When you are out traveling, you may casually capture cloud-covered mountains, mountain peaks, rural cottages, or sunsets by the sea with your phone. But if you want to print those photos as postcards to give to others, you may not know where to have them processed—and the cost can be high.
Here is a practical postcard layout. Even ordinary snapshots taken by tourists can work. No professional photography skills are required, and the results are suitable for physical printing.
Layout: Vertical 3:4, Split Evenly into Two Sections
The top half is the original photo
Preserve the original photo as much as possible, applying only light magazine-style color grading to improve the lighting and clarity. If the sky feels too narrow or the ground is too cramped, you can slightly extend the background outward to complete the space without distorting the scenery.
The bottom half is a minimalist hand-drawn illustration
Extract only the most essential contours from the scenery and leave out fragmented details. The goal is simply for viewers to recognize the location at a glance. Use fine lines with a slight sense of movement, along with a small number of flat acrylic-painted color blocks. Extract the colors from the photo above and keep the entire image to no more than four colors. Deliberately draw the main subject small, occupying only 10% to 20% of the lower half, with a large area of negative space around it. The base uses a rough white-paper texture with subtle grain, while the edges of the color blocks have slightly handmade, brushed borders. Avoid watercolor washes, heavy oil-paint textures, 3D modeling, and cartoon styles. The overall feeling should be quiet, relaxed, and slightly playful, like a hand-drawn illustration.
Complete Prompt
请将我上传的每一张照片分别制作成一张独立的高级设计海报，不多图拼接，每张照片单独输出。整体采用{argument name="构图比例" default="3:4"}竖版构图，上下两个区域高度严格1:1，各占画面50%。
上半部分保留原始照片，保持主体结构、真实质感、自然光影和原有色彩氛围，仅进行轻微高级摄影调色，使其具有杂志摄影和艺术出版物质感。为适配画幅，可自然扩展天空、地面或环境背景，但不得拉伸、扭曲或改变主体。
下半部分提取照片中最具识别性的主体、轮廓、姿态与叙事关系，重构为极简纸感手绘封面插画。高度提炼并删减复杂细节，只保留最关键的视觉特征，以纤细、略带不稳定感的手绘线条和少量明确的丙烯平涂色块重新表达，让人一眼识别原始主题。主体保持小而集中，约占下半部分{argument name="主体占比" default="10%–20%"}，四周大面积留白，背景以粗糙白纸或浅色纸张为主，仅用极少量线条或色面暗示环境。
配色从上方照片提取并压缩为不超过4种主要颜色，色块鲜明、完整、克制，保留纸张颗粒、手工涂抹和轻微不规则边缘。线条负责提示结构，色块负责建立主体。避免彩铅、蜡笔、水彩晕染、纯线稿、复杂写实、厚重油画、光滑数字插画和3D质感。
可加入少量简洁文字，根据照片内容灵活使用标题、主题词、对象名称、地点、年份、编号或短句，不局限于城市题材。文字排版疏朗克制，与留白和插画自然融合，具有艺术书封、独立出版物和儿童绘本式设计感。整体呈现小主体、大留白、强提炼、高识别度、安静、童趣、轻松、诗意而高级的视觉气质，避免商业卡通感、电商感和模板感。
Suitable Scenes
This approach works well for mountains and cloud seas, seaside sunsets, rural cottages, lakes and forests, old towns, and historic streets. Everyday phone snapshots are enough; you do not need professional DSLR photos. The finished images are high-resolution with stable colors and can be taken directly to a print shop to produce physical postcards.
A Few Practical Suggestions
- Choose photos with a clean composition and a clearly defined subject whenever possible. Scenes with many passersby or lots of clutter can be more difficult to simplify into a hand-drawn illustration.
- Simple compositions such as sunrises and sunsets, distant mountains beneath a sea of clouds, or a lone tree in an open landscape usually produce better results.
- You can write the text at the bottom yourself. Travel dates, destination names, and short travel quotes all work well for creating a personalized keepsake.
What If the Generated Image File Is Too Large?
Images generated by GPT can sometimes be as large as 4–5M. In that case, you can use zippic to compress the image and reduce its size to 200–300KB.
In the past, getting this kind of hand-drawn postcard meant commissioning an illustrator, which was expensive and required a long wait. Now, with this top-and-bottom split template, you can upload a casual travel snapshot and connect the real-life scene with its hand-drawn counterpart in a single design. From now on, every trip can become an opportunity to create your own set of scenic postcards.