Black business cards are business cards that have either or both sides, colored entirely black. The only exception would be the contact information or logo, which would typically be white or some other light color. Black business cards are becoming very popular nowadays. Many people find them appealing because they look so different from the traditional white finish found on business cards. As business card specialists in NYC, we have a great deal of experience with black business cards.
Black business cards can be produced by printing the color onto a standard white paper, or using black paper. We offer both options, but they each have their strengths and weaknesses, which we will discuss below. Depending on your specific requirements, we will help you determine which printing method is most effective for your black business cards.
The most common way to print black business cards is to use a plain white paper and print the black color onto them. This comes as a surprise to some people, who expect the paper to be black to start with. There is a good reason for this method being more popular. It has to do with the fact that the contact information and logo are typically white or some other light color (to contrast against the black surface). Since there isn’t any functional white ink (all inks are transparent to some degree), white lettering can only be achieved by leaving the black ink off of the areas where the lettering is. For example, imagine you were to print black ink on the entire surface of the paper except for the word “hello”. Because the paper underneath is white, that word will appear to be white. This concept is called reverse printing. Instead of printing the word “hello”, you are actually printing everything except the word “hello”. The result is a black business card with white lettering.
The alternative would be to print on black paper. This option is not very popular because it is very difficult to have white, or light lettering on the business card. As mentioned above, there isn’t a white ink that is fully opaque. Since the ink is translucent, it allows the color behind the ink to show through. When using white ink on a black paper, the resulting color is appears to be gray. Although the ink was actually white, it allows the black behind it to show though the ink. Black plus white is gray. The only way to get around this issue would be to foil stamp the white lettering or logo onto the black paper. The problem then becomes price and resolution. Foil stamping is not as precise as printing, which means the clarity of the design can be compromised. Furthermore, foil stamping is very expensive. It costs several hundred dollars to include foil stamping in a project, excluding printing costs.
Black business cards are a great look for companies and individuals who want to stand out from the crowd. They offer a modern and elegant appeal, which has shown to age well. If you are interested in black business cards, please feel free to reach out to us and stop by our NYC office for a free consultation.
