NOTE: A word about our sample cards shown on this page: Cards are shown at 2X the normal size to show detail. Screen detail is not as clear as printed detail, so we had to enlarge the images. Some fonts are also not accurate, because we changed computers between the original design of the cards, and now, so some of the original fonts are missing and have been substituted for plainer fonts. The original fonts often fit the space a little more easily, or were chosen for better readability when printed in a small size, or to give just a little more pizzazz to the card (most were not elaborate, just lightly stylized).

Business cards have changed a lot in the last 10 years. The standard white card with single color embossing has multiplied into a range of choices, from glossy full color, to double sided, to flip book styles. You can do almost anything with a business card. They have changed from a simple statement of name, slogan and contact info to mini-brochures.

The limiting factor to a business card is its size. This can be overcome in a variety of ways that are becoming more standard - smaller type, folded styles, two sided, etc. The standard is still a single sided card though.

You have a lot of choices in what to put on your card, but you must have these three things:

1. Your business name. (Include your logo here if you can)

2. A description of what you do - your slogan may or may not address this issue.

3. Full contact info including name of owner or agent (personal is best), address (no address looks anonymous and compromises integrity), phone number, fax number (if you have one), email address, and web address. If you don't have email or a URL you can do without, but both are factors that increase the selling power of your business card.

You may also wish to add more information, especially if your business requires explaining. Keep it concise, and choose your words carefully. You don't have much space, so your words need to mean something!

Images help a business card be more effective also, and with current printing technologies, they are not hard to do. Be sure though that your images are clear, simple enough to impact in a small size, and neatly printed. Use of an image should SAVE you words. If the image does not convey something that cannot be conveyed with words, leave it off.

Make sure your card stays uncluttered. It can have a lot on it as long as items are not too closely crowded, and arranged in a logical arrangement. The card should have a pleasing asthetic arrangement, in the same way any page layout would. This one is just in miniature. Choosing the right font for a particular space can help to keep things less cluttered and more readable.

This card has a lot on it. Items are arranged so that there is space between, and sections are laid out in balance, and in related blocks. Fonts on this card are not the best, the original card had some fonts that our current computer does not have. We originally had fonts that were a little less plain, but not elaborate. This card simply had a lot of information to hold, so things are small, some centered, some on the sides.

Your text needs to be readable. You can use very small type sizes, even down to six or seven point type, but it MUST be clearly printed, and in a clean and sharp font style so it can be read that small. Follow the Three Font Rule, and stick to a headline font, a standard filler font (called a body font) and maybe an emphasis font. Bold them if you need to, change the sizes all you want, but stick to no more than three styles. If you are using very small text, you will have to zoom in on the card - many programs have a way for you to do that so you can see the smaller text - if it is readable on screen at 2X the regular size, it will be readable on the final printed card (screen text is harder to read than printed text). Also, play around with your fonts. You probably have many fonts on your computer that look essentially the same, but they may be narrower, wider, shorter, or taller, so you can choose just the right font to be readable in a small space, or to fit the text into a space more easily. This can make a huge difference in how easy it is to pick information quickly off the card. One font may be totally unreadable in a 6 point size, another may be easy to read in that size, so experiment until you find one that does what you need.

You can choose to print your cards yourself, or hire it out. Generally a business card will cost around $.10 for a single card, even if you print them yourself. Ink is costly, and card stock is not cheap. There are ways to save money, but they don't work for everyone.

If you print your cards yourself, you must have a printer that can print neatly. Older inkjet printers may be fuzzy on card stock. Usually a newer one will turn out a nice card. Home printed cards used to be thought of as cheap, and in some circles this may still be true (certainly if you are competing with moneyed professionals go with professional printing!), but so many people have home businesses and small business now and print their own, that homemade business cards are no longer the stigma they used to be, as long as they are done nicely. Please do not print them on copy paper and cut them with scissors though, that DOES look tacky!

