Business Card

 15-20 min

  

PagePlus makes it easy to set up your printer to print multiple copies of your business card on one sheet of paper, whether you are using standard paper or specialist business card paper. Whether you are creating your own design from scratch or using one of the Pro Design Templates, you'll achieve excellent results with a few simple steps.

By the end of this tutorial you will be able to:

Let’s begin...

  1. On the File menu, click New > New from Startup Wizard.

  2. In the Create section, click Use Design Template.

  1. In the dialog:

  2. In the leftmost pane, click the Business Cards category.

  3. In the centre pane, click a thumbnail to select a template.

  4. If alternative colour schemes are available for the template, select a scheme from the drop-down list.

  5. In the rightmost pane, alternative designs are displayed if available. Click to select your preferred design.

  6. Click OK.

  1. This will automatically launch the User Details dialog. If you have not done so before, complete your details. PagePlus uses these to create your business card details. Click Update.

    The business card is displayed in the workspace, complete with your updated User Details.

Let's modify the text in the top corner so that it contains our company name. We can use the User Details to do this.

To add User Details:

  1. Triple-click the text box to select all the text within the frame.

  2. On the Insert menu, click Information, then click User Details....

  3. In the dialog select Company from the displayed list and then click OK.

  4. The text box has updated to display the Company name.

  5. User Details fields can be modified in the same way as you would modify ordinary text. In our example we've right-aligned the Company name.

To modify User Details:

  1. Click on the workspace to display the Page context toolbar.

  2. Click Set User Details to open the User Details dialog.

  3. Make any necessary changes and click Update.



    These changes will immediately update on your business card.

  4. Any changes to the User Details are saved globally and will update all existing and future publications containing User Details fields.

Printing on standard paper

When you're happy with your design the next step is to proceed to print.

To print a business card publication on standard paper:

  1. On the Standard toolbar, click Print.

  2. Depending on the orientation of your page a warning dialog may be displayed advising you about the number of cards you can fit on each page.

     

    Select Yes to place your business cards on the printed page rotated to increase the number of cards printed.

     

    Select No to place your business cards on the printed page as already defined. (Choose this option if you intend to print on any form or specialised paper.)

     

    The number of business cards which will printed on the page is displayed on the preview in the Print dialog.

  1. Select your printer from the Printer drop-down list.

  2. To change the rotation of the printed page, click Properties... and select the desired page orientation using the Orientation drop-down list.

  3. To print more than one page of business cards, types the required number in the Copies box. (PagePlus will automatically fill a printed page with business cards.)

  4. If you are printing on plain paper/card and then cutting out your cards by hand, why not add bleed and crop marks to your printed page?
    · Click More Options to display the advanced printing options.
    · Click Bleed in the left-hand list and select the Bleed option.
    · Set the Bleed Limit for the business cards.
    · Select Page Marks from the left-hand list and select the Crop marks check box from the Page Marks menu.

  5. Setting a bleed on your business cards may significantly decrease the number of business cards printed on the page and is not recommended if there is no defined gap between the cards.

  1. Click Print.

Using specialised Business Card paper

Specialised business card paper is ideal for producing professional looking business cards at home. Most manufacturers provide templates on their websites, and/or include them with the paper, to ensure you set up your publication to print accurately on the paper.

The first step is to set your page units to match those of the template that came with your paper. If your paper did not come with a template, you'll have to make the measurements yourself, so choose a unit that you're happy to work with.

To set up your cards to match the paper, you'll only need a few measurements. Here is a typical example of a template often supplied with your cards.

  • The measurements in blue, are the actual dimensions of the printed business card.

  • The measurements in red correspond to the page margin.

  • The measurement in purple corresponds to the gap between the cards. Depending on your cards, you may also have a vertical gap measurement. However, in this instance the vertical gap is 0.

If you don't have a template, you can measure these distances yourself and make a note of them.

We can use this information to set up our small publication design. Luckily, the preview in the dialog has a very similar feel!

To set up your publication for specialised paper:

  1. On the Page context toolbar, click Page Setup.

  2. In the Page Setup dialog, click Create Custom. The Small Publication Setup dialog opens.



    Let's look at the dialog in more detail.

 

The page setup is defined in several ways, and the preview updates to match your settings. It is important to know that PagePlus will automatically calculate some measurements when you specify others.

Here is a brief overview of the settings.

  • Size (the dimensions of your card, marked with red and black arrows). You can define the Height (black arrow) and the Width (red arrow). If the Auto option is selected, the Layout and Margins will be updated automatically.

  • Layout (the number of cards printed per page). If the Auto option is selected, the Size and Margins will be updated automatically.

  • Gaps (the distance between each cards). Gap X (red line) defines the horizontal distance between the cards, Gap Y (black line) defines the vertical distance between cards. If the Auto option is selected, the Margins will be updated automatically.

  • If the Auto option is cleared, modifying the Left, Right, Top and Bottom margins will determine the Layout of the page based on the Size set for each card and the Gaps between them.

 

  1. Let's make our card match the template and set the Width to 85 mm and the Height to 54 mm.

  2. Set Gap X to 10 mm and set Gap Y to 0 mm. The preview updates to resemble our template.



    Note the Margins have updated and the Layout has also changed.

  3. Click OK twice to exit the Small Publication Setup and Page Setup dialogs and accept your changes.

  4. You may need to modify the design of your business card now that the dimension of the publication have changed. Once you have made the necessary changes, you're ready to print.

  1. On the Standard toolbar, click Print.

  2. (Optional) If the warning dialog asks if you wish to rotate the page, click No.

  3. Select your printer from the Printer drop-down list.

  4. To print more than one page of business cards, type the required number in the Copies box. (PagePlus will automatically fill a printed page with business cards.)

  5. Click Print.

  6. If you are using business card paper without gaps between the cards, ensure the Bleed setting in the Print dialog is set to 0 mm.

    We also recommend undertaking a test print using standard paper before using your special business card paper to avoid any costly errors.

That's it! Your cards are now complete!