A business card can look perfect on your computer and still come back from the printer with a mistake.
Sometimes the phone number is wrong. Sometimes important text sits too close to the edge. In other cases the design simply becomes difficult to read once it is reduced to actual card size.
That is why the final check matters.
Before sending your business card to print, spend a few minutes reviewing the details below.
Check Your Contact Information First
Start with the information people actually need.
Read your name, business name, phone number, email address and website carefully.
Do not rely on memory. Open your website and compare the address. Check the phone number digit by digit. If possible, send a test email to the address printed on the card.
A beautiful card with an incorrect phone number has very little value.
Also decide whether every piece of information is necessary. You usually do not need to include every social media account or every service your business provides.
A business card should make contacting you easier rather than overwhelming the reader.
Look at the Card at Actual Size
Design software often displays cards much larger than they will appear in your hand.
Something that looks perfectly readable on a large monitor can become tiny after printing.
View the design at approximately its real dimensions.
Pay particular attention to your phone number, email address and website. These details should be easy to read without effort.
If you find yourself concentrating to read something, increase its size or simplify the design.
Check the Space Around the Edges
Avoid placing important information extremely close to the edge.
Printing and cutting are physical processes and small variations can happen. Giving important elements some breathing room makes the design safer and usually improves its appearance as well.
Background colors and images intended to reach the edge normally need to extend beyond the final cutting line. Printers commonly refer to this extra area as bleed.
Ask your printing company for its exact file requirements because specifications can vary.
Check Image Quality
Logos and photographs that look acceptable on a screen may not always print clearly.
Use the best quality original files available to you.
Avoid taking a small logo from a website and stretching it to make it larger. Enlarging a low quality image does not create additional detail.
Your printer may also provide recommendations for image resolution and preferred file formats.
Check Contrast
Information should stand out clearly from the background.
Light grey text on a white background may look elegant on a bright monitor but become difficult to read on paper.
The same problem can happen when dark text is placed over a complicated photograph.
Readability should come before decoration.
Print a Test Copy
One of the most useful checks costs almost nothing.
Print the card on an ordinary printer at actual size.
The colors will probably not match professional printing but that is not the purpose of the test.
Hold the card in your hand. Read the contact details. Look at the spacing. Turn it over if the design is double sided.
You will often notice things on paper that you completely missed on screen.
Review Everything One Last Time
Before approving the final file, check spelling, numbers, alignment and contact information again.
If possible, ask another person to review it too. Fresh eyes are surprisingly good at finding obvious mistakes.
Once hundreds of cards have been printed, even a tiny error becomes expensive and annoying to correct.
Five extra minutes before printing can save you from throwing away an entire box of cards.
A successful business card does not need to be complicated. It needs to be clear, accurate and easy to use. Get those basics right before worrying about making the design impressive.