Just want to make a card

CI
Posted By
claude_isbell
Jul 14, 2004
Views
941
Replies
34
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Closed
Sorry, I know this must be ridiculously simple. I’m brand new to PS and have been looking through paperwork and forums to simply figure out how to make some business cards in PS. I don’t expect anybody to go through the whole process, but if someone could point me in the right direction, where I could look it up, it would be appreciated.

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MO
Mike_Ornellas
Jul 14, 2004
specifically?
R
Ram
Jul 14, 2004
Claude,

If you have graphics you want included in your card, by all means manipulate them in Photoshop until you’re happy with them. Then use a layout application like InDesign or maybe even in Illustrator.

Sure, the whole job can be done in Photoshop if you want, just like you can drive a nail with a pair of pliers in a pinch.

Ask your printer what format they need.
KN
Ken_Nielsen
Jul 14, 2004
Leading into the project of making a business card by saying you know it must be ridiculously simple is to lead yourself into a tar pit while out for a stroll. In my decades of experience with every conceivable media and medium, I don’t think there is one project with requirements to match the hidden difficulty and need for experience that is presented by this seemingly simple undertaking. I advise you to hire it out to a professional and take notes as you begin to acquire insight into the process and its challenges.
GB
g_ballard
Jul 14, 2004
First, make your New Document oversized (to fit the cut marks).

Drag any pixel-based graphic into the document window, a new layer, and rezize it to fit.

Use the Type tool to create your type (on its own layers).

Save As (a copy of the master.psd layered file in) Photoshop EPS format (to preserve Vector information), deliver to printer with a note for help.

Go back to the Master.psd file to revise/rework…

Make sure he prints you a proof to sign off on (be sure your type/vector is not pixelated, check it with a loupe).

Note: If your logo is Vector (and already produced) have the printer place your Photoshop.eps file in a layout program and drop in your Vector logo/art.

Stop back in if stuck…
BG
barry_gray
Jul 15, 2004
Well done Gary !
I would only add that you can save as PDF from PS and retain vectors perfectly. You don’t need no stinking "layout programs" for TOP of the line Biz cards and many other print output jobs.
What is the point in increasing your work flow time AND software overhead for single page projects? PS can handle it as well as anything.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Jul 15, 2004
Can you say "Typography"?!

That’s what Illustrator and, particularly, InDesign provide; and that is an essential part of designing any business stationery — especially the cards.
GB
g_ballard
Jul 15, 2004
Ya, PDF

I would have to stop and figure HOW to place a Vector (.eps) graphic in Photoshop (and keep it Vector), maybe I’ll learn something new on this thread…
M
merge
Jul 15, 2004
People "design" business cards in Word too to keep things in their workflow. That doesn’t necessarily make it the best application to do it in though.
BG
barry_gray
Jul 15, 2004
Ann,
Please explain, what typography can be done in ID and not PS? Gary,
Simple, flatten raster layers only, save as PDF>retain vector(if Type imbed font if you want, outlines are cheaper).
K
klmhicks
Jul 15, 2004
I have grown to do most of my work in PS, it keeps the app switching to a minimum, if at all. One of the hardest decisions to make is what program to use on many projects.

With all the advances of PS CS I find it fits my needs better than hassled app switching and time consuming "oh yeah, this program can’t do that, I have to do that somewhere else".

Yes, for true typography and flared effects of the lettering, other apps excel but for the most part PS can do most everything I need!

And my roots sprouted in true typography, I remember the wood block and lead fondly.

k
NK
Neil_Keller
Jul 15, 2004
Well, taking up where Ann left off…

In general, it is easier to set, edit, and manipulate type (size, color, position, alignment, leading, kerning) and graphic elements (logos, other design elements) with proper crops in a page layout app than in Photoshop. Exception — where the type needs to be distorted or textured and blended into another design element. And generally, business cards are set up 10-up, not one up. And it is easier to create spot colors in a page layout app. And it’s easier to try different colors and fonts.

Alternate choice: Illustrator.

Just because you can do something in Photoshop, doesn’t necessarily make it the best tool. It’s like mixing a martini with a tongue depressor.

Neil
M
merge
Jul 15, 2004
Here, here…
R
Ram
Jul 15, 2004
(if Type imbed [sic] font if you want, outlines are cheaper).

Cheaper in every sense of the word. When you covert type to outlines, you loose hinting. Do a search on the Typography forum.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Jul 15, 2004
Why would you not embed your fonts?
As Ramón said you will lose the ability to edit; and lose the hinting and end up with course-looking type which looks even worse in small point-sizes than it does in large.

Also nearly every logo will print better from a vector image; and cards frequently use spot colors too.

