If you are printing your cards at home we have a few suggestions to help ensure you get the best quality possible from this process. While many techniques and a certain level of polish may only be available with professionally printed cards, if you play to the strengths of the home-printed business card you may find it is the best choice for you.

Preparing for Succesfully Printed Cards (Supplies and Design Considerations)
1. Avoid perforated-edge business card paper if possible. While this kind of paper is the cheapest business card paper available, it really looks cheap and is only suitable for . You might be better off buying regular cardstock (available by the sheet at any xerox place) or using photo paper you already have, and cutting them yourself. Laser cut or "Clean Edge" business card paper gives a much better result.

2. Choose the right paper finish. Printing simple black type cards for a professional business look? Consider using a linen or parchment finish card stock. Or, if your card has large areas of color or a photograph, choose a semi-gloss or glossy card stock or pre-cut business card paper for the most professional-looking results. Colors and photos printed on regular finish card stock can look faded and make the cards look homemade.

3. Use a template or the Businesscardland business card maker. To ensure you cards line up with pre-cut business card paper, use a template as a starting point to ensure your cards will align properly. See the "How to Design Your Own Business Card" section for sources of templates.

4. Get the most from your printer. Make sure you printer is not clogged or creating any undesirable marks or spots (print a test print on regular paper before you use up your special paper stock). Perform any printer maintenance like a nozzle cleaning according to your printer's support documentation if necessary. Also, if you know your printer does not do well with large areas of solid color, don't use them in your design. Most printers will do a reasonable job with plain text and small or thin graphic elements. You will also use less ink than if you have a solid toned card background if this is a concern for you.

Now You're Ready to Start Printing Your Business Cards...
1. Make sure you have set "Page Scaling" to "None" when you print. If you are using a Windows computer to print from a template or a PDF generated by the Businesscardland business card maker, the default setting can cause the entire sheet of cards to be scaled to a smaller size, causing the cards to be progressively more misaligned as they go down the page. Once you hit print, check in the preferences pane of the print dialog box that comes up - if page scaling is set to "Fit to Page", you need to change it to "None".

2. Choose the "Print Maximum Area" . If the artwork on your template goes closer than .5" to the edge of your page (this is always true with cutting guides selected on PDFs generated by the Businesscardland business card maker), then you should look for the option on your print preferences dialog box that allows your printer to print the maximum possible area. Usually you will find this option either in page-setup, or as one of the options that are available after you choose "Print" from the "File" menu in the window that pops up. The exact location of this option can vary based on your printer type and driver.

3. Print a test print on regular paper. Before you use your special paper stock, print on regular paper to make sure your settings are right and there is no problem with your design. You can hold the test print up alongside the pre-cut business card paper and see if it is correctly aligned. If not, check the previous tips.

4. Consider using the highest quality print setting. In particular if your card contains small text, photographic images, or large areas of color, you might want to select the highest quality setting for printing. This option is usually found in the print preferences under the page-setup or from the print dialog box that pops up when you choose "Print" from the "File" menu.