I’ve just created my first business card in Illustrator. It has the standard UK business card size of 55 x 85 mm, a 3mm bleed, 300 DPI and the rest of it, and my smallest font-size is 8.94 points, above the 7pt minimum legible size for contact information that I’ve seen recommended in a few places.
However, when I’m finished designing the card and zoom out to 100%, this text looks really small, just about readable but aesthetically jarring. I’m wondering whether the card will actually look that small when printed, or whether I should just trust that it will always look larger when printed.
Unfortunately doing a test print is out of the question as the client will be using an online printer and the project is already time-sensitive.
Can what my business card looks like at 100% in Illustrator be assumed to be to scale?
Answer
I don’t think any of this has anything to do with Illustrator specifically. Illustrator is a fine tool for business cards just as InDesign, QuarkXpress, etc would be.
9pt type is small. Using Illustrator has nothing to do with that.
For good readability using around 11pt type may be better. I do not think 9pt type is too small. It is generally fine for small pieces of text, like those on a business card. I generally recommend nothing smaller than 10pts for legibility though. 7pt is for things like copyrights or unimportant information… not for contact info on a business card.
Form vs function
The function of a business card is pass along contact information. Therefore the contact information should be easily read. It is the primary reason behind the creation.
If you really want a more accurate indicator of what size things will appear as…. print the artwork. You can only ever really get a sense of size and spacing via hard copies.. even if they don’t accurately represent color at times.
Just because you can’t get a test print from the print provider does not mean you can’t run a test print at your desk using your printer or by taking art to the local “copy shop” and printing out a sample. I keep a black and white laser printer just for this reason.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Hashim Aziz , Answer Author : Community