Home printed cards are popular enough now that I can even sell them. I have several regular customers who order business cards from me because they know I make my own. I charge them a competitive price. The closest real printers here are an hour away, so people come to me because I am closer. I charge about what the town print shops charge for single color cards, and my customers like my cards because they can choose many colors and have a graphic or logo put on the card. Because I hand cut my cards, the edges are smooth and professional looking. It takes some time the first printing to set up their card, and usually I set up several designs for them to choose from. But after that, since the file is saved on my hard drive, I just print them out and cut them.

This image was corrupted during a file transfer, and I have not had a chance to repair it yet - been busy working on sites for other people. A photo on a business card is generally very expensive, unless you print them yourself. A decent color inkjet printer and some very smooth card stock can print out a professional looking card that serves to introduce you to your customers even before you meet them. Placing the contact info on one side, and the photo on the other provides balance.

Printing at home has some advantages. Home users generally have a color inkjet printer, so you can use as many colors as you like. Some professionally printed cards either have a limit of color choices, or charge far more for each color added. Choose your colors to coordinate, and use the guidelines in Make Your Own Business Logo to choose good colors for reaching your target audience. Make sure your colors are dark enough to show up well.

You can purchase preperforated card stock at any office supply store. It ranges in price from very costly to affordable. It will make your cards look homemade though, because the edge is rough and clearly identifiable. This is the best choice for some people because it does not require any extra equipment, and it is easy to use.

I print my cards on standard unperforated card stock - this takes some practice but is not difficult. I use a paper cutter to trim them, the card stock is 8.5" X 11". I use the same template in my word processing program that I would use for pre-perf stock. When the cards are finished, I trim 1/2 inch off each end of the page, then cut it every 2" to cut strips with two cards on each. Those strips are then cut in half, then the extra is trimmed off the outside edge by sizing the card to 3 1/2 inches (this part can be done with two layers at a time). A business card is 2" X 3 1//2" - you get 10 per page. If you choose to do this, you will need a good quality paper cutter, and you will need to be willing to spend some time at cutting. You must cut the cards one sheet at a time on all the long cuts because otherwise the paper pulls when you cut it, and at least one layer will turn out uneven. The advantage is that you get a cleaner edge, and cheaper cards, as plain stock is cheaper than pre-perforated. There are also more choices in plain stock than in pre-perf (for plain colors, linen stock, different paper weights, etc). Pre-perf has more pre-printed styles with borders and designs though.

The top card here is the easier design to print well. When you have bars or borders on a card, it is more difficult to line them up with the perforations on your card stock, or to cut them evenly. When there is a border on a card, any unbalance to the margins shows up more, and your card may look less professional, or take much more time to make it look good. There are reasons for doing borders though, the card below simply looks better with the green border than without, because it finishes the look of the card, and since the service is aimed at yard work, those green borders manage to convey a message. If you decide to do borders, keep them in from the edge a ways so you have some room for minor error. The further in the borders are, the easier it is to get them to look right, because smaller spaces show inaccuracies more than larger spaces. The card below is also one of the simplest designs, having only name, description, and phone number, plus a slogan and two images to give it some zip. The top card is balanced by two sections of information, one on each side of the card. The colors were chosen to reflect the spirit of a fireworks business.

When you set up your business card template, you need to be sure you leave a small margin around the edge of your card, between the printing and where you will cut the card, or tear the perforations. This margin allows for imperfections in printing. It can be touchy to line up the printing and cutting exactly. This is more of a problem with pre-perf than with plain stock because you can always adjust a little up or down when cutting them by hand. You cannot do that with pre-perf. Either way though, you want a little room for imperfections, which show up less when printing is further from the edge of the card.

Also, run a test sheet before you print on stock. Just a plain piece of paper will do. This is more critical with pre-perf, so you don't spoil a sheet the first run. You can then hold the test sheet up to the perf stock and see if it is going to be about right. Be warned though, card stock often feeds a little differently into your printer than standard copy paper does, so you may get it right, then have to adjust after the first page of the real thing anyway, so don't run your test then set the printer to do 25 copies! Run a plain paper test, then a card stock test, then do your full print run.

