How to print business cards at home and cut them straight
The paper, the printer settings and the cutting method that make home printed cards look bought rather than made, plus when to stop and use a printer.
Read it →There are three printers for business cards: the one on your desk for twenty cards this week, the shop down the road for a hundred you can inspect, and an online press for five hundred at the lowest cost per card. All three take the same file.
The file first, because it removes most of the argument
Download the print PDF from the design screen. It is the card at its real size with bleed and crop marks, and it carries the letter shapes rather than font names, so no printer has to own the lettering you chose. That one file answers the four questions a print shop would otherwise ring you about.
If you have not designed anything yet, the card maker gives you a design and the files in a few minutes without asking for payment.
The printer on your desk
Suitable for a small batch, a test of a new design, or a card for a side project nobody is being invoiced for.
You need card stock the printer can actually take, usually 250 to 300 gsm through the rear or manual tray, and a way to cut straight. The print at home sheet puts ten copies on one page with cutting guides, which is what makes a straight cut possible at all. Scissors are not enough; a trimmer or a steel ruler and a craft knife are.
The local print shop
Best when you want to hold the card before committing, or when you need a hundred quickly.
Five things worth asking:
- What paper weights do you stock? You want something near 350 gsm; below 300 the card bends in a wallet.
- Matte, gloss, soft touch or uncoated? Soft touch feels expensive and scuffs. Uncoated takes a pen, which matters if you write on your cards.
- Single or double sided, and is the second side much more? Often it is not, and a back face is where the code goes.
- Do you need bleed, and how much? Three millimetres is standard and our files carry it.
- How long, honestly? A shop that says two days usually means two days. One that says an hour is printing digitally, which is fine for small runs.
Take the PDF on a memory stick or email it. Ask for a printed proof if the design has a brand colour that has to be exact, because screens and presses do not agree on colour. If you have no design yet, the business cards by trade give you a filled-in one to take along, from bakeries to insurance agents.
The online press
Cheapest per card at five hundred or a thousand, slowest, and the one where a file problem costs the most, since nobody looks at your artwork before it prints.
Upload the PDF, not a screenshot. Check the size selector matches the size your card was designed at. Read the proof screen properly rather than clicking through it.
Printed and delivered by us
Printed cards are made to order here and sent to every country, in any of eight sizes. The price and the delivery charge are shown before you pay, and handling is three to five working days before the box ships, which is said on the page rather than discovered afterwards.
If a local shop suits you better, the design and every download are still yours to take there. That is deliberate: nothing here is held back to push you toward buying printing from us.
The cost question, answered honestly
Cost per card falls sharply with quantity, which is why the box of five hundred is tempting and why so many people end up with four hundred cards carrying an old phone number.
The way out is not to print fewer cards. It is to put a code on the back that points at a tracked link, so the card keeps working after your details change. Then five hundred is a sensible number rather than a bet on your next two years. The cheap business cards page goes through the arithmetic without pretending printing is free.
What the code on the back can do after printing
Whichever printer you choose, the ink is fixed the moment it dries, and the card behind the code is not. Everyone who scans it and saves your card to their phone can get card notifications from you: word of a new branch, a new number, a seasonal offer. If they add the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, the pass updates itself when you edit a detail. Pro is $0.99 a month, less than the cheapest reprint any of the three printers will quote. Make your free card before you send the file, so the code has somewhere to land.
Questions people ask
Which paper should I choose?
A matte stock of roughly 350 gsm is the safe default: it feels substantial, takes colour well and does not show fingerprints the way gloss does.
Is soft touch worth it?
It feels noticeably better in the hand and scuffs more easily in a wallet. Worth it for a card that will be handed over deliberately, less so for one that lives in a jacket pocket for a year.
Can a printer work from a PNG?
Some will. A PDF is better because the size, the bleed and the crop marks travel with it as instructions. The printable cards guide explains why that matters.
What if the printed colour looks different from my screen?
Screens emit light and paper reflects it, so some colours always shift. Ask for a printed proof when an exact brand colour matters.