How to print business cards at home? Find out what’s RGB and CMYK how to cut out the cards after printing and what is gold leafing and how to do it at home.
The first thing you have to consider is the color model.
What is a color model?
I’m talking about RGB and CMYK. If you switch between CMYK and RGB you can see there is quite a difference between the two. But why are they different?
If you chose CMYK that means every color in the file will be made from a combination of these four colors: Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Key(black), in short CMYK.
This color model is used in printing. The four colors refer to the four inks used in a printer. This is a so called subtractive model. This means that you start out with a white paper and it adds layers of colors which as a result will subtract brightness, in other words, with each layer you are subtracting “white.”
Red-Green-Blue on the other hand does the opposite. White is the combination of all three colors, and the black is the absence of all the colors. RGB represents the untouchable colors, the light beams themselves, while CMYK is the color you can “touch”.
This is the reason, when designing something which later will be printed the desired color model is CMYK so you can see the colors as they will be once printed on paper. If you use RGB while designing and print in CMYK the color difference may ruin the result. Also note even if you set up your digital artwork to be in the CMYK model the result you get will still be in a different color, as the monitor emits light beams which are additive, RGB by nature.
How to print out business card templates?
There are websites that offer printing business cards, but these are far from being cheap, don’t offer much variety, and the quality of the end result varies between sites. You can’t tell what you’re gonna get until you already payed for a whole batch.
Download Business Card Print Template (0.36 mb)
The option we recommend is using our designs which are completely customizable, they are print ready, and you can download them for free. After you chose the template you desire, download it for free and customize it as you wish. At this point your card is almost ready. Also make sure, you didn’t put anything in the safe zone or bleed area during the customizing. Now that you have your unique business card use this template so you can place them perfectly for printing on a A4 paper and save it in PDF.
This format is ensures the best possible quality. When printing is done you have to cut down the bleed area and with this you are done, note that cutting out is not as straightforward as you may think (we’ll discuss this later). If you wish, you can bring the PDF file you just made to a local company that offers printing service to print it for you.
How to cut out business cards?
On the template we provided you have ten business card templates. On the sides there are the crop marks, you have to follow these to cut out the cards perfectly. You have to be careful, so you don’t cut the paper all the way, you shouldn’t cut down these marks! By this I mean cutting from one end of the paper to the other end. You want it to remain in one piece mostly, so you can can follow the guidelines which show you where to cut with a ruler.
First you cut the middle part than the outer edges. If you are doing it home, use a cutter and a ruler. Place the paper on something you don’t mind to cut, be careful not to ruin your table.
Do you want to stand out with luxury business cards?
A good way to achieve this is to simply download a luxury business card template, and print it, but if you want to go beyond that you can put gold elements on it made from real gold. This process is called gold leafing. Genuine gold leaf made from 24k gold might cost less than you’d think as the gold itself can be stretched really thin, making it almost weightless. An approximately 3.5x3.5 inch piece should cost less than 1$.
What is golden leafing, how to do it?
There are more ways to do it, some ore more messy than others, and more durability varies as well. Fortunately enough the easiest way to do it is also the most durable and precise. This might not be the most budget friendly, but it still has the best value as the quality is much higher.
The cheaper method is as follows:You apply a special glue to the surface which you intend to foil in the shape of the design which you want to end up with (you can do this in various ways like with a stamp or cutting a special adhesive tape in shape, but we think all of them are bothersome or rigid so we won’t go in detail). After this press the golden leaf firmly to the paper covered in glue, and remove the foil so only the part with the glue got stuck there.
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In the other method (the best method), which we found to be much more convenient is using the toner from laser printing. For this you need a laminating machine, which shouldn’t be too expensive, or you can use an iron. It is important that you print your design with a laser printer as the toner in it is essential for this to work. If you don’t have a laser printer go to a place where they have a printer like that and don’t forget to specify that you need it to be laser printed. After this is done, you have to make a sandwich. Here’s the recipe: your design is at the center, on top of that should be the gold leaf, now cover these in paper and run it through the laminating machine. If you don’t have, one iron it. If you heat up the paper while pressing down on it, the toner will get hot and sticky and as a result it will hold the gold in place. We recommend using a laminating machine, and we used this with Deco Foil (a type of golden leaf). This method seems to be the most scratch resistant and accurate.
