How to Design A Business Card in Photoshop

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By Elizabeth A
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If you've ever been asked "Got a card"? Only to find yourself clumsily scrummaging through your pockets for a pen and the nearest whiskey soaked napkin to jot down your info on then this 'how-to' is for you. Not the most professional way to initiate a business relationship. But, armed with nothing more than a template, photoshop and a vision you too can create your very own tangible, professional, keenly designed calling call. Then you can finally say.... "Why yes, yes I do, here's MY CARD."

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Photoshop (and some basic knowledge of it).
Template from http://www.greatfxbusinesscards.com
A design concept

Step 1

Go to http://www.greatfxbusinesscards.com/photoshop.htm#step1 and download a vertically or horizontally oriented pre-formated Photoshop template for a standard 2"x 3.5" business card.
Step 2

Once in Photoshop open up your template. The template is preset with guides that will help tremendously when you're ready to send your creation off to the printer. The outermost guide line represents the 'cut line' and the innermost is the 'safety line'. It's best to keep your design within the parameters of the safety line to ensure none of your text or graphics get chopped off by the printer.
Step 3

Make sure that your image mode is set to CMYK color. This can be done by going to Image>Mode>CMYK.
Step 4

Create a new layer in the layers panel.
Step 5

Choose a color for the background of your card by clicking on the small color squares located on the tool bar.
Step 6

Select the paintbucket tool from the tool bar and fill the background with color by clicking on the image.
Step 7

Create a new layer. Choose the Custom Shape Tool select a shape that you would like to use as a logo or watermark. Alternately, you can use your own logo (just make sure that it is a transparent gif).
Step 8

Use the move tool to place your shape/logo/watermark in the desired position. If you are using your shape as a watermark, lower the opacity (located on the layers panel) to about 9%.
Step 9

Select a color that contrasts your background to use as your text color.
This can be done by toggling back and forth between the small color squares.
Step 10

Create individual text boxes for all of your essential information. i.e. Name, Website, Phone Number and Address. (Creating separate text boxes makes it easier to position and resize the text anywhere on your card). Make sure to choose a really spectacular font that is clean and crisp and will look stunning in print.
Step 11

If you'd like certain information to stand out, try using opaque boxes or thin pixel lines as accents. You can create an opaque box by creating a new layer, selecting your rectangular marquee tool and then drawing a box around a specific area of text.(Make sure however, that your text layer is on top of your box layer in the layers panel). Color your box black and then lower the opacity to about 44% to give it that transparent feel.
Step 12

Play around with different layer styles and design elements until you get something you love.
Step 13

After you've saved your psd, there's one last step. In order to insure the best results from your printer, it's a good idea to first flatten your psd image. We do this by right clicking on any one of the layers in the layers panel and then selecting 'flatten image'. But don't save over the original psd! Make sure to select 'Save As' this time and rename your file something else like "business card flattened' and choose the appropriate file ext. That way you can go back to your original psd and edit elements later on.
Step 14

Now you're ready to send your new keenly designed business card off to the printer without fear of design clipping or layout issues.