Invitations to get-togethers that used to come to mailboxes now come via email or Facebook, and calendar apps are tough competition for physiological data books. Phones give us more techniques to support the Association than ever.

But old-fashioned paper greeting cards, delivered by regular mail, remain a key festive product.

Some buyers do not want to be from the rite that takes place every year, which, according to their texts, takes a lot of time and is considered superfluous when we share photos and status updates in public networks every day. But for others, the idea of wasting time replacing tangible symbols of solemn mood is more presentable than ever, at a time when the buzz and ping of digital devices never cease to urge our interest. This is not all, including if the exploration of the perfect card now connects to a seat at the laptop, editing digital photos and viewing 10 templates.

Sales of greeting cards have been quite measured in the USA over the past 5 or 6 years, and buyers took within 6.5 billion greeting cards and 1.6 billion greeting cards a year, said Peter Doherty, Executive Director of the Association of greeting cards. These figures do not include the custom photo cards that almost all families order from these spaces, like Shutterfly or Walgreens.

But this strength is considered to be an improvement later several years of lower sales, said Doherty.

"People began to use electric mail as a substitute, but with the period they noticed, in fact, that they are not doing the same important merger,” he said.

Not everyone returned to the paper. Susan wojcieck, 43, in the Chicago Lincoln Park region, estimates she only gets within the 10th of the cards she has, but she doesn't most miss them, and has finished sending them herself within 5 years back.

"I support the Association in almost all other ways," said wojczyk.

But those who continue to send congratulations on a holiday on paper, as a rule, the more entices the idea of a physiological object with its own mood, according to manufacturers and traders greeting cards.

Carolina Ojeda, 27, from in hell of making that village, which took the card to the closest family members and friends on Tuesday at the Paper Source in the region of Lincoln Park, said, in fact she likes to choose cards and do not want to follow tradition by Going to a digital format.

"I'm a pretty old school," said Ojeda, who is also looking forward to receiving the ceremonial postcards in the mail.

"It's the new year's mood," she said.

Including a wave of interest in electric cards a number of years ago calmed down, because buyers found them “too fleeting,”said Patrick Prior, a key salesman at the Chicago cardboard source.

giant admirers of electric cards, as a rule, people who still send a large number of cardboard cards and wish to support the Association once again, said Lindsay Roy, key marketing Director at Hallmark Greetings. The firm still invites them, but does not contemplate their driving force of ascent, she said.

Lydia fields, 31, of Lincoln Park, said, in fact she is beginning to get more solemn cards, because her friends began to own guys, but not enough, if a sort has come for electric mail.

-I see, we all like a good-natured old postcards, - said fields.

This does not mean that customers actually buy the same cards that they have every time. Greeting card publishers are trying to innovate with card buyers have every chance to customize or stick to cards that do not test themselves in the family, said Marisa Lifshutz, an analyst at IBISWorld research company industry. These items are usually more lucrative for the card issuers, but they, similarly, do not lead to the rise of the joint branch, which still includes the manufacturers of these goods, such as calendars and cards that are facing similar digital konkurentnosti, she said.

Fields, for example, took advantage of an online design service, minted for the creation of a postcard with the role of her 13-month-old daughter Lottie. Photos and handwritten articles that she that seemed personal, but the previous press envelopes saved time, she said.

Custom photo cards appear to be gaining notoriety, said Doherty of the greeting card Association, but his organization is not tracking these implementations. Shutterfly, which implements custom maps through its own namesake and Tinyprints brands, does not open figures for individual business segments, these as custom maps. But the firm said that the middle of profits from the consumer business falls on the 4th quarter.

Personalized cards were "consistent," said Mickey mericle on, marketing Director of all who commented on sales. In the busy days between thanksgiving And Christmas, the firm prints more than 8 million cards a day.

Map development has the ability to borrow more time than collecting boxes from the shelf. Shutterfly tries to balance the transfer of creative control to customers with functions that save time, for example, with the support of artificial origin of the mind, in order to advise promising photos or mechanically cut them, said Merikl. Online design service minted, meanwhile, there are stylists who have every chance to send users 5 proposed card designs, if they send a photo and answer a couple of questions about their desired greeting and aesthetics.

Walgreens, meanwhile, has added fresh system options over the past 2 years. It is used for printing only on photo paper, but now invites cardboard and some systems with foil stamping and the choice of square or rounded edges.

Including when people start with a digital photo and make their own cards online, they all just like to do something, in fact that the end result will be on paper, said Priore Paper Source.

"There is something quite tactile and sensually coherent," said Prior. "People cherish cards. It's a memory, but it's also an expression of every sensation you try to convey.”

Custom printed cards are considered to be more quickly growing part of the business of the solemn cards at Paper Source, but the implementation of personalized and boxed festive cards still grow, he said.

Millennials are currently making out the largest share of greeting card customers, and they love postcards that make their own statement, said Doherty.

Seen, them especially attracted by the idea of selecting a card, said Meryl Shutterfly. They” do not wish that the tinned proverb from the box of cards " gave them, she said. "The Millennials want to make it their own.”

Meryl said the fact that millennials are more favorable with the informal designs and photos and do not feel themselves bound to wait for the classic milestones, these as the beginning of the family in order to send festive greeting cards. Cards aimed at family animals were in demand, she said.

But attraction to cards that test themselves as personal doesn't always mean creating something from scratch.

Buyers who take the job to choose a card in the store still want her to experience, in fact that she was chosen on purpose for the recipient, said Shane Norwood, the owner of the iron petal seal.

Norwood designs and sells greeting cards in its own store in Logan square and through other retailers, covering Paper Source.

“It's a reaction to the digital universe we live in,” she said. "People take it really far away in the other direction and want a map that talks just what they actually think.”

Norwood believes that this desire has the ability to benefit the smallest publishers who do not necessarily try to develop maps for the widest possible audience. System of steel petal press," as a rule, snide and arrogant, and almost all the top sellers are curses, Norwood said.

She understands, actually that's not for all and stored some maps of other artists, but they all similarly have to answer for its audience. The track all the more sugary cards did not succeed, said Norwood, who said, in fact, that she is eager to offer items that are “funny or beautiful or both.”

But including the biggest name in the commercial greeting cards talks, in fact that he is working on the creation of cards that do not test themselves universal.

The business card contemplates the rise of more expensive cards as its signature stitching, created to test itself as gifts, decorations, these as beads, ribbons or charm necklaces and a fresh line of “mantle-worthy” pop-up cards introduced in this festive season, Roy said.

Pop-up cards, called Paper Wonder, exceed expectations, and Hallmark plans to let them go on other holidays, covering the day of the Immaculate Valentine, she said.

In addition to the concentration of interest on special cards, Hallmark even updated some of the messages for younger customers, said Roy. There are cards that do not hope, in fact that everyone has a classic home design, and some with messages hinting at in order to spend the holidays apart, for example, as more and more young people live away from family.

The task, according to her texts, is a map that “feels, in fact, that it was written entirely for me and my relationship”, including if it was torn from the shelf of a chain store.

Roy believes, exactly that long-term appeal cardboard card from “antidote very a large number of digital.”

When the card comes in the mail, it shows that someone actually took the time and effort to choose the design and send it, said Cindy Magder, 46, from Lincoln Park, who sends friends and family custom printed cards with a home photo any year.

- This is not a present, but similarly, - said Magder. "I feel, in fact, that I am special, if someone thought to send it.”