Business card printing these days is cheap, fast and effortless. Although cards can be ordered online, the printing is still best done using professional printing machines – either traditional lithographic, or the newer digital presses.
Litho printing is a two stage process which involves offsetting the ink from plates onto rubber rollers, and then onto card. Unlike web-fed presses, which use rolls of paper, card presses are sheet-fed, making them slower. Added to this, they are complex to set up. For this reason,
digital printers are preferred for business card printing. They have several advantages over the traditional method. For a start they are fast and easy to set up, requiring no printing plates. The card is created in digital form, using templates or an existing card design, and saved as digital file. This information is then uploaded to an ink-jet or laser-jet printing machine, which prints the cards direct using heat or UV-cured inks or toners.
Digital business card printing allows an on-demand service to be offered, with short print runs and a rapid turnaround time. It’s the ideal answer for small businesses, as card details can be altered with just a few clicks, and multiple designs can be stored – for example, a single design can be customised with the details of each member of a sales team. Cards may be single or double-sided – the latter being the ideal way to portray extra information in an uncluttered manner. With modern businesses having web, e-mail and postal addresses, as well as landline, mobile and fax numbers, this has become a necessity.
Although there are internet-commerce firms specialising in business cards which the customers design themselves from online templates, the best quality business card printing is that offered by “clicks-and-mortar” companies, such as us at Minuteman Press Bath.
