Despite the fact that open source has specialty label-and-business-card programs like gLabels and capable desktop publishing apps like Scribus, most general office users are going to continue to create their documents in the word processor of the office suite they feel the most comfortable in, like OpenOffice.org Writer. It is certainly a good choice, too; it provides design wizards that simplify creating print-ready documents for standard label templates, and OpenOffice’s mail merge backend is quite powerful.

by Nathan Willis

Basic design

To create a basic label or business card document, simply choose File -> New -> Labels or File -> New -> Business Cards. A configuration window will pop up, with several tabs for specifying things like page dimensions, label dimensions, text formats, and so on.

The Labels dialog has just three tabs: “Labels,” “Format,” and “Options.” In the bottom of the Labels tab is the template selector, so you can simply choose from among the dozens of pre-configured label sheets that Writer supports — including all of the standard Avery options, plus several other brands. If you so desire, you can choose [User] as your label type; this will require you to specify the size and placement of the labels manually in the Format tab.

 ”The New Label creation dialog, where you can enter standard text to be reproduced on every label, and choose from dozens of pre-configured label types.”

If you need to print a page of identical labels (such as return addresses), you can simply enter the text in the “Label text” field of the Labels tab. Last but not least, the Options tab allows you to create an entire page, or just a single label, placed anywhere on the template you desire. When you have your settings chosen, click New Document.

The Business Cards dialog is significantly more complicated. The “Medium” tab allows you to select existing templates, whereas the content of the cards is created on three separate tabs, named “Business Cards,” “Private,” and “Business.” The Business Cards tab holds several information templates, such as “Modern, with Name” or “Elegant, with Name, without Slogan.” These pre-sets create the sheet of business cards by pulling the specified information off of whatever you enter in the “Private” and “Business” tabs.

 ”The Business Cards dialog, which splits up personal and business data.  The actual card layout is defined by templates chosen in the ‘Medium’ tab.”

You do need to be sure that you select a business card template in the Medium tab, however — the Business Cards tab appears to have a drop-down selection box for creating business cards, but this only creates the pre-filled lines of information, it does not correctly lay out a sheet of cards. The Format and Options tabs offer the same choices as they do when creating label sheets.

“Writer’s business card layout — the basic design is pretty bare-bones, so you will probably want to customize it.  Note, also, the floating ‘Synchronize Labels’ window, which you can use for adjusting for blank lines.”

In either case, the new document that Writer creates is fully editable; using the wizards this way allows you to create a non-mail-merge document. You may still want to perform heavy customization of the page once it is generated. For this, you have all of the power of OpenOffice’s design tools, including embedding images and control over text, line, and background colors.

If you plan to make modifications to the text itself, however, you need to do so not by highlighting text and changing its font characteristics directly, but by using Writer’s Paragraph Styles. Right-click on any word on the page and choose “Edit Paragraph Style…” In the dialog box that pops up, you can fix any attribute of the text, from its font, to its spacing and indentation, to drop-caps, text flow and special effects. You will need to edit each card or label element’s paragraph style in this way; the styles tend to apply only to the particular field (e.g., Name). But by editing the paragraph style, you instantly change all of the cards and labels, without running the risk or overlooking one accidentally.

Finally, you may print your work directly or save it to a file. But if you plan to reuse the design, consider saving it as a template file instead of a regular document; this is especially important with labels, but could save you considerable work matching subsequent print jobs of any type.

Mail merge

The section above dealt only with all-of-one-kind document designs. By using OpenOffice’s built-in mail merge functionality, though, you can create and print merged label sheets with very little extra work. OpenOffice’s mail merge feature starts with the idea of “data sources,” which are general-purpose links to external data such as a MySQL database, a CSV file, or an address book application.

 ”OpenOffice.org’s data source functions allow you to tie in databases, address books, or spreadsheets — not just for mail merges, but for any purpose.”

The first step in printing a page of mail-merged labels, then, is to set up your address list as a data source. Open File -> Wizards -> Address Data Source; the dialog presents several options for the type of data source you are configuring (e.g., LDAP, Outlook address book, etc.). For a spreadsheet or a CSV file, choose “Other external data source” and click Next. You’ll be asked to specify the file to use and to further refine your source type (in CSV files, for instance, to mark which fields correspond to name, address, ZIP code, and so on). Finally, you assign a name to the data source; this name can be anything, and will be the name the source is listed as when you are performing the merge.

