Having your own business card is very essential in work. Follow this tutorial to learn how to design a business card in Illustrator

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A business card or a visiting card is a necessity in professional world. A business card is the socially accepted way of introducing yourself politely to a new person or client. It plays an important role as a reminder long after you have met the person. A standard business card can easily be designed using very few tools in Illustrator. In this tutorial, we will guide you about the standard dimensions of business card, the basic information it contains and how you can design a creative layout using Adobe Illustrator. Follow this tutorial step by step to learn how to create a business card which is single-sided and in a black and white color.

Step# 1 -- Open up a new document
First of all, launch Adobe Illustrator and open a new document. Set the size of the document to: width 3.5 inches and height 2 inches. This is the standard size of a business card but it depends on you to vary its size or change its orientation. While designing a business card which needs to be printed, always set the bleed to "0.125 inches" from all sides and the color mood to "CMYK".

Step# 2 -- Create margin lines
Set the margin lines on all four sides leaving a space of 0.125 inches from the edge. This is important so that the information on the business card is not on the edge of the card. All the information has to be inside the margin lines.

Step# 3 -- Make background
Now draw a rectangle covering the margins of the bleed area using the "rectangle tool". Fill it with "000000"color. You can use any other color for background. If you want to use a white background then you do not need to perform this step. You can directly go to next step.

Step# 4 -- Enter the details
Now, we will enter the information. Many types of information can be include in a business card but the standard details that are always there on a business card are full name, designation, address, contact number and email address. Use type tool to insert the details. It is better to use san serf fonts for business card. Right now, we are using "Gill Sans MT". Font size should be between 8 to 10 pt depending on the x-height of the font. We are setting the font to 8pt. now adjust the leading size to 8pt and alignment to "Align right". You can change these setting according to the design

Step# 5 -- Make your name bold
Change the color to "ffffff". Select the full name and make it bold. This step is also optional. If you don't want to highlight the name, you can directly go to the next step.

Step# 6 -- Draw a design element
Now use pen tool to draw a straight vertical line and place it accordingly. Change its color to "ffffff". This is also an optional step. When you create a business card you can draw any other shape or add any other design element so as to enhance your output.

Step# 7 -- Place your logo
It is very important to place your company's identity on a business card. Copy the logo and paste it on the card. The size of logo depends on the design. The standard business card designed on a single-side is now ready.