Remember the print-your-own biz card kits at Office Max that used MS Word templates to make business cards you could print on your printer? Then came VistaPrint with their online business card designer software. Now there’s Business Card Star, which mixes the two ideas together.
To nutshell it, Business Card Star is a Web-based biz card designer similar to VistaPrint, but instead of being stuck with their system and having to use them as your exclusive printer for your card designs, you can download the finished product as a PDF to your system and print them yourself.
For true professionals, of course, printing your own isn’t really an option. Unless, of course, looking cheap is part of your whole persona. They might work in a pinch, though, when your cards haven’t come back from the printers yet.
They’re also useful for a lot of other stuff. Business cards are a great, cheap, and quick way to advertise events, invite people to parties, and even join the new wave of soccer moms who’re making “play dates” with biz cards.
Of course, if you do want professional cards, Business Card Star can do that too. They offer professional card printing through their site for reasonable prices. Not as cheap as VistaPrint, but these are generally better quality. 500 glossies will run $29.95 with silk lamination an option too. 2-sided cards are only about $5 more.
The card designer itself is pretty slick and easy to understand. It’s a nicely-done WYSIWYG editor based on a basic design template for the card. It’s similar to the systems used by other online card designers.
Creating an account and building cards is free and you can save your card projects so you can download them again, order prints, modify them, etc.
Business Card Star is a nice site and a good step up from VistaPrint. The designs are generally more modern and aimed at the tech and creative sectors with less emphasis on the stock photography and flat designs and more on simple, graphic looks.
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