[rishio]

Anyone know if the iLife or iWork suite has a good app for making business cards? My Business cards are essentialy photos from iPhoto cropped at a certain dimension and with text added on over the image from fireworks. I currently use iPhoto 4 to print my business cards but it can only print 9 at a time - and in a cumbersome manner. Setting a 12 card template in Fireworks or photoshop is too much work. Anyone know if the new version of iPhoto or Pages will solve my problem? Any other ideas?

rishio

[Mediaman_12]

You could use Pages, and ether create a custom page size and let the print driver sort the tiling, or do one on a A4 page and use copy & paste to fit multiples on one page.
Pages really is a great layout app. One drawback I have just thought of is that you cant do any 'crops' or 'mask out' images. But it should be able to handle a simple Business card layout.

[phillryu]

You can definitely mask out images. Also, Pages comes with a template for invitation cards and such, so you should definitely be able to set one up for business cards.

[rishio]

Not sure what "masking images" means and why I would use an A4 sized paper over the standard 8.5x11 - but my current method is:

Current Method:
1. Export photo to fireworks
2. Add Business card Text over the image (name, company name, etc)
3. Save the cropped 2000 x 1200 dimension Image in Fireworks format for later editing and jpeg so it can go back into iphoto
4. With the business card in iphoto - select page setup for my color inkjet to print with US Letter and print with N-Up in the iphoto print dialog using 9 photos per page. No 12 photo per page option
5. print it out - at my current dimensions - it prints slightly bigger than a normal business card - tried my best to get it to the right size - but failed.

I'm thinking my new method will go like this:

0. Design new PAGES template for 12 business cards to a page.
1. Export cropped photo to fireworks at correct dimension so u can print 12 cards to a page
2. Add Business card Text over the image (name, company name, etc)
3. Save the Image in Fireworks format for later editing and jpeg so it can go back into iphoto
4. Somehow drop my iphoto business card into my PAGES template?
5. print it out?

The problem with the pages technique is that for any modification to a card - I'd have to go back to pages and insert 12 pictures all over again everytime. iPhoto on the otherhand - the printing menu prints n cards per page - but does not support printing 12 cards per page in version 4.0.

Just wondering if there is a better solution to making business cards then what I am using!! Anything to shorten the time to make high quality custom business cards would be great for me! Can the new iLife or iWorks suite make my life easier?

rishio

[scottiB]

Originally posted by rishio:
why I would use an A4 sized paper over the standard 8.5x11 - but my current method is:

A4 is standard across the pond--where Mediaman_12 lives.

[Mediaman_12]

Originally posted by rishio:
Not sure what "masking images" means and why I would use an A4 sized paper over the standard 8.5x11 - but my current method is:
rishio

Didn't Think about US 'standard papar sizes' sorry
You wouldn't need to do the text layout in Fireworks, just do this part in Pages to. The only thing you can't seam to do in pages in Text allong a path.