How to Create a Modern Business Card Using Adobe Photoshop

Business Card

1. How to Install or Load Photoshop Custom Shapes

Go to Edit > Presets and select Preset Manager. In the Preset Type drop-down menu, select Custom Shapes and press Load. Now browse to the location where you’ve unzipped the file and select Tutorial-Shapes.csh. Press Load and you’re done.

2. How to Set Up a New Document for a Business Card

Go to File > New and enter the following:

• Name: Business-Card-Front
• Width: 3.25 Inches
• Height: 1.75 Inches
• Resolution 300 Pixels/Inch
• Color Mode: CMYK Color 8bit
• Background Contents: White

Now press OK to create the document.

3. How to Create Safe, Trim and Boundary Guidelines for a Business Card

Step 1

Before we start, make sure the following options are enabled. If there is a check next to the option, it’s already enabled, and you may skip to the next step.

Press Control-R or go to View > Rulers to show Rulers. Next, go to View and check Snap. Finally, go to View > Snap To and check Guides, Layers and Document Bounds.

Step 2

Let’s begin with the Safe Area guidelines, within which all important images and text should be kept. Simply click on the Ruler and Drag a guideline to all four sides of the document. It should snap into position easily.

Step 3

Now let’s increase the canvas size to 3.5 x 2 inches. Go to Image > Canvas Size and set the Width: 3.5 inches followed by Height: 2 inches. Press OK.

Step 4

Next, we will create the Trim guidelines. Anything beyond this guideline will be trimmed away after printing. Now click on the Ruler and Drag a guideline to all four sides of the document.

Step 5

Increase the canvas size one last time. Go to Image > Canvas Size and set Width: 3.75 inches followed by Height: 2.25 inches. Press OK to apply the changes.

Step 6

Create the Boundary guidelines. Although not necessary, having this guideline will definitely help when aligning objects to the edge. Simply click on the Ruler and Drag a guideline to all four sides of the document.

Step 7

Now that it’s done, let’s go ahead and lock the guidelines in their current position. Go to View and check Lock Guides.