The label generation process starts the same for mail merges: choose File -> New -> Labels. However, in the Labels tab, you choose the data source you just configured, from the “Database” drop-down selector. Depending on the data source, you may also need to select a “Table” in the selector below. The available fields will be displayed in the “Database field” selector; simply choose each field in turn and click on the arrow button to add it to the Label text box in the proper order, adding line breaks or punctuation where needed. Also, be sure to select the “Synchronize contents” box in the Options tab.

“When defining an address data source for a merge, the most important step is assigning the fields correctly.”

When you click New Document, Writer will pull the data from the data source and create your sheet of labels. In the Print dialog, you can choose whether to print the entire sheet, or portions of it, on a label-by-label basis.

So far, there is no built-in functionality to assist in printing a mail-merged set of business cards, such as a full office might require, but you can do essentially the same thing by following the instructions for a label mail merge, set to a business card label template in the Labels tab, and importing your employees’ names and contact information.

Troubleshooting

The most common problem when creating mail-merged documents is stray blank lines, which are annoying in form letters, but can ruin a sheet of labels by messing with the alignment. Writer provides a technique for fixing blank line troubles, though it takes a few steps.

The key is to use paragraph delimiters between lines, not simple line breaks. The Label wizard treats line breaks as literal characters, but separate paragraphs as something that can be automatically removed. It is a distinction that isn’t made clear during normal editing, so in order to fix it, choose View -> Nonprinting Characters from Writer’s main menu. You’ll then be able to see which lines in your design end with a paragraph character: ¶.

Next, select View -> Field Names to toggle visibility of the fields in your document. They look something like <MyDatabase.Sheet1.0.Firstname> or <MyDatabase.Sheet1.0.Country>. For each field line that ends with a newline character and not a paragraph, click the cursor at the end of the line, then hit Delete, followed by Return. You should see the paragraph character appear, denoting the change. You only need to make these changes to the first label on the sheet; we can propagate it to the rest later.

When all the paragraph characters are in place, click at the end of each line, then choose Insert -> Fields -> Other. In the pop-up dialog, go to the Functions tab and choose Hidden Paragraph. In the Condition box, enter the name of the database field, but with an exclamation point at the beginning, such as ![MyDatabase.Sheet1.0.Firstname]. Now click Insert. This conditional test will hide the paragraph whenever the specified field is blank.

“The process for fixing blank lines is several steps, but can be done quickly.  In the front is the hidden paragraph function insert dialog; in the background you can see where the paragraphs are denoted by toggling Nonprinting Characters in the View menu.”

You do have to repeat this process for each field you need to suppress — though it probably won’t be all; most likely candidates for missing lines are the optional “Address Line 2″ or “Country” which are not necessarily present in every address. But whenever you’ve finished setting up your conditions, click on the “Synchronize Labels” button that floats in its own window, and your changes will be propagated to the entire document.

If you have trouble with this process, consult the OpenOffice users’ manual. It is a bit tedious, and hopefully will become a built-in feature in some future release, but it is easy enough to fix for now.

A considerably faster alternative to this process, however, is to use the custom-built label and business card templates provided at the Worldlabel Web site. The Worldlabel templates are built using OpenOffice Writer tables, and as a result do not suffere from the blank-line-suppression problem that the built-in wizard’s label sheets introduce. The files are OpenOffice Template (.OTT) format, and are cross-referenced by the Avery code number they fit. They are public domain, so they are free to use for any purpose. Read this howto on using these and customizing these templates.

Conclusion

The mail merge functionality built in to Writer is particularly nice due to the wide variety of database sources it supports. It can automatically tie in to address books like Thunderbird’s, KDE’s, or an office-wide LDAP directory, which saves you the trouble of manually updating the addresses. For repeat label sets, it is a good idea to save your work as an OpenOffice Template file, rather than as a saved document. This allows you to update the label information from the database automatically each time you make a new document.

Finally, if you are of the more right-brained persuasion, you may still prefer to work in Inkscape or Scribus to due the visual design work on your label or business card. But don’t overlook the time that OpenOffice can save you on the heavy listing: pulling address information in automatically. It is all free software, so you can do both. OpenOffice’s label printing features make a good time-saving complement to the other apps in a busy office environment.

