3 steps to get your own business cards

3 steps to get your own business cards printed

1) Plan your work.

How long have you got for this project? The faster the turnaround, the fewer the options. Usually the design takes the longest; as a design is created new factors come to light. Earlier this week we created a card design and printed it as a matt laminated card in 5 days with a weekend between.

2) Design them.

This could be as simple as a document created in Word. If you are planning to have them professionally printed they must be ready to print or the print process will fail. Set up Word using a custom page size. You will (if you persevere) find that option buried in the sub menu of the sub menu of Layout. 6.1cm x 9.1cm (sorry, Word works in centimetres). 

And away you go; probably best using Text boxes (Insert menu), they can easily be moved around your page, after you have adjusted the wrapping settings.

Office has online templates but they will probably be set up to wrong size (American) and with lots of cards on one page.

You may have decided by now that Word isn't the best for this project.

Alternatively, join the online Canva community where there will be a template for you to get started.

The other option is employ someone, this could include: a relative. Minuteman Press's studio. An on-line designer.

3) Next, printing them.

Nowadays there are endless types of business cards. Laminated (matt, gloss, soft touch). Foiled (gold, silver etc). Spot UV: single and double sided and raised. Shaped, folded, round cornered, thick, thin, pierced, embossed. There are even the metal cards available that opens up even more variations. Then they are available in different materials... plastic, kraft card, coloured cards, sandwiched cards. Best visit a Minuteman Press to view samples if you fancy something out of the ordinary.

Assuming you have left plenty of time for this printing process, the more complicated the card, the longer they will take. This will also affect the price.

A standard card nowadays is a 450gsm (450gsm is the card weight but means thick card) printed in full colour print with a matt lamination. They are mass produced using lots of computer technology and expensive printers. This will take a few days. 

An unlaminated card could be produced the same day.

Another option is printing them on an office printer. Sadly, take this route and you are heading for frustration and failure.

Yet another option is to use Avery label business cards sheets. One downside of this route is that there are limited options available and the card will be only slightly thicker than paper.

Check our web site for online helps. www.minutemanpress.uk.com

You can even order online at minutemanpressstockport.co.uk