Occasionally I meet fellow sailors who, when introducing themselves, hand you their neat business card. Some are quite elaborate and show either a picture of their boat or the brand logo, name of their boat, their own name, address, phone number, etc. My question is: Where would one go for something like this? Has any of you boatowners had such cards made? If so, I would appreciate hearing from you with address or phone where I could order them. Tanx & merry Christmas Fred
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Make 'em on your own computer
If you have any version of MS Office or Word, Get the Avery "wizard" for your version..you can download it from here: http://www.avery.com/us/Main?action=software.AverySoftwareDetail&catalogcode=WEB01&softwarecode=3201 and even get a short tutorial about how to use it before downloading it. It's free, btw. It's a VERY slick tool that allows you to create business cards, mailing labels...all kinds of neat things. You can buy the card stock at any office supply store, Walmart, Sams, etc. To import art onto a card, just right click on anything--your own photo, line art, images on the web, ANYthing--copy/paste it onto the card, then size it to fit. Then when you're happy with it, print your cards (the stock is sheets of 10 cards) on your inkjet or laser printer. It's not hard to do...I've made my own business cards this way for years. Merry Christmas!
If you have any version of MS Office or Word, Get the Avery "wizard" for your version..you can download it from here: http://www.avery.com/us/Main?action=software.AverySoftwareDetail&catalogcode=WEB01&softwarecode=3201 and even get a short tutorial about how to use it before downloading it. It's free, btw. It's a VERY slick tool that allows you to create business cards, mailing labels...all kinds of neat things. You can buy the card stock at any office supply store, Walmart, Sams, etc. To import art onto a card, just right click on anything--your own photo, line art, images on the web, ANYthing--copy/paste it onto the card, then size it to fit. Then when you're happy with it, print your cards (the stock is sheets of 10 cards) on your inkjet or laser printer. It's not hard to do...I've made my own business cards this way for years. Merry Christmas!
Vistaprint
We yuse vistaprint.com. They have art work, designs, and multiple type sets. It is free for th bnasic package with 4.99 for shipping. We get 250 excellent cards. That is less than the cost of print and paper for 250. Of course if you want to upgrade they have fee services. The cards are excellent and have been using them for about 5 years.
We yuse vistaprint.com. They have art work, designs, and multiple type sets. It is free for th bnasic package with 4.99 for shipping. We get 250 excellent cards. That is less than the cost of print and paper for 250. Of course if you want to upgrade they have fee services. The cards are excellent and have been using them for about 5 years.
peggy Hall Avery ????
Since you use the Avery templates for business cards I wonder if you have the same issue I do ? Using the Avery stock and their set up for the print, I then go to print and the top four to six cards are fine but the bottom 4- to 6 are off. On the 10 card sheet the spacing seems to be printing each row of cards closer to the top of the blank card until at the bottom they print off the card. It is an HP printer that I had used on my Mac I-book and have now re-programed for the PC I now use. I am thinking my printer likes the Mac better-=??? py charlie
Since you use the Avery templates for business cards I wonder if you have the same issue I do ? Using the Avery stock and their set up for the print, I then go to print and the top four to six cards are fine but the bottom 4- to 6 are off. On the 10 card sheet the spacing seems to be printing each row of cards closer to the top of the blank card until at the bottom they print off the card. It is an HP printer that I had used on my Mac I-book and have now re-programed for the PC I now use. I am thinking my printer likes the Mac better-=??? py charlie
I Use Microsoft "Picture It"
I use Microsoft Picture It. The program costs about $20 at Walmart. It allows you to to compose your own cards using pictures as a background. My card has our boat in the foreground with a picture of the Blue Nose II from Nova Scotia in the background. I have a map to our house on the back. Picture It has a very precise card layout so that you can get eight cards on standard eight by ten photo paper. I use Picture It for just about all formatting and manipulation of pictures.
I use Microsoft Picture It. The program costs about $20 at Walmart. It allows you to to compose your own cards using pictures as a background. My card has our boat in the foreground with a picture of the Blue Nose II from Nova Scotia in the background. I have a map to our house on the back. Picture It has a very precise card layout so that you can get eight cards on standard eight by ten photo paper. I use Picture It for just about all formatting and manipulation of pictures.
