Business Cards
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- 70sBaby
I have a great idea for my first set of business cards. I'm Photoshop as my photo editor and I'm trying to figure out what image size and resolutions should I be using.
Someone told me to use 300 dpi for clarity whenever you print something ...but its entirely too big!PLEASE HELP!
- Biofreak0
photoshop for business cards eh?
well, if your cards are the regular size, then i dont see why they would be too large a file.
300dpi is standard for a good printjob.
what exactly quailifies a file as "too big"
- k0na_an0k0
yep... you're best bet for the best looking print is 300 dpi. if you can design the background (if you have to) in photoshop... save it as an eps and import that into illustrator and lay your text over the top. or... save a TON of k size and do it in illustrator.
- fits0
I would not recomend laying out text in photoshop. atleast prepare your photos and then export them as tiffs to illustrator then lay out your text.
- Biofreak0
i agree. only your images should be done in PS. export a tif and do your text in a vector/layout program.
- matt240
i will also add my agreement to exporting images then doing text in illustrator - aren't i helpful
- Biofreak0
i agree with matt's agreement.
- Biofreak0
i also agree with my own agreement to his agreement.
- ribit0
I did our last set of business cards in Photoshop, simply because I'm unfamiliar with Illustrator (just about all my work is pixel based)... and we needed them fast...
... so I just worked at 300dpi (1054x602 pixels)and saved as GIF or TIF, and got them printed at Kinkos... 'dotty' digital printing.. quality is OK for the photo quality parts of the design, text is a bit fuzzy of course... but did the job.
next time we want to get it properly laid out as EPS for sharper /finer text...
- snowtrooper0
i couldnt agree more guys
- ribit0
I think snowtrooper couldnt agree more too
- matt240
finally - we are all in agreement on something
- mikeim0
i'm gonna have to disagree with all the agreements. actually setting type in PS is safe as long as you don't scale the exported file in your layout program.
I would agree if you were using PS 4.0 or below. they've done great things w/type in PS.
- matt240
i disagree - illustrator is still better
- ribit0
hey...I didnt even export to a layout program... i just sent them the GIF, and said print this to this dimension... worked fine... not dead sharp, but it is OK if you are in a rush and don't know how to use a layout program...
won't be doing it again though :)
- matt240
yeah - that will work but like you said the text won't be crisp
- mikeim0
i know some designers that do everything in PS. usually turns out fine. (however, i think its becuase they don't know any other programs)
- matt240
that's what i used to do until i saw the light
- ribit0
My background is Industrial Design and Web Publishing...so everything is bitmaps...... digital sketching and modelling, web design, never done any print...
- inkbase0
if your are having them printed using lithography (rather than, say, an inkjet), I would highly reccomend you layout the type (and any other vector elements) in illustrator.
Also, the default for line art in illustrator is 800dpi, but the pre-press house I'm familiar with, reccomends bumping that up to 2540dpi
This will give you extremely sharp type - which is a good thing of you're looking to attract clients.
- 70sBaby0
Thank for all the great ideas and useful information!
Special thanks to Ribit!
- "70s"