The history of using business cards as a form of representation of a person goes back to the 12th century, when nobles sent special cards to their vassals who were supposed to notify those of their arrival. Over time, in particular in the 19th century, business cards began to be used more to attract attention. They were sent with congratulations, flowers, etc. Nowadays, a business card has become an integral part of business relationships. It provides brief information either about the person, or about the company, or about the services provided. With the development of computer technology, special software products have also appeared that allow you to create a card in a few minutes, since the costs of design development, quality paper and printing are sometimes too high, and the goal, as they say, does not justify the means. Let's see in which program to make a business card yourself is the easiest, and choose the most suitable option for the user of a certain level of training. But to begin with, a few words about the prerequisites that all business cards must comply with during the registration process.
The main types of business cards
First of all, when creating a business card, you need to build on what type of business card it will be. Firstly, there are three main types of such information cards: personal, business and representative. The first type is most often for dating and is arranged in an arbitrary style. For the second type, it is mandatory to indicate not only information about the owner of the business card, but also the name of the company, position held and contacts. For the third type, only general information about the company (preferably with a logo) and the services it provides is usually used. For such business cards, as a rule, they use a certain corporate identity with the most convenient for reading fonts.
Business Card Requirements
Secondly, today business cards should have strictly defined sizes. Please note that many business card holders or purses have special sections-pockets in which business cards are placed. If the standard sizes are not respected, of course, the business card will not fit there, and its presentation at best will be interpreted as a manifestation of bad taste.
In the standard version, any business card should have a size of 90 x 50 mm, which corresponds to 1063 x 591 pixels at a resolution of 300 dpi. However, for printing, it is sometimes recommended to maintain an additional margin at the edges (approximately 2-3 mm), which is necessary for trimming at the end of replication. Finally, the inner spacing should be approximately 3-5 mm. It is not recommended to place logos, images or enter text in close proximity to the edges in this area.
Programs for creating business cards in Russian
As for the choice of software, today in the same Runet you can find quite a lot of applications that are specifically focused on creating business cards, and general-purpose ones like graphic or text editors, and online designers. For a general understanding of the methods for creating business cards, consider the most common Word editor that can be found in any office suite, a specialized designer of business cards, Russified Photoshop-level graphic editors and online resources.
Creating a business card with the simplest method in Word
For starters, suppose you have no specialized applications on your computer. In which program to make a business card? The answer suggests itself! Of course, in Word! Most users know that you can perform the necessary operations by inserting a table (ten standard business cards are placed on an A4 sheet).
Before inserting the table, however, first set narrow margins (1.27 cm) in the page layout. After that, you can insert a table with a size of 5 x 10 cells. Through RMB on the table, next you need to go to its properties and set the dimensions of the row (5 cm) and column (9 cm). After that, you can paste the image (to freely move it around the cell in the text wrap options, it is better to use the "Outline" option), enter the desired text using fonts of a certain type and size, align the contents, and then copy the "filling" of one cell and paste into all others. Please note that when copying the entire cell, not its contents, it will be added to the table, so be careful.
An alternative technique used in office editors
If we talk about in which program on the computer to make a business card, do not rush to switch to using other applications for now. In the same Word and its analogues there are still a lot of possibilities!
For example, one of the simplest options is to insert an arbitrary picture on a blank page. Then, through the RMB menu on it, you should go to the item of size and position, and then in the landscape orientation of the image itself, set the above sizes. But without fail you need to uncheck the item to save the proportions. Now you can use text insertion, for example, in a previously selected field, remove the fill or line selection in editing the shape format, and after entering all the information, just save the file.
However, many users forget that Word has its own, so to speak, designer of business cards.
We are talking about templates, among which you can choose the most suitable solution, after which it remains just to fill out the necessary forms and insert the appropriate graphic objects. This technique is good in that you do not need to take care of standard proportions yourself.
The program "Master of business cards" and its analogues
Now let's move on to highly specialized applications. In which program can I make a professional-level business card layout? Of course, one of the most worthwhile solutions can be called a unique application of its kind called “Business Card Wizard”. True, it is shareware, and the trial period is limited to only ten days.
After installing and starting the application in a special window for creating a project, you can immediately choose which type of card you need to make.
After selection, a form appears to fill out all the necessary personal data. They can be made immediately or delay action for later. It is immediately noteworthy that the information is entered exclusively in text fields, and is not edited directly in the created business card, as is assumed in the same Word editor or other programs, which is very convenient. After that, you can choose a design option from a set of templates. Actually, this is where all the actions end. If you need to edit a business card, you can use the tool kit, placed on the right side panel.
This application is also notable for the fact that in it you can take care of the design of the back of the card in an elementary way, adding, for example, a card indicating the location of your company. Another “trick”, which is not found in any similar utility, is that you can add a special QR code directly to the card if necessary! Finally, right before printing, you can set the margins and crop markers, as well as specify the desired resolution and the number of cards on one sheet.
Note: similar programs work like “Business Card Design”, “Business Card Office” and other analogues.
Professional graphic editors
If you think about which program to make a business card in using professional tools, you can give preference to editors like Photoshop from Adobe or CorelDraw.
Each such package has its own designer of business cards, which can include sets of templates and allow the user to realize their own flight of imagination. The situation is overshadowed only by the fact that you need to have at least basic skills to work with such applications. But with knowledge of the basics, you can get an incomparable result.
Online designers
Finally, many users thinking about which program to make a business card do not get to using the applications themselves, giving preference to all kinds of online services, which are now not so much, but very many. The use of such resources is the easiest solution for lazy people, although among such tools you can find many online applications that allow you to give free rein to your own imagination. One of these can be called the online program Vizitki besplatno, in which you need to choose a logo, background and fill in the necessary information fields.
Which option to prefer?
Finally, it remains to conclude on which program to make a business card best. In principle, if there are no specialized tools at hand, the standard Word text editor is also suitable for the average user. When you get acquainted with powerful graphics programs, it is better to give preference to them. But the “Business Card Wizard” application, no matter how good it looks, has one huge minus, consisting in the fact that you need to pay for it at the end of the trial period. But the capabilities of this program speak for themselves. And not without reason, even many professionals involved in the development of design or printing of printed products give preference to this particular software product.