I’d like to share a technique that lets you think outside the 2 by 3 ½ inch box, to personalize what you want to say, and how you want to say it. Inkjet printing your own business cards gives freedom to customize and update messages as often as you like. No minimum 100 card order, either. The small business card format is simple and uncluttered, so a small effort goes a long way.An important bonus of this technique is the use of full-bleed designs for a professional look, without those nasty lines around the card edges, from slight misalignments, that the human eye is so very good at noticing.
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What I talk about in this blog post: 1. Business Cards for Business
2. The Thing About Full-bleed; A Downloadable Full-bleed Design Template
3. Personal Business Cards
4. Making Use of that Second Side White Space
1. Business Cards for Business
There is a lot of good advice out there on the essential elements of a professional business card (e.g. company logo/name, name, title, position, phone, email, mailing address, web site url, etc.). I won’t try to repeat it here. Click here to read an article about business card design.Most DIY (do-it-yourself) business card printing is done using convenient pre-designed templates. You just select a card design from the choices, type in your information, print and separate the printed cards. A commonly used blank template is Avery’s # 8371, which is printed onto paper perforated to match. Check your specialty business card paper package to see which templates to use. Completed templates can also be printed on other 8 ½ x 11 in. papers, which you then cut out yourself.
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Business cards from a template downloaded
from: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=business+card&av=TPL000 |
Microsoft and others offer a variety of free business card design templates on their websites for DIY printing. Here is one design I liked from the MS collection of Word templates (upper left, “Technology”). A nice card resulted from just typing in new text and printing according to the perforated paper manufacturer’s instructions. I couldn’t resist modifying the template’s card design, though, using a few simple edit tools in Word. This one design inspired several new ones. I learned that if I do edit templates, I need to proceed with care. The card sizes and positions need to be preserved if they are to line up with the paper perforations. The Edit > Undo tool in Word became my best friend when I got too enthusiastic with image moves, font changes, color changes and element resizing. Undo got me back to a place where all was well, before I set off again to make another design change. Sometimes it was more efficient to just download a fresh copy of the template and start again. |
2. The Thing About Full-Bleed;
A Downloadable Full-Bleed Design Template
Is “full-bleed” a medieval cure for a headache or something you do to a fresh-caught tuna? “Full-bleed” is actually a printing term for printing all the way to the edge of paper.Printing full-bleed designs onto precisely matched sizes of paper allows no wiggle-room for common small misalignments. In the photo on the right, the unprinted white line at the bottom of the card, and the blue line from the design of the neighboring card, are less than a millimeter wide, but the eye gets drawn to such defects if they occur. To do away with this problem, I borrowed an idea from the commercial printing industry. I made all of my design backgrounds larger, by an eighth of an inch all around. Then, when the printed cards are cut down to 2 x 3 ½ in., there is a much higher likelihood of seeing ink all the way to all of the edges. |
Enlargement of the same business card design printed in 2 ways:
Left: Avery #8371 template and #8371 paper
Right: LizzPrints full-bleed template and HP Brochure paper |
 
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A sequence of monitor screens photographed
during a full-bleed business card design and
copying session |
4. For a full-bleed image background, Insert > Picture > From File into a highlighted active box. Move and drag a corner of the image to fill the box, if needed.
5. To add text, Insert > Text Box into the active box. Type, format and position your text as wish it to appear on the card. Remember to plan for the outer eighth inch, all around, to be trimmed away. Position text at least a quarter inch in from edges. |
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6. For more than one copy of the same design on a page, while holding down SHIFT, click on each of the design elements you inserted in the box to highlight them all. Right click > Grouping > Group to capture the completed design. Right click Copy. Move the cursor over to highlight an empty box. Right click Paste.
7. When you have finished your 8 cards, Print Preview to see the 8 card layout on the 8 ½ x 11 in. page on your monitor screen. Remember that Undo can be very useful at any time in the design process to undo mistakes.
8. Print a test page on Plain Paper. It is a good idea to use the printed cutting guides to either draw lines where the cut edges will be, or, use the guides with a 12” paper trimmer to proof the cards at their final business card size. (see CUTTING TIPS below)
9. Print the final design template on premium inkjet heavy weight paper, such as HP Brochure Paper. Select Best mode and No Scaling. Be sure that Minimize Margins is NOT checked.
10. Let the printed page dry. Align the printed cutting guides on a 12” paper trimmer to separate the cards. (see CUTTING TIPS below)11. Save your file for fast future updates. |
Printed 8 ½ x 11 in. paper with crosswise cutting guides lined up in the trimmer |
CUTTING TIPSI make the 4 longways cuts first, and stop each long cut at the grey checkerboard pattern in the margin. Otherwise, I would cut off the side cutting guides, needed for the cross- cuts.I make sure the longways strips, joined at the uncut margin, are flat and aligned in the trimmer before making the crosswise cuts. Note: There are a number of very good 12 in. paper cutters on the market, thanks in large part to quality scrapbooking suppliers. Sharp, straight edges and square corners are a must.
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3. Personal Business Cards We get to make up the design rules for personal business cards as we go. Yes! A design flows from how and where the card will be used. The kind of personal information you share also depends on the use. The beauty of DIY personal business cards is their simple design and customizability. You don’t have to order and use up 100 of the same card for all situations and needs.With so many business card files, organizers, holders and scanners out there, 2 x 3 ½ in. size is a practical choice for personal business cards. Therefore, the downloadable full-bleed business cards design template is a great tool to have. A few suggestions of possible elements to include on personal business cards: |
| Photos |
Phone number, email address |
Home address/School address |
| Hobbies, Interests, Groups, Charities |
On-line photo sharing url |
Favorite quotes, books, music |
| Event announcements |
Personal greetings |
On-line profile url |
| Scanned images of your own artwork |
Favorite web sites |
Items for sale or trade |
These suggestions are literally the tip of a creative iceberg. Express yourself. |
Example of a vibrant printed 2-sided business card -
It is being cut using the crossways guides from one side. |
4. Making Use of that Second Side White SpaceI couldn’t think of a reason why I had to have a blank white backside on custom business cards. So, I reopened a copy of the blank full-bleed template and created a new simple design to add some complementary images to the backside. (see Example of a printed 2-side business card) Both sides of the page were printed prior to cutting.The brochure paper I used is made for 2-sided printing. The printing alignment wiggle-room I created on the full-bleed template made it easy to print an aligned second full-bleed design on the back of the card.Tip: I checked that both printed templates were centered on the printed pages at the plain paper test page step. This was done by measuring the distances between the paper edges and the end cutting guides. This is important for aligned 2-sided printing. |
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Just some of the many uses for printing the second side of business cards are:
Business: Product information/photos, ideas for using products, sale dates/times/locations, coupons, training seminars, trade show information, latest product awards, handy references for customers, a form for making suggestions, an appointment form, calendar, …
Personal: Additional elements from the list above under Personal Business Cards, then/now photos for reunions, then/now photos for anniversary celebrations, baby/now photos, team photo, sports schedule, ... |
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I used multiple models of HP inkjet printers to create the business cards shown.
I hope you give printing business cards a try and make new designs in your own personal style! |
Useful Links: Click here to download the full-bleed business cards design template.
Click here to learn more about HP brochure paper.
Click here to download free photo editing software.
Click here to find free on-line classes for learning to use Word and other software.
Click here for information on designing a business identity.Click here to read an article on personal business card design.
Click here for more creative printing ideas on the LizzPrints Blog. |
