The graphic design industry is growing at a remarkable pace. According to research from IBIS World, the industry generated $14 billion in revenue last year. The rising costs of visual creative professionals have encouraged many people to try using design software themselves. Unfortunately, this is a case where they are often worse off. This is a big concern for people trying to design business cards on their own, which is one of the reasons they tend to turn to professional designers instead.
The problem is that these software applications are often difficult to navigate. Here are some of the biggest challenges that people face when using business card software.
Figuring Out the Right Extraction Method
Most business card designs start with templates, which include several large base images. The designer needs to make major modifications to these images.
In order to accomplish this, they need to use an image extraction method. There are a number of extraction features available in Photoshop and most other business card design software. They include the Quick Select and Pen Select options.
Too many people think that they should use the Quick Select method for editing large images. However, they invariably miss some important contours in the process. The Pen Select option tends to be better for extractions requiring high levels of precision.
Unfortunately, even using the Pen Select option isn’t easy, even with more simplistic business card designs. You need to have a considerable amount of dexterity to select it properly. Even minute issues can leave visible, excess pixels which can ruin the quality of the design.
Using the Ideal Number of Image Layers and Folders
There are a number of different approaches to layering in Photoshop and other image design tools. One thing that you need to keep in mind is that image layering is necessary to make sure that the images an be properly stacked on each other.
This requires you to utilize the right number of layers and folders. With lots of layers, you will be able to edit and duplicate images as necessary for your new business card design.
However, this doesn’t mean that adding as many layers as possible should be your best option. This can make it nearly impossible to keep track of the visual elements that you want to duplicate or modify.
You need to be realistic about the opportunities to merge visual elements from different images into your final design. Limit your layering to those elements that are necessary for your final business card design.
Feathering Edges with a One or Two Pixel Tolerance
Moving subjects from one section of an image to another (or from one image to another) can be a considerable challenge as you try to create a great business card. If you don’t do this properly, you will leave the subject with very rough edges.
The only real solution to accomplish this is to try feathering the edges. Feathering allows you to transition images seamlessly with a resolution of as little as two pixels.
The challenge here is making sure that you feather the images very carefully. You need to be able to transition the feathered images carefully, so that the resolution is just perfect.
Incorporating Route Backs
There are a lot of factors that you need to consider when making new design changes. When you are designing business cards, you can make a number of changes and try to save different versions of the file along the way, so that you can try to return to previous designs if you don’t like some of your most recent changes. Unfortunately, this approach creates a couple of problems:
- You can easily lose track of all of the changes that you made, so it will be virtually impossible to find the right image if you need to revert to a previous design.
- Your files will be cluttered with hundreds of images that will be hard to sort through.
The only option here is to build route backs into your design.