BY NATHAN WILLIS

Resources:

Openoffice templates

FastMailMerge extention

Mail Merge and Openoffice.org tutorial by Solveig Haugland

Create Labels with Openoffice howto at Tutorials for Openoffice.org

Although I no longer bother to print letterhead or envelopes for my design business (thank you, email!), I’d be lost without a business card. Not only are business cards still traded in the real world, but often it’s the business card itself that helps generate business. Plus, if you’re a graphic designer like me, having a good looking card acts like a mini-portfolio of your skills.

With this in mind, in this tutorial I’ll show how simple it really is to create an effective card that will impress potential clients and help them to remember your name. All this with just a small rectangle of paper. Here goes.

Although business cards often come in many shapes and sizes, for this exercise we’re assuming you want to create a standard U.S. cards measuring 31/2 x 2 inches. Before we get to working with the WL-OL244 template (Download the Template [PDF]), we’ll start by creating one card only. Once we’re happy with the card I’ll show you how to bring it into the eight-up template.

by Scott Citron

Start by opening any version of Adobe InDesign. From the File menu choose New Document. In the New Document dialog, make your settings match mine below.

If the measurements I used are confusing or don’t match yours, that’s okay. I’m working in Picas (12 points per pica; 6 picas equal 1 inch), which is InDesign’s default measurement system. Fortunately, you can use any measurement system you want (inches, millimeters, agates). Simply type in the value, remembering to add after the amount i for inches, mm for millimeters, and so on. InDesign will accept the value and translate it to the application default setting.

In my case I typed in 3.5i for the width and 2i for the height. InDesign converted these values to 21p x 12p, which is the same size in Picas. By the way, to avoid this step altogether, just go to the InDesign Preferences and choose Units & Increments. If you do this with no open documents, InDesign will remember your preferences and from now on apply it to all new documents. From here click the OK button to create the document.

For my card I’ve decided on a gray background, which will lend a cool and sophisticated feel to the design. Because we don’t want to accidentally select the background once we’ve created it, we’ll put in on a Master Page. Items placed on Master Pages are locked by default and can’t be overridden without apply a specific command. From the Pages panel, double click on the A-Master icon.

Choose the Rectangle Frame Tool, and draw a rectangle that covers the entire page. Start at the upper left corner and drag down to the lower right corner. With the frame still selected, open the Swatches panel and click on the default Black swatch, which will flood your frame with 100 percent black. With the frame still selected, go to Swatches panel menu in the upper right corner. From the fly-out menu choose New Tint Swatch. Create and add a 50 percent black tint and a 30 percent black tint swatch. Click OK to close the dialog.

Now click the [Black] 50 percent swatch to apply it to the card background. When you’re done, double-click the Page 1 icon in the Pages panel. (Note: this is a very important step. If you forget to return to page 1 all your work will end up on the A-Master page, which, although not fatal, will make you crazy later on. Trust me. I’ve done it many times!)

Now that we’re back on page 1, we’ll set up a simple grid that will help organize what comes next. From the Layout menu, choose Create Grid. In this dialog set the number of rows and columns to three. Both gutters (the space between rows or columns) should be zero.

A moment first about the grid. Whether you use grids or not is up to you. Many great works of art were created without grids, but for those learning their way in graphic design, a grid like this is a good practice to follow. When we’re done you’ll see that the design will hew very close to the grid, which will provide continuity and structure to your design. For more information about grids, consult books on photography for the “Rule

of Thirds.” I also cover grids from a historical perspective starting on page 10 of my book, Professional Design Techniques with Adobe Creative Suite 3 (Adobe Press 2008).

The next element will be a large letter C, which will act as a graphic anchor to my design. A key component to good design is the element of contrast and balance. Simply put, a business card where everything is the same size and color is boring. This doesn’t mean you want every element a different color and size (well, you might, but that’s a different story), but by adding some variation your business card will look less passive and more active.

With the Type Tool, draw a large frame on the InDesign pasteboard. With the cursor blinking, type the first letter of your last name. I used uppercase, but you could also try a lowercase initial. Afterward, highlight the initial and change its size to about 225 points. This will probably cause the letter to disappear because it’s too big for its frame.

Type that doesn’t fit in a text frame is know as overset. If this happens to you, simply enlarge the frame with the Selection tool (black arrow) until the letter reappears. Continue using the selection tool to now position the inital cap to your liking. In my case I allowed the cap to bleed slightly off the top, bottom, and left edge of the card. From a design perspective, doing so helps to lead your eye off the page, which counters the boxy quality of working with, and inside of, rectanges.

