies (10-20 seconds)with full 3D animation of your personal message, they're made by John Clive, a multi-award winning commercials director.

A new standard of creativity and personalisation if you ask me. Which you didn't.

Hope you like them.

Richard