Tutorials: Full-Color Business Card - Photo Business Card Design

Designing a full color business card with a photo takes extra work, as it requires more formatting, using what is known called a "bleed." In the graphic below (far left) you will see the standard size of a business card in the light blue area, which is 2.5 x 3 inches. The graphic on the right displays what would be the most logical layout of a photograph or logo on a business card - putting the photo on either side of the card and extending the image all the way to the end of the card. This can unfortunately causes problems when it comes time to print, specifically it causes ink bleeding, hence the term "bleed."

The way to fix this is to extend the photo about 1/4th an inch on all sides of the card ,as you will see on the third graphic on the below. The dark blue box shows the actual size of the card as it will be printed. The photo in the business card is now extended all the way out in three directions and the photo will be cut off for the actual size of the card. In other words, the part of the photograph outside of the blue box will not print, so it's important to make sure that the main elements are going to fit within this designated area.

Creating full color cards does not have to be expensive. With the advent of six-color Komori presses it's now become possible to print very high quality designs at rates which were unimaginable a decade ago. We've invested thousands of dollars in these machines and they let us to produce this exceptional quality work for your cards. We also have cards outside of the 2 inch by 3.5 inch spectrum and we can create cards in the ISO common European sizes in whatever metric dimensions you specify.