All reasons to use the proper programs for the job — which is not just Photoshop.
CI
claude_isbell
Jul 15, 2004
Thanks everybody for the responses. I’ll try them. I had a person tell me she had made some cards in PS and printed them on card stock at home. But I don’t know how to get that done. I’ll check out some of the tutorials that were suggested.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Jul 15, 2004
But did she actually show you the results?

And perhaps you need to look rather more professional than she does?
R
Ram
Jul 15, 2004
As Ramón said you will lose the ability to edit;

You certainly lose the ability to edit the outlines as you would text when you convert type to outlines. But I was referring to something else, something even more important: hinting. Hinting consists of a set of instructions built into fonts to optimize the shape of the glyphs at a wide range of sizes, beyond the description of the outlines of each glyph.

When you lose hinting, you also lose the ability to scale the outlines properly. For example, 12-point type converted to outlines and then scaled up to 200% or down to 50% won’t look nearly as good as 24-point type or 6-point type when text remains as text.

Here’s an Adobe tech document that may be helpful:

<http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2673a.htm>

The above Tech Doc references InDesign, but it’s really about converting text to outlines, so everything there applies equally to Photoshop and Illustrator as well.
BG
barry_gray
Jul 15, 2004
Once you save a "card" file with outlined fonts to PDF for the printer why would you then want to scale it to any other size?
It’s done. You should have the original to scale if need be. Outlines create a smaller file, the only possible advantage I can see.
P
Phosphor
Jul 15, 2004
"And generally, business cards are set up 10-up, not one up."

Here’s another reason to communicate with the print shop.

Some places will print 2-up. The last print shop I worked at, though state-of-the-art everywhere else, they still very often run business cards off on a small press, 2-up, rather than tie up their bigger presses for a small job.
R
Ram
Jul 15, 2004
Barry,

…why would you then want to…

You can always make a case for doing things differently, and you often do, I know that.

Fonts are designed to behave like text, converting text to outlines will always be a workaround. If you’re going to keep the original anyway, why on Earth go for the additional workaround?

Why lose the superior kerning and tracking control of a page layout application when there’s no reason to?

You’re free to set your own standards, of course (see that "Obligitory" [sic] gaffe on your web site, for instance). That doesn’t mean that’s the right answer for everybody.
NK
Neil_Keller
Jul 15, 2004
Phos,

I know, I know… There are some "digital" workflows I’ve come across that request one-up art, too — probably for ganged up CMYK runs. But 10-up will fit very neatly within an 8.5 x 11 sheet, except for cards with vertical bleeds — then do cards 8-up. This is certainly within the realm of small offset presses, and makes very efficent use of stock sheet sizes (American).

But ALWAYS check first with your printer-of-choice before setting up ANY job, so that you best match his workflow.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jul 15, 2004
I’ld approach this logistically.

Since you’re brand new to PS, the quickest would be to hire it out.

Do it yourself? You’ll need to spend quite a bit of time. What are you paying yourself hourly? That’s what you’ll be investing teaching yourself. Plan to spend over 80 hours minimum from concept to printed cards.

Start out with the design. To decide, look what others are doing. Examine a bulletin board in a public place with a bunch of BC’s pushpinned to it. What are they doing. Make yours different.

Do you need to have raised lettering, embossing or any other fancy looking treatment? If so it will be a bit more expensive and complicated than printing them out youself off your inkjet. Do you want a subdued simple typography treatment or an eyepopping color design? Both can be done on an inkjet with gorgeous results.

Find out how many cards you plan to hand out in a week by determining how many contacts you’ll be able to make. It might be ten people. If so, work in RGB in PS ten up or how ever many you can get on one sheet of inkjet paper. Print them out as needed once a month-4 sheets X10bc=40 cards a month. That shouldn’t take too long to print.

Office supply shops or anywhere they sell inkjet supplies have inkjet paper prescored with business card size on 81/2 x 11or you could use their papercutter-this is probably the most hassle about doing it yourself.

But still this is far easier than trying to learn all the in’s and out’s of PS and prepress prep of digital files for commercial output. Not to mention the cost, hassles of communicating what you want to others, if you decide to change information on the card (address, phone #, email address, etc.) down the road, you’re stuck with 500 or so cards (the required minimum from most commercial printers) that are now useless and headed for the landfill.

Just my 2¢.
KN
Ken_Nielsen
Jul 16, 2004
"It’s like mixing a martini with a tongue depressor."

Neil, I always learn new things on these forums.

That’s a good one.

I like to keep my apps separate too, and appreciate what Ann and others are saying. But, did you notice how the poster said that her friend was printing her cards at home? Maybe the advice we give here is a bit over the top at times for certain settings.

A business card, done properly, needs an expert.

Mostly, for large corporations, there is a lot to consider and an ongoing management project just to keep the card look, color, trim, stock, and many other factors, in line. I think that that is where many of the contributors to this thread are coming from.