At this point, experiment with applying different colors to your initial cap. Even though I chose to stay within a black and white theme, I still had trouble deciding whether to make my C black, white, or a shade of gray. For now I went with black.

I also chose Minion Pro Regular for my typeface. Of course, there are tens of thousands of beautiful fonts these days. Because there are so many, choosing the right one is often a difficult task. What’s important in choosing a font, is being sensitive to its personality. Fonts can be serious, playful, conservative, cutting-edge, bashful, or loud. Which

one you choose says a lot about how you see yourself and how you’ll be seen by others.

When in doubt, stick with tried and true fonts that have withstood the test of time. Minion is such a font. Others might be Futura, Bodoni, Baskerville, Univers, Caslon, Garamond, or many more. Like a simple black suit or dress, classical typefaces go with anything.

Next up is the rest of the card’s information. Continuing with Minion, I roughed in my address, telephone, and email information. Depending on your card you might want to add your name and title or position. Since my business is my name, I decided not to include my name on the card. See below.

Do you see how both the SCOTT CITRON | DESIGN and 112 W 27th St #700 lines both hang from the two ruler guides we created earlier? Although not intentional, it’s curious how both text blocks just naturally felt more comfortable at those intersections.

A few additional points worth mentioning. To give my company name a bit more elegance, I applied 140 pts of tracking to the text. This is done by highlighting all three words (SCOTT CITRON DESIGN) and nudging the amount using the keyboard shortcut of Alt/Option + Right Cursor Arrow. Tracking can also be set using the tracking field in the Control Panel, below.

Also, the vertical line (known as the pipe character and found under the delete key on a Macintosh) sat a little low when originally inserted. To bring it up, I highlighted the character and applied a 1 pt baseline shift. Often the at sign (@) in one’s email address sits too high and needs, by the same token, to be baseline shifted downward a touch. Regardless, it’s this kind of attention to detail that separates good typesetting from great typesetting.

Lastly, do you notice how all the numbers on the card look a little different, with many of them hanging below the baseline of the font? These numbers (known technically as figures in typography) are classified as Proportional Old Style. Not all fonts have proportional old style figures, but Minion Pro does. To access these figures, first type them normally. Afterward, highlight the figures (these are, by the way, known as proportional lining figures) and click on the fly-out menu in the InDesign Control Panel. There you’ll see an OpenType submenu.

Although I don’t have time to go into detail here about OpenType, suffice it to say that OpenType fonts, particularly those with the word Pro at the end, tend to have extended character sets which often include proportional old style figures.

When you’re done tweaking your type and layout, don’t forget to evaluate it in Preview mode (View > Screen Mode > Preview). Preview mode will hide all invisible guides and frames, allowing you to concentrate on the design itself. Preview also hides anything bleeding off the page edges like, in my case, the big C on the left.

Now that one card is done, laying out eight up on a page using the WL-OL244 template is a breeze. To do so, follow these steps…

From the File menu choose Adobe PDF Presets > High Quality Print. After choosing where to save your PDF, make your Export to PDF settings match mine.

Assuming your PDF looks right, create a new, letter-size document in InDesign following the settings below.

In the new document, double-click on the A-Master page. Go to File >

Place and navigate to wherever on your computer you’ve stored the eightup template, titled OL244.pdf. Click to place the template on your master page, making sure it lines up properly with your pre-set margins.

With the template still selected, choose Window > Attributes. In the Attributes panel click to select the Nonprinting checkbox. Doing so will insure that the guide lines act only as a reference, and won’t end up on the final output. As a further confirmation that nonprinting items are in fact nonprinting, notice how these items disappear when viewing your work in Preview mode (View > Screen Mode > Preview).

Next, double-click on page 1 of your Pages panel. By putting the template on the A-Master page you’ve automatically locked it, as well. Now is the time to place the eight cards.

1. From the File menu choose Place.
2. Navigate to the PDF you created of your single business card.
3. Click to place the PDF in the upper left corner of your template grid, making sure the card’s frame is exactly the same size as the card (31/2 x 2 inches).
4. Select the card with the black Selection tool. Holding the Alt/Option key, begin to drag the card to the right. As you drag, add a finger to the Shift key to constrain your drag so it goes straight across. Release the card when it snaps into place in the upper right box of the template.
5. Click to select the top two cards.
6. Again, holding Alt/Option, drag copies of the two cards downward, adding the Shift key as you drag.
7. Release the cards when cards 3 and 4 snap into place. You should how have four cards on the page, all touching edge to edge.
8. To repeat what you just did, choose Object > Transform Again. You should now have six cards.
9. Choose Object > Transform Again one more time. You should now have eight cards on the page, or “eight up.”

