To print a business card is fairly straightforward. You can either do it yourself or pay a printer to do it for you.

For most traditional designs using light weight cardboard it is entirely viable to you to create a design in word and then format them so they cover an A4 sheet and print them all off. Most desktop printers will be able to print onto the cardboard as long as it isn’t too porous. Caution should be taken with the printer settings though, to ensure that porous paper or cardboard is selected. That will stop smudging and help keep the lines and edges sharp.

Don’t forget to specify double sided printing either, says the voice of experience. Don’t waste a whole sheet of full colour 400 weight cardboard because you forgot to set it up for double sided and didn’t line it up properly for the other side to match exactly. Make sure you line the card up EXACTLY so each card is printed both sides. The tolerances between cards is very fine and even a slight miscalculation can render the whole sheet useless.

Much easier to get a printer to do it for you. A professional job will almost always show through. It’s much better to spend even a little money to get a reputable printer to do the work for you. If you have one near you at least you can see examples of their work before giving them your money. Online is slightly harder to judge and you should only deal with a reputable firm.

Most printers online or otherwise will be happy to print business cards for you either to your own design or to one of theirs. They tend to prefer you to provide your own designs electronically in a .psd, .pdf or .doc format so they can format it for printing. The turnaround is pretty quick for a print job of a few hundred cards, generally within a couple of days, some within twenty four hours. Be prepared to pay a premium when wanting them in a hurry though!

Professional printers are the only viable option when wanting to play with different textures and materials. They will be able to select the proper ink settings for each one and ensure you get a good result.

Some companies like the inimitable Moo.com has made their entire business plan around business cards. There are plenty of other companies too, who offer similar services. Just Google business cards or something, you will get plenty of results for companies who specialize in them.

I can’t attest to their quality having never used them. Personally I prefer giving the work to my local printer. Local work for local businesses and all that. He in turn gives me work if a client of his needs copywriting. I win both ways! I get a good product for a good price and can discuss any issues face to face. I also get a local recommendation from a known company in my town.

First of all you need a concept, and a brand idea in mind before you even turn on your computer. You also need a good idea of your target market and what they would like to see in their supplier or vendor.

Using Word or Paintshop or something mock up a business card template from one of the built in ones or make it yourself. Using a template is an effective way of starting the process as it gives you the dimensions and a basic layout to work with. Although you have complete freedom to do what you like, it is advisable to stick to the standard business card size. This will make your card much more acceptable as it will fit into card wallets and Rolodexes. Two of the most used business card tools around.

Have a play around with the program and devise a logo or design for your company. If you want to cheat you can always buy one off the internet or use freely available pictures or clip art. You can always download one of these and modify it to suit your needs. It isn’t always worth the effort to spend hours trying to come up with your own design to begin with. You can always develop your brand as you go.

It is always a good idea to have an idea of how many cards you want in advance so you can buy enough art board to make them. The card is available in most office supply stores or hobby shops and shouldn’t be that expensive. If you use an online card supplier they may even have card templates that you can use.

Once you have completed your logo or image, add all the relevant information to the card. At the very least you’ll need to add company name, your name, phone number, office address, website and email. If you use social networking, and have the room, it might pay to add those details too. Play around with size and positioning until you are happy with the finished product. Your text will need to be small enough to fit it all on the card but big enough to be clearly legible.

Word and Photoshop templates allow you to duplicate your design across an A4 sheet. I assume other programs will offer the same facility. By doing this you can squeeze as many cards onto a single sheet of card as possible eliminating waste and needless expense.

Place the card carefully into the printer and align it correctly. Run a single sheet test print before doing anything else to make sure the alignment and print quality is what you wanted. If everything is okay set the print run for as many sheets as you like. If your design is double sided you will need to turn the sheets over once dry and repeat the process for the reverse side. Take extra care here in the alignment so nothing gets trimmed off when cutting.

Once all dry cut the cards out with a pair of very sharp scissors or guillotine. Trim of any excess fibres and you’re all done. Now you can print your own business cards as and when you need them!