Originally posted by Golfer
So far it seems that buyprintingdirect.com has a higher quality image than vistaprint. When enlarged for the background on vistaprint, it made the photograph very blurry and very poor quality. buyprintingdirect.com was clear and crisp.
Make sure the picture is 300 dpi at business card size with 3mm extra on each side [ie length + 6mm, height + 6mm] (this is for bleed, to avoid nasty white lines on the edges). Otherwise it'll be either blurry or pixilated. You can get away with lower dpi, but 300 will cover 150 lpi and 175 lpi on the finished card, and as we've got no idea what screen your card boys use, too much is always better than not enough.
NB there's not much point in enlarging it in photoshop or whatever (once the pic is made small, making it large won't put the missing info back) - start with the largest shot possible.
For your card you'd want gloss art card (otherwise the colour will go flat), and then if you want a matt finish use a matt lamination. It gives it a satin sheen kind of feel which is very classy. Otherwise go gloss lam if you want really shiny.
Another important thing to think about is the card weight (ie thickness). Not sure what options you have over the 'net, but 210-300gsm is better, depending on the card they use.
