In the desperate scramble for new clients and the edge in the freelance game, every little bit helps. Giving people your URL doesn’t always cut it these days and sometimes a tangible contact card is the way to go. Having a business card says a lot about a freelancer. It says you are serious about your business and serious about staying in touch.

Business cards have been used for many many years for networking and making new contacts and they haven’t gone out of style yet. With lists like creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs and  this one on reencoded it’s clear that the art of the business card is not dead.

Your Design

All of these services offer some form of design template for your business card but if you are at all serious about freelancing please don’t do it. If you have a  business card template, it really shows ( and not in a good way ).

They also offer a web app to create your card online but if you really want full control over what you get in the mail you’ll send them a hi-res file you’ve created yourself.

Proofs

Proofs are tricky with online printing because you don’t really know what you’re looking at. Some services will just show you the image you uploaded again and go ahead with printing but some will take the time to give you a true press check and those are the ones you want to stick with. In the end, whatever you send them is what’s going to get printed.

Samples

If you’re worried about paper quality or what the digital prints look like from a certain service, ask to be sent free samples of their printed work. Many offer to send them to you right on their sight and it might be a good idea if you strive for perfection in business card form.

No Promises

The services listed are only those I came across. I have no ties to any of them and I can’t really be held responsible for a bad printing experience. I’ve just collected the top online printers for you to investigate and make your own decision. Pricing is also not guaranteed correct.

Compare The Services

MOO Business Cards

MOO is quite a popular service and is very well recommended around the Internet. They are probably a safe bet if you are worried about quality because they’ll send you a free pack of 10 with your image and information so you can see in person the quality of the cards. The process to upload your design is quite easy, allowing you to upload your completely customized, hi-res design to the card and confirm all your details. It’s a nice web app to boot.

Shinebox Print

Shinebox offers digital proofs as well as nice little booklets to keep your sets of 20 cards in. Like MOO, they have options for making unique fronts or backs for your business cards in your sets or have them all identical. 4/4 color and full bleed with the other amenities they offer makes this service worth the extra expense as compared to other sites.

4by6

This service offers satin finish as a nice touch to your custom uploaded design and has a wide variety of pricing options so you can get the exact amount you want for a reasonable price. They offer offset and digital printing for different prices as well as card options like rounded corners and varnishes.

PsPrint

PsPrint does fast digital printing of your business cards with glossy cards or recycled paper. This service also allows for rounded corners and exciting die-cuts making this and attractive option.  They’re having a 50% off sale at the moment on all business cards so take advantage of this until mid-july.

Vista Print

Vista Print seems to be offering some crazy low prices for very basic business cards. One sided matte cards are very cheap and adding an design onto the back doesn’t inflate the price too terribly. There are some fees involved so read the fine print but this looks like a fine service

UPrinting

UPrinting offers many of the same options as the other services in this list including rounded corners and a flexible pricing scale. 4 day delivery could come in handy if you need the cards fast. They also have a proofing service to check the quality of your cards and will seemingly fix it if something comes up. One option for proofing is free but if your place your order and then proof you’ll be top priority.

Text.Art.Print

This site was one I found through twitter and it does seem to be a great deal for single or double sided business cards. While it doesn’t have the most beautiful website it seems to get the job done. The twitter page for the site (@textartprint) has some testimonials about their printing services you might read up on.

Overnight Prints

With almost the same pricing as the previous service, Overnight Prints offers a very fast turnaround time ( so says their name ) as well as exciting features like thick paper stock, rounded corners, and spot gloss. It also offers an economy – digital printing set of prices as well as a set for offset printing with greater quantitates and options.

Got Print

Got Print is very affordable and seems to have lots of options for bulk orders of hundreds or thousands of cards. This service is all offset printing on standard size cards and like other services lets you view an online proof. The actual selection of quantity seems to be broken on the site but with affordable prices and recycled paper it’s worth checking out.

Print Pelican

Print Pelican offers a proof by email but seems to have a minimum quantity of 500 which is not always reasonable for us young freelancers. On the other hand it’s not exactly expensive on this site to order 500 business cards for your freelance business.

(EDIT: I’ve been informed by @printpelican that they also offer free shipping unlike their competitors )

Printer Bees

If you want your business cards delivered to you by a cute internet bee then this is the site for you. Printer Bees offers the standard business card options with additional paper selection options, assurances of high quality offset printing with sheet fed presses ( which sounds very enticing ) and reviews before anything is sent to print.

Modern Postcard

Modern Postcard has been written up on CMYK magazine and comes complete with telephone support, press and color quality checks and seems like the way to go for true quality and professional online printing. They are a little pricier than some but based on their service support alone I’d say it’s well worth it.

Do you need business cards?

As a freelancer do you think you need business cards? Do you find yourself reaching into your pocket every now and then for some but come back empty handed or does the internet suffice for the exchange of contact information?

Do you have experiences with any of the above printing services? If so please comment below.

Related Posts:

• Photo Exhibition Poster for John Beebe (65.6%)
• Evening With The Artist Jeff Keller-Mailer/Poster (65.6%)
• GD MFA at MICA - Promotional Material (65.6%)
• Johns Hopkins IPS Holiday Card Design (65.6%)
• BRB - The Not So Big Book of Be Right Backs (Office Edition) (65.6%)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Here's how you can subscribe to the RSS feed

• Subscribe to RSS
• Subscribe to Email Updates
• What is RSS?