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Can You Print Business Cards at Home?

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Business cards are an essential element of marketing. They are often the first interaction a customer has with your brand, and influence how the individual views and remembers you and your business. They flesh out your image, contain important information about your company, and are a business necessity for most people.

Whether you’re just starting your professional career or have owned your own company for many years, business cards can be invaluable in helping make a good first impression on potential clients and employers alike.

You can design and print your own business cards at home, if you know what you’re doing. Unfortunately, though, the monetary costs you’ll save doing this may not outweigh the potential downsides of having a business card that may be viewed as unprofessional.
Today, we’ll share the pros and cons of printing business cards at home, so that you can make your own mind up.

What Are the Benefits of Printing Business Cards at Home?

There are some advantages to be had by printing your own business cards.

1. Lower Costs

If you are on a budget and cannot afford to get your business cards printed professionally, printing your own cards can be cheaper. If you’re prepared to spend the time designing the cards, feeding paper, printing and slicing, this might be an enticing money-saving option.
Unfortunately, though, printer ink can be extremely expensive – and if you want more than a dozen or so business cards, you’ll waste so much ink (and time) doing this that often it is cheaper to get cards professionally printed.

2. Full Personalisation

Another positive aspect of printing your business cards at home is that this option gives you the chance to create a completely customised design that will accurately represent your brand. This means you don’t have to worry about not having enough options available to choose from when creating something that looks good.
(However, many sites such as 123Print also offer completely blank templates, to allow you to create a fully personalised business card design from scratch – and, as it’s professionally printed, it will probably look better than something you’ve fashioned yourself.)

3. Speed

When you choose to print your business cards at home, it means that you can hold your cards in your hand straight away – well, as soon as you’ve finished printing them all off, anyway. On the other hand, getting business cards professionally printed and shipped to your home or place of work can take weeks, depending on whom you order from.
That being said, professional stationers such as 123Print aim to print and dispatch all orders within 48 working hours – so if you compare this to how long it will take you to print and trim all of your cards, you might not end up saving that much time overall.

What Are the Downsides to Printing Business Cards at Home?

Unfortunately, there are more negatives to printing your own business cards than there are positives. Here’s what you need to know:

1. You’ll Need Professional Design Software

First of all, to even start designing your business cards yourself, you’ll need professional design software, such as Microsoft Publisher. This isn’t cheap, and also takes a lot of time to learn how to use. By contrast, if you use a professional printer such as 123Print, you can quickly and easily edit a template in-browser for no extra fee.

2. Most Home Printers Aren’t Up to the Job

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that, if you use your basic inkjet printer with craft-shop cardstock, you’ll end up with a professional-quality business card. It’s simply not true.
Unless you invest in thick, expensive cardstock and a full-colour laser or photo printer (which can cost hundreds of pounds as a bare minimum), you’ll likely end up with grainy, streaky and unprofessional-looking business cards. This will be particularly noticeable on any images you may use, such as your logo.

3. Lack of Quality Control

One of the biggest cons of making your business cards at home is that there is no quality control when looking over the finished product. If you are printing on your home computer, there is every possibility that you may skip a step in the process and not realise it until after you have already printed out your cardstock.
This can result in typing errors or printing errors (such as a loss of colour, or the cards being cut off by the printer margins) – all of which will render the cards unprofessional and unusable.

4. No Additional Design Features

Another con to making your cards at home is that they usually do not have an additional design feature, such as rounded corners or cut-outs for a corner punch. If this is something that you want when it comes to your business card, you’ll probably need the services of a professional printing company.

5. May Not Support Specific Printing Needs

Most printers that you will be using at home will not support specific printing needs. In essence, if you’d like your business card to have a special finish such as gloss, texture or embossing, home printers typically will not have the ability to produce them.
This can limit your options when it comes down to buying printer supplies for your cardstock, and could end up costing you more in the long run (as well as taking up your time).

6. No Printing on Both Sides of the Card

Another disadvantage of making your business cards at home is that in most cases, printing on both sides of the paper may not be an option – especially if the only printer available is a smaller one sitting on your desk in your home office.
A professional printing facility can more effectively utilise the free space on a business card by printing on both sides of the cardstock, which results in less waste as well as a more professional design.

