Business cards from Photoshop

[Steviebike]

Good sir, it's been a pleasure to argue, wind-up and talk shit with. I have a lot of time for printing. Will take you up on that offer some day. You made my evening, I haven't talked print in sometime

Cheers!

[silmanor]

OP here. Looks like we got a much more lively discussion started than I had initially anticipated. I must admit my ignorance regarding professional printing, as I have had no prior experience in the technicalities of it.

The cards in Photoshop *look* amazing, but if they won't turn out well, then that's the bottom line. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Illustrator, and currently had as my other option Word, which clearly is an inferior choice.

I guess my questions now are two; 1) how can I know if I will get 300dpi at the shop, and 2) will it in fact look good if they can print at that resolution. Firsthand experience is most appreciated - conjectures be damned!! ^^

[Steviebike]

Hi OP.

Sorry my fault. Ilary is correct in what he is saying. The text will look 'fuzzy' compared to text on 99.9% of other peoples business cards. It depends how much you care about that.

You can eliminate to a certain extent by; using only black for the text, use a san-serif font like Helvetica, keep above 10pt on text.

I looked for the templates in my version of PS and I didn't see them so can't comment on them. They should already be set-up at 300dpi. You can check by going to: Image (menu bar)>Image Size. This will bring up a dialogue box. Check the document sizes are correct and the resolution is 300 dpi. If they're not, don't try and make it 300dpi, this will only exasperate the problem.

I really think you're going to find yourself in a world of pain. There are other options that might be better suited. I could do you a quick and cheap one in Ai that you could then pass on to a printer (PM if you are interested).

There are many online printers that supply the template, you could try that. Depending on your Chinese you can also get the printers to put it together for you.

[ichbinjenny]

Seriously, you do not want to print a business card from raster graphics unless you want your cards to look cheap. InDesign is overkill for a business card and most Taiwan printers won't accept PDFs or .indd files.

If you speak Chinese or know someone who can help you can order this kind of printing online: http://www.google.com.tw/search?hl=zh-TW&client=opera&hs=jiW&rls=en&channel=suggest&q=%E7%B6%B2%E8%B7%AF%E5%8D%B0%E5%88%B7&oq=%E7%B6%B2%E8%B7%AF%E5%8D%B0%E5%88%B7&aq=f&aqi=g1g-m6&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=3011l3522l0l3753l5l5l0l0l0l0l46l193l5l5l0

oooh, llary. Kill me now. Don't tell people to send a simple, one-off print job to a big printer.

If you have only one business card to print, go to your local print shop and get them to do it. They'll charge more than the big guys, but you'll have a more pleasant experience. (But I'll put up with the crap. PM me if you're in Taichung and need a card.)

[westaleta]

I use CardFila.com to collect all business cards on iPhone because it is so easy to collect, find and use any contact at any time.
You can access the contacts everywhere without Internet connection by using CardFila for Mobile (iPhone or Android phones). I also can do this on Android, computer, laptop. As I know, they will award 100 free coins for accounts registered within Nov 2012!