Business Card Design: Sizes, Print Specs, and Practical Layout

People keep business cards that feel substantial and toss ones that don't. The difference is usually three decisions: paper weight, finish, and the willingness to leave most of the card empty. A $0.05/card design printed on $1/card paper outperforms a $5 designer fee printed on $0.03/card cardstock every time.

This guide covers the print-ready specs your printer expects, the layout patterns that actually work in 2026, and the spec-level details (bleed, safe area, DPI) that separate a card that prints clean from one that comes back with cropped text or muddy color.

Sizes by region

Business card dimensions vary by country. If you order globally, design two versions:

Region	Size	Pixel size @ 300 DPI
United States, Canada	3.5 × 2 in (88.9 × 50.8 mm)	1050 × 600
UK, EU	85 × 55 mm	1004 × 650
Japan, China	91 × 55 mm	1