14 DAY TRIAL // Every businessman that respects himself and the company he works for should own a small yet important identification item - the business card. Your business card should identify you as a person, express your goals and ideas as a businessman and keep your company's image untouched while doing these.
Usually, business cards are a part of your company's visual identity that is handled by design firms. Maybe you are just an individual who wants to have some nice business cards or they weren't included in the design package purchased by your company. You have two choices: become a designer over night and create some awesome and unique business card designs or get a specialized program to do this for you and avoid the headache.
Visual Business Cards is a software built around its name, I can say. You can use its simple and powerful design screen to create business cards in less than ten minutes. Our trip into this program will be short and useful, with a little fun added to make it more interesting...
The interface of the program is not the best one I've seen, but is perfect for its purpose. At the bottom of the main window you can notice the Instant Help bar, an extremely useful feature. When you pass your mouse over an item on the screen you get instant feedback about it in the Instant Help area.
If you need more help you can take advantage of the Help system, a very good one in my opinion. All topics related to this program are covered and I think it's always better to study five minutes and then do something right instead of failing for ten minutes an operation and then reading the manual...
The easiest way to create a business card is using the included wizard. Next, I'll go through the steps required to successfully complete your first design.
First you have to enter your personalization details so that the program will automatically place them on your cards. You don't have to worry about the security of this info, it won't get out of your computer.
The second step is - you guessed! - choosing a template and changing some of its options, if desired. You have to choose a template category (general or specific business, individuals and various), a template from that category and the font and background for your chosen template. It is good to know that there are a lot of templates available for specific businesses, ranging from catering or accounting to yard cleanup!
After pressing the OK button you will face the main program area with your design loaded into it. You just can't go wrong with Visual Business Cards - the items that can be added to your card are available on a toolbar placed on the right side of the design but also into the Card Properties panel to its right, as links from a text explaining what and how you can change.
From here you can print your card or save it as an image file (only JPG and bitmap file formats are supported), but don't leave your seats yet! I still have to say some words about custom cards and the tools available in this program.
Creating custom designs is very easy: choose the Create Blank Business Card item from the File menu, select one of the predefined layouts or enter your desired sizes and then you have all the power in your hands!
You can add symbols and attach 3D effects to them, align all elements from your design individually or as groups, place shapes or dialog bubbles (they are called callout items here, but I am sure you'll recognize them...) and more. The program comes with a large library of backgrounds and clipart images, but you can also use external files.
The program's price is fair considering its features and ease of use. It can't compete head to head with professional design programs mastered by experienced designers, but for an average user it's the easiest and cheapest way to create some good looking business cards... and you can try it 30 days for free!
The Good
Visual Business Cards is a nice and easy to use program. It has a lot of templates to choose from and all the needed tools to create "almost professional" designs.
The Bad
I think that saving only as JPG and bitmap could be enforced with at least another four or five new file formats.
The Truth
I like this program a lot and I think you will like it too. You have enough freedom to do whatever you like and all the guidance needed so you can't get it wrong unless you want it that way...
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
