Business Card Printing

[RSB]

As anyone here attempted to print Business card on Linux and if so what software is there. There is Avery on windows which understands a sheet of 8 cards but on linux I know of nothing.

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Ed P]

Libreoffice?

link

[edit]

You probably need this link as well! (Templates are badly handled in LibreOffice)

link

 

[Ed P]

While doing a quick dabble in LibreOffice (on-line Help) I came across the following which may be more helpful.

link

[RSB]

Thanks @edps I’ll go through all that tonight. I have some cheap sheets of cards to try out on first before I use the expencive glossy.

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Ed P]

I always used to first try this sort of thing using ordinary copy paper as it is cheaper than card!

[Tippon]

When I used to print A6 flyers, I’d use Publisher, set the page size as A6 and design the flyer, then copy it all to an A4 page and paste it four times, moving and rotating it as needed. I used to find that easier than trying to get the paper sizes set up to match the printer.

I haven’t used it, but I imagine that Libre Office has got a good Publisher equivalent.

[Bob Williams]

After injury and disability caused me to leave motor engineering work as a workshop foreman, I retrained at a Disability College, met computing for the first time in my 50’s and gained qualifications from the College and from a Technical College at weekends.

Business cards were one of the many items I used to design & print as part of my last business, before retirement. Using Publisher 2000 and Office 97, I set up the sizes, designs, images and fonts myself, using A4 pages of 160 to 200 gm stock card,  number of cards dependent upon what size the customer wanted the cards to be. Then I laminated and cut them, setting all cut lines up to templates I designed myself. I really wished I had kept all or some of that work, but having abandoned Microsoft Publisher and Office after retirement, I deleted everything, giving a mate and last customer my DVD with all the works on it that he needed to keep making his own. He has retired himself now.

I designed and printed everything that was asked of me: complete, coordinated packs of business stationery, books, entertainment flyers and brochures, leaflets, shop window ads. It was very hard mental work at first for an ex-grease monkey, but I really enjoyed the work and developed a talent for the designs. A big seller was prospectuses for independent schools: these were good profit makers and contributed quite handsomely to my retirement prospects. The emergence of companies such as Vistaprint would have driven me out of work: I saw the train coming and made my way out of the tunnel. If anyone else takes up this kind of work, take a hint and put a watermark in any samples created for a customer to inspect and request an order.

That was all done with Windows of course Lee, never having used Linux I could not say how that would work. But I did find this:

http://tinyurl.com/zbkw3kv

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[RSB]

I give up. I just can not get the cards to align. I think its a printer issue but I have lost patiance now.

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Bob Williams]

What make & model of printer Lee?

Try going into the printer software and looking for something called Alignment or similar, set it up with that and print a test page. Then try aligning the cards again. Did you look at the publishing software link I posted?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[RSB]

Thanks All. I have taken a look at everything, tried variuos things but I think I’ll be using instantprint online and let them take care of it before I really do flip my lid. ???

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Richard]

Sometimes it is easier (and get a more professional result) to bow to the god of inevitability and live an easier life.

[Ed P]

I found Scribus to be a bit of a pain to use. It was a while ago, but documentation was sparse to non-existent.

[JayCeeDee]

For the standard 85mm x 55mm business card, I let VistaPrint do all the hard work for mine. It’s currently 500 for just under £17 or 1000 for just over £27 and you can claim either the vat back ( if reg’d ) or offset it as a business expense.

The old adage of “Time is Money” applies.

[RSB]

To true, 1 day waisted because it would not line up. It’s not the printer either. I printed a photo this morning with a border and it was bob on. I used Avery online designer selecting there business card size and product number as it is avery cards I was using but nope, nothing is working. You can manual offset in there online designer but the problem is one column of 5 cards was outline more than the other column and you can not adjust each one.

Anyhow I have opted for instantprint as they let you design your card from scratch and I could not find a way to do that at vista print.

My blood presure is slowly returning to normal now but atleast I have had a little reminder of why I do not use printers! Never have I had any luck with printers, NEVER! Funny thing is when I was younger I always fancied getting into the printing game ?

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Ed P]

I know that I’ll start a minor war, but I have always had far more problems with the Linux CUPS system than any Windows print drivers. Lee asked for a Linux solution, but for my own use I would have turned straight away to a Windows solution.

I guess manufacturers spend more time ensuring their drivers work in a Windows environment, and do not spend as much time with CUPS. Even when Samsung did a ground-up Linux printer driver my experience was that the results were dire.

[Bob Williams]

RSB wrote:

To true, 1 day waisted because it would not line up. It’s not the printer either. I printed a photo this morning with a border and it was bob on. I used Avery online designer selecting there business card size and product number as it is avery cards I was using but nope, nothing is working. You can manual offset in there online designer but the problem is one column of 5 cards was outline more than the other column and you can not adjust each one. Anyhow I have opted for instantprint as they let you design your card from scratch and I could not find a way to do that at vista print. My blood presure is slowly returning to normal now but atleast I have had a little reminder of why I do not use printers! Never have I had any luck with printers, NEVER! Funny thing is when I was younger I always fancied getting into the printing game ?

Don’t blame you for taking an easier solution that preserves your health, Lee! I got out of the printing game when I took a look at the early attempts at supplying businesses with instant solutions. I was ready for retirement anyway, but I thought ‘These companies will only get better, their products will undercut people like me. Time to pack it in.’ I recall the attitude of a city High Street printing shop, when I produced a DVD of book covers and asked him to give me a price for printing a run of 500. He practically chased me out: “Back street cowboys like you are taking the bread from my mouth!” I found a way and abetter printer and I was away, managed to get a good income from that. Last time I passed the Printshop, it was closed and boarded up.

It reminded me of all the NCB “Fitters” who tried to set up car repair businesses literally in the back streets, when I was a workshop foreman. My boss wanted to stop them bringing cars up for MOT tests, but I said no, take their money: how can a guy who was servicing and maintaining coal cutters, relate to car repair & maintenance?” The penny dropped with most of them after several successive Fails. Some were actually dangerously repaired and I told them the car could only be moved from the garage on a recovery truck, which we could provide at a cost of £££.

Those people were not taking bread from my mouth: they were giving me more money for less effort, thus more bread. The kind of customers who went to those people, usually had older cars. One by one, they began to return to us. What really p****d me off, was that the ex-‘fitters’ had taken a big lump of British Coal and government compensation, for losing their jobs. Which they had actually voted to lose.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Amazing how difficult these things are to actually print. Birthday cards are another one.

[Author]

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