If you have to make adjustments, this can be done two ways. You can either adjust the page margins, which only works for large amounts of adjustment, or you can adjust the card elements on the page. To adjust card elements, get into the program you are making the card in, and select everything on the card (text and graphics both). You can do this by choosing Edit->Select All, or by dragging around everything with the mouse, or by Shift-Clicking on each item till you have all of them. Then drag them up or down, or to one or the other side to align them where your test sheet tells you that you need to move them to (this will make your card elements look crooked on the computer, but it will make them come out right on the paper). Some programs allow you to use the Arrow keys to move things, and this is MUCH easier than dragging with the mouse, as you can move them one pixel at a time and make much smaller adjustments.

This is a simple card to print, but a more difficult one to design. The logo had to be custom designed in a graphics program, and took a great deal of time to get the colors right to look like a glass reflection (it was designed before that type of filter was common in graphics programs). The colors do not show well in this image, they originally blended smoothly from one side of the letters to the other. The rest of th ecard design is simple though, and the credit card logos on the bottom convey the message that they are accepted much faster than words could have.

If you use pre-perforated card stock, it may be cut differently for each package you buy. Generally all of the stock in one package is cut the same (sometimes not, but usually it is). But this means that you will have to run a single sheet test run from each package that you use. Perforations may be to one side or the other by a minute amount that does not show up until you print, and with something as tiny as a business card, smaller imperfections can matter. Most often the top and bottom margins are off by a smidge from stack to stack, or brand to brand. Just run a single sheet test page so you don't spoil more than one if it is a problem. Remember also that if you change printers, you will have to make sure of where your new printer puts the printing, as it is likely to be different than where the old one did!

Double sided cards are much more difficult to print, as are booklet cards, or other unusual formats. When printing double sided, you have to make sure that both sides will print well, and that generally means some manual adjustments to where the printing ends up. Cutting must also be precise. Pre-perforated cards tend to have a definite front and back, so put your less important information on the back. Double sided cards can be an asset to people with two business lines that are unrelated - like our bulk foods and computer services. The disadvantage is that you really have to TELL people that the cards are double sided, or they won't look.

We used double sided cards for our newspaper also. On the front we put the usual business card information. We put subscription prices and advertising prices on the back. Using the back as a place to list common answers to frequently asked questions is a nice way to give your customers more information. But you must keep it brief, and choose your words well. You can use the back to print a discount coupon on if you like.

To make a booklet type card, the simplest method is to fold the card on the right hand edge. This makes it easier for printing, and wastes less paper than folding them along the top edge. A page will hold 10 business cards. You can print them out so that it holds only five instead. Use the same advice as for double sided. Put the MOST IMPORTANT information on the OUTSIDE FRONT of the card. Who you are and a brief description of what you do, and maybe an image. Put more detailed descriptions or images on the inside. Place the "afterthought" information on the back.

When you make a folded card, people may not realize that it has more information. You can trim the side edge of the top layer about 1/8" shorter than the back layer so that the two layers show if this is a problem with the card stock you have chosen. You can also place an irregularly shaped graphic near that edge, and cut partly around the edge of the graphic so that the right hand edge of the front layer is shaped similarly to a greeting card. This takes a lot of time, and smooth hand cutting. Leave the back layer squared off so it will be visible that there are two layers. Pre-perforated stock will not work for a double sided card, because the perforations in the middle will tear if folded.

Choose a sharp edge to fold the cards on so you get a sharp crease. This will make your cards look more professional. I generally use the cutting edge of the paper cutter to fold the cards over, which gives them a nice crease, and also provides a grid to line the card up on to make sure my crease is in the right direction.

I buy envelopes at the office supply store also. You can purchase small Kraft envelopes in a 2.25" X 4" size, which is just right to hold about 20-30 cards. I put small stacks of cards in the envelopes, and they are handy to grab and go. This is especially handy if you have other people who hand out cards for you. The envelope slips into a purse or pocket very easily and keeps the cards neat and clean.

Home printed business cards can be a nice way to promote your business and keep it remembered when it needs to be. Designing one that looks good and defines what your business is can be a real asset for any small business.

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