Full Color Business Cards
Your business card is usually one of the first points of contact with a potential customer. Your business card can set the perceived quality of your business in the potential customer’s mind, if you’re handing out a cheap looking business card that is printed out on an ink-jet printer on a thin full sheet of paper then either cut or broken apart on the perforation marks, you’re handing your potential customer a calling card that says that you don’t care enough about your business to make sure that your first impression is a good one.
I’m certainly not trying to suggest that a business card can make or break a business deal, but all things put together, every little interaction with a potential customer does ad up. You probably have heard the old saying that a person decides if they like another person within 30 seconds, don’t let your business card add a perceived negative.
I can remember when a full color business card was rare and very expensive; I guess it’s not that hard to remember because it was only about 10 years ago. When we first started printing business cards for our customers the wholesale cost for 1,000 one sided full color business cards was $199.00 and you were not allowed to have the colors come to the edge (called full bleed) of the card. The $199.00 did not include lay-up, sales tax, shipping or our profit mark-up. If you wanted printing on the back side, it could only be printed in black ink and that added another $60.00 or so to the wholesale cost.
Things Have Changed
The business cards you are about to order are the “Cadillac” of cards. These cards are printed on thick 16pt gloss card stock; most print shops print their cards on 10 or 12pt stock.
The cards can be printed full color on one or both sides, with full bleed color, which means the color, can extend all the way to the cut edge.
We then coat the card with a UV coating that gives the cards a super sheen and helps repel liquid stains.
The special low price includes shipping and handling right to your door; anywhere in the 48 continental United States.
The special low price also includes sales-tax.
So what would you expect to pay for 1,000 2 sided full color business cards? Well I can tell you it will not be close to the $259.00 wholesale example above, not even half , not even a quarter of that price. You can have one thousand of these beauties sent right to your door for only $54.00! That’s right $54.00 and that includes all shipping and handling and taxes.
The price above is for printing and shipping of the cards using your supplied print ready electronic file(s). You can read the layout guidelines below. If you don’t have print ready artwork or would like us to design your new business card, we will create your cards artwork at a cost of $20.00 per side. This would be a one time charge, any reprints that use the same basic layout would not incur a layout fee. Click this link to View or Hide Layout Instructions
Layout Instructions
Although we can accept may file formats, we will focus on the easiest format to email your artwork to us with.
You can use just about any layup program as long as it allows you to export a tif or tiff file after your design is finished. Please note that after you export or convert your file to a tif or tiff file that the layout is turned into a bitmap and all images and text become one object, so the text will no longer be editable. For this reason we suggest having a back-up file before you export or save your file as a tif or tiff.
If your business card is going to utilize both sides, each side needs to be laid-out in it’s own separate file
- The first thing that you do in your layup program is to set you document or page size. The size to set your document or page to is 3.625″ wide by 2.125″ tall. These dimensions are bigger than the finished size of the business card by .125″ (1/8″) in both directions. This is to allow .063 (1/16″) of an inch to be cut off from each edge (see diagram below – design will be cut to the red line), this is to allow a margin that gets cut off, this way if you want a color and/or an image to come right to the edge of your card, you allow the color and/or image to come to the edge of the 3.625″ x 2.125″ dimensions and after cutting there will not be any white space. If running an image to the edge please remember not to put anything that you want to appear on your card into the cut zone.
- Next by looking at the diagram below you will notice a white area surrounded by a blue line. This is what we call the “safe zone”, you will want to keep all important text and graphics within this area. In the cutting process the cards may shift, by having your important information within the safe area you avoid the risk of it being cut off.
- The finished file that you send to us must be saved to 300 dpi (dot per square inch) and saved to CMYK color (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). For best results you should make sure that any photos or bitmaps that you are bringing into your design are 300 dpi at the finished size and are already saved in the CMYK color space. Most software programs offer these options when you are saving your finished design, but if your images are RGB in your layout the colors may change after you export or save as CMYK. Images that are under 300dpi will print pixelated (kind of blurry-made up of many small jagged squares). We advise that you look at your design in a program that can display the tif or tiff (after the export or save as tif operation). If the colors, graphics and text look good to you on screen, chances are they will print just fine. The only exception would be if the graphics are under 300 dpi, the screen views things at a lower resolution than the print shop prints at. So graphics that look good on screen could still print blurry if they are under 300 dpi
- Remember to check all data for spelling and correct numbers as we will not be able to edit.
- If you would like to send any other file format please call 800-756-7215 ext.101 for approval and/or special instructions.
Once you are happy with your design, you can use the form that follows or you can email your files (we suggest emailing each file in a separate email because the files will be kind of large) to the following email address: dave(at)wesmandesigns(dot)com (please change the (at) to @ and the (dot) to .) also include your mailing and billing information in the email.
Order or Request Information Form
If you would like more information please fill out your; Name, Business Name, Phone, Email, Subject, Verify and Message fields on the form below.
If you are ordering a business card please fill out all fields listed above plus you shipping information on the form below. Please note that we ship UPS and they do not ship to P.O. Boxes so please be sure to use your physical address information
If ordering there are two upload spaces for you to upload the front and back artwork files for your business cards. Just browse on your computer to the correct files and double click to enter the file location in the box(es).
We will not order your card until we receive full payment. You can mail a Check or Money Order to Wesman Designs LLC, 3072 Cobblestone Lane, Hudsonville, MI 49426 or there is a payment button on the bottom of this page to pay by credit card. We accept Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express.