One of the many ways to save time as a designer is to have a toolbox. That is, a collection of design files to help you get started or to reference when designing. These files might be templates, layer styles, swatch pallets, code snippets, anything that keeps you from having to do something tedious from scratch when you’ve done it many times before. Designer’s Toolbox will be a series here on Tutorial Blog. Each post will bring you new tools for your (hopefully) ever-growing toolbox.
Blank Business Card Templates
Every designer has designed a business card. Even if you don’t really call yourself a designer but you are the “computer person” in your group of friends or family, you’ve probably designed a business card. Assuming we are talking about standard 3.5″ x 2″ cards, the fate of these business cards is one of two:
- • Printed on a professional printing press
- • Printed on your home printer
If the cards are to be professionally printed, you need only provide the card “1 up”, that is, a single card design in a single document. It will need to either be vector or at a high quality printing resolution (300 DPI) and include bleed (if needed). If you will be printing the cards on your home printer, printing the cards “1 up” would be very wasteful as a 3.5″ x 2″ card can fit up to 10 times on a single sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ paper.
Because of these different needs, several different templates are handy to have on-hand. Some for designing single cards, and some for layout for home printing.
Adobe Illustrator Business Card Templates
Illustrator isn’t really a page layout program, so it makes the most sense when using it to design a single card and then use InDesign to lay out multiple cards if necessary. However, sometimes it’s just quicker and easier to duplicate your designs and lay them out right in Illustrator. Here are templates for both:
Illustrator BC Template (1 up)
Illustrator BC Template (10 up)
Adobe Photoshop Business Card Templates
Photoshop is definitely not a page layout program. It is only really necessary to have a one-up template for Photoshop. In case you need bleed, it is best to build the file larger than the standard 3.5″ x 2″. With a standard 1/8″ bleed, this template’s dimensions are 3.75″ x 2.25″. While designing, it can be useful to have a “trim layer” as your top-most layer to hide bleed and only show the printable area. Make sure to turn this layer off before exporting a final version for layout.
Adobe InDesign Business Card Templates
Because of it’s ability to export into truly printer-ready formats, InDesign should probably be home to your final business card layout. In the case of sending to a professional printer, use the 1 up layout. Standard 0.125″ bleed is built in. For home printing, the 10-up layout is provided.
InDesign BC Template (1 up)
InDesign BC Template (10 up)
Just what i needed yesterday
Cheers
This was very helpful! However, I don’t think that business cards should be printed on your home printer. The quality is just not professional.
I suggest http://www.ooprint.com
They have a category of products called “blank models” onto which you can upload your own designs onto business cards, greeting cards, letterhead etc. It’s a really great solution for designers!!
This is really helpful. But i don’t suggest doing it yourself. I tried it originally because I thought print houses were way to expensive.
But i found a site that offers 5000 cards which you design for $29. Best deal ever. Go to http://www.cards29.com.
The Designers Toolbox series is a wonderful idea, the concept is so true.
There are probably way too many things I end up doing repeatedly. Thank you for spurring me into action!