Now that all the cards are placed, you’re ready to print. You can either print from this document, or create one more PDF (File > Export > PDF) and print from the eight-up PDF. Either way yields the same results.

My recommendation is to do a test print using normal paper, before printing on the Worldlabel WL-OL244 template stock. This will give you a chance to make sure everything is properly lined up before wasting valuable template stock.

Assuming everything goes well in your test, you should then replace your normal printing paper with the template stock. From there you’re home free!

By Scott Citron of scottcitrondesign.com

While there’s a place for run-of-the-mill business cards, there will be times when you want to think out-of-the-box. If so, the following business cards may inspire you. We’ve included some of the most unusual cards, most appropriate cards for a given business and edible cards. And, we’ve included articles and how-to information to help you create your one-of-a-kind business card.

The images and links below are categorized, and are in no particular order within those categories. With that said, we do not favor one business card example or idea over another in this list of fifty business card inspirations.

Most Unusual

You may have seen some of the examples shown below, as – since they are so unusual – some of these cards have already made the rounds. Others, however, may not have hit your radar yet. One note: As deep as we looked, we could not find a leather business card. It’s a thought…

1. LEGO card for LEGO CEOs via: Chief Happiness Officer. Few of these were made, mostly for LEGO corporate officers. The faces were modeled to resemble the users.

2. A card for Dr. Pramod Niphadkar, a chest physician, who wanted to show the importance of having healthy lungs through the use of his business card. Via: London International Awards.

3. A biz card for Melvin, a “hacker, entrepreneur, and all-around mischief maker,” by Jeni Mattson. The tools supposedly pick locks, and it has received plenty of publicity. Perhaps more than he’d ever get with the card alone!

4. When you travel to this Flickr link, look to the upper right to view the card that this card creates. Any full-service print shop can create a die cut, so talk with your printer about creating a card like this for your business or service.

5. This card is unusual – it won’t fit in a regular business card holder, and it can be used to hold other business cards together! Use the laser printing shown above on the peanut, or use a label-maker to stick your information on the pin. See this pin at BusinessCards24.

6. To learn about the information on this business card, you need to unzip the perforated tab. This is what you can an “interactive business card.” Learn more at Odd Stuff on the Net.

7. Are you willing to spare a few cards to impress a client? Better yet, can you steal a few of his or her cards to build a sculpture in a jar? Send the cards off to Engravables Plus, and they’ll turn those cards into a personalized scuplture – anything from planes to boats to cars and more. Yes, this is unusual. In fact, it’s bizarre, yet possibly heart-warming.

8. A lenticular business card, when tilted back and forth, allow the images on the card to “move” or appear animated. We haven’t see many lenticular cards, and there’s probably a good reason for that fact. We included this one for your edification. Enjoy.

9. Get a handful of these Emerson Taymor cards and create a battlefield. Or, use them to populate your daughter’s dollhouse. Are they effective? Yes. Are they unusual? Yes – although we discovered one mroe pop-up card at Creative Bits. Read more at Geekologie.

Edible Cards

If people could eat your business card, will their memory retention become better? We’re not sure, but we were impressed with some of the edible cards we discovered on our hunt for the unusual…

10. Yes, this is a chocolate business card, as described by Plasticbag.org in 2006. We found something similar at Sweet Impressions. We decided we need to request samples to find the best chocolate for our cards, however…

11. For the discreet – a business card with “read it then eat it” instructions. We discovered this headhunter’s card at Ads of the World.

12. If you think you’re sweet enough to carry this off, then grab a handful of cookie business cards from Lady Fortunes. These cards consist of graham crackers wrapped in Belgian white chocolate and decorated with a 100 percent edible image of your business card. Oh yes – and sprinkles.

13. Japanese company, Arigatou, is using high-grade CO2 laster engraving to print logos, names and phone numbers on organic materials like these peanuts. These are called, “Taberu Me” cards, or “Eat Me” in literal translation. Via: Weird Asia News.