7. Inconsistent Quality

In addition to not being able to print on both sides of the cardstock, more often than not, when making business cards at home, you will have a hard time printing them consistently. This is especially true if this is your first try at it.
This may mean that the final product comes out slightly off-centre or has some smudges on it that weren’t visible until they were printed out. While this does happen from time to time with professional printers, you typically don’t have much control over how it looks during the design process when printing cards from home.
And with a professional printer such as 123Print, you’ll receive a full refund if the finished product isn’t perfect – whereas with home printing, you’ve wasted money on paper and ink.

8. Ink or Gloss May Bleed Through the Back of the Cardstock

Another disadvantage to make your business cards at home is that glossy ink may bleed through the back of cardstock – especially if you are using it for a logo, photo, or another element on the front side of the card in addition to printing out some basic information on the reverse.
If this happens and you do not have any protection from ink bleeding through, then most likely, you will be throwing away good card stock that you could have used for another purpose if you had just used a professional printer instead.

Where Can I Order Professional and Affordable Business Cards?

As with most things in life, there are pros and cons to each approach. The best thing you can do if you plan on having your business cards professionally made is to visit our site at 123Print and see what we can do for you. We have an entire staff of designers, printers and quality checkers to help you with your design and card layout, and our customer service representatives are second to none.

 

With thousands of templates to choose from (all of which are fully customisable), as well as the option to create your own design completely from scratch, what’s not to love? Our prices are extremely competitive, too. Visit our site today to get high-quality, professional cards designed and delivered to your door!

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Can You Get Double-Sided Business Cards?

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If you’re unsure about whether to choose double or single-sided business cards, then you’re in good company. There are many factors to consider, including price and function, and in this article, we’ll present the pros and cons of each.
Perhaps at the end, you’ll want to order one of each! That’s because both styles have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on your marketing budget and organisational requirements.
We’ll present the facts and let you decide whether single- or double-sided business cards are best for your business.

What Are Double Sided Business Cards?

Double-sided business cards are, just as their name suggests, business cards that have details and designs printed on both the front and the back (rather than the black being plain white or blank card).
There are many different reasons and situations in which someone might prefer to design a double-sided business card.

More Space for Extra Details

Obviously, including the back of your business card in its design will give you more space for details, promotions, and contact information. For instance, you could include your business’s opening hours on the back of the card, if they won’t fit on the front.
Alternatively, why not use the back of the business card as a space for the customer to collect loyalty stamps? That way, your consumers are actively engaging with your card, rather than just looking at it.

Avoid a Cluttered Design

If you’ve got a lot of information to fit on your business card (such as the handles of multiple social media accounts, and links to various promotions), trying to fit it all onto the front of the design may end up making it look messy and cluttered. Simply put, your customers won’t want to read it – they’ll be overwhelmed. It might also make you look unprofessional.
By utilising the back of the card, too, you’ll have a lot more room to spread everything out, making your design appear neater.

Business Cards for Creatives

For those in the creative professions, a business card is great for displaying their creative abilities to potential customers or employers. In this respect, a colour printed double-sided card offers more space and options. For instance, a photographer could include an eye-catching sample from their portfolio on the reverse of the card. A model could include fashion-related images on the reverse.

What Should I Put on the Back of My Business Card?

A double-sided has more space for your marketing message and there are many smart ideas for how to use it. For example:

1) Business Location: If you own a brick-and-mortar retail business, include a colour map on the reverse of the card. It saves the customer the time of searching the Internet for your business location.

2) Coupon Code: Include an attractive coupon code discount for your service. For the customer’s convenience, include a link to the discount code in a QR code (see below).

3) QR code: There are many ways that you can use a QR code on a business card from including the contact information in vCard format, to offering a coupon code. You could even link directly to a promotional video.

4) Motivational Quote: It has become popular in recent years for companies to add motivational quotes to their business cards. The reverse of the card is an ideal location.

5) Appointment Scheduling: If your business books appointments, such as a spa or dentist, include space to write appointment times.

6) Eye-catching Graphics and Pictures: Use appealing combinations of colourful graphics and pictures. As mentioned above, the double-sided format is great for creative sectors. However, the combination works with anything—for instance, a firm of architects could use a simple and elegant blueprint theme showing building plans while the owner of a mobile disco, advertising their services, would go for something more flamboyant.

