February Newsletter

Business cards are serve many purposes, but their primary purpose is to tell who you are, what you do, and how people can contact you. A great business card can help you get more clients.

What to Include
What should you include on your card? Usually business cards have the following elements, but not every card has every item. We recommend to only include the ways you want to be contacted by people – you may have a phone number, but if you would prefer people contact you by email, only put your email address on the card.

• Logo
• Name
• Title
• How to Contact
  • Email
  • Phone Number
  • Fax Number
• Social Media handles (Instagram, Facebook, etc)
• Website

Size
A standard business card is 3.5″x2″. It fits most business card holders and wallet slots. Depending on how much information you want to convey, you may choose a 1 sided or 2 sided business card – perhaps you want your logo on the back of a card and contact information on the front. Maybe you want all the information on one side so you can jot notes on the back.  You could also choose a 2″x2″ business card or a card that folds in half to be 2″x3.5″

Paper

Most paper can be roughly categorized as text weight (abbreviated as T) and cover weight (abbreviated as C).  Cover weight is thicker and more appropriate for a business card.  Within each category, there’s a number.  The lower the number, the thinner the paper.  Most copier paper is about 20#T.  A 100#T paper would be heavier than copier paper, but not heavy enough for a business card.

We carry cover weight paper that ranges from 80#C to 130#C.  For those unsure of what paper to choose, we typically recommend they start at 100#C and, because it’s difficult to convey how a paper feels, stop by our shop to take a look and feel our paper in our paper sample book if possible.  We also recommend getting a physical proof so they can see their card printed on the paper they have chosen before we print out a whole run.

Set Up

If you want to have a background color or image that goes to the edge of the business card, you will need to make sure the background or image extends 1/8″ past the trim line of your card.

This template will show you the exact dimensions your business card artwork should be to adhere to bleed and trim requirements. The trim line shows where your project will be cut during final trimming, but you should extend your background to the bleed line so it extend all the way to the edge.

What’s the best way to set up business cards? We recommend Adobe products if you have access to them (here’s a free tutorial from Adobe on how to setup a card in InDesign). If not, you can use the online designer Canva (make sure you export as a PDF for print with bleed) or Microsoft Publisher (make sure you use a custom page size of 2×3.5 or (if you have color/image extending to the edge) 2.25×3.75 and export as a PDF with only 1 card per sheet).

Not sure about setting up your own cards? Give us a call or set up an appointment at Paperjam and we can design it for you.

Download your FREE business card template here