Business card according to the rules of typography in Photoshop. General rules for preparing layouts for a printing house

For specialists of the St. Petersburg printing house, the work is simple, fast enough. However, it is also subject to inexperienced masters. To perform simple work, industry experts give good advice and tell how to prepare a business card for printing in Photoshop. This is the most common and understandable program that many residents have access to. A couple of lessons from the masters will help you not only learn the features of working in the application, but also prepare the file for subsequent use in printing.

How to make a business card in Photoshop

Text placement rules

This rule concerns the preparation of graphics for subsequent printing. It is necessary to set 300 dpi, which will equate to 300 dpi. This is the optimal size for the layout to be as detailed and informative as possible. It is enough to remember this parameter in order to subsequently order the printing of business cards. This option is only suitable for business cards, and the options for outdoor banners or posters will be different.

Working in CMYK

Converting the mode from RGB (screen) to CMYK (print or paper) is a process that is also indispensable in the process of work. The need for such work is explained by the fact that it is impossible to transfer the screen format to paper with the same brightness and contrast. In Photoshop, users will be able to convert the image so that the paper business card is as good as the one the user was looking at on the screen. The RGB format will be dim if left as is.

Size always matters!

You should work exclusively with real dimensions. Potential customers should remember that the standard business card size is 90*50mm. This means that it is necessary to make a layout of strictly specified parameters.

Step by step creation of a business card

Using the previously acquired knowledge, you need to go through a few simple steps that will help you create a document.

Create a new document

The user opens Photoshop to create a 9*6 cm layout at 300 dpi. After that, you will need to go into the parameters view to set a new guide (View / New Guide), where the vertical is selected first 0, then 0.5; 5.5, 9 cm. In the same window, you will need to create a horizontal guide, which will be equal to 0 cm, and after 0.5, 5.5, 6 cm.

Adding a Gradient

To do this, use the appropriate tool Gradient Tool. Here you need to choose the color of the foreground, background.

Background selection

It can be standard (one that can always be downloaded on the net) or selected specifically for the company's color scheme. To edit layers, you need to remove the prohibition (to do this, click on the lock of the Layers layer). To work with the background or a specific layer, double-click on the layer name.

Preparation, design of logos

Here it is important to consider what exactly will be such indicators as:

• Bevels.
• Styles.
• Methods.
• The depth of the inscription.
• The direction of the logo, its size, softening level (if any).
• Transparency/opacity.

You can also use other tools (functions). These include the outline, stroke color, etc.

Text printing

This final stage create business cards for printing. It requires entering data on the card.

It is also important to remember about the cut lines or marks that will be taken into account. Since there is a small error in the process of cutting a pack of paper, it must be taken into account, and therefore important elements, the text is not placed closer to the cuts. It is recommended to leave about 4 mm of clearance.

Saving the finished file

Finally, save your finished business card as a TIFF. This the best way to transmit images without quality loss. Printing houses will be able to work with it for

* Bitmap vs Vector Text

It is best to send layouts to the printing house, with rare exceptions, in PDF format. This post explains why you should not send in CDR (Corel Draw), JPG, PNG and other formats.

Vector and bitmap images

Graphic images can be divided into two large groups: vector and raster. Bitmaps are a large matrix of points corresponding to a rectangular image. Each number in this matrix corresponds to the color of a dot. Vector images contain information in the form of a huge set of coordinates and mathematical formulas that mathematically define the shapes and elements of the image.

Vector images, by their nature, scale well: the image can be printed on a business card or on a huge banner without losing quality.

Raster images, on the other hand, do not scale well, so to increase the physical size of a raster image, a larger matrix of points is needed, which means that information about the color of points between points is also needed. Usually in this case, the average color value between two adjacent points is taken. However, an image stretched this way looks fuzzy and will never contain more detail than the original image.

Photographs by their nature are raster images and cannot be represented as coordinates and mathematical formulas. Text (letters and numbers), as well as simple images such as logos, are vector in nature and were designed as a combination of lines and polygons.

You can always convert a vector image to a bitmap. But only in rare cases, you can get a vector image from a raster image. For this, special mathematical image tracing algorithms are used. They translate a bitmap into grayscale and find areas in it where points are adjacent that differ greatly from each other in contrast (the difference between light and dark is usually the edges of some object). But this only works for simple and high-contrast images.

