To design a business card, choose a template from the home page. You will then see the business card editor with a preview of the card template you chose. To edit the card, just click on a text or graphic block to select it. On the right side of the window, you'll see some options that allow you to change that text or graphic. If you clicked a text block, you can change the wording, font face, font size, bold, italic, etc. While the object is selected, you can also move it around by simply clicking and dragging it to the new location. Due to limitations in web browsers, the software can't provide a live preview as the object is moved so only an outline of the object moves. Simply click the "Update My Card" button to refresh the business card preview with the updated position. This is also how you can see your text changes if you change things like boldface, italic, font size, wording changes, etc.
If you click on a graphic, you can not only move it around but you can also resize it by dragging one of the four corners to make it larger or smaller. You'll notice that you can't resize graphics beyond the business card margin. This is because our printing press requires a certain margin on the cards so our software ensures that text and graphics stay within this small margin.
When a graphic is selected, you can change it to a different image from our selection of clip art. Or you can upload your own! Need your company logo on your card? No problem! As long as it's a GIF, JPG, or PNG, you're good to go. If your image is in color, it will be converted to black-and-white so it will be compatible with our offset printing methods. If the conversion doesn't look very good, you will need to do it yourself with a graphics program such as Adobe® Photoshop™ or have a graphics person convert it for you. You will also want to ensure that your graphic has a high enough resolution that it will print well. We recommend at least 300dpi (dots per inch) and preferably 600dpi. If you simply copied and pasted a logo off your company's website, it will probably be very grainy and low quality when we print it. You're going to want print-quality graphics.
You can easily try out different paper stocks by clicking one from the paper list. After a few seconds, the business card preview will show the results. Try combining different papers and ink colors to come up with some beautiful designs. For the most professional results, try combining a blue ink on a paper stock that has blue or gray in it. Then add a second ink such as black. If you make your company title in blue and the rest of the contact information in black, the result will be very striking. Similarly, you can try a red or magenta ink on paper stocks with pink or cream colors.
The paper list shows dollar signs ($) that represent how expensive it is relative to the other paper stocks. It's the same kind of notation you've seen in restaurant pricing guides. More dollar signs denote higher cost but also represents higher quality paper. To learn more about our papers, read the "Paper" section below.
Our offset printing presses print up to two ink colors at once. For more about how offset printing works, refer to the "Ink" section below. Because of this two-ink limit, you can use a maximum of two inks on your card at once. To reduce the cost, you can go with only one ink color.
Below the business card preview, you can choose the two ink colors you want to use from the dropdown lists. When those are chosen, you can then click on any text or graphics object to specify that it should use ink or the other.
As you make changes to the business card quantity, paper stock, and inks, the price will update. Those are the only three options that affect the printing price.
When you're done editing your card, you can add it to your shopping cart by clicking the "Add to shopping cart" button. Or, if you want to save it for later, you can click "Save design for later" in the button bar at the top of the screen. If you need to send the design to a colleague, boss, or friend, just click "Send design to a friend". After entering their name and email address, they will receive an email with a graphical preview of the business card and a link to the full-size version.
Keep in mind that you can also bookmark your design if you want to come back to it later. We've provided you with a number of ways to easily and quickly save your work. You can even email the design to yourself if you enter your own email address as the "friend" to whom you're sending it.
Important Note
After you submit an order, and before the card is printed, every business card design is reviewed by our professional graphic design staff to ensure quality. If we see something that looks like it may not print well (such as a custom graphic that isn't high enough resolution or objects with different inks that overlap), we will email you with some suggestions and ask you how we should proceed. We want you to look good, so you can rest assured that you've got a team of professionals behind-the-scenes dedicated to that mission. We're not here to churn out business cards by the thousands... we're here to serve your needs and make you look great.
If you have any questions at all, just fire off an e-mail to us and we'll respond to it quickly.