Who’s used VistaPrint before? I’ve heard them mentioned here and decided to make 250 cards for myself. However, after uploading a 300dpi PSD and looking at the PDF proof, I was a bit perplexed. There were significant gray compression artifacts (at least that’s what they looked like) around my letters. Also, pixelization occured when I zoomed in past 100%. Since my monitor does not display at 300dpi, shouldn’t I be able to zoom in past 100% without noticing pixelization?
Anyway, I haven’t puchased anything yet because I decided to get your advice, first. Thanks.
I use Vista Print about 40 Times a year. They are great. Here are some reminders…
Make sure you use Vista’s Templates and guides. Leave the mode set the way it is.
After upload DO NOT resize the image in the editor mode. You can move it, do resize.
Thier PDF proof is always ver low res. I have often wondered why they do that. I believe it is to prepare the client for seeing thier finished product processed CMKY. As you well know our monitors do a terrible job at faking CMKY.
I have a number of happy clients that love what I have be able to achieve with Vista Print.
Yeah, it seems their PDF proof is kind of pointless… as bad quality as the image they provide. Also, my colors look very washed out. That’s normal, right? They won’t print like that.
I’m kind of going for the “simple but elegant” look. I toyed with the idea of making an all-green card, but I can’t think of any way to have text on it besides making everything white. Your input?
Is it just me, or are prices kind of rediculous for a small quantity? For 250 at 4/0 we’re talking $25 plus $5 for an uploaded image and $15 for 2-week shipping. $45 for 250 cards? Hmmm. Perhaps it would be better to pay a fortune at a local print shop and get it by the next day.
They are the cheapest full color full bleed printer I’ve found. I tried to get my cards printed and it was $200 bucks at a local printer for 500 and it was only $30 (ish) at Vista print, so no, it’s CHEAP!
The quality was good. I wouldn’t say great, but it was good. Nothing that I would complain about (unless I paid $200). The font was easy to read, the colors were good. I was very pleased. I wouldn’t do my high end priting with them, but if I’m just looking for a good printer, they do just fine.
I had them do a set for me a while back, and was pleased with the results. It’s a very good value for the money. Sure, you can find better quality, but at a much higher price.
Okay. Sounds good. I think I’ll do 500. For $10 more you get an extra 250, so that’s the best value I’m gonna get without wasting tons of money. What do you all think of the card I uploaded?
I just recieved the cards in the mail. The print quality seems okay. I’ve never actually done print work before, so now I’ve learned that when I want a shade of black, use jet black… not gray. It appeared darker when I printed it through my computer The colors do look kind of washed out. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t order glossy paper?
One of the boxes, containing 250 cards, had a distinct scratch on each one. I called up VistaPrint and they quickly/painlessly/guiltlessly said they’d send out a replacement 250 cards with 7-day shipping. What excellent service! I think just the fact that they did this in a two-minute conversatoin will keep me coming back.
I paid £250 for 200 business cards at my work in the UK, tht was with a staff discount. The cards were 2 colour on 180grm matt card. Then I went to vistaprint a year later and got 1000 cards in FULL COLOUR, and with a GLOSS front and a greyscale print on the back, both front and back print was custom and it cost me about £30+P&P totalling £45(ish). My work conned me!
The quality wasn’t as good as my work produced, but not far from it. Certainly not £200 worth of a differece, not even £20 worth! The quality from vistaprint is perfect to an untrained eye though, and even to a trained eye, who cares? The only people that will say ‘look at the state of these business cards’ is a graphic designer or pressman. Go with Vistaprint!
Vistaprint are cheap – but that’s what, I found to my cost, is also the problem.
I recently bought a 1,000 business cards printed double-sided and the colors, fonts, etc were really good – but the cards are very flimsy and have no quality of feel to them.
Vistaprint’s cards are printed on Paper Stock 80 lb. (215 gsm) matt card stock. There is a glossy upgrade, which I didn’t get – but its still the same weight.
The quality of the card in terms of weight is, for me, a big issue – I’m not being patrick bateman about it – but if you’re a customer and you get a business card that is “see-through” and feels rough – would you really want to do business with that company?
Apparantly, most business cards I see are done on 400gsm or higher on Silk Art Board.
Just bare this in mind when going to vistaprint – you’ll get cheap business cards, but you’ll sacrifice on the weight/quality factor.
After reading this thread, I wanted to suggest that maybe you try printing your business cards with UVM Design. They have a weekly special on 4/4 full color gloss laminated business cards, 2000 for $138.00. They also have satin (mat) laminated business cards, 2000 for $168.00.
The stock used is a 12pt. coated card stock. You can order free samples of their product from their order form. You really can’t compare with Vista Print…the cost per unit is much much lower than Vista Print’s pricing. And the quality of the printing is much higher (150-175 lpi offset printing).
The colors do look kind of washed out. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t order glossy paper?