There are many options these days for getting business cards printed.
However, your options become severely limited if you are in a rush to get your cards. If you are looking for a same-day, or next-day delivery then it's unlikely your local print supplier can help, as it may mean stopping the press and setting up specially to produce your cards. This may be possible but the cost involved may leave a sour taste in your mouth.
What are the other options?
(a) You could go to your local Rymans, Office World store etc. and purchase A4 sheets that have perforated business card slots that allow you to print your own. This is a great idea if you're in a hurry to produce just a handful of cards. However, one downside is that not everyone has the time or the expertise, (understandably so) to arrange 8 or 10 cards to fit the template perfectly.
(b) You could go online and check out some of the business card suppliers who 'guarantee' a quick turnaround. This is fine, unless the company, or the delivery service let you down.
(c) You could use one of the automated business card machines found at many airports, motorway service areas (UK) etc. but unfortunately, they tend to look very amateurish.
What may get you out of a fix however, is a digital print service.
Many of the larger print companies, and indeed the majority of 'copy-shops' have digital equipment available. What's more, you should be able to find a supplier local to you, then you don't need to worry about being let down by a delivery service.
When digital machines first made an appearance the quality of printed items was far inferior to anything printed by traditional methods. However, those days are long gone and the quality these days is often on a par with litho-printing. To the trained eye there is still a gap between the two methods but to the non-critical observor digital print is generally perfectly acceptable.
The beauty of digital print is that a job can be stored on the in-built computer, and pulled up at a moment's notice. Another great 'plus' is the fact that colour images do not need to be converted from RGB to CMYK, or spot colours, as the digital machine will pretty much print exactly what you throw at it.
If you use one of the MicrosoftT programs such as Word, Publisher, Powerpoint etc. then these file types can easily be handled by this technology.
So, back to the rush job on our business cards.
Dig out your local Yellow PagesT or GoogleT a local 'digital print supplier' and explain to them that you need some business cards in a hurry. Also tell them you have the artwork 1-up, which basically means you have one version of the card on your worksheet. They will probably plan the card 10-up (A4) or even 20-up (A3). Unless you know what you are doing, it's probably best to leave this part of the operation to them as they will need to apply accurate cut marks and possibly 'bleeds', (where the artwork touches the edge of the card).
If the supplier is very busy they may insist you provide a pdf of your card in a 10 or 20-up format. If this causes you a problem, then contact your 'regular' print supplier and ask them if they can help with the artwork. It should only take 10 minutes or so for them to prepare your artwork in pdf format, 10 or 20-up, which you can then take, or email to your digital supplier.
This may sound like a lot of messing around but then it just might get you out of a fix.
The same digital print service can also be used for low-run flyers, letterheads, booklets, greetings cards etc. so well worth checking out if your needs are for smaller quantities.
Don't forget to ask them if your artwork is stored on their system, as you may want to re-order at some stage.
