Reviews of business cards

[Anne]

I just noticed the reviews are now visible on my profile page (backend) and I was shocked by what I found.
I had a bad review from 2 customers, both for (different) business cards.
They both said the font was too small.
I think this a killer review. Product will most likely not sell any more.
What puzzles me is that the fonts used are ones I use regularly and even though I have sold the reviewed business cards several times, I am not aware of any reported problems.
I double checked with some font sizes used by high ranking and popular business cards and my fonts are even larger than those. (Next I'll probably get complaints about there not being enough space to replace template texts, LOL)
One of the reviewers wondered if there is any human checking in place to see if a products looks OK before being shipped.
Are there standard sizes/measurements for information on business cards? Or is this something Zazzle could help us with? (like a warning when the size gets too small, similar to what we have now when texts are in the bleed or images don't have the right size).

I re-created the affected business cards, sadly will lose the ranking. And thank Zazzle for the drop shadows, that work well also on a simple background to make the text stand out better.

[CreativeLeahG]

It's possible they reduced the font size. I have a review about the font being too small and despite confirming it was their own fault as they'd reduced it and written too many words they still reduced the stars. That's just par for the course I'm afraid.

[Polenth]

I wouldn't usually go below 12 for a regular font and 10 for a blocky font. Fancy thin fonts sometimes need to be bigger to be clear. You might want to see if you can tweak some of the smaller text a bit larger or change the fonts around. You're creating them new anyway, so now is a good time to make changes.

[chefcateringbiz]

I usually go 12-15 on the "small text" (depending on the font), it's just more legible; if the customer wants it smaller, they certainly can make that mistake on their own.

[DancingPelican]

Many of the top ranking business cards on Zazzle (they are Editor's picks too) use small font sizes of 6.5 and smaller for certain text. They rank very high on Zazzle, so perhaps it is customer preference on whether they want a small font or something larger for certain business info on the card. I don't usually go that small with my font choices for business cards, but many successful designers do.

[Barbara]

My two bestselling cards have small fonts for address & phone numbers, but never in delicate fonts. Regardless, business cards should have one view that's as true-to-size as possible so customers have a much better idea of how the card will actually look.

Colorwash's Home

[Anne]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Yes, the font makes a difference. However, there always needs to be a balance between readability and space for the text information the customer needs. If you use size 12 or even 15 your client won't be able to add a web address or a street name that is slightly longer. You may also think about who will be the client who is the end receiver of this business card (the targeted audience for your customer). If your client is focused for instance on elderly care, you will need a larger font.
Also: if you use a font that is too large, it will come across as unprofessional or maybe even childish.
And the bleed is enormous for business cards, almost half of the size of the design. This makes it also more difficult to assess what the real view will be. Good point, @Barbara 

[paperiecris]

Roboto, Open Sans and Futura are a safe choice for readbility. I always use font size 7 or 6.5, it offers a generous space for writing address and website. 

[Baylee]

Sometimes it's impossible to figure out whether the font is big enough or not, especially when you get conflicting reviews like these. Just to be on the safe side, I increased the size of the font on this card. I also think some customers change the paper type and that totally doesn't work for designs like this that are meant to be glossy. (I've since eliminated that as an option). This is one of my best sellers and luckily reviews like the first one are few and far between and don't seem to have slowed down the sales.

[Barbara]

@Baylee  Yes, customers can make unfortunate changes. You're likely seeing the person reviewing their own changes, not the original that you designed. Yet another example of why Zazzle should have an image that's at least close to actual size.

Colorwash's Home

[CreativeLeahG]

When I design small items I try to size the template on my screen the same size it'd be in reality. This shows me exactly how readable the font is.

[ColsCreations]

It might vary by screen resolution, but for me, I just checked with an actual tape measure held up to my laptop monitor and this preview image is the actual card dimensions.

 I'm of the mind that the number of the font size is not important; one needs to adjust the image size on screen to view it at what actual size would be and just ask oneself "can I read that?".

[Barbara]

@ColsCreations, those are my thoughts too--measure it for one's own screen, something I realized a short time ago when looking at a card on my husband's screen and knowing it would be smaller on my own screen. Thus my original idea of Zazzle doing an actual-size display wouldn't help any of us, including customers unless Zazzle had multiple images, each for a different display size and resolution. Unwieldy at best.

Colorwash's Home

[ColsCreations]

Exactly. Pictures can be very misleading when shopping online. Even when specs are given it's hard for most I think to translate that in their head to just how big/small the thing might be. I've seen countless neg reviews where people complained that the thing was smaller than expected and I'm always thinking, uh, the size was listed in the listing.  Case in point, I was looking at a small appliance this week, a cute "breakfast cooker" thing with two griddles and a drawer to make toast. Looks cool and the exact dimensions given didn't translate in my head. Until I saw an in-situ image with toast in the drawer and realized the whole thing is barely bigger than one piece of bread, LOL.

[Barbara]

I've seen those breakfast cookers reviewed online, and the reviews say, at best, that the things are unnecessary, and at worst, ridiculous. It's probably a good thing you realized its actual size.

I've a collection of fonts in Photoshop that Zazzle uses that I favor, because Photoshop can display inches right on the money, allowing me to see the actual size of things. However, I mostly Zazzle's design surface, though I recently had some graphics that required I be precise. Photoshop proved invaluable. I hope other image editors have the same ability.

Colorwash's Home

[Barbara]

@CreativeLeahG  Thank you! I just now took a look and now wonder why I never really noticed those little + and - signs down at the bottom.

Colorwash's Home

[waterart]

I  always wonder whether the lettering on the business cards I make is too small. It would be nice if Z would give us some sort of guidelines for the biz cards about the text size used.