For any small business, making a memorable first impression is crucial, and one of the most tangible ways to achieve this is through an outstanding business card. But navigating the business card printing process can seem daunting. In this article, we’ll take you through the process of printing business cards, exploring various sizing options, materials, and finishes that can help small business owners create unforgettable cards that leave a lasting impact.
Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur looking to refresh your brand or a newcomer eager to make your mark, understanding the intricacies of business card printing is essential for success in today’s competitive business landscape. So, let’s dive in and unravel the process of printing your perfect business card.
Before printing your business cards, you’ll first need a great business card design. You can either use with a template that you can adapt to fit your brand, you can design your business card yourself or hire a professional designer to design the perfect business card specifically for you.
For your business card design, consider design elements such as logo placement, color scheme, and typography to ensure brand consistency. Prioritize essential contact information and avoid clutter for a clean and professional look. Lastly, ensuring that the design aligns with their industry and target audience is crucial for making a memorable impression.
Once you are happy with your design, you can start the business card printing process. When printing a business card you have a lot of options to choose from. There are some key decisions you’ll need to make, including choosing:
The paper weight number refers to the mass of a ream of paper with given dimensions and a sheet count.
The standard business card thickness is 14pt, but weights can vary by paper type. More premium cards are thicker at 18pt and ultra thick business cards come in at 28pt.
Business cards are usually printed on card stock, but other materials can include recycled paper materials, hemp, linen, bamboo, plastic, metal, and other materials of different thicknesses. The material you choose will have a huge impact on the overall look of your business card, so choose wisely.
Ordering samples can help understand how different thicknesses and materials will look and feel in real life.
Opting for a matte finish business card paper provides a smooth, non-reflective surface that exudes professionalism and sophistication. On the other hand, choosing a glossy finish offers a sleek, high-shine appearance that can make colors and images pop, creating a more vibrant and attention-grabbing look and feel.
Another option for special finishes is to get your cards printed with embossed, raised or foil accents.
Classic-sized business cards, with their traditional rectangular shape, convey a timeless and professional impression, making them suitable for a wide range of industries. Rounded corner business cards soften the edges and offer a more contemporary and approachable appearance, while square business cards stand out as unique and modern, leaving a memorable and distinctive impression on recipients.
The standard size of a business card is:
If you decide to go for a more unusual size or shape (like a bigger or square business card), you can stand out from the crowd and create a more memorable experience for the people you hand your cards to.
Now that you have considered the various printing options for your business cards, you can select the combinations that best suit your brand and place your order to get your perfect cards printed.
With all of the possibilities in mind that modern printing options offer, think twice about getting a standard business card and consider going for something more unique! Nowadays, anything is possible when it comes to business card printing and it’s much easier than you’d think.
Author: Workerbee is a graphic designer at 99designs by Vista from the East Coast with a relentless curiosity in all realms of life.
Most people order business cards from the first printer they find that has a reasonable price without considering how the cards are actually printed. Offset printing presses and digital printing presses have different costs and measures of quality associated with them, so it's important to understand what you're getting for your money. Whether your business cards are printed on a digital press or an offset press is a question worth considering before you order your next batch of business cards since you can save a lot of money if you're printing business cards on the right type of press.
Offset printing is of higher quality than digital printing because of the way these presses transfer ink to the paper. Business cards printed on an offset printer have clean, crisp lines because a plate transfers the business card text and images to a rubber sheet, which is then pressed directly to the paper. Business card offset printing is also very fast and inexpensive - as the quantity increases, the price per business card can drop dramatically; however, this is only true when printing more than 200 business cards. Anything below that can become rather expensive on an offset press, because it takes time and costs money to set up the printing press for a new job. This is a one-time fee for each job, so once you exceed a certain order volume the fee is negligible and you can get the best quality for the best prices available.
For those on a tighter budget or who don't need more than 200 business cards, digital printing has become a viable alternative to offset printing. New technologies incorporated in state-of-the-art digital presses have made digital quality nearly as good as offset quality. In fact, to the untrained eye there is virtually no difference between the two options, and your business will not suffer because it chose a digitally printed business card over an offset-printed business card. Unlike offset printing, digital prices remain consistent per business card, which is why digital printing is less expensive than offset printing on short runs but can be quite a bit more expensive on bigger runs. When it comes to choosing between offset and digital printing for your business cards, the question is not so much which technology you want to use but how many do you want to print? If the return on investment is king, then offset printing allows for a lower per-piece rate, which means that every business card that helps land a sale has a higher return on investment. Digital printing pricing is fairly consistent, so your return on investment per card will be the same no matter how many you print. The most important consideration is perhaps who your printer will be. Companies such as PsPrint offer the latest equipment from both the offset printing and digital printing worlds, and it will be able to determine for you which type of press is more economical for you.
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