Introduction: DIY- Your Business Cards
0. Supplies
- Materials you want to print on
- Your design file (either by illustrator or by CoreDraw)
1. Prepare materials
- Choose the right thickenss paper or wood
- I used 140lb(pounds per ream) or 300gsm(grams per square meter) tangerine paper and 1/64 tickness Plywood
Step 1: Design Your Biz Cards
1. Use the Template file on Adobe (http://goo.gl/55sbi or download attached illustrator file)
- For this file, you only need to consider the red outline (blue outline makes your biz cards bigger than usual)
2. Consider which part you want to cut or engrave
- For cutting, you need to create the outlines of shapes or fonts
- Make the outlines less than 0.001 pt
Tip: Don't make the outline hidden by overlayering empty shapes (see the figure)
- For engraving, you need it to be rastered or its outline thick enough
- It depends on a laser cutting machine you use (typically more than 0.25 pt)
Step 2: Test Your Design
(Laser Printer)
- Adjust focus of the printer
- Put your material on the printer
- Assign the home position
(Computer)
- Adjust your design position (normally to the left-top corner)
- Adjust the setting of the laser printer as a guideline
- Keep printing your design until you find the right power and speed of the printer
Step 3: Modify Yours and Print It in Bulk
- Make sure you have enough space for cutting between close lines
- Check the depth of engraving by adjusting the speed and power of the printer
- Then, copy and paste multiple designs on the expanded canvas according to your material size
- Print it !
By the way, I made it at TechShop in San Francisco
6 Comments
10 years ago on Introduction
can you make a how to video please?
10 years ago on Introduction
Those look great! Do you happen to remember where you got your thin plywood?
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Any good hobby shop will have 1/64 plywood.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
I bought it at Blick offline store. (http://www.dickblick.com/)
I also found it on Amazon by searching "plywood 1/8"
10 years ago on Introduction
5 stars!
Looks great!
10 years ago
creative