Text in bitmaps is worse

Imagine that you have a 210 x 297 dot bitmap (210 x 297 resolution) and you want to print it to the entire A4 sheet (210 x 297 mm). In this case, each dot will be a square with a side of 1 mm - this will be very noticeable and ugly - as in computer games 80s. Now imagine how your text will look in this resolution :). The higher the resolution, the better quality images when printing. To get a really high-quality picture, modern printers at 297 mm (A4 sheet height) can put 14 thousand dots (1200 DPI resolution), and 21 cm (A4 sheet width) - 10 thousand dots. Those. the optimal resolution for printing on an A4 sheet is 10,000 x 14,000. Is this huge amount of information needed just to print a page of text?

Fortunately for us, the text can be sent to the printer in vector form. In this case, the printer will most optimally calculate where each point should be, and the text will turn out beautiful and clear.

It is believed that if the bitmap has a resolution of 300 DPI, then this will be enough for high-quality printing of business cards and most printed matter. Yes, yes. But modern printers can print at 1200 DPI, which allows text to be rendered much sharper.

Also, in our experience, even if you send a 10,000 x 14,000 (1200 DPI) bitmap image to the printer, the text will still be less crisp than if you send it as a vector. This is due to the fact that computer packages rasterize text (convert from vector format to bitmap format) differently than a printer's graphics processor. They do not take into account the peculiarities of printing on a particular printer and, in addition, use anti-aliasing effects that are not needed when printing.

What formats are best for transferring layouts to a printing house

It follows from the above that for photo printing information must be transferred to the printer in raster form (since it is simply not possible to present it in vector photography). At the same time, than better resolution the better the quality.

For print text or logos, as in the case of business cards, it is better to transfer information to the printer in vector form.

The JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF formats are bitmap formats. Avoid using these formats to send to print layouts with text! You can't make vector images from raster images. The text will always look worse than if you use vector formats.

PSD format Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is a tool for working with raster images. However, the text created in this editor is stored in vector form (if it is on a separate layer). Therefore, this format, in principle, is suitable for transferring the layout to the printing house. In addition, Photoshop allows you to save to .PDF. However, the Photoshop editor was created primarily for working with photos, and it does not provide, for example, tools for working with departures. Read what sorties are and how to use them correctly in our other post.

PDF, CDR, AI, EPS formats - formats that can contain both vector information for text and logos, and raster information for photos. They are used by professionals to prepare layouts, and by printers to send information to a printer.

In addition, only vector images are suitable for silk-screen printing, as well as for plotter cutting (for example, for making Car Stickers).

Why you shouldn't send.CDR, but you should send.PDF

Historically, the software package for editing vector images Corel Draw has become widespread in our country, as it was the first among its competitors to be translated into Russian. It is used by many designers, and even by some printers (usually those who also provide design services). However, Corel made the editor, and not the standard for transferring data from one organization to another. The data format used by the Corel Draw editor (.cdr) is a proprietary format that only Corel understands and is kept secret. Moreover, graphic files created in later versions of Corel Draw are not supported in earlier versions. Files transferred to CorelDraw can be a real headache - a printer may not use Corel Draw, but use something else software, or use a different version than the one in which the file was created.

Similarly, the .ai format is a graphical editor format Adobe Illustrator. It is not a generally accepted standard, as the printer may use other software.

PDF, on the other hand, is an open standard available to all software developers. It was created specifically to deliver graphic layouts so that they look exactly the same regardless of the software used, operating system, installed fonts etc. And Corel Draw and Adobe illustrator know how to save files in PDF format, and any software in a printing house always understands this format. In addition, all computers, tablets and even phones have Acrobat Reader, which allows you to view PDF files.

And if there is no PDF

As already noted, such graphic editors as Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop allow you to save to PDF. However, these software packages are used by designers and ordinary people may not have them. In this case, in the editor you are using, you can make a background without text, then upload it here and add text in our editor. True, at the same time, the production of business cards or other products will have to be ordered from us =).