7) Highlight a Specific Service: Use the back of the card to put the spotlight on different business services offered by your company.

8) Multi-Language: One of the most powerful uses of a double-sided card is for a company that works in a foreign market. Use the front of the card for English, and the back for a translation.

Show respect to your customers by repeating the message and contact details in their native language—Chinese or Japanese, for example.

Why Might Someone Choose Single-Sided Business Cards?

Double-sided business cards offer lots of unique advantages. However, there are plenty of reasons why you might prefer to choose a single-sided design instead. For example:
Seminars and Networking Events

If you have ever attended seminars or networking events, you’ll notice that the ritual exchange of business cards quickly follows the initial handshake and hello. When spreading your name around the business grapevine, the personal contact card is an important tool.

You are probably wondering why a single-sided business card would work better in this type of environment?
Double-sided business cards often include advertising – the reverse of the card containing information regarding the service being advertised. But in networking, the product is you!
Therefore, the most important part of this card is the contact details, which should be front and foremost.
With networking, the blank space on the reverse of the card is extremely useful for jotting down phone numbers. Once you chat with your new contact, there is always some additional information to record, like personal mobile phone numbers and email addresses—write this information on the back of their contact card.

Business Card Storage

If what’s on the back of your business card is critical to your message, consider how customers store business cards. While the use of the Rolodex has almost disappeared since the Internet took over—if you don’t know what a Rolodex is, you are probably a millennial—people still use business card storage folders.

Once stored in a folder, the reverse of the card may never see the light of day again. Even if scanned, there is no guarantee that your customer will bother to scan both sides of the card, as most people are only interested in saving the contact information.
Important Tip: This advice applies to both single-sided and double-sided cards—make sure that your business card design has all critical information on the front of the card. It would be tragic to hide critical information on the back of the card and miss out on a sales opportunity.

Professional Appearance

A single-sided business card with essential company and contact information looks elegant and professional. Not every customer or contact appreciates brightly coloured double-sided cards with brand advertising.
Choose a card style that matches your business. For instance, the business card for a design company should look well designed. A business card may be the first introduction for a customer to your business—it should make the right impression.

Printing Cost

On average, the printing cost of double-sided business cards is 25%-40% greater than single-sided, and the same would apply if engaging the services of a designer. If you are just starting in business and have a tight budget, that’s quite a saving if double-sided is not a hard requirement.

Should I Choose Single- or Double-Sided Business Cards?

There isn’t a one size fits all for choosing between single and double-sided business cards, as both options have their advantages.
Like all marketing decisions, it’s all about understanding your requirement and choosing the right card and design for your business. Hopefully, this article will have sparked your imagination.

If cost is a blocking factor for choosing double-sided, you could save money by printing a small percentage of double-sided cards and the rest single-sided, saving the more expensive cards for your hot prospects.
Another piece of advice when designing cards is to check out what your competitors do and see if there is an industry standard for your business. That’s not to say that a unique design won’t work, but it’s good to understand what customers expect.

Whichever card type you choose, make sure that the design is simple and eye-catching. Remember to apply the principle of doing more with less to the design of both front and back—include everything critical for your message and nothing more.
Head to 123Print to browse our extensive range of thousands of business card templates, and you’re sure to find one that will work for you. All of our designs can be edited to include text and graphics on the back of the card, for as little as £3.50. With our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee, you’re sure to be blown away by our professional printing and prompt service.

Are Vertical and Square Business Cards a Good Idea?

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Business cards are a great way to share information about yourself with potential clients or network contacts. They instantly provide a way for your contacts to get in touch, and the right business card will also help you stand out in their mind. Bland and boring business cards are passé: you need to be noticed in this world to be successful!

There are many different formats of business card that exist, and all of them serve a unique purpose. Typically, business cards are horizontal. But more recently, vertical and square business cards have gained popularity

Vertical and square business cards are more unusual when compared to the traditional landscape format. This makes them a unique and standout choice when pulled off correctly and paired with the right company. If paired with the correct design and information, a square business card can be more effective than the classic horizontal format.

When are Vertical and Square Business Cards a Good Idea?

