artdox for artists by artists

Preparing The Image for Your Business Card

A-The Original Photo
Start with a well focussed, sharp photo. The better your original photo looks, the better the image on your card will look. If you snap a photo of your artwork using a cell phone, in poor lighting, without a tripod -- chances are you will not have a very good looking image on your business card.

B-How big should the image be?
Your digital photo is made up of many tiny, colored dots when printed (or pixels when seen on screen). The smaller the dots are and the closer they are packed together, the clearer the printed image will be. Ideally, for printing purposes, there should be 300 dots crammed into every linear inch -- 300 dpi (dpi = dots per inch).

Listed below are the minimum number of dots (pixels) that your digital image must contain to yield good results. Of course, your image can be much larger and it will be cropped and/or resized as you choose.

IMPORTANT: The smaller the image you send (the closer to the minimums listed below), the less flexibility there will be with respect to cropping, resizing and positioning the image.

1-sided, landscape card: 1125 wide x 488 high
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1-sided, portrait card: 675 wide x 788 high
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2-sided, landscape card: 1125 wide x 675 high
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2-sided, portrait card: 675 wide x 1125 high

C-How do I know how big my image is?
On Windows: Right-click the image file, select Properties. The dimensions are listed in the Summary section.

On Mac OS X: Click the image file, click File > Get Info. The dimensions are listed in the More Info section.

D-What If I want to use just part of the image -- How can I be sure if that part contains enough dots/pixels?
The minimum sizes listed in section B refer to the part of your image that will be used for the card, not your whole image (unless you want to use the entire image on the card). To be sure the image file you wish to use contains enough pixels in the target area, please use the pixel calculator provided below.

To use the pixel calculator you will need a few measurements, so grab a ruler. You may want to write these down, so pencil and paper will also be handy.

Step 1: Follow the directions in C and obtain the dimensions of the image as listed on your computer.

Step 2: Open the image using the image viewing application of your choice.

A) Put your ruler on the screen and measure the width and height of the full image (to the nearest .25 inch is ok).

B) Put your ruler on the screen and measure the width and height of the target area for the card.

Step 3: Enter the measurements you obtained in Steps 1 and 2 into the spaces below then click Submit. We will do the rest.

Continue reading about the options.