New Trends In Business Card Printing

By Author: Biznis Cards
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Business cards are an invaluable asset for any professional or businessperson. The humble business card is not just a calling card bearing an individual's name and contact details: it acts as a promotional tool for the company and its products, and serves to inform people of an individual's role within that company. For this reason business cards are every bit as important for the staff and salespeople in a small business as they are for the CEO of a multinational blue-chip company.
Business cards date back to the 15th Century in China and the 17th Century in Europe, and were originally quite simple: black text on white card stock. However advances in design and print technology meant that they became more elaborate over time, and in addition to the name, job title and contact details of the bearer, today's professional business card will usually include a striking visual design, a corporate font and a unique company logo.
Some business cards, particularly those of salespeople and real estate agents, may also include a photograph of the employee, but the one thing all companies want is a uniform business card style ...
... to ensure that the company looks professional to its customers. This is known as the Brand Identity or the Corporate ID, and is usually extended to any other printed stationery the company may use such as letterheads and compliment slips.
Special Materials
The vast majority of corporate business cards are printed on 320~350gsm white card. However, business cards can be printed on a wide variety of materials, and designers have taken advantage of that in recent years to produce durable plastic cards (frosted translucent plastic being the most popular), metallic business cards, wooden business cards, and even magnetic business cards: magnetic cards are particularly popular with tradesmen such as plumbers and electricians because customers can stick them on the door of their refrigerator to save them the trouble of looking in the Yellow Pages.

Digital vs Litho
There are two main methods of printing business stationery: digital and litho. The decision about which one to use usually comes down to speed and cost. Digital printing is very fast and very cost-effective for short-run print jobs such as individual sets of business cards, whereas litho printing is more cost-effective for longer runs.
Litho printing uses individual Pantone colour inks and the press needs to be cleaned down between the application of each colour. This means that the setup costs are more expensive than for digital printing, and the process also takes longer. In addition, litho print requires extra time for the ink to dry before the it can be guillotined. If the ink is not dry, there is a risk of set off which is when the ink from the front of one page rubs off onto the reverse of another.
Digital presses, on the other hand, use a combination of four colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, or CMYK) to create all the colours in the rainbow. There are no costs involved in setting up the press, no cleaning in between colours, and no drying time. This makes it the ideal method for printing business cards, and ensures that urgent orders can be printed and despatched within a few hours, something which would be impossible if they were printed litho.

Online Ordering
Recent innovations in computer technology and graphic applications have seen the rise of some print companies offering an online ordering service for business cards and other printed stationery. In some cases this may simply be an web form which the user fills in to request an order, but some of the more progressive print companies have invested in sophisticated online procurement software which enables customers to enter their details online and view instant on-screen proofs of their printed stationery before the order goes to print. There are a number of very real advantages to using a system like this, particularly for larger companies which need to order business cards regularly.
First of all, a sophisticated online print system will preserve the company's Corporate ID across the entire range of stationery and this will guarantee that each print run conforms to the company's print guidelines: it removes the need for a graphic designer to create the artwork from scratch for each order, and that means there are no mistakes.
In addition, an online print system will also enable users to place orders whenever they need to, whether it be at the weekend or at 2am: no need to speak to the printer, no need to wait for the proofs, no need to correct the typo errors which the graphic designer has made orders can be placed quickly and efficiently online any time of the day or night, and the proofs can be checked instantly and even emailed to a colleague for approval. These efficiencies of time also translate into cost-savings, both for the customer (who doesn't need to waste valuable time chasing the printer for proofs and corrections) and for the printer (who can employ their graphic designer's time more productively).

Dual-Language Business Cards
Finally, one very important aspect of our technology-driven, ever-shrinking world is the increase in international trade. Reduced travel costs and open trade agreements mean that import/export is no longer the preserve of multinational corporations, but is now also open to smaller companies: it has never been easier to trade abroad. This has led to a dramatic rise in the requirement for dual-language business cards, particularly for companies trading overseas in South East Asian countries such as Japan, China and Korea, but also increasingly in Arab countries too.
The problem here is that whilst printers may be very good at putting ink on paper, and some of the more innovative among them may even have ventured into online ordering, there are no more than a very small handful of printers in Western countries who know anything about translating or printing foreign languages, particularly complex scripts (ie, anything beyond the Western alphabet). However, it is vital to the success of any overseas trade negotiations that the company looks as professional as possible to its foreign customers, so it comes as little surprise that expert online print companies such as Biznis Cards which provide specialist translation and foreign-language typesetting services are becoming more and more popular.
Biznis Cards is the author of this article on New Trends In Business Card Printing. Find more information relating to business card, and business card printing here.