Making Photo Business Cards

Q: Making photo business cards I would like to make a card with one of my desert landscapes as the background image. I am an amateur photographer, not a pro btw so I really don't want to spend a lot of money. I do have photoshop 7 and have found a tutorial on this on the web but I am no where near ready to take this task on with PS, as I just got the program. I have Paintshop pro7 and just ordered the 8 upgrade. Perhaps somebody has done this with Paintshop pro?

A: There are several shareware/freeware business card programs or templates out there which will use the 10 to a page pre-perferated papers. However, it is really tricky to get each card to end exactly at the perf line. If you have a HP printer, you'll never get it exactly right twice in a row, with an Epson you have a decent chance if you fuss enough with it. Epsons just track with more precision. So, modify your images in Photoshop to have a foggy edge (use

your layers!). Crop it to get the aspect ratio for the look that you want, and don't try to print to the edge of the card (unless all edges are exactly the same color) or to put a line frame around the card. Then if you don't hit the exact center, it's not that noticable. If you use your image as a background, you'll want to print it at 10 - 25% opacity, so that your lettering is really readable. These things are like miniature billboards, so err on the side of readability. If you use white paper and print on the background color, make sure your image bleeds over the sides. Nothing shows up more than a stark white stripe on only one side that you didn't design for.