There are no strict restrictions on the size, material of manufacture, design method or information content of business cards - they can be almost anything. However, there are several factors that largely influence the choice of all the listed parameters - these are traditions established in a particular business community and ease of use. From the point of view of practicality, one should proceed from the size of the stockbooks or business card holders in which many business people store the received cards. In order for a business card to fit normally in the pocket allotted to it, business cards are made no longer than 95 mm long and up to 55 mm high. And the standards established in the local business community specify these dimensions - for example, in Europe it is customary to use 85x55 rectangles, in the USA - 95x55, and in Russia - 90x50. In addition, cards for business ladies are often made a little smaller. There are also some in the appointment of business cards, which can also affect the choice of their size and design. If your goal is to impress the "counterparty", the business card should be of non-standard sizes. Sometimes they are made wrong or curly shape, use leather, wood, or metal as the base material. A particularly non-standard approach to size and design is typical for people's business cards. creative professions, and for everyone else it is important to maintain a sense of proportion - excessive originality can backfire, even with excellent quality business card. In addition to those given in the first paragraph, the size of 85.6 mm by 53.98 mm is quite often used - it is enshrined in the international standard ISO 7810 ID-1 and matches the dimensions credit cards. Sometimes business cards are printed on A8 format cardboard - this is 74 by 52 mm - or placed 16 pieces on C4 sheets (81 by 57 mm is obtained).

Sources:

• What should be the size of a business card?

A business card is an important attribute of a modern business man. According to the appearance of the business card, potential partners can form an absentee opinion about a person or remember your face-to-face meeting. And how your business card looks like, how informative or concise it is, convenient or overloaded with unnecessary details, it depends on whether the long-awaited contact will happen or whether the partner prefers not to contact the owner of such a piece of paper. If you have taste and patience, you can design a personal business card using Adobe Photoshop.

You will need

• a computer;
• photoshop;
• fantasy.

Instruction

Before you start developing a business card design, think carefully about what kind of information you want to place on this small paper rectangle, what effect you want to achieve, what mood the business card should carry. The imagination of designers in this area is limitless, however, there are even business card manufacturing technologies a great variety - wooden, plastic, metal, rag, etc. - after all, a business card is what makes its owner in some way unforgettable. However, the most popular, easy to manufacture and practical to use are business cards made of thick paper, with a single or multi-color image printed on them. The most popular business card format in our time is the 90x50 mm format. To make such a business card, open Adobe Photoshop. Let's create new document File> New (File> New). In the window that opens, set the necessary parameters of the created document:
- size in width (Width) 90 mm, in height (Height) 50 mm (if the future business card has a horizontal arrangement)
- resolution (Resolution) - a very important parameter for future printing implementation - should be 300 dpi (300 dpi, pixel / inch)
- color model of the document (Color Mode) - RGB, if you are preparing a file on a household printer or in an operational printing center. If you are preparing a professional grade file, it is recommended to set the model (CMYK), although this is often unnecessary and only creates confusion.
- the background color of the document (Background Contents) can be set to white (White) by default, if basically your business card will keep the color of the paper on which it is supposed to be printed. Or you can leave (Transparent) and return to work on it after. Pay attention to whether the units of measurement for the fields with sizes are correctly selected - millimeters, not pixels, and dpi, not pixel / centimeter. Check the parameters and click OK, we have a new blank document.

First of all, a business card is a carrier of information about its owner, therefore, we need to make an inscription with your name. To do this, we will use the Horizontal Type Tool. When you select it, you will see how a strip with the main parameters of the future inscription appeared at the top of the program's working panel: font, size, color, location, etc. Select the font we need. It should be remembered that too complex fonts - stylized as handwritten, ornamental, playful, although they create mood and entourage, but greatly impair the readability of the business card. You simply run the risk that your business card will simply not be able to be found in a bunch of similar ones. your last name will be unread at a cursory glance. So, choose a font that is clear, highly visible and understandable. The font size on a business card, as has traditionally been established, should not be less than 9 points and more than 14 - in order to remain easily visible in not very good lighting or imperfect printing, on the one hand, and on the other hand, not look ridiculously large, as in books for preschoolers .We set the cursor to the required place in our clean document and type the text. Note that a new text layer has appeared in the Layers list of layers with new inscription. You can always return to editing: change the text or move it by selecting this layer in the list and using the appropriate program tools. According to the standards of Russian-language etiquette, a person is addressed, first of all, by their first name and patronymic, which is why they should be written first, and the last name - the last one. You can highlight the surname by typing it only in capital letters. Enchantingly playing with the sizes and styles of fonts on a business card is a sign of bad taste. In general, to show that you are ready for cooperation, compliance with agreements and norms business communication, you need to force yourself to comply with the norms and limit already from the design of the business card. No more than 2 fonts are allowed (not counting the artistic font style on the logo).