14. Trendhunter suggested it, and we looked into it…MyFruitRoolUps.com really does have a way to imprint your message on their fruit roll-up candy sheets. So, instead of a birthday or graduation message, you can create a business card on a sheet of candy. Personalized custom design options are available.

15. Here’s another sweet way to promote your business – print your logo, your logo and text or a message on a handful or more of M&M candies. As the advertisement says, this is a great way to promote yourself at trade shows or corporate events.

16. The nice thing about the ‘business card’ shown above is that the customer can keep the wrapper even after the candy bar is gone. You can find plenty of printers who do this sort of job, but we found this one at Announce It!

Most Appropriate

The following business cards seem most appropriate to the businesses they represent:

17. If you wanted to patch up your marriage, would you call Ramesh Sharma? We would! He seems to have a sense of humor, something any marriage in trouble needs (in our humble opinon). Via: Ads of the World.

18. What better way to advertise your lawn maintenance company than to give away free grass seed? Very appropriate, via: 2wenty 4our.

19. If you’re into graphic design, you might appreciate Jan Sabach’s business card. Via: Visual Culture. (PS – you might find something similar to this at printing companies that offer plastic business cards).

20. Designed by Ji Lee, this card is minimalist and perfect for the SEO. But, hopefully, when you Google your name you won’t find incriminating evidence such as drunken videos and earlier jobs that were just too embarrassing.

21. When is a $25 business card appropriate? When you have high-end clients. This card is as slim as a regular credit card, yet holds streaming video and audio, it can be password protected and its scope for innovative uses is unlimited. You’ll be remembered with this little gadget found through gizmag.

22. If you’re into animation, what better way to show off your talents than through an animated business card? Chung Dha Lam, a student at Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam in the Netherlands got the idea of his animated business card after receiving a special book called magic moving images. Learn more at Neatorama.

23. Hairdressers might curl up in envy once they see this card. Very appropriate use of hairpins and business acumen! Discovered at dailypoetics’ flickr pages.

24. What better way to make your business tangible than by applying a bit of that business to your card? This card, one of many listed at Creative Bits, is a testament to using what you have at hand for great results.

Create Your Own Business Card

The following links lead to tutorials on how to create your own business cards.

25. Learn how to create this business card, including the shiny foil effect and positive-negative dragon at PhotoshopStar.

26. You can learn how to make this print-ready business card using only Photoshop, thanks to pds|tuts+.

27. This tutorial will guide you through the process of designing business cards and postcards in Photoshop as well as providing press-ready templates to get you started quickly, thanks to GreatFX.

28. Big Spoon Graphics provides a detailed tutorial on how to design cards with gradients, like the ones shown above, in Adobe Illustrator.

29. Learn how to create imitation embossing on your card with Photoshop, thanks to Masters of Photoshop.

30. If you think dark business cards are sexy, then learn how to create one like this from scratch though this Photoshop tutorial at Photoshop Talent.

Card Printing Resources

If you cannot create an unusual and yet practical business card, why not develop something from resources found at your fingertips? The following companies can add flair to your business, and present your calling card as a functional or artistic item rather than a plain Jane.

31. We’ve seen this card before on a great business card list, but we more even more delighted to find it available at HotRef.

32. Plastic business cards are the rage, and this one designed by SCHMIEDLINDESIGNS for Kris Kuksi, artist, is the most unusual plastic card we’ve seen. The card was produced by Andreoni (scroll down to bottom of page).

33. If you want a clear plastic card, you need look no further than Clear Plastic Cards to find examples like the one above.

34. Is your business appropriate for a metal business card? Metal cards, according to theory, are more difficult for receivers to throw away, so they may be worth the investment. Take a look at the die-cut number above and more at PlasmaDesign.

35. Are mini-CD cards a thing of the past? With the different shapes provided by Rovix shown above, you might change your mind. Choose the house if you’re a Realtor, choose the gear if you’re a mechanic and so on. Then, you also can add a mini-tutorial to your card for your potential client.

36. Remember the clothspin business card above? You might convince SusyJack at Etsy to design some pins for you. These pins are covered with printed labels (something like WL-OL200), so there’s no reason why that pin can’t hold your business contact information.

Build Your Own Business Card

If you want to print your own business cards, you can find resources to create some interesting and personal applications. Use some of the tools below to give your brand a different look.

