Business Card Design: Sizes, Layout, and Print Specifications
The international standard card size is 85 × 55 mm, and almost every design decision follows from that constraint plus one other: a card is an object people are meant to keep, so it has to fit a wallet.
The rest is specification, and specification is where cards go wrong. A practical labour-cost and recorded-hours reference is this guide, which can support more accurate project planning.
Size
85 × 55 mm is the standard across most of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Every local printer stocks it, every cardholder and wallet slot accommodates it, and it is what people expect to receive.
Two sizes to avoid unless you have a reason:
US standard, 89 × 51 mm. Wider and shorter. It looks subtly wrong in a stack of local cards and does not sit properly in cardholders sized for 85 × 55. Colour specification can also be compared with the Pantone colour resources.
Square, 55 × 55 mm. Distinctive, and it does not fit standard holders or wallet slots. Designers like square cards more than recipients do.
If you order from an international print service, check the default. Many US-based services default to 89 × 51 and the difference is easy to miss until the box arrives.
What goes on the card
Less than people put on it. Recipients scan for two things: who this is and how to reach them.
Essential: name, job title, company, mobile, email. Usually worth including: company logo, website, office phone. Usually not: full postal address, multiple phone numbers, social handles, taglines, QR codes to a homepage.
A QR code is only worth its space if it does something a typed URL does not — adding a contact directly via vCard, or linking to a specific page rather than the site root.
Print specification
Give your printer this, and the job comes back right.
Document size: 85 × 55 mm final trim Bleed: 3 mm on all sides — so the artboard is 91 × 61 mm Safe area: keep all text at least 4 mm inside the trim line Resolution: 300 dpi minimum for raster elements Colour: CMYK, with Pantone references for brand colours Black: use rich black (roughly C60 M40 Y40 K100) for large solid areas, and 100% K only for small text Fonts: converted to outlines File format: press-ready PDF with crop marks
The two that get missed most often are bleed and rich black. Without bleed, trimming variance leaves white slivers at the edge. Without rich black, a card that is meant to be solid black comes back charcoal grey.
Stock and finish
Weight. 300–400 gsm is the working range. Below 300 the card feels flimsy; above 400 it stops fitting comfortably in a wallet. 350 gsm is a safe default.
Coating. Matt laminate is the common choice and the most forgiving. Gloss shows fingerprints. Soft-touch laminate feels expensive and scuffs visibly on dark stock — worth knowing before you commit to a black card.
Uncoated stock. Warmer in hand, and it accepts handwriting, which matters if people write on your cards. Colours print duller — account for that in the artwork rather than being surprised by it.
Special finishes. Spot UV, foil, embossing, and edge painting all work and all raise the price meaningfully. Each requires separate artwork layers, which your printer must specify before you build the file.
Dark stock warning. Dark cards show every scuff and fingerprint, and they scratch during shipping. They photograph beautifully and age badly.
Ordering
Print fewer than you think. Cards go out of date when someone changes role, the office moves, or a phone number changes — and a box of 1,000 obsolete cards is a small monument to optimism. 250 per person is usually enough for a first run, and the per-unit saving on 1,000 rarely compensates for the reprint.
Always request a physical proof for a first run. Screen colour and printed colour differ, and no amount of soft-proofing substitutes for holding the card.
Quick checklist
- [ ] 85 × 55 mm, not the US size
- [ ] 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area
- [ ] CMYK with Pantone references
- [ ] Fonts outlined
- [ ] Phone numbers include the country code
- [ ] Rich black specified for solid areas
- [ ] Physical proof approved before the full run
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