I am not too sure what you mean when you say you want more than one name on your business cards.

 

If you mean that you want several names on the one card, then you simply place the names on the card and submit your file to your commercial printer.

 

If you mean you have one design, and you want to place an order for several cards that, except for the name on the business cards, then the answer depends upon what your commercial printer will allow.

TheOnlinePrinter allows you to place the one order for business cards, and that one order can contain up to ten different designs. All you need to do is either:

1. Create the business cards with the different names on one file. Page one will be the font of business card 1, page 2 will be the back of business card 1, page 3 will be the font of business card 2, page 4 will be the back of business card 2, and so on and so on. OR
2. Create your business cards on separate files, and you can upload up to ten different files when you place your oder.

The best files to upload are PDFs, with the text 'outlined'. If you want to see how to outline text, then see our "Fonts" discussion board.

Celloglaze or laminated finishes on business cards have serveral purposes:

• First, they do make cards glossy and shiney, or dull with a matt finish. This is what the designers want, for what ever reasons they want matt or shiney business cards.
• Second, coatings allow cards to have a longer life.

Business cards, like all things, suffer from wear and tear. When they sit in a wallet, or in a car's glovebox, they move about and the ink gets worn. Also, the paper stock of the business card can also become fury.

Coatings help reduce the wear and tear of the business card by protecting the ink, and proptecting the paper stock.

They also have another advantage; the coating (either celloglaze or laminate or varnish) help 'stiffen' the paper stock and make the card feel 'more substantial'.

So, when you order your business cards, you might want to think about a coating. It does NOT need to be the shiney coationg, but can be the flat or matt finish, and your business card will have a longer shelf-life.

The easiest way to understand "bleeds" is to imagine the following:

• You have a business cards printed, and the card measures exactly 55mm x 90mm;
• The commercial printer prints your business card and about 40 or 50 other business cards on one hugh sheet of paper;
• The commercial printer then cuts all the business cards out on guillotine; and
• When the cutting is done on a guillotine the cutting is 1mm out of line.

If this was to occur, then what you will end up with is a business card that has a white stripe down one side. This can be seen in the image below.

 

So, the problem is explained above, but what is the solution?

Bleeds and Illustrator

Well, the below image is how to set up a file in Adobe Illustrator (and Adobe InDesign is very similar).

First, set up the document as the size that it must be when the business card is finished. This is, with most commercial printers, 55mm x 90mm. It is shown as a black box on the below image, and this will be the size of your business card when it is trimmed down to size.

Second, have all background colours on your business card go past the edge of the finished size. On the above image, the back-ground colours go 3mm past the edge of the card to the outside aqua lines. So, when this card is printed, it is printed on a huge sheet of paper, and the background colours will be printed 'well-past' the trim line; and, when the business card is trimmed down to the correct size, there will be no white stripe.

Third, make sure that any important text and images are at least 5mm from where the business card is going to be trimmed. This will make sure that all important information will NOT be trimmed off your business card when it is printed. ALSO, if the business card is not trimmed correctly, the 5mm safety margin will mean the business card will still look balanced.

Bleeds and Photoshop 

If you use Photoshop, then the proceedure is much the same, HOWEVER, Photoshop does NOT allow for bleeds. so, make your business card 6mm bigger than the business card that you want (i.e.: make the file 61mm x 96mm), have all the important text and images at least 8mm from the edge, and it should all then be fine.

The below image shows how  a business card file must be set up. Note that the file is 6mm larger than normal, the blleds are 3mm in from the edge of the file; and, the safety margin is a further 5mm in from the bleed.

It is very easy to set up Adobe InDesign files for business cards (or any other type of product for that matter).

First go "File" > "New" . "Document", and click on "Document. You will be presented with a picture similar to the below screen shot (but without the arrows and numbers). There is then a simple three-step process to set uop your business card file.

1. Put in the size that you want the finished size business card to be. With TheOnlinePrinter, the standard finished size is 90mm x 55mm.
2. Put is the "Safety Margin" size. If you have any text or images on your business card, then you should make sure that those images and that text is kept INSIDE that safety margin box. For business cards, this should be at least 5mm. For other larger jobs, you should make it at least 7mm.
3. Put in a 3mm bleed. Make sure ALL the bleed boxes are filled with the numeral "3"

You then click "OK", and the file will be created similar to the below image.

When you work on the Adobe InDesigtn business card file you MUST consider the following:

1. The "Black" box is where your business card will be trimmed (see numeral "1" in the above image).
2. The "Pink/Purple" box is the safety margin area (see numeral "2" in the above image). Keep ALL vital images and text within this box.
3. The "Black" box is the bleed box (see numeral "3" in ther above image). All back ground colours and images that you want to print to the very edge of your finished business card must extend to AT LEAST that box. They can go further out if you wish, but they MUST GO TO AT LEAST THE EDGE OF THE BLEED BOX.

If you want to know more about "Bleeds" and what they do, try a visit to TheOnlinePrinter's "Bleeds and Explaining Cropmarks"  information page.

OK. It is much the same with all Adobe software, and I will show you how to create an Adobe Illustrator Business card file  in Illustrator.

Fist, open Illustrator and then create a new file - see the below image.

You will be presented with a screen shot similar to the below image, and you MUST do the following:

• Give your file a meaningful name. Do NOT just name it "Business Card", as your commercial printer will want mor information that that. Give it a name like "Leslie's Business card" or "MadHaterz Business card".
• Set it up at the correct size. TheOnlinePrinter's business cards are set atv 90mm x 55mm. Make sure your business card is set up at the size that your commercial printer uses.
• Use the correct "Colour Mode". TheOnlinePrinter prints in CMYK, but your commercial printer might use RGB. Ask what your commercial printer uses, as this is a very important matter.
• Set the resolution correctly. TheOnlinePrinter prints at 300dpi. Some commercial printers use 150dpi. If you are using Photoshop, then we suggest you use 600dpi, as some digital printers do not cope well with images at less than that.

You should then end up with a screen similar to the image below. This is your business card, but you are NOT ready to start your design, as you need bleed and safety margin lines.

Now is the meaty bit - how do you get your bleed and safety margin lines?

First, add a "Ruler to the top and left side of the page. On Apple/Mac's, this is done by going "View" > "Show Rulers". See below. The short-cut keys are "Apple" + "R" (or "Windows" + "R" on a PC).

You should now have a screen similar to the below image. You should notice that "0" on the ruller is aligned with the bottom left of the business card.

The second step is to place the bleed lines onto your business card. This is done by puting the curser onto the ruler (say, the top ruler), pressing down on the left mouse button, and 'dragging' the line down to where the bleed should be.

Remember that the bleed on your business card file should be AT LEAST 3mm from the edge of the card. On the below image, you will see that the top bleed line is at 58mm (see the right ruler). The bottom bleed line is at -3mm (see left ruler). The left bleed line is at -3mm (see top ruler). the right bleed is at 93mm (see top ruler).

All background colours and images that you want to print to the edge of the business card MUST go all the way to the bleed line (and even further if you want to be extra safe).

 

The third step in creating an Adobe Illustrator business card file with bleeds and saftey margin lines is to place the safety margin lines in. This is done much the same manner as when you put in bleed lines, however, they MUST be inside the black box, and be at least 5mm from that black box. See below.

When you create your business card file, you MUST keep all important text and images within the safety margin box. If you are creatijg a file for jobs that are larger than a business card, then the safety box should be 7mm in from the edge.

You posts have mentioned the importance of CMYK. So, what is the importance of CMYK and RGB, and what is the difference between them?

Will the job appear differently if I have the wrong colours?.