A card can also be done at home, using medium weight stock, so as not to kill your printer, but I would use Illustrator or InDesign to do the layout/production.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jul 16, 2004
You can do a ten up 81/2 x 11 file rasterized at 150 to 300 ppi but it may choke your printer spool and take a while to print.

This being another downside to printing out of PS to an inkjet.

It may not be if you have a fast computer and newer faster printer.
KU
ken_upham
Jul 16, 2004
Isn’t 80 hours a bit excessive for a business card? Unless 79 of it is in the planning stage.

Further, I prefer clients submit their art one-up, so I can step it. Sometimes we run cards 2 up, sometimes 8 & sometimes 12, depending on the length of the run & other factors. Often when clients step their own cards, they give a complete set of crop marks for each one or don’t step them mathematically.

Have a good weekend, Catch y’all later.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jul 17, 2004
80 hours was a conservative figure for someone who’s new to PS and/or commercial printing setup in general. It encompasses the myriad of questions to be delved into including all the scootin’ about tracking down the right printer and such.

If you’re going to be dealing with fortune 500 companies as clients, you’ll want top of line typographic treatment, design and printing and that also takes time. I mean come on if it was easy everybody’ld be doing it, right?

However, if you’re dealing strictly between small businesses, you could get away with using msWord or some cheesey publish app that comes with tons of fonts and clipart. Use a 10 up BC template to arrange your design elements or use a prefab design shell. I believe ID and Pagemaker came with such drop-in art shell templates. I’m not sure.

You still have to know the difference between link/embed, eps format settings, pdf settings for commercial print, special treatment of transparent background art if used….so on and so on. The look is still going to determine the level of complexity.

Frankly I’ld like to just draw a sketch of what I want, pick the images, font and point sizes and hand it off to a printer’s design staff to get it on press and pay them instead of waste time trying to figure it all out myself.

The quickest "do it yourself" would be to do some one color type treatment like attorneys use and hand it off to Kinko’s. How you come across is what counts and sometimes the simplest can have the most impact. But that’s mainly controlled by someone who’s design and marketing savy, not the techy.
JS
John_Slate
Jul 17, 2004
So that would be 79 hours to learn Photoshop well enough to do the job, and 1 hour to execute.
NK
Neil_Keller
Jul 17, 2004
Ken,

The poster said that her friend was printing her cards at home? Maybe the advice we give here is a bit over the top at times for certain settings.

The problem is that Photoshop is over the top for many amateur home users as much as a McLaren race car is over the top for me to drive to work. They don’t need Photoshop for their quick business or greeting cards and retouching family snaps. If it has to one app for these tasks, then Photoshop Elements is probably the better choice at a fraction of the price.

So, if someone posts a Photoshop question, I generally eye it from the standpoint of a professional using it. Or a serious enthusiast. This is the targeted market for the product. From that standpoint, I’ll do my part to point out a better workflow, not make-do. As in any profession, these groups of people should have the right tools, even if that means purchasing a second or third application to integrate with Photoshop.

On the other hand, I know there are pros who will use just Photoshop for just about anything. Fine. But from my vantage point, I can’t recommend that "universal" workflow.

Neil
CW
Chuck_Wolff
Jul 17, 2004
Oh yawn….all the talk about a simple biz card. Get Avery paper, drag lines to the sizes on the paper, type your name, pictures, etc, print. And if you want to have fun for free go to Open Office.org and download a free Office page layout thing or pay a few dollars for CD’s.
Have fun, not headaches.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Jul 18, 2004
It might depend on whether you want your card to convey the impression that you are skilled professional — or whether you just want to be perceived as a twelve-year-old kid.

Define your target audience, and what you want your card to accomplish. Then analyze your competitors’ cards (if you can).

You should then be able to determine what level of production will be required to achieve your goals.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jul 18, 2004
Chuck pretty much clearly spelled out how to do it, so get after it. He’ll walk you through it, if you have any questions. Hopefully he’ll be around to help you.

You might link a jpg of what you want, so he’ll get an idea where to lead you step by step. Have fun! 😉
R
Ram
Jul 18, 2004
🙂 @ Tim.
KN
Ken_Nielsen
Jul 19, 2004
A professional business card is an important part of a greater picture. How it ties in with letterhead, envelope, tags, vehicle marking, signage, and media advertising is just the tip of the iceberg of what needs to be considered in doing a professional card.

I think there is a greater level of fun to be had in doing a card professionally. If fun means just hacking something out in one hour, that is fine for something to hand to friends. For business, you need to consider more of intended use and the impression you want to make. Tie-in with your overall company image is important too. What makes the professionally designed type of card more fun is that it takes more constructive time in planning and delivery of a product that you can be sure is ‘just right’ from a variety of perspectives in a real-world business situation.

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

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