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Fonts and Type
Bleed or No Bleed?
ne of the first things you do when launching a new venture is to have business cards produced.
This is where so many people make the most mistakes, fonts really matter...really. First, let’s talk about size; font size. A font is often measured in pt (points). Points dictate the height of the lettering. There are approximately 72 (72.272) points in one inch or 2.54 cm. For example, the font size 72 would be about one inch tall, and 36 would be about a half of an inch. This font (Champagne & Limousines) is 10 pt, regular font, it’s easy to read and works great for body text in a magazine. So, what’s the right font and the right size? The font on your card should be the right size for your customer - if your clients are primarily seniors, use a font size that is comfortable to read without needing a magnifying glass. Personally, I would never use a font smaller than 9 pt on a business card.
Unless your card is a simple white (which always looks professional) you may want the option of adding a bleed to your business card. As mentioned previously, a bleed is where the background colour or image bleeds off the edge. This is achieved by adding a small margin past the trim-line of your card’s design. The excess is cut away when your cards are ‘finished’. Bleeds aren’t necessary and are purely a design choice, a simple white background has a classic look and allows the text to stand out.
You’re excited to introduce yourself to the world and begin the adventure in entrepreneurship. Handing out your very first business card feels like the official beginning of something wonderful. You fire up Word and draft a design, complete with a downloaded graphic from Google - print it out on a card-stock and with scissors in hand you cut out each card. Wait a minute - unless you’re a seven- year-old running a lemonade stand but dreaming of being a CEO - put the scissors down...now. Your business card represents you long after the introduction. Often before you even meet your customer, it acts as your personal sales professional - be sure it’s working. There are a multitude of websites that will guide you in the design process using templates and many will print the cards and deliver them to your door. Although these sites are great and produce a nice, professional business card, they can’t stop you from making fatal (well, not fatal...) design mistakes. Here we’ll outline the do’s and don’t’s of designing business cards so you’ll be proud to hand them out.
Two-Faced or Single?
A double-sided card has the advantage of more space for more information - it also eliminates the mistake of cramming too much text on your card. Your business card should have your name, business name or logo, phone number, email, website and social media icons. Everything should be easy to read and understand. If you decide to use both sides for design consider putting all of your business’ information and logo on one side and your contact information on the other side.
Be Bold (or Italic)
If your business card has a dark background like black or red, and you want the text to stand out, use the bold option of your font in a high contrast colour like white. A thin font on a dark background is often unreadable when the printer applies the ink to a thin stroke... bold is better on reverse text. Bolder fonts are also great to highlight important text such as a phone number or email
What Not To Do
Don’t use low resolution clip art or images (including your logo) that were downloaded from the web. The best file format for logos is vector files that can be resized without compromising the resolution, and image files should be at least 240 dpi (dots per inch) at the full size.
Cursive and ‘all fancy-like’
I once had a client ask me for a “fancy-like, curvy” font for her business card design and she couldn’t be persuaded to use anything else. Leave the ‘fancy-like’ fonts for greeting cards unless it’s an element of your business logo. These fonts are difficult to read at the limited size of a business card. I recommend a simple clean font like Arial or Arial Narrow for text if you have limited choices. These fonts also have bold and italic options, so they are basic general use fonts that are readily available. Two fonts I will never use? Papyrus and Comic Sans... shudder.
Size Matters
The standard dimensions of a printed business card are three and a half inches by two inches. That’s the finished card size. Many printed designs include bleed. The “bleed area” is an extra quarter of an inch of space for design elements or backgrounds that extend beyond the finished edges of your card. It’s recommended to use the standard size as it simply ‘fits’ - in business card holders, pockets, file slips in binders, etc. - if your card won’t fit where it needs to, it will be discarded.
Don’t use drop shadows or beveling on your text - just don’t.
Check for mistakes before you print a thousand business cards. Incorrect phone numbers, emails and other important information means you wasted money on bookmarks.
Now, go forth and prosper!
SUMMER 2019 www.pei-living.ca
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