Below, under the name of the owner of the business card, there follows his position or profession, as well as the necessary contact information - address, e-mail, etc. Let's use the same tool Horizontal Type Tool, only now we will change the font parameters a little: you can reduce its size and, perhaps, change the font style to italic. By the way, in the menu Window (Window) you can find the item Character (Font), and open an additional panel , with which you can control various additional font parameters - letter spacing, line spacing, etc. It is important to remember that, a common person typing right hand, will hold your business card with two fingers of the left, respectively, at the bottom left corner. Of course, the most unfortunate place for the location of contact information is the lower left corner closed with fingers. Free it if you don't want your business card to look silly and awkward.

You can change the look of the business card by adding a background - creating a new layer Solid Color or Gradient (Solid color or Gradient). This can be done via the menu Layer>New Fill Layer. Next, in the options, select one or more desired colors. Please note that by default the layer is created at the top in the list of layers - that is, it lies on top of the previous pictures and inscriptions, closing them. It's okay, you can always move it from the first to last place in the list, and it will become really background. You can edit it as many times as you want, just double-click on this layer in the Layers list, and select the desired combination of colors.

The size of the finished business card in millimeters. Physical size of the finished business card 90/50 mm (1063/591 px), but the size of the layout file should be 2-4 mm larger, since each printing different sizes edge trimming. To date, modern printing houses make a crop of 2 mm, respectively, the size of the developed layout should be 92/52 mm (1087/614 px).

The number of pixels per inch. Most printing houses today use printing equipment with print resolution 300 pixels per inch. This format provides excellent quality finished business cards. A resolution of 600 pixels per inch is used less often, since the gain in quality is small, but such business cards are more expensive to print.

Resolutions in pixels. In Photoshop (Photoshop) or other imaging programs, the first step is to set the number of pixels per inch (usually 300px / dpi). Further, the image size can be specified in pixels, centimeters or millimeters. After specifying the size, for example, in pixels, the program (Photoshop) will calculate the size in centimeters (cm), or vice versa.

Image file format. The most popular layout file formats are - *.tif, *.eps, *.pdf. The *.tif format makes it possible to convey all the shades and details of the image flawlessly and without loss of quality, but at the same time it is easy to work with. The *.eps and *.pdf formats have their own nuances in saving finished images (sometimes very confusing), but the quality is no better than in the *.tif format, so it is more popular. But photos in *.tif take up much more memory than others, so some professional designers or users with limited internet speed or limited computer memory sometimes use them.

The color model of the image. Most printing companies require layouts with image color parameters CMYK / 8bit. This format is optimally suited for the main part of printers and allows you to save all the properties.

Business card edges: since business cards are printed not individually, but as a whole roll, they are then cut special machine, which has its own errors in cutting (like any equipment), therefore it is advisable not to place important data, phone numbers, addresses or important images with logos on the edges of a business card (3-5mm).

Tips on paper weight, style and cost of business cards

When ordering printing of business cards, you should pay attention to the density of the paper. When printing digitally (circulations up to 1000 pieces), people often choose photo paper or coated paper with a density of 200-250 grams per square meter to save money. Business cards made on photo paper or coated paper are not serious and are subject to rapid mechanical wear.

When ordering offset printing of business cards (circulations from 1000 pieces per layout) in the Internet printing wholesale prices, you will be provided with only coated paper of the highest density of 350 grams per square meter. At will, business cards can be opened with one-sided glossy or double-sided matte film, which will make them more presentable and durable.

Before creating a business card layout, you need to choose a style presentation of information: graphic or informational. When trying to fit on one business card (a piece of paper with an area of ​​9 by 5 cm) a large number of images and texts, you will most likely get the opposite effect - you will push the reader away. Also, do not use more than three different fonts and primary colors in the layout. It is advisable to keep the front and back sides of the business card in the same style.

The cost of printing digital (from 40 to 180 UAH for 96 pcs) and offset (from 95 to 280 UAH for 1000 pcs) way is vastly different. At the same time, the quality of offset printing is often higher than digital. There is no point in overpaying for digital printing if you don’t “burn” to receive business cards today. Moreover, to order business cards in the Internet printing at wholesale prices, you do not need to come to the office, it is enough to create a task for developing a layout or send a finished layout with your contact details to our e-mail and the printing manager will contact you to clarify the details of the order. Terms of production of business cards in offset way in Internet printing vary from 2 to 7 working days depending on the circulation and type of lamination.