37. This card, part of the series shown at LifeClever, is a great way to recycle old mass transit cards. The user slapped a label on the MTA ticket above and away he went! You can collect the train or bus cards, and Worldlabel can supply the labels for you to print. Try WL-O950 in silver.

38. If you want to try your hand at an AVR microcontroller-based business card, try to follow the instructions in this article at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

39. If you want to make an auto-dial business card like the one above, you can learn how at Instructables. The builder describes the card as “a musical greeting card on steroids” that can be programmed to dial any number. It may not work with some PABX systems, though…

40. Watch the video at TrendHunter to learn about this unusual business card with planetary working gears. Who could throw a card like this away? Better yet, if you have a laser cutter, you can make one yourself (look at the other samples at TrendHunter).

41. If you want to make a small cube, or box, out of your business cards, then Ned Batchelder can show you how to do it. Use the box to hide some candy, and you may fit into the “edible” category.

42. Black Hound Blue shows how he created the metal card above and another metal card as well. He then gives a short lesson and a “Part 2″ list of tips to add to that first entry. You’ll need to start at the bottom of this page and work up for all the parts to make sense.

43. Although this article is about how to help your printer create a folded business card, the idea is to take this idea and run with it yourself. Some great tips in this article at Ideabook.

44. Finally, if you’re broke – you’re broke. A pack of playing cards and a pen is all you need to let people know who you are and how they can locate you. Found at Creative Bits.

Articles

The following links lead to articles about business cards – how to color within the lines if you want a traditional card, and how to think outside the box if you want to make something special…

45. How to Make Plastic Business Cards: Ryn Gargulinksi provides a step-by-step article on how to make your own plastic business cards.
46. 5 steps to better business cards: how to brand your awesome little business: A rational look at how this architect created her girlscantell business cards.
47. Business Card Lesson Plan 1: An About.com guide offers some great tips on how and why you could design your business card. No matter how outrageous your card, if it doesn’t send the right message, then it isn’t unusual at all. Be sure to read on to Business Card Lesson Plan 2.
48. Business Card Best Practices: Robert Scoble offers his insights into how and why you might use your business card.
49. Color Theory and Business Cards: Of all the forms of non-verbal communication, color is the most instantaneous method of conveying messages and meanings. Learn how to leverage the power of color to your marketing advantage, thanks to GreatFX.
50. Making Memorable Business Cards: This Creative Pro article provides great tips on various ways to use business cards or calling cards. Try using Worldlabel’s AutofillPDF 1.0 label sheets for your experiments. As you add elements, the elements fall into the other cards automatically, making alignment worries a thing of the past.

To follow this how-to, open the blank business card template. This template is standard size business card 3.5″ x 2″ and you can use our WL-OL244 to print it.

Place your cursor in first field, choose then > Insert > Picture > From File. Move the image to the desired position by left clicking on the image and dragging it. Once in position, right click on image and choose Copy. Place then the cursor in the next field to the right and paste the copied image using the Ctrl + V keyboard shortcut. This insets the image in the exact same spot as in the first field. Repeat this action for the rest of the fields.

Now we want to enhance the business card with some graphics. Go to View > Tool bars and select Draw. You should see the following window pop-up at bottom of User Interface:

Select Rectangle, create the desired shape and then move the rectangular graphic to desired position by left clicking and dragging. Right-click on graphic > Area and choose a color you want. Use the copy/paste technique described above for the rest of the template.

Back to the Draw tool bar, select Text and create the desired size text box.

Enter your information. Use options available in the Formatting toolbar to specify the desired font type and size. To change the font color, highlight text and choose > Format > Characters > Font effects. To edit the effect of the background of the text box, right click on it > Area

For this business card design we used Light grey > Gradient: From: Light Grey to To: White at 105 degree angle

Right click on text box > Copy, place cursor in next field and choose Paste (or use the Ctrl+V shortcut). Repeat this for other fields.

> PRINT.

Here is the predesigned business card template openoffice. Please feel free to modify it using the described techniques.

Despite the digital wave that’s taking over everyday life, the good old business card is still a highly useful tool for any professional. Follow this walkthrough to produce your own modern and stylish business card in Adobe Illustrator, and mock up the design onto the business card template ready for production with Worldlabel.com

Begin by launching Adobe Illustrator and creating a new document, enter the dimensions of 3.5inches by 2inches – the standard size for the business cards at Worldlabel.com. This is a job for print, so choose the CMYK color mode.

