Logo Rob Buckley – Freelance Journalist and Editor

How To… get (almost) free business cards

How To… get (almost) free business cards

We’re going to use Vista Print to create free, high quality business cards

It’s a hallmark moment for anyone going into business for themselves: getting your first business cards. You’ve made it, you’re finally living the dream. But unless you’re starting up as a business card designer, there’s the inevitable questions of who’s going to create these cards, what they’re going to look like and where they’re going to be printed. There’s also the thorny problem facing any new business of finding the cash for all of this.

If you’re not careful, you might be tempted to use one of those machines you find in shopping centres or train stations to have them printed for you on the spot. Resist this at all costs: they lack – how shall we say this? – a certain je ne sais quoi.

If you’ve a printer, you could try printing your own. WH Smith’s and Rymans sell sheets of cards that you can print on and then press out. Together with a program like SOHO Business Cards (http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/sohobc_product.html) or Business Card Composer (http://www.belightsoft.com/products/composer/overview.php), you can soon design your own cards have them printed out. But aside from the costs in paper, consumables and software, it’s all a bit fiddly. You have to calibrate your printer and nothing ever seems to line up quite right. Before you know it, you’ve printed and seven sheets of cards and only got four usable ones out of the experience. More often than not, they still don’t look quite right – always a good impression for a potential client.

So there’s something to be said for a professional printing service that can use the best paper, decent inks and printers that have already been calibrated. Balking at the cost? How about VistaPrint (www.vistaprint.co.uk)? They’ll let you design your own business cards using their pre-designed templates from within a web browser and will send you 250, printed on decent card, for just the cost of postage. If you want something a little more – but costs a little more, too – the cards can be double-sided with messages, calendars or appointment slips on the reverse. You can print them on glossy or prestige card or have a foil accent to text and logos. If you want matching sticky notes, compliments slips, stationery, rubber stamps and just about anything else, that’s no problem either. And if you really know your way round business cards, you can upload your own design and VistaPrint will print it for you. Once you’ve created or uploaded a design, it stays in your online portfolio, ready for you to re-order once you’ve used up your first batch.

We’re going to show you how to use VistaPrint’s web interface to create a free design, as well as how to upload your own design. However, there are other options within VistaPrint, such as their premium business cards, which you can explore for yourself. To create a custom design, you’ll need to download one of VistaPrint’s many templates for standard DTP programs and you’ll need to understand things like bleed and trim to make sure everything goes up to the edge (and no further, unless that’s what you intend). But even if you don’t, you can experiment with the online preview to see what effects your changes might have.

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