Cheap Business Cards

[Ken Nelson]

No worries Ken I do get what you mean I just find it funny now that what I printed for my sister might be concieved as homemade the printer I used won't fit through a normal doorway and takes four people to lift it.

Cheers,

Clair

I got a nice compliment on a belt I was wearing a while back and told that it is a very nice belt for a homemade one. I replied that anyone could probably make one like it if they have a shop like mine and get to practice working with leather 6 days a week like people like me do. Point I want to make here is this: I have no doubt you did a splendid job for your sister. Problem is most rank amateurs think their cards look just fine and they are doing the same level of work as a professional does. Truth is a few of them will do a nice job, the rest.................

Just my 2 cents worth. Ken

[cem]

I would like to know from a more professional standpoint, if one were to go the home made route and being as equal to the pros as much as possible what is the minimum entry level machinary you whould consider investing in.

Laminating I would think would be required as (at least as far as I know raised ink printers would cost a bomb)

Any suggestions on mircon sizes?

Any other suggestions to this.

Speaking for myself, I do not mind investing my time into doing things right if I can save money in the short haul...

I use epson printers I'm sure some of the other brands are very good as well but that is all I've used, I don't know too much about the smaller machines they put out the ones I use are A0 size. But to get a decent quality you want to look for a printer that has pigment ink I think for the smaller Epsons they use Ultracrome K3 or Durabrite Ink. Most have swapped to pigment ink but dye based ones are still available so check just to make sure. The other brands will also have pigment ink printers.

The paper I used was Doubleweight 160gm matte paper but this was in roll form and I'm not sure if it comes in sheet form for the smaller printers.

For laminating I used 80 micron in business card size which can be trimmed to make them them look neater the laminating machine needs to be run a bit hotter for these than the usual A4 sheet.

If you need to buy this equipment though it's not really going to be cheaper my laminating comments were more for someone who already has the equipment and for any more than twenty five cards at a time it's not really worth doing it this way. The printer I use is also able to cut and the smaller machines definately won't have this feature. If you want to do changes to your cards frequently and only want to print twenty five or so at a time it may be a feasible way to do it though.

Hope this helps a bit

Cheers,

Clair

Edited March 27, 2010 by cem