With the Rectangle Tool, single click on the artboard to bring up the options box, enter 3.5inches by 2inches to create a background rectangle the exact size of the card.

Fill the rectangle with your chosen colour, here I’m using Cyan (100c, 0m, 0y, 0k), then align the rectangle centrally to the artboard using the Align Palette.

With the Type Tool, begin writing out your name and set in a font of your preference. Here I’m using the classic; Lubalin Graph in two weights to add an element of style to the design. Pay close attention to the tracking and kerning of the words to perfect their appearance.

Continue typing out the elements which will be shown on the business card such as job title, contact details and website URL.

Draw in four guides onto the artboard 0.25inches into the document, this helps balance the design elements. Arrange the type onto the design, using variations in size to provide a visual hierarchy that gives focus to the important aspects of the design.

Draw a range of white rectangles onto the design, which act as background strips to the text.

Change the colour of the text elements to blend in with the colour scheme of the design. I’ve used Cyan on the smaller elements and a darker blue (100c, 60m, 0y, 20k) on the name.

Let’s add a retro-esque background pattern to the business card design. Draw a square and a circle on the artboard, making the square slightly larger with no fill, while the circle has a blue colouring. Select both elements together and drag them into the Swatches palette.

Duplicate the background rectangle and fill the copy with the new pattern swatch, the circle will repeat to fill the background with a cool dotted pattern which helps add visual interest to the design.

With the design complete, go ahead and download the business card template from Wordlabel.com, this provides us with 10 available slots per page. Copy (CMD+C) and Group (CMD+G) the complete business card graphic and Paste (CMD+V) into the PDF document.

Use the Align Palette to line the card artwork to the top left edges of the layout. Then press ENTER to open up the Move options, enter 0.75inches and 0.5inches to move the first card instance into position exactly on the template.

Press ENTER again to bring up the Move options, this time enter 3.5inches horizontally and press the Copy button. This duplicates the card and moves it into position on the second slot.

With both sets of artwork selection, press ENTER once again to bring up the Move options. This time enter -2inches in the vertical direction to copy another two cards onto the next row.

Complete the process a few more times until the template is completely full. The PDF can then be saved ready for sending for print. Select the number of pages you desire from the website options and your freshly baked business cards will be with you in no time!

by Chris Spooner of spoongraphics.co.uk

Use Worldlabel’s standard business card stock to print

Another quick and easy way to create business cards is using AutofillPDF-labels. Here all you have to do is select an image which will automatically populate the template, and then type in your information > press tab to finish populating the format.

Fonts: If you want to change the font type, size or color, (as well as bold, italics, etc.) in the AutofillPDF-labels, select Control +E if you’re using a PC or Apple + E on a Mac. A toolbar will appear that will provide you with additional text properties. Select “More” in the font properties toolbar for paragraph alignment and more changes as desired.

WorldLabel has a PDF template designed to work with its business card cardstock. The template is compatible with most graphics programs, but you can also simply forgo the template, load the heavyweight cardstock sheets into your printer, and print out pre-designed business cards you can find for free online. A few seconds later you’ll have new 3.5-inch by 2-inch business cards in your hand, 10 to a sheet, finely perforated and ready to separate and distribute.

WorldLabel’s business card cardstock’s margins and spacing (shown in the image above) match the specs for the more than 200 free printable business card designs from my site, FreePrintableBusinessCards.net. Simply choose a design and decide if you’d like to instantly download the free .DOC version (editable in Microsoft Word) or, for $3, a .DOC version in which you can edit out the Web site name. Printable business card designs are available at other sites online as well. Microsoft Office users have shared some in that company’s online community, there are more freebies on Hewlett-Packard’s site, and on Google Docs.

While neither Worldlabel.com nor FreePrintable.net is affiliated with Avery-Dennison Corp., both the printable business cards and the cardstock are similar in format to Avery products 5371, 8371 and 8871. Be sure to uncheck “fit to page” in your printer’s preferences so the images print at the correct size.

By combining the free resources at FreePrintable.net with the easy-to-use cardstock from WorldLabel, new business cards are only as far away as your laser or inkjet printer. Bonus: You won’t have to yell at the employee who waited until he was down to his last card before letting someone know it was time to reorder.

Kevin Savetz is the creator of FreePrintable.net, a network of more than 25 sites that offer printable certificates, business cards, resume templates, and other printable items.