One Insert Card, Two Jobs: Combining Size Charts and Care Instructions on a Si...

One Insert Card, Two Jobs: Combining Size Charts and Care Instructions on a Single Thank You Card

Most apparel brands tuck two inserts into every order — a size chart and a care card — and customers read neither. This guide shows how to combine both onto a single insert card without cramming it, and which paper and printing specs keep the information legible after months in a dresser drawer.

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Talk to any fulfilment team and you will hear the same two complaints: too many size-related returns, and care questions that keep landing in the support inbox. Both problems usually trace back to information that never reached the customer, not to a bad product. And in most cases the information was printed — on two separate flimsy inserts that ended up at the bottom of a recycling bin within a week. The fix is not more paper. It is one sturdy custom thank you card that does both jobs: size chart on the front, care guidance on the back. Below is how to plan the layout, pick the stock, and the few cases where two separate cards still make sense.

Why One Card Beats Two: Printing Cost, Assembly Time and What Customers Actually Keep

Blank cream insert card lying beside an open kraft gift box with a folded pink knit garment inside, on a light grey packaging worktop

One card at roughly 250 gsm survives the unboxing; two 105 gsm leaflets usually do not.

Run the numbers on two inserts and the case for combining them writes itself. A second insert means a second print setup, a second run, and a second item for your packing team to grab, orient and place. If assembly adds even eight seconds per order, a brand shipping 2,000 orders a month pays for roughly four and a half extra hours of packing labour every month — plus the added chance the packer misses one insert entirely. One card printed front and back in a single pass removes all of that.

Customer behaviour matters just as much. People keep cards they find useful and toss the rest. A thick card with their size chart on it gets propped against a mirror or tucked into a drawer for the next purchase. A thin care leaflet rarely earns that spot. Combine them and the care information rides along on the card people were keeping anyway.

A workable split for a combined insert looks like this:

Front: the size chart, the headline thank-you message and your reorder hook — a discount code or a QR spot
Back: care instructions, contact details for exchanges, and a short brand line
Stock: 250–300 gsm, heavy enough that the card doubles as a keepable reference, not loose filler

Front and Back: Laying Out the Size Chart Without Cramming the Care Section

Hands holding a plain cream cardstock insert over an open white gift box with folded clothing inside, on a stainless steel worktop

A6 (105 × 148 mm) is the size most apparel inserts settle on — large enough for five rows of measurements, small enough to pack flat.

The usual mistake is treating the back of the card as leftover space. A care section needs its own breathing room, or customers will skim past it the same way they skimmed the old leaflet. On an A6 card, a practical layout reserves about 60 percent of the back for care symbols and the rest for exchange and contact details. Care information works well as pictograms — wash, bleach, tumble dry, iron, dry clean — because icons cross language barriers without adding a word of translation cost. If you sell into several markets, pair the pictograms with two or three key phrases at most; a full five-language text block needs either a bigger card or the separate multilingual insert approach.

On the size chart side, keep body text at 7 pt or larger. Charts squeezed down to 5–6 pt to fit more measurements get photographed, zoomed and still misread — which lands you right back in the returns queue. Five to six measurement rows fit comfortably on A6; if your range runs longer than that, print the chart across the full front and move the thank-you message to a smaller header band rather than shrinking the numbers.

Paper, Coating and Finish: Specs That Keep the Card Useful After the Wash

Stack of thick blank cream cotton cards beside a closed matte navy gift box on a light grey worktop

300 gsm uncoated stock takes handwriting well — handy if customers jot their own measurements on the card.

Card choice decides whether the combined insert actually gets used. A 250 gsm uncoated or lightly matte-coated card reads as a quality piece and still prints fine on digital presses for short runs; at 5,000 units and up, offset brings the unit cost down. Uncoated stock has one underrated advantage: customers can write on it. Some brands deliberately choose 300 gsm cream or kraft stock so the size chart doubles as a place to note personal measurements. If the care section needs to survive a humid bathroom, ask for a matte varnish or light lamination on that side — a gloss laminate over the whole card makes handwriting impossible, so pick one finish per side deliberately.

Rounded corners cut at about 3 mm radius keep the card from dog-earing in transit. Standard production runs at 1,000 units take about 10–15 working days after a 3–7 day proofing cycle, so it is worth deciding the front-back split before you order rather than adjusting it after the proof arrives.

The Few Cases Where Two Separate Cards Still Make Sense

Combining works for most apparel and gift brands, but not every scenario. Keep the inserts separate when your catalogue carries genuinely different size charts per product line — one card cannot serve knitwear and swimwear honestly. Separate cards also make sense when a target market regulates care-label language and you need a compliance-grade document rather than a friendly summary. And in damp product categories, where care information lives next to moisture, many brands move the care symbols onto a small custom sticker applied to the outer polybag instead, leaving the insert card free for the size chart and the thank-you message. If your packaging already includes gift sets, the same combined card slots neatly beside a custom paper bag without adding a second insert to the assembly list.

FAQ: Combined Size-Chart and Care Insert Cards

What is the MOQ for custom insert cards with size and care info?

Most custom card orders start at 500 to 1,000 pieces for a first run, with a lower unit cost at larger quantities; the minimum shifts with card size, stock, finishing and any die-cut or perforation. custom thank you cards For a first launch we can quote a tiered MOQ that covers your opening run without leaving you with spare stock.

How do I fit a size chart and care instructions on one card?

A digital or printed proof usually takes 3 to 5 working days after artwork confirmation, and bulk card production runs 7 to 12 working days once the sample is approved. Perforation, foil stamping or special stocks add a little time, so send both the card and any matching packaging target dates. notices d'emballage

What paper stock survives folding and fulfilment handling?

For a combined size-chart and care insert card, a 250–300 gsm uncoated or matte stock prints cleanly and survives folding and fulfilment handling; we match the weight and finish to how the card is handled and where it sits in the box. custom thank you cards

Can the inserts match our boxes, bags and seal stickers?

Send your logo vector file, Pantone or CMYK references and the card dimensions. We check contrast, minimum text size and any QR or barcode legibility before press, and adjust the layout where one language or panel is too tight. custom paper bags and stickers and labels

How long does insert card production take?

The cards print to match your other packaging so the whole unboxing reads as one brand; ordering the set together keeps paper colour and finish consistent and usually improves the price per piece. custom thank you cards