Make Business Cards
For those of us without the finances (or will) to hire design professionals to create unique business cards, it is entirely possible and desirable to make our own at home. There is not even any need for specialist design software, as a standard Word document will suffice.
Before we begin to make business cards, it is important to set the correct dimensions for the layout.
If using 8.5” x 11” paper, open a new document and set the size as 8.5”x11”, with 0.5” margins. (You may also need to set the default measurement units as inches, although this may come as standard.)
You will then need to open the ‘Page’ window, and enter the horizontal guides as 0.5, 2.5 and 4.5 – then enter the vertical guides as 0.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 8.0. Open the ‘View’ window and ask to ‘Show guides’, then go back to ‘Page’ and instruct it to ‘Snap to guides’.
Once this is done, you can draw out the rectangular shape of your business cards. The standard size is 2”x3.5” and this is recommended. Once you have drawn this shape, you should make sure it fills the area that your guides have marked out.
Your frame has now been created and you can begin designing. There are various draw programs you can use, and you may wish to consider entering a company logo. It is a good idea to leave plenty of white space so that recipients of your card can make notes about your work and where they met you, etc. – and remember, think ‘memorable’!
Once you have completed your design, you should bring all the elements of your design together as a single unit, then re-open the ‘Page’ window. Where you checked, ‘Snap to guides’, you should now uncheck this and then select the business card.
Go to ‘Item’ and select ‘Multiple duplicate’. Ask for one copy – then enter the horizontal shift as 3.50, and your vertical shift as 0.00. You will then need to select the top row and ask it to duplicate the card enough times to fill the length of the page. Go back to ‘Item’ and check ‘Multiple duplicate’ again, then enter the horizontal shift as 0.00 and the vertical shift as 2.00. You are now finished!