event registration made easy

Design hints

Things to consider when designing an invitation that will be sent by email.

Contents

1. Personalized invitations
2. Tips for a beautiful invitation
3. How does Aanmelder.nl work

Personalized invitations

The Aanmelder.nl email system can only do replaces in Word documents. In these documents we replace "recipientname" with the name of the invitee. This option is not available for PDF documents, PPT, PNG en JPG files because we cannot change the text in these.

Tips for a beautiful invitation

• Because most people read their e-mail on a small portion of their screen it is a good idea to design your email to have a small size. In the screen shot above the actual e-mail message only occupies about half of the width of the screen. On average about 600 pixels of screen width is available for an email message. 600 pixels can be compared to working on a sheet of paper that is 16 centimeters or 6.3 inches wide. In Word you can set the paper size through Page Setup -> custom size -> 6.3 inch.
• If your invitation design does not fill up the complete page, it's best to make the page shorter. Otherwise there will be a white margin between your invitation and the link that we place below it. You can do this by Page Setup -> custom size.
• If you upload a file that is not 600 pixels wide it will be converted and scaled to fit 600 pixels. This can lead to a (small) loss in sharpness.
• Invitation with a lot of photographs will become large downloads. This will cause the recipient to spend more time downloading and displaying the email. As a rule of thumb, emails should not exceed about 500kb.
• Try to minimize the amount of text on your invitation. This will allow you to use a larger font. A good invitation gives the following information:
  • Who you are
  • What the name of your event is.
  • What the event is about.
  • When the event will be held
  • What the target audience is
  Obviously you should try to present this information as alluring as possible.
  Tip: try to design your invitation like you would design the cover of a book.
• If you would like to include more background information with your invitation you can include these documents as attachments with your invitation. This will be much more convenient for the recipient.
• Which file type is most suitable for your invitation?
  • Word: if you want to include a personal salutation or when you are most comfortable designing documents in Word.
  • PNG: Aanmelder.nl will send your invitation as a PNG that is 600 pixels wide. If you also upload a 600 pixel wide PNG you will have maximum certainty about the end result.
  • PDF: Your PDF document will be converted automatically. Aanmelder.nl is optimized for maximum text legibility. The result can be slightly different from your original.
  • JPG: JPG is not very suitable for invitations because of the way it displays text. Characters will get slightly blurred edges.

How does aanmelder.nl work?

There are many different e-mail systems in use around the world, with very different applications. To name a few: Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail, Hotmail and an increasing use of mobile phones such as the IPhone and Blackberry. Each of these systems has different strengths and weaknesses. Aanmelder.nl continuously tests its systems for compatibility with all these email systems.

Aanmelder.nl sends your invitation as an image file because:

• You get maximum freedom when designing it.
• Font, color an presentation will not vary across systems.
• It works on everybody's email client.
• You can design your invitation with software that you already use.

The disadvantage is:

• Images are larger than text. We try to optimize you invitation for a quick download.
• Recipients cannot copy-paste text from the invitation.

Email is not print. E-mails will be read on a wide variety of email systems and devices, often on a small screen. Email will never reach the resolution or sharpness of a professional printer. However, when you take its limitations into account, email can be a very convenient and attractive way to notify your guests about your event and guide them quickly to your registration form. Please review the Tips on this page for more information about making beautiful invitations.