If you want your business card to have the extra wow factor, opting for a vertical or square business card can be a brilliant idea. By their very nature, they stand out from the crowd – so they’re particularly useful if you’re part of a highly competitive industry, and feel that you need to go the extra mile in order to be noticed and remembered.

As they don’t follow the crowd, square and vertical business cards can help make you or your company look:
1) Progressive
2) Creative
3) Fun
4) Unique
5) Forward-thinking
6) Innovative
7) Clever
8) Young and fresh

If this is the image that you have in mind for your business, it may pay to go against the grain. Another benefit of vertical and square business cards is that, unlike other ways you can make your card stand out (such as using humour, an unusual font, or a vivid colour scheme), simply changing the orientation of your business card won’t risk making you look unprofessional.

Why Should I Choose a Vertical Business Card?

There are many reasons why you may want to stray from the status quo and go for a vertical business card.
Vertical business cards are distinctive and would work well for companies who are progressive and innovative.
They are perfect for displaying short, succinct pieces of information. This can be helpful to some as a business card looks more professional if it is less cluttered. Because of their width they enable you to be minimal, which tends to create a more effective business card.
Opting for a vertical layout means that your contacts will have to turn your card around in their hand in order to read it. This simple act alone will help to engage the reader’s mind, making them more likely to remember you than if you’d handed them a standard horizontal card.

These types of cards also tend to suit simple design. This means if you have a basic, colour blocked logo or no logo at all, the vertical card is a brilliant choice for you.
If you decided on a vertical business card, a design like Formal Dress would suit most professionals. If you are looking for a vocational card such as hairdressing, beauty or plumbing, there are hundreds of different job specific card templates available at 123Print.

Why Should I Choose a Square Business Card?

Similar to vertical business cards, square business cards stand out from the crowd. Especially at networking events, where hundreds (if not thousands) of business cards will be handed out and passed around, you need your own card to make a statement if you want it to be noticed.
If your business is creative and design-orientated, a square business card may suit you. This choice can be seen as bold and confident as it completely deviates from the normal business card shape. Square cards have gained popularity in recent years because of this, particularly with graphics or design orientated companies.
Square business cards also tend to use less paper than a traditional shape where the vertical or horizontal. This makes them better for the environment.
Unfortunately, the one downside to square business cards is that they don’t fit as neatly into a pocket, business card organiser or rolodex. Depending on the size of the square, they may not fit at all – running the risk that your contact will misplace or throw away your business card.

Why Should I Choose a Traditional Horizontal Business Card?

If you are uncertain as to what shape business card would suit you best, or if you’re hesitant to deviate from the norm, there is no problem with going for a classic horizontal business card. Horizontal business cards are popular for a reason!
By using a horizontal business card, you have more space to include your details than on a square or vertical business card. This may be useful if you are including multiple forms of contact on your card. It could also be useful for companies who may want to include opening hours or a list of services on their cards.

For these reasons, companies who use their business cards to serve the same purpose as a mini flyer may want to consider horizontal business cards. There is no reason why a horizontal business card will not work well for all businesses as they are classic, clear and easy to read.

For horizontal business cards, a design like Charcoal Border will always look professional. And if you still want to stand out, remember that you can customise any horizontal business card template with your own artwork, different fonts and text colours. You can even create your own business card from scratch, for a completely unique design that your contacts will remember.

What Should I Consider When Choosing a Business Card?

There are a few simple rules to stick to when choosing a business card.
Remember that the most important thing is that your business card suits you or your company. This is especially important in professional settings.

If you follow these tips, you should have no problem creating an effective card.
1) Only include the necessary information. The more cluttered the card is, the less the reader will pay attention to or remember
2) Make a statement. Design the card to match your company’s aesthetic, so that your contact or client will immediately know what kind of business you are
3) Make sure it’s legible. As much as you want to stand out, don’t use a clashing font colour or style that can’t be read quickly and easily
4) Double check your contact details are correct. Just one small typo might mean that nobody can get in touch with you! Also, spelling errors can make you seem unprofessional and untrustworthy
5) Make use of the back of the card. Don’t leave it as an empty white space! Include a loyalty card feature, for example, or provide your clients with opening times
6) Include your branding, such as your logo, to spread brand awareness and recognition

Finally, never attempt to print your business cards yourself at home. Order from a professional business stationer such as 123Print. This will ensure that all of your cards are printed to the highest quality and will create a great first impression.