A business card is necessary for every business (and not so) person in order to remind others of his existence. In this lesson, we'll talk about how to create a business card in Photoshop for personal use, moreover, the source that we create can be safely carried to a printing house or printed on a home printer.

We will use a ready-made business card template downloaded from the Internet and hands (yes, hands).

So, first you need to decide on the size of the document. We need real physical dimensions.

Create a new document (CTRL+N) and set it up like this:

Dimensions - 9 cm in width 5 in height. Permission 300dpi(pixels per inch). Color mode - CMYK, 8 bit. The rest of the settings are default.

Next, you need to draw guides along the contour of the canvas. To do this, first go to the menu "View" and check the box next to "Binding". This is necessary so that the guides automatically "stick" to the contours and the middle of the image.

Now turn on the rulers (if they are not turned on) with a keyboard shortcut CTRL+R.

The next "drag" from the left ruler to the beginning of the canvas. Then we create two more guides that will limit the canvas at the end of the coordinates.

Thus, we have limited the working space for placing our business card inside it. But this option is not suitable for printing, we need more cutting lines, so we perform the following steps.

1. Go to the menu "Image - Canvas Size".

2. Check the box next to "Relative" and set the dimensions 4 mm from each side.

The result is an enlarged canvas.

Now we create cutting lines.

Important: all business card elements for printing must be vector, they can be Shapes, Text, Smart Objects or Paths.

Let's build these lines from shapes called "Line". Choose the appropriate tool.

The settings are as follows:

The fill is black, but not just black, but consisting of one color CMYK. Therefore, we go to the fill settings and go to the color palette.

Adjust the colors as in the screenshot, nothing else but CMYK, do not touch. Click "OK".

Set the line thickness to 1 pixel.

And finally, hold down the key SHIFT and draw a line along the guide (any) from the beginning to the end of the canvas.

Then we create the same lines on each side. Don't forget to create a new layer for each shape.

To see what happened, click CTRL+H, thereby temporarily removing the guides. You can (should) return them to their place in the same way.

If some lines are not visible, then the scale is most likely to blame. The lines will appear if you bring the image to its original size.

The cut lines are ready, the final touch remains. Select all layers with shapes by first clicking on the first one while holding down the key SHIFT and then the last one.

Then press CTRL+G, thereby placing the layers in a group. This group should always be at the very bottom of the layers palette (not counting the background).

The preparatory work is completed, now you can place a business card template in the workspace.
How to find such templates? Very simple. We open our favorite search engine and enter in the search bar a query like

Business Card Templates PSD

In the search results, we look for sites with templates and download them.

My archive contains two files in the format PSD. One - with the front (front) side, the other - with the back.

Double-click one of the files to open and see the business card.

Let's look at the layers palette of this document.

We see several folders with layers and a black background. Select everything except the background while holding down the key SHIFT and click CTRL+G.

You get this:

Now we need to move this entire group to our business card. To do this, the tab with the template must be unpinned.

Hold the tab with the left mouse button and drag it down a little.

We attach the tab with the template back so as not to interfere. To do this, drag it back to the tab bar.

1. Customize to size.

For greater accuracy, fill the background with a contrasting color, for example, dark gray. Let's choose a tool "Pouring", set the desired color, then select the background layer in the palette and click inside the workspace.

Select in the layers palette (on the working document) the group just placed there and call it with the keyboard shortcut CTRL+T.

When transforming, it is necessary (mandatory) to hold down the key SHIFT to maintain proportions.

Remember about the cut lines (inner guides), they outline the boundaries of the content.

In this mode, content can also be moved around the canvas.

When finished, press ENTER.

As you can see, the proportions of the template differ from the proportions of our business card, since the side edges fit perfectly, and the background overlaps the cutting lines (guides) at the top and bottom.

Let's fix this. We find in the layers palette (working document, the group that was moved) the layer with the background of the business card and select it.

Then we call "Free Transform" (CTRL+T) and adjust the size vertically (“squeeze”). key SHIFT we don't touch.

2. Editing typography (inscriptions).

To do this, you need to find everything containing text in the layers palette.

We see next to each text layer an icon with exclamation mark. This means that the fonts contained in the original template are not present in the system.

In order to find out what font was in the template, you need to select the text layer and go to the menu "Window - Symbol".

This font can be downloaded from the Internet and installed.