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Making business cards

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by Brian Stirling on Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:18 pm

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Have any of you used PS or MS Word or similar programs to create business cards? I'm thinking about doing this and would appreciate any advise. What I'm thinking of doing is using an image in the background and the usual stuff in the foreground (Name, Email, Phone#, etc).

If you put the image on a layer and made it less than 100% with the text on top you could have an image that doesn't overwhelm the text.

Any ideas?

Brian

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by Larry Shuman on Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:51 am

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Avery makes 8.5x11 templates which hold 10 cards. Just measure a card and resize a shot to that size. You should be able to adjust opacity on the image and use the text tool and print out on printer that can handle 8.5x11.

Cheers
Larry

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by E.J. Peiker on Mon Mar 23, 2015 10:35 am

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As cheap as places like Vistaprint are, it makes no sense to do your own anymore IMHO. Basically just do a design in PS, upload it to Vistaprint (or others) and a few days later your cards show up. 250 of them for as little as $10.

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by signgrap on Mon Mar 23, 2015 2:50 pm

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E.J. Peiker wrote:As cheap as places like Vistaprint are, it makes no sense to do your own anymore IMHO. Basically just do a design in PS, upload it to Vistaprint (or others) and a few days later your cards show up. 250 of them for as little as $10.

I have used them a number of times and have had good results every time.
You can't beat the price using your own printer and Avery stock as it will cost more.

Dick Ludwig

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by E.J. Peiker on Mon Mar 23, 2015 2:56 pm

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Even better than Vistaprint is gotprint.net (couldn't remember the name earlier). More cards for the money, more options and if you get a two sided cards, the backside is much higher quality than vistaprint and I find the image quality on the frontside to be even better too.

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by Jeff Colburn on Mon Mar 23, 2015 4:15 pm

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Hi,

I have to agree with E.J.

I've printed my own, and gone through online print companies, and having it done is easier and it looks better. I use Vistaprint and the cards look great.

Have Fun,
Jeff

Fine Art Prints and Stock Photography of Arizona www.JeffColburn.com See my ebooks in the NatureScapes Store.

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by John Guastella on Tue Mar 24, 2015 11:12 am

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Be very careful if you decide to use Vistaprint. There have been reports that they routinely try to place unauthorized charges on customer's credit cards. I've never used them, so I can't confirm this.

John

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by E.J. Peiker on Tue Mar 24, 2015 11:13 am

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John Guastella wrote:Be very careful if you decide to use Vistaprint. There have been reports that they routinely try to place unauthorized charges on customer's credit cards. I've never used them, so I can't confirm this.

John

Never had a problem in multiple uses. But like I said, Gotprint.net is a better product.

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by Brian Stirling on Tue Mar 24, 2015 5:15 pm

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Well I've made a test print (8.5x11) with 12 cards on it. Probably want to tweak the format a bit and when I get it right I can have gotprint make them in quantity.

Brian

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by photoman4343 on Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:40 pm

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I went to Kinko's and made my own using templates from software on their store computer available to clients. Cards were mailed to me. I could have picked them up at the local Kinkos if I had wanted to. There was a choice of over 300 termplates to use and each of these was customizable.

Joe Smith

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by SantaFeJoe on Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:47 pm

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One thing I do (I print my own on unmarked photo paper) is to use a variety of different images. Sometimes I use three small images above the text on each card, or just one. I do different cards for wild horses, Bosque wildlife, fractal images, kinetic art images, etc. All could be done on each page if desired. If you do different things, this may be an option to consider.

Joe

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. -Pablo Picasso

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by Kari Post on Sun May 24, 2015 8:37 am

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I have used Vistaprint and WHCC for business cards. No complaints with either and they offer a template you can download to ensure that no pertinent information gets accidentally cropped off in the die cutting process.

I have not tried gotprint.com (I still have far too many business cards to give away), but will try them in the future. I'd trust E.J.'s opinion on the matter. Agreed that it doesn't make sense to print and cut your own anymore.

Kari Post, former NSN Editor 2009-2013
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