Update: Free Business Cards from VistaPrint.com

Vistaprint’s Free Business Cards Arrive!

In the first part of our review of Vistaprint, we evaluated the ergonomics of designing a business card online at VistaPrint.com. We also exposed some unexpected snags in the process of purchasing our business cards. To make a long story short, the business cards were not free, they cost $9.44.

Paper Quality

The goal of this review was to evaluate VistaPrint’s free business cards. To keep the cost as close to free as possible we chose the standard paper over the glossy and premium paper. To describe the paper in a word: adequate. The paper is neither exceptional, nor awful. At businesscard-reviews.com, we are inherently skeptical of bargain business cards, as such, we expected the paper to be thin, coarse, and discolored.

Delightfully, we received cards that were printed on lightweight business card paper, somewhere between high quality 32 lb copy paper and the hefty 14 point business card stock we received from GotPrint.com. The paper has a pleasing texture. It is smooth, but not silky.

Unfortunately, the paper is subject to becoming bent. The image below demonstrates how the cards came out of the box. You can see that the business cards are bowed - this is not a desirable quality.

Print Quality

The color of the printed card is remarkably similar to the on-screen colors in VistaPrint’s online business card design application. The faithful reproduction of color is important and speaks well of VistaPrint’s printing capabilities. Overall, the ink quality is acceptable.

Close inspection reveals some of the limitations of VistaPrint’s printing process. The graphic portion of the card consists of a star and a green contoured background. It appears that the green background is printed with as a lattice of dots of slightly different colors. The overall effect is harmonious, and even adds some appealing texture of the card. It should be noted, however, that the texture was not apparent during the online design process.

We had only one qualm with the text of the card: it is not black. The ink used to print the card is not a true deep black - it is closer to a dark gray. The design that was chosen lends itself well to a washed out text color that softly presents itself on the card; however, don’t expect VistaPrint’s text to pop.

Conclusion

VistaPrint’s free business cards are adequate. The paper is smooth and stiff. The graphics and text were printed without a single blemish,

Although VistaPrint’s free business cards may not be quite as thick as premium business cards or have completely saturated text, we were pleased with the value of these inexpensive business cards. It is difficult to pass up the low entry cost of $9.44 for low quantity printing (250 cards).

In summary, businesscard-reviews.com recommends VistaPrint’s “free” business cards.