How to make business cards

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This article is part of the HOWTOs series.
Installation Usage PDF issues Imposition Other

First set up the dimensions with some guides to help in the process.

For 8.5 x 11 size paper:

  1. Create new document (8.5 x 11 inches and .5 inch margins, default unit *inches*)
  2. Page -> Manage guides:
  3. Add Horiz. Guides at 0.5, 2.5, 4.5
  4. Add Vert. Guides at 0.5, 4.0, 4.5, 8.0
  5. View -> show guides
  6. Page -> snap to guides
  7. Insert shape (rectangle) to fit in upper left area sized for a typical 2x3.5 inch business card, and resize so that it fills entire region bounded by the guide.
  8. Now design your card within that region.
  9. Group all the elements of the card together as a single unit.
  10. <uncheck> Page -> Snap to Guides
  11. Select the business card
  12. Item -> Multiple duplicate -> No. copies = 1, Horiz shift = 3.50, Vert. Shift = 0.00
  13. Select the top row and multiple duplicate vertically to fill the page.
  14. Item -> Multiple duplicate -> No. copies = 4, Horiz shift = 0.00, Vert. Shift = 2.00
  15. Done.

Thanks to all the help on the mailing list for helping me get this documented.


For my U.S. Letter business card stationery from Geographics, I found that I needed slightly different margins.

  1. Left and Right margins should be 0.75". Top and Bottom margins should be 0.5.
  2. Vertical Guides should be at 0.75, 4.25, 7.75
  3. Instead of a shape, insert a text frame. Use F2 (Properties) to position it at X=0.75, Y=0.5, W=3.5, H=2.0

Otherwise, as above.

Geographics also supply Letter and A4 templates for Word/OpenOffice.