Designing and printing business cards yourself can be a simple and cost-effective process
When it comes to printing business cards, you have a few options. You can outsource the whole project to a third party. You can design the cards yourself and print them elsewhere. Or you can create and print them yourself — which is easier and cheaper than you might think.
While designing and printing your own business cards requires a little time and effort, it's not a particularly difficult process. All you need is a free template, a few clerical details, some high-quality paper, and an effective printer. This gives you complete control over every step, and takes advantage of hardware you may already own. You can print your own cards much faster than an outside company can, and correct mistakes much more easily.
With the right tools and some practice, printing business cards can be a simple, satisfying, and inexpensive procedure.
Find everything you need to pick the perfect printer in Business Printers: The Complete Guide.
Printing business cards: an overview
While it's easier than ever to do business online, business cards can still play an important role in your workplace. Business cards are invaluable at networking events and trade shows. They're also helpful for chance meetings, or even just to share your contact info with friends and family. Having a business card is especially important for startups and entrepreneurs, as it's often what separates a budding professional from a hobbyist.
There are three things you need to print your own business cards: a computer, a printer, and some business card printing paper. In theory, you could even go without the computer, and use a smartphone or tablet instead. But graphic design is generally much easier on a PC or Mac, especially if you have a mouse and keyboard handy.
Companies that design and print business cards can make the process seem complex. After all, there are infinite combinations of fonts, logos, colors, and materials. However, a business card doesn’t have to be a work of art. As long as you have your name and contact information in a readable format, you've covered the basics. If your business already has a memorable logo, that's even better.
Did You Know?:The RICOH C125 MF can print up to 26 color pages per minute. It can also scan, copy, and fax documents via an intuitive color touchscreen. Click here to learn more.
Benefits of printing your own business cards
There are four major benefits to printing business cards on your own: cost, control, speed, and scale.
Assuming you own a printer, cost is easily the biggest advantage. Suppose you wanted to print 1,000 business cards. Printing companies would charge between $35 and $2,500 for this, depending on how much design work you want them to do and what kind of materials you want to use. Conversely, you could get 1,000 blank, printable business cards for as little as $20.
It's worth pointing out that business card printing cost can be a highly variable factor. For instance, higher-grade paper costs more money, whether you get it yourself or entrust a printing company. The DIY approach might not be cheaper in every conceivable instance, but a good small business printer is an invaluable tool in and of itself.
Control is another advantage of printing your own business cards. Some third parties will design and print business cards for you. Others let you submit your own designs, then print the cards for you. Either way, you have to sacrifice some autonomy for convenience. If you let a firm design a card for you, you may not like the end result — and the company may charge you for revisions. If you submit a design, the final product may contain errors in resolution, color, orientation — or even contact information. While a reputable service will correct these issues, doing so will take even more time.
Speed is a major advantage to DIY printing, if time is of the essence. If a third party has to ship cards, you should expect it to take more than a week. Local printers can do faster work, but it will also cost more money — especially if you need same-day turnaround. With your own business card printer, you can have cards ready in minutes, no upcharge required.
Finally, there's scale. Printing companies offer competitive prices by printing hundreds, or thousands, of business cards at a time. You may not need that many, especially if you're experimenting with different designs. By printing your own cards, you can print a single sheet, or thousands, as needed.
How to design your own business cards
If you have a little graphic design know-how, then creating your own business card is pretty simple. Otherwise, it's easy enough to use a business card printer template. Either way, the fundamentals are the same. At the bare minimum, you'll want to include your name, your company's name, your phone number, and your email address. A mailing address, website, and social media links may or may not be necessary. If your business has a logo, you should definitely include it. If not, formatting your text in an elegant way can be just as effective.
If you don't know where to start, an online search for "business card templates" is your best bet. Free templates are available for Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Adobe Express. Printer paper companies often provide templates that match their paper sizes, and you can even find websites that let you design business cards right in your web browser. Granted, some of these sites belong to printing companies, and will encourage you to place an order when your creation is done. But many of these tools will let you save or export your designs — and all of them let you take screenshots.
Whether or not you use a template, you'll have to set some time aside to design a card. But you can craft a perfectly workable card in an hour, and print a test sheet in seconds. That's an awful lot cheaper and faster than relying on an outside company.
Did You Know?:The RICOH C125 MF printer offers business-quality color duplex printing with USB, Wi-Fi, and ethernet connectivity. Click here to learn more.
Our recommendation: RICOH C125 MF
If you're interested in printing business cards — as well as text documents and colorful flyers — then the RICOH C125 MF is the perfect tool for the job. This laser printer can produce up to 26 full-color pages per minute, and comes with enough toner to handle 1,000 pages — or approximately 10,000 business cards. At less than 20 inches across, it's small enough to fit on most desks. The MF model can also scan documents, which is perfect if your business has a logo that you need to digitize.
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