Question Regarding Business Card Printing

Q: I've made up some business cards. I have the design as a .ai file , but I bought Avery 28877 brand paper to print them out on, but I don't know how . (Each card is 2" x 3 1/2" by the way) There's no template that size, and i do believe each sheet is a 8.5 x 11, the standard size, and there are 10 cards on each sheet. I also downloaded Avery's software to create the cards, but, it's just not as good as illustrator. And if I try to save my layout (.ai) as a jpeg, and then import it to "Avery DesignPro" it's shrunk to half it's size. Is there anyway to convert a .ai to .zdl (DesignPro) or print out my layout in illustrator?

A: From what I can tell, Avery doesn't provide any EPS or AI templates, only for Word. That's unfortunate. My advice is to create your own illustrator template for the business cards. It's easy: Using the rectangle/square tool, click once and specify the size of your cards, 3.5 x 2. Give your box the standerd black stroke and white fill. Alt-drag (while holding Shift) that rectangle so that you have two next to each other. Use outline mode (control + Y) and a deep zoom to check that the edge where they touch is perfectly overlapped. You should now have two boxes, side by side. Group those two rectangles. Now do the same process, copying the two rectangles down the page, until you have your 10 spaces. Select all (control + A) and group (control + G) them.

Now it's just a matter of trial-and-error with your printer. Use some regular paper first, to see where your template falls on the page. Hold up your test sheet against the perforated sheet in a light to see how much you need to move your template and where. Measure on the sheet how far you need to adjust the template, and using the ruler in illustrator, move your grouped boxes that much. Eventually, you will have a print where your template falls right on the perforations. When you get to that point, select your boxes and hit [control + 5] to turn them into guides (that won't print). Now fill your new homemade template with your card design, and you're ready to go.