The keepsake
The photograph on the prayer card.
It is the smallest piece printed this week and the one most likely to be kept in a wallet, a Bible or a drawer for forty years. It is also the easiest to get right.
The short answer
A standard prayer card is 2.5 × 4.25 inches and needs only 750 × 1275 pixels at 300 ppi. That is small enough that almost any file, including a screenshot, will work. The difficulty is not resolution — it is cropping a head and shoulders down to a tall, narrow card without losing the top of the head or cutting through the neck.
01 · SizesWhat the sizes are actually called.
| Piece | Size | Pixels at 300 ppi | Shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prayer card | 2.5 × 4.25 in | 750 × 1275 | Tall portrait |
| Wallet card | 2.5 × 3.5 in | 750 × 1050 | Slightly less tall |
| Small memorial card | 3.5 × 5 in | 1050 × 1500 | Portrait or landscape |
| Memorial card | 4 × 6 in | 1200 × 1800 | Portrait |
| Bookmark | 2 × 6 in | 600 × 1800 | Very tall |
The names drift between countries and between printers — one shop's prayer card is another's memorial card. Give the printer the measurements rather than the name, or ask them to send a template.
02 · The cropThe hard part is the shape, not the size.
A 2.5 × 4.25 card is a ratio of about 1:1.7, which is much taller than any standard photograph. Something has to be cropped away, and the choice is which.
- Keep the whole head, with a little space above the hair. On a card this small, a clipped head reads as a mistake at a glance.
- Lose the shoulders, not the neck. Cut low enough that there is a suggestion of shoulder on both sides. A crop that ends at the chin floats the head.
- Centre on the near eye. If the person is turned slightly, crop towards the eye nearer the camera rather than the geometric centre of the face.
- Prefer a slightly wider crop. A card is smaller than you think when printed. A face that filled the card on screen at 400% will look cramped and slightly odd in the hand.
If the card has text below the photograph — a verse, dates — leave room in the design rather than in the crop. Squeezing the photograph to make space is what produces the squashed-face look on so many memorial cards.
03 · ForgivenessThis is the piece where a poor file still works.
At 750 pixels wide, almost every source clears the bar. That includes:
- A photograph forwarded through a messaging app, which usually arrives around 1600 pixels wide.
- A social media download at 2048 pixels.
- A screenshot of a photograph on a phone, at around 1170 pixels, which is still comfortably enough.
- A crop from a group shot, provided the head occupies at least half the height of the frame.
So if the only image of the person is a low-resolution one, put it on the card without agonising. This is also the piece to give to extended family: it is cheap to print in quantity and it is the one that travels home.
Print more than you think. Cards are usually printed in runs of 50 or 100 and cost very little per card. Running out at the service is a common and avoidable regret, and the card is the only piece guests physically take with them.
04 · The backWhat goes on the reverse.
Usually a verse, a short poem, a line of scripture, a thank-you, or the dates. Roughly forty to eighty words fits on a 2.5 × 4.25 card at a readable size — beyond that the type gets small enough that older guests cannot read it, which defeats the purpose.
The layout that works most often: photograph, name and dates on the front; the words on the back. If both sides need a photograph — a portrait on the front, a picture of the two of them on the back — keep the second one small and let the words dominate. A card with two competing photographs and two lines of tiny text reads as crowded in the hand.
Questions people ask at this point.
What size is a prayer card photo?
A standard prayer card is 2.5 x 4.25 inches, so the photograph needs about 750 x 1275 pixels at 300 ppi. Because the card is tall and narrow, the crop usually loses the shoulders and keeps the whole head.
Can I use a low-resolution photo on a memorial card?
Yes. The card is the most forgiving piece of the week, because it is small. Anything around 750 pixels wide is enough, which includes most images received through messaging apps and screenshots of photographs on a phone.
How many prayer cards should I order?
More than you think. They are cheap per unit and usually sold in runs of 50 or 100, and the card is the one item every guest takes home. Running out at the service cannot be fixed afterwards.
Should the memorial card photo match the one on the order of service?
Ideally yes, or at least be from the same period. A card showing a different era of the person's life than the easel and the program is a small dissonance people notice at the door of the same room.
Small print hides a lot, but not everything
A crease through a face still shows on a card. Pinin removes creases, dust, fading and colour casts without changing the features, and the first restoration is free.
Repair the card photograph