Hey all. I recently found some excellent Photoshop business card templates, and am wondering if anyone knows where to get some cards printed at a proper shop, on some good (heavy) business card paper in Taipei. Before I spend too much time designing it myself, I need to make sure I can get it printed somewhere, and as of right now, have no idea where to go to get it done!
Thanks a lot
Any printing store should be able to do it for not much money. There should be a store near you somewhere. I can give you a recommendation for one in Taipei but they’re a little bit more expensive than the norm but are very high quality.
EDIT - River Image 02 2781 6366 No. 77 Longjiang Rd. Closest MRT is Nanjing East Rd.
[quote=“silmanor”]Hey all. I recently found some excellent Photoshop business card templates, and am wondering if anyone knows where to get some cards printed at a proper shop, on some good (heavy) business card paper in Taipei. Before I spend too much time designing it myself, I need to make sure I can get it printed somewhere, and as of right now, have no idea where to go to get it done!
Thanks a lot[/quote]
could you please post the links to these templates? Sounds interesting. Thanks
Business cards printed from Photoshop files will look shit, use vector text in Illustrator or prepare to be disappointed.
There are a million business card printers in Taiwan, that’s the easiest part.
Just my 
300dpi, Photoshop file at correct size will be fine. But Illustrator is a much better choice, the real choice is of course inDesign.
There are millions of templates online for just about any software you care to imagine. I preferred to study graphic communications at art college.
What I’m trying to say is that, the software doesn’t design it for you and starting with a blank canvas is much better. Or pay me to do it.
Seriously, you do not want to print a business card from raster graphics unless you want your cards to look cheap. InDesign is overkill for a business card and most Taiwan printers won’t accept PDFs or .indd files.
If you speak Chinese or know someone who can help you can order this kind of printing online: http://www.google.com.tw/search?hl=zh-TW&client=opera&hs=jiW&rls=en&channel=suggest&q=%E7%B6%B2%E8%B7%AF%E5%8D%B0%E5%88%B7&oq=%E7%B6%B2%E8%B7%AF%E5%8D%B0%E5%88%B7&aq=f&aqi=g1g-m6&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=3011l3522l0l3753l5l5l0l0l0l0l46l193l5l5l0
Been sending pdf’s to Taiwanese printers, no problem. You can do it in Ai, but the printer would have to take it as an eps, which is not that far from a pdf. Eps= encapsulated postscript file. Pdf= portable document format. Both have the potential to ‘carry’ raster and vector artwork. Eps is very antiquated and prone to corruption.
300dpi @ 120lpi is fine. Photoshop, Illustrator, inDesign, Word, Coreldraw, etc. None allow for good design, it’s just a tool.
Regardless of rasterization or not. When the artwork is turned into printing plates it’s effectively a form of rasterization. Ie; it becomes dots (unless solid areas, which are know as floods).
I have over 20 years of printing and pre-press knowledge and I’ve also worked on printing presses. I’ve also worked for some rather large advertising agencies and big clients. I know what I’m talking about.
Dude, if you think that a 300dpi raster Photoshop file is good enough for the size of text used on a business card then I’m glad you don’t work in my prepress department. We output to Kodak VLF platesetters which can do 450lpi/2400dpi even on huge plates. The difference in feeding them raster or vector text is huge.
If this guy has access to Photoshop then he probably also has access to Illustrator so he might as well use the right tool from the job instead of wondering why his text did not turn out crisp like other peoples’ business cards.
The sort of printer that you would be sending a business card design to would almost certainly be a 合板 printer, they take lots of smaller files and collate them onto large plates to save money on CTP. Most of the smaller outfits do not have access to high end collating software and use Illustrator because it has the widest range of format support and good output control, therefore .ai is a good choice for design files sent to those printers.
I have used 120dpi files at 120 lpi, it works! I had a very interesting conversation with a repro house in London about 5 years ago. I was always of the mind that 300dpi@100% with high lpi’s was the only way. He showed me file outputs from much lower settings. Ok there is a difference but, it’s easy to set the bar so high that nobody notices and this is the case for printing. I know it’s a shame and destroys the quality that printers insist on. But ask Joe Public, they won’t notice lower resolution (until you start seeing jpg artefacts). Or Joe Public just doesn’t care. The only exception is small point sizes. That is a valid question and one I’m happy to concede to. But I still reckon 300dpi, 10pt or larger, artwork 100%, it will pass as being ok. Not fine Italian book printing, just fine.
Sure you can have huge dpi on the platesetters, Kodak, Heidelberg… Great on luxury coffee table books or car high-end car brochures, etc, done loads of that. I bet most image files you deal with are 300dpi (some are lower and you know it). The image setter is using interpolation to get those numbers. Isn’t it?
I use Ai, the output settings is great for small printers, I agree. But you can’t tell me most won’t take a pdf? They want the work right?
Thanks for the non-offer too. I’ve done my time in pre-press and so did my father. No more! although I miss the smell of developer.
EDIT: although I say this and I truly believe it. I wouldn’t dream of sending a photoshop file as a business card! And neither should the OP. I’m just enjoying the banter. It’s nice to argue with someone who knows about printing 
Darn, I was hoping you wouldn’t notice the wind-up 
Come check out our factory next time you pass thru Taichung, you will learn how to curse in at least 4 languages.
Good sir, it’s been a pleasure to argue, wind-up and talk shit with. I have a lot of time for printing. Will take you up on that offer some day. You made my evening, I haven’t talked print in sometime 
Cheers!
OP here. Looks like we got a much more lively discussion started than I had initially anticipated. I must admit my ignorance regarding professional printing, as I have had no prior experience in the technicalities of it.
The cards in Photoshop look amazing, but if they won’t turn out well, then that’s the bottom line. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Illustrator, and currently had as my other option Word, which clearly is an inferior choice.
I guess my questions now are two; 1) how can I know if I will get 300dpi at the shop, and 2) will it in fact look good if they can print at that resolution. Firsthand experience is most appreciated - conjectures be damned!! ^^
Hi OP.
Sorry my fault. Ilary is correct in what he is saying. The text will look ‘fuzzy’ compared to text on 99.9% of other peoples business cards. It depends how much you care about that.
You can eliminate to a certain extent by; using only black for the text, use a san-serif font like Helvetica, keep above 10pt on text.
I looked for the templates in my version of PS and I didn’t see them so can’t comment on them. They should already be set-up at 300dpi. You can check by going to: Image (menu bar)>Image Size. This will bring up a dialogue box. Check the document sizes are correct and the resolution is 300 dpi. If they’re not, don’t try and make it 300dpi, this will only exasperate the problem.
I really think you’re going to find yourself in a world of pain. There are other options that might be better suited. I could do you a quick and cheap one in Ai that you could then pass on to a printer (PM if you are interested).
There are many online printers that supply the template, you could try that. Depending on your Chinese you can also get the printers to put it together for you.
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I use CardFila.com to collect all business cards on iPhone because it is so easy to collect, find and use any contact at any time.
You can access the contacts everywhere without Internet connection by using CardFila for Mobile (iPhone or Android phones). I also can do this on Android, computer, laptop. As i know, they will award 100 free coins for accounts registered within Nov 2012!