Possible causes for your problem, Charlie...and Dan...
I also use an HP inkjet printer and have never used anything but a PC. A few thoughts: Your printer may think it's still connected to a Mac. When you switched to a PC, did you install the PC printer software, or just let Windoze find the driver? If you didn't install the software, that could cause formatting problems. When you tell the Avery "wizard" to copy the first card into the remaining 9 on the sheet, are you making sure they're all landing in same position on each card? Avery has several different card stocks...are you sure that the 'wizard' you're selecting to design your cards is the same one that's in the printer? Or it may be that you've installed the Avery software for a different version of Word than the one that's in your computer, or using downloaded fonts that aren't downloaded into your version of Word. Or...if your fonts or artwork are sized a little too large, it may be pushing each card a little further down...not enough to push the copy off the card till you're halfway down the page. That's the most likely cause. If you do a test print on plain paper, then hold it against the card stock and hold 'em up a light, you can check the alignment for all the cards and then make any necessary adjustments without wasting card stock. If you're using color or photos for your cards, you can tell the printer to print the test sheets in grayscale and in "draft mode"...that saves your color ink and also uses a LOT less black ink. Dan, since you're printing on photo paper instead of card stock anyway, save your card template on CD then take it to a photo lab to have it printed as if it were 8x10 "englargement" instead of using your own printer. Photo labs use the same chemical printing process for digital that they use for negatives, which has some major advantages: 1. Colors are a lot sharper and truer...and they stay that way a lot longer than inkjet or laser prints. I THINK it also costs a LOT less than printing color photos yourself. You can then print the line art map to your house on the back on your own printer before cutting the sheets into cards.
I also use an HP inkjet printer and have never used anything but a PC. A few thoughts: Your printer may think it's still connected to a Mac. When you switched to a PC, did you install the PC printer software, or just let Windoze find the driver? If you didn't install the software, that could cause formatting problems. When you tell the Avery "wizard" to copy the first card into the remaining 9 on the sheet, are you making sure they're all landing in same position on each card? Avery has several different card stocks...are you sure that the 'wizard' you're selecting to design your cards is the same one that's in the printer? Or it may be that you've installed the Avery software for a different version of Word than the one that's in your computer, or using downloaded fonts that aren't downloaded into your version of Word. Or...if your fonts or artwork are sized a little too large, it may be pushing each card a little further down...not enough to push the copy off the card till you're halfway down the page. That's the most likely cause. If you do a test print on plain paper, then hold it against the card stock and hold 'em up a light, you can check the alignment for all the cards and then make any necessary adjustments without wasting card stock. If you're using color or photos for your cards, you can tell the printer to print the test sheets in grayscale and in "draft mode"...that saves your color ink and also uses a LOT less black ink. Dan, since you're printing on photo paper instead of card stock anyway, save your card template on CD then take it to a photo lab to have it printed as if it were 8x10 "englargement" instead of using your own printer. Photo labs use the same chemical printing process for digital that they use for negatives, which has some major advantages: 1. Colors are a lot sharper and truer...and they stay that way a lot longer than inkjet or laser prints. I THINK it also costs a LOT less than printing color photos yourself. You can then print the line art map to your house on the back on your own printer before cutting the sheets into cards.
Wow peggy!
Geezz Thanks for all the things to check out. You really are a big help. I love this site! Lot's of good people here. Going to work with my printer now.
Geezz Thanks for all the things to check out. You really are a big help. I love this site! Lot's of good people here. Going to work with my printer now.
If you don't want to mess with the computer...
Any print store will hook you up. I've had business cards made at OfficeMax that were very reasonably priced. That said, I've found the best prices from online companies that specialize in business cards. Use Google to find 'em.
Any print store will hook you up. I've had business cards made at OfficeMax that were very reasonably priced. That said, I've found the best prices from online companies that specialize in business cards. Use Google to find 'em.
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