Name Cards
Name cards, also known as business cards, are often the first piece of marketing material that your prospective customers receive from you. You certainly want to get it right.
Creating and making the right impression is important. Here are some key things to take note when printing name cards.
Information to Include
The most important pieces of information to include are your personal contact details.
If your business is active on social media, be sure to include your social media handles. Your potential customer might not be aware of your Instagram or Facebook page so it is a good idea to include them.
You may also choose to include a list of products and services that they provide on the reverse side of the card. Be careful not to clutter your card with too much information that it becomes hard to focus on the important stuff.
Material Choice
Name cards have to be durable as they often rub against each other in your wallet. You also want them to appear crisp and pristine when giving them to your prospective customers.
Paper weights should be suitably thick. We recommend a weight of between 250gsm to 350gsm. Avoid going too thick as it will limit the number of cards you can carry and cause storage issues if your recipient is using a name card holder. Too thin and the durability might be compromised.
If you wish to use uncoated or textured materials, you should avoid solid and heavy ink coverage as it takes much longer to dry and is prone to ink rubbing off. We recommend using a coated art card if your design incorporates large areas of solid colours. They dry faster and do not have ink rubbing off issues. We highly recommend coated art cards for name cards in weights of 260gsm, 310gsm and 350gsm with matte lamination. This increases its durability in addition to providing a nice soft texture. The final product is a professional image while avoiding print issues.
Preparing Artwork for Digital Printing
We offer both offset lithography and digital dry toner printing for printing name cards.
While we recommend using offset printing for the best quality, its longer lead time and higher cost is often a barrier. Should you choose to use digital printing to take advantage of the speed and cost, you should be aware of these issues when designing your cards:
Light pastel colours and text with reverse colours do not print well. They often appear inconsistent and are prone to streaking.
Textured materials can’t be used as the toner is not able to enter the recessed areas, making your prints look patchy.
Colour consistency for repeat orders may also be an issue. This issue does not show up until you make another order a few months later.
Registration (misalignment) is an issue if you have subsequent finishing such as spot-UV, die-cut or hot stamping.
Printing technology is improving all the time and hopefully in the near future these issues will go away. An advantage to using digital printing is that due to its low cost and practically non-existent setup time, you can view a sample of the name card on the actual material. Ask us for a sample and evaluate if it is up to your standards before confirming an order. Be prepared to make changes to your artwork or pay more for offset printing.
Offset printing is usually not economical if printing quantities less than 1,000 pieces but we will still recommend it if you demand the highest quality.
Conclusion
We print over a quarter million name cards every year. Our customers include startups with small quantities to global corporations looking for a consistent brand image. If you need name cards printed, feel free to contact us to get a quote.
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