I love receiving postcards. And I love sending them. But I very much resent buying them. They always seem to use poor quality photographs and layouts that were à la mode in the 1980s.
Yet I still buy and send them whenever I’m somewhere suitably exotic, unusual or exciting. I even sent one after attending an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery recently. They always make me smile when I receive them, so to me it just seems a lovely way to tell family or friends that you’re thinking of them.
But never again will I be buying a postcard. I blame Shireen.
Knowing my obsession with printed photographs, she mentioned to me that following a visit to Germany, a cousin had sent her a postcard featuring a photo of their children together during the visit. Initially this didn’t seem all that surprising, until she said the magic words: “using her smartphone”.
Wait a moment – print and smartphones working together? Sold. I’d downloaded the Touchnote app and sent a postcard to myself (just to test the quality) within about 5 minutes, and it arrived a day later.
It turns out that Touchnote has existed for as long as I’ve lived in the UK. How did I not know about this? I can now create and send a postcard or greeting card from my smartphone using my photos. I select the photo, add a message and they print it (digitally of course) and post it to anywhere in the world.
No more neon place names or tourists in 80s clothing on my postcards!