Avery Two-Side Printable Clean Edge Business Cards for Inkjet Printers, Matte, White, Pack of 200

I currently have 2 sets of business cards: one professional, and one for my hobby/ alternate business. Because of the nature of my business, I am unlisted and only my office address and professional phone number are on my business cards. My art business: those cards I have some fun with, and am currently having them printed overseas (from an artist whose work I am using by license). Neither provides the information I want to give friends. So, I used these cards to make up some “calling cards”. I was a way for me to play with these and see what I could do with them, and how the final product looked. I put this off for quite a bit because I remembered that my templates, design software were on my old computer, and never moved over to the new one. That said, I thought this would be a chore.

When I opened the package there were instructions from Avery directing me to their web site; which provided the option of templates, wizards, or tools for free-form creation. They have several backgrounds available, some clip art and templates suiting a range of purposes. Both the wizard and template provide the option of copying each element (text, graphics, background…) to every card, or varying the designs. You can also import your own graphics or pictures. It provides a broad range of options and a lot of flexibility. Because of all those options, I had a lot of fun.

First I ran off a set of alternate business cards: text only (small logo graphic). Then I ran a set with a photographic background…and then I did a sheet with all different kinds of pictures, graphics…just to play with it.

The whole process was a lot of fun, and I wound up with some nice looking and useful cards.

I found the Avery web site and template very intuitive as it uses graphic and image manipulation tools common to a variety of graphics programs. Using the template involved a very short learning curve for me. (Having used a couple of graphics programs I did not need the wizard, which might be useful to some). The site allowed me to save my work in a variety of formats, as well as send to my printer, or order online. They also have downloadable templates compatible with a variety of programs.

How did the final product look? Most of the cards looked very nice. the one which had issues were mostly related to my printer (or, more likely my ink cartridges, which are not quite up to snuff). The only cards I printed which had results that I believe would be equally unsatisfactory on other printers (or this one with better ink) were those with full- card photographic backgrounds. On those cards, the amount of ink used resulted in somewhat warped cards. They may well even out as they dry (or, this can be handled by weighting them, pressing in a book or something similar).

Am I going to use these to replace my business cards?

On the simple ones, these might well do (though white cards with plain text do not cost much to print). However, these would certainly do in a pinch, and are faster than reordering.

For the cards with licensed art… I can only get those in one place, but for casual use, these are great!!!

I had so much fun, I think I’m going to try a few more of their products; birthday cards, address labels. I haven’t done those things on my computer since I moved to a new machine leaving the pertinent software behind. Now I know I can do it all online at Avery’s site, and that it is free, or has the cost builty in to the compatible product.

All in all, I would recommend these for a variety of uses. They are quick, easy, and fun….and, I suspect if you are not happy with the results you get on your home printer, that bit can be taken care of by creating and ordering online.

Who knew that making business cards could be so much fun?
Rating: 5 / 5