You can professionally make a business card not only by entrusting this work to the printing house employees, but also independently. It so happened that almost everyone who needs to process photos has a fabulously paid "Photoshop". There are other programs specially adapted for this purpose. But in view of the prevalence of Adobe Photoshop, this article will discuss the step-by-step creation of a business card in Photoshop.
What is a business card for?
It is quite difficult for people who, by the nature of their activity, to constantly transfer their contact information to other people, to do without business cards, which are more simply called business cards. They have become so firmly entrenched in business affairs that, if a person does not have them, they look at him and evaluate him: “Is it possible to deal with this person if he does not have a business card?”
Carrying these cards with you contributes to the fact that you don’t have to carry pens with you all the time, paper on which you need to hurry to write down information on how to contact you. Below we will consider how the creation of business cards in "Photoshop" occurs.
How to start creating
In order to try it yourself how to create a business card in Photoshop, you need to have this program on your working computer. You can read the article, understand everything, but without a working program at hand, safely forget the sequence of actions.
So let's say you have Photoshop. Create a new document in it by clicking on the corresponding icon in the toolbar or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-N. In the window that appears, you must select the size of the business card. In Photoshop, you define it at 56 mm in height and 96 mm in width. Here you set the resolution to 300 pixels / inch (dpi), the color mode is CMYK colors, 8 bits (the latter can be located even more to the right with respect to CMYK colors), the background content is white (or to your taste), the color profile is CoatedFOGRA39, pixel aspect ratio - square pixels.
Close the window, confirming the entered values with the keyboard key "Enter" or by clicking on the virtual button "OK". Using CMYK is explained by the fact that it is impossible to transfer to the paper the whole gamut of colors that is observed on the screen when working with the RGB color mode.
Layout
Creating business cards in Photoshop involves layout layout. To do this, go to the menu bar, select “View” - “Rulers” (using the hot keys Ctrl-R), as a result of which “Photoshop” will become similar to Word, which has a vertical and horizontal ruler. Choose the dimension of the rulers "mm". This is achieved by clicking on any line and choosing the required units of measure.
Turn on auxiliary elements using the Ctrl-N hotkeys. Set the first guide on the vertical ruler at 6 mm, the second - at 90 mm.
Next, arrange the horizontal guides - 6 and 50 mm, respectively.
All work will occur in the resulting rectangle. Edges will be cut off later when printing.
Select a place for the photo (as a rule, no more than 1/3 of the available area of the rectangle) and put another vertical guide there.
Next, consider the step-by-step instructions on how to make a business card in Photoshop.
Gradient selection
Creating a business card in Photoshop provides that you need to choose the necessary gradient. This is achieved by duplicating the layer and selecting “Duplicate Layer” from the context menu. To fill the resulting layer with a gradient, select the tool of the same name in the panel. After that, the gradient editor opens, in which you choose what you like.
Full name
Then go to the “Horizontal Text” tool (the “T” hotkey is English), choose which font you will use, its size, size and color. If you are not sure about the right choice, it is better to experiment and look at the result.
Write the name, to go to the next line in order to write the name and middle name or just the name, press Ctrl and Enter at the same time.
In the event that some part of the text goes beyond the restrictions that we set as guides, you need to resort to the help of the "Move" tool (hot key V). Find the layer that you need to move in the window that appears, click on the text with the left mouse button and move it.
If there is a need to transform the text, then pressing Ctrl-T and holding Shift, carry out the transformation by picking up and moving any angle with the mouse.
Enter other contact details
According to similar rules for creating a business card in Photoshop, you continue to create text on the following lines with a cell phone, email, website (if any).
If you wish, you can specify any other contact information, for example, ICQ, WhatsApp, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, etc. Each individual data should be placed on a separate line, the transfer is carried out as described previously.
When placing text and other elements, it should be borne in mind that the cut can go a little further than the intended guides, it is better to leave about 4 mm of the gap.
Insert photo
To insert a photo on the left side, which was previously planned to be separated by another vertical guide, create a new layer. In addition to photography, here you can use the logo of the organization in which you work.
Insert using the “Free Shape” tool, in which you select the frame, color, click on the layout and stretch the shape so that it does not reach the borders of the guides.
Next, from the context menu of the layer with the frame, select “Rasterize layer”. Double-click the left mouse button on this layer. In the appeared window “Layer Style” we conduct experiments with the settings. After the desired effect is achieved, close the window with saving results (OK).
Remove the guides (you can use the hot keys Ctrl-H), open the desired file with the photo and move using the tool of the same name.
Go to the layers panel, placing the layer in which the photo is located below the layer with the frame.
Transform using Ctrl-T, adjusting the photo to fit the frame.
Business card in "Photoshop" created. You can immediately print it if you have a high-quality inkjet or color laser printer that works with heavy paper or save it in * .jpeg, * .png, * .tiff formats and print it anywhere you render a similar service.
Stylish business card example
Creating business cards in Photoshop is limited only by your imagination. Consider the example of creating a simple, but at the same time stylish business card.
After creating a new document, create a new “Background” layer (you give the name of the layers yourself), double-click on it, select the desired color and apply it to the future business card using the fill.
Go to “Filter - Noise - Add Noise”, set “Quantity - 0.8%”, “Evenly” and “Monochrome”.
Call the context menu on the "Background", select "Overlay Options". In the parameters of the internal glow in the "Structure" tab, select the color black # 000000.
Create a “Stripe” layer and choose white color. Next, you will use brushes to create business cards in Photoshop. Activate the Brush tool. Go to the basic brush set and select the Soft Mechanical 500 brush (Soft). Click it in the center of the business card.
Turn on the rectangular selection, with the help of which you select ½ business cards and delete this part using the “Delete” button. Transform the remainder by turning about 45 ° .
Set the layer blending mode to “Overlap”. Set the Opacity to 15%.
Duplicate the “Strip” layer with dubbing moving to the right, make another copy.
Create a layer “Light”, use the same brush, click on the center of the business card. Set the blend mode of the “Overlap” layer.
Create a new “Front” group, which should be located above the “Background” group. In this group, create the “Button” layer, turn on the “Rounded Rectangle”, a radius of 1 mm and stretch this button on the layer.
Select the overlay options for the Button layer. Choose the same colors for the external and internal glow as before, and a suitable gradient for blending.
Choose “Horizontal text” and write the information that is needed. Next, click on this text, choosing “Blending Options” and “Drop Shadow”. In the structure in the "Blend Mode" select the same color. In the gradient, choose what is needed.
Collapse the front side (by clicking on the eye next to the name of the group) and create a new group, “Back side”.
Write the text, select “Blending Options” (shadow and gradient). Add the necessary text and apply the same overlay options to it.
Create a layer “Shadow”, place it under the name, position. Choose black color, ellipse. Draw an elongated narrow ellipse.
Go to the menu “Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur”, OK, radius - 4 pixels, layer opacity - 40%.
After that, creating a business card in Photoshop will be completed.
Finally
Thus, to the question “How to create a business card in Photoshop?” you can answer that you need to make a new document, a group of layers and start to form layers in them, the number of which depends on what you want to get in the end. The size of the business card should be 90x56 mm, to facilitate the start of work you need to use auxiliary lines called guides. To create a simple business card, just work with gradients or colors. In order to get a stylish business card, you need to expand the list of tools used, as well as learn how to work with shadow.