How to make business cards for free

Business cards cost nothing to make with Publish by Zaweba. Pick either the single business card template or the business card sheet, which puts ten cards on one A4 page, change the name and contact details, and print it or export a PDF. It runs offline on Windows with no account and no charge.

The two templates suit two different jobs. The single card is the one to design on and the one to send to a print shop. The sheet of ten is for printing at home on card stock and cutting them out yourself.

Designing the card

Start with the single business card template, or a blank page set to the business card size. Small pages punish clutter, so keep it to a name, a role, a phone number, an e-mail address and perhaps a web address. A logo or a small picture can go in a corner.

Type over the sample text and set the fonts. If you want the name to stand out, make it heavier and larger rather than adding more colours. The document palette lets you name your brand colours, so if you change one later every place it's used updates too.

Rulers, guides and snapping help keep things aligned on such a small page. Frames snap to margins, guides, other frames and the grid, and Align and distribute lines up several items at once. The interface works in millimetres, which is handy when you're measuring a card.

Insert > Page parts includes a contact details block, which arrives grouped and in the document's colours. It's a quick way to get a tidy layout for phone, e-mail and address.

Printing at home on a sheet

For home printing, the business card sheet template has ten cards laid out on A4. Fill in one card, then copy your design to the others, or start the sheet from the details you've already settled on the single card.

Print through the Windows print dialog. Publish prints at actual size and centred, and scales down only when the paper is smaller than the page, so the cards stay their true size. Use card stock your printer can take, print one test on plain paper first, and check the cut lines before you commit the good card.

Sending it to a print shop

If you'd rather have them printed professionally, export a print-ready PDF from the single card. It carries the bleed you set in the document, crop marks, trim and bleed boxes, embedded fonts and full-resolution pictures. Set some bleed if your background colour or picture runs to the edge, so the trim doesn't leave a thin white line.

Colour in Publish is RGB only, with no CMYK or spot colours. If your brand colour must match exactly, ask the shop before ordering a large run.

Small things that make a card look right

Leave breathing room around the edges. Text placed right against the trim looks cramped and risks being cut.

Check the numbers twice. A wrong digit in a phone number makes the whole box useless, and it's surprisingly easy to miss on screen.

Use the same fonts as your other material. If you also make letterheads or flyers in Publish, the font schemes and named colours help keep them all consistent.

Save the card as an .ozp file. When your number or job title changes, you open it, edit one line and print again.