What Should I Include on My Business Card?

Whether your chosen business card design is horizontal, vertical or square, always strive for a minimalistic and uncluttered design.
Business cards with just the basics help potential clients to easily access the more important information. You want to make sure your name and contact details stand out as this will be helpful in the event that someone wants to contact you. Here’s what you need:
1) Logo
2) Name of company (if you have one)
3) Personal or company tagline
4) Your name and title
5) What you do
6) Links to your website and socials
7) Contact details

All of our templates contain ample space for the above information, and can be personalised according to your own requirements.

Where Can I Buy Business Cards in the UK?

At 123Print we offer a massive range of business card templates in both horizontal and vertical formats. Our templates cover a huge range of styles from conservative to contemporary, meaning that whatever you do, there will be a business card to suit you. We also cater to a range of vocations such as salon and beauty, gardening, sports and fitness, and automotive.

All our business cards are fully customisable, allowing you to change the font, wording and colour, and add your own logo to make it yours.
We pride ourselves on our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee, which means that if for some reason your high-quality business cards do not meet your expectations, we’ll refund or replace them. We also have a low price guarantee, so you won’t break the bank! Our 48 hour shipping promise means that you can get your business cards quickly and fuss-free.

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Are Business Cards with QR Codes a Good Idea?

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Even if you don’t know what a QR (Quick Response) code is, you’ve doubtless seen these odd barcode type squares of dots, popping up in marketing information and posters over the past few years. QR codes are essentially barcodes, evolved.
You might then wonder what QR codes bring to the party when it comes to business cards—and the answer is quite a lot. While the traditional barcode deals with a limited amount of data, the QR code may include any form of computer-readable data, including a file containing up to 7K of data. The uses of QR codes are many and diverse. For instance, have you ever used your phone to check-in for a flight? That’s a type of QR code.
This article will discuss what QR codes are, what they add to business cards, and will go through the pros and cons of adding such a technology to your own card.

What Is a QR Code?

Japanese conglomerate Toshiba, with the help of a sister company, developed the modern form of QR code technology after becoming dissatisfied with the reliability of traditional barcodes. Since its development in 1994, QR codes have become an open international standard, used all over the world, in many industries.

How Do QR Codes Relate to Business Cards?

To answer this question, you need to know something about their use in marketing. Most modern smartphones include barcode scanning functionality, enabling the scanning of both traditional barcodes and QR codes.
The information in a traditional barcode is of limited value, outside of its intended use. However, the QR code on a marketing poster may contain a link that, when scanned, takes the user directly to a promotional website, or provides some useful piece of tourist information if scanned from a museum exhibit.
That’s a great function—no requirement for the user to type a fiddly website address into their smartphone—almost instant access to the information.
A QR code may contain any information usually printed on a business card, enabling a user to scan your contact, or other promotional information, directly into their smartphone.

What Information to Include in Your QR Code

If you’re thinking about including a QR code on your business card, you may wonder: what information should I include in it?

Personal Contact Information

If it’s for personal contact information, the QR code should include a vCard containing all contact information.
A vCard is a file format used for sharing contact information between smartphones, computers and PDAs. A customer may scan your business card details directly into their smartphone or computer.

You may use either a static or dynamic vCard.

1) Static vCard QR code: The static vCard contains all contact information. Advantage: the customer may import this directly into their smartphone. Disadvantage: The details can’t be edited and if your contact details change, you must print a new card.

2) Dynamic vCard QR code: The dynamic vCard directs to a landing page on a website, which hosts your vCard.

Advantages: It’s possible to track how often the business card is scanned and also record the IP address and location of the scanning device. The details in the vCard may change without updating the QR code. Disadvantages: The customer’s device must have Wi-Fi or Internet access to use this function—the static vCard doesn’t. It’s more complicated to set up and less straightforward for the customer.

Business Promotion

If the card is part of a business promotion, the QR code may include a direct link to a sales promotion. If, for instance, your business sells printing supplies, include a direct link for the customer to reorder their toner or paper.
It’s common practice to use QR codes to link to free competitions or giveaways, enabling instant sign up on the website.

Other Uses and Benefits of Business Cards with QR Codes

You might think that the most obvious advantage of business card QR codes is the ease with which your customer can scan the information, but that’s only half the story.
After most sales conferences, trade shows or seminars, events where attendees exchange huge amounts of business cards, an unfortunate intern has the job of inputting all that contact information into their company’s CMS.

For traditional business cards, that’s feeding them through an OCR enabled business card scanner. These scanners are pretty good, but they are not perfect and depending on the quality of the printing and the typeface used, things can go wrong.
An observant intern might check and manually correct, but no guarantee. With a QR code, the contact data will transfer perfectly.

Here are some other advantages of using QR codes on business cards:

1) Direct link to Your LinkedIn Profile: LinkedIn is a popular business-oriented social media platform. A link to your profile encourages a customer to follow you on the platform.

2) Direct link to Your Business Portfolio: Direct a customer to your portfolio or list of business services. For instance, the profile for a graphic designer might show a gallery of their work, or writing, in the case of a freelance writer.

3) Quick Access to Your Contact Details: If a customer is looking for the service provided by your business and they have several competitor cards in front of them—Would they spend minutes typing in a web address from each business card, or access your company details directly from the QR code?

4) Save Space: A QR code uses less space than printed details

5) Show Your Techy Side: If your business is in technology, it’s good to show the customer that you’re keeping up with popular trends.

QR code business cards

Not to mention, they simply look attractive and professional. When handing a card to a potential customer, a cool-looking business card with a QR code is a good conversation starter.

What Are the Downsides to Using QR Codes on Business Cards?

Unfortunately, like any technology, QR codes aren’t perfect – they have their downsides, too. Here are some potential disadvantages to think about before you go sticking them across all of your promotional materials.

Security Concerns with QR Codes

The one downside of QR codes that attracts the most headlines is security. Banks, always keen to protect their customers from phishing scams, issue warnings about clicking on risky emails or web links. Now they include QR codes in these warnings.
Unlike traditional barcodes, which contain a limited amount of data, QR codes can contain detailed computer-readable data. This might include links to malicious web pages or even malware contained directly in the QR code data.

It is important to realise that a QR code is a black box, and it’s impossible to know what data it includes without first scanning the code.
The encouraging news here is that security companies and anti-virus software vendors are becoming more proactive in combating these risks.
In terms of smartphones, anti-virus companies provide free QR code scanner apps, which scan the QR code for security risks before loading the data.

How to Encourage Customers to Scan Your QR Code

It’s all about trust. If your brand is well-known, your customer is more likely to feel comfortable scanning the QR code. However, if not and you’re engaging in a new promotion, carefully consider how to integrate the QR code in your business card design.
It has become commonplace in the tech industry for people to go all out with QR codes on their business cards. For instance, someone might include their name and job title only (Dave Martin, The World’s Best Games Programmer) and include everything else in a vCard, encoded in a QR code.

While that approach might seem ‘cool’ and appeal to techy types, others might feel nervous to scan such a QR code into their device. This is especially true if you decide to distribute your cards in public.
When designing the business card, include printed contact information, don’t just rely on the QR code. In that way, someone would feel more confident to scan the code.
There are other reasons for not relying 100% on the QR code. If your business is in a traditional industry, not all of your customers would be tech savvy, or even own a smartphone!
The moral of this story is unless you are 100% confident that a QR code only business card works for all of your customers, take care to include sufficient printed contact information.

The Importance of Good Business Card Design

As mentioned in the previous section, the place where you distribute your card will subliminally affect how trustworthy the customer considers your card.
Make sure that your card looks professional and well printed. If the card that you’re distributing looks ‘spammy’ or poorly printed, the chance of it being picked up is minimal and less than minimal that a person would scan a QR code on such a card.

By using a professional business stationer such as 123Print, you can be sure that your business cards will look professional and be printed to a very high standard. If you decide to include a QR code, simply use the upload artwork feature in our easy editor to paste the code directly onto your design.
With our 100% satisfaction guarantee, you’ll get your money back if you’re not completely happy with the end result. Choose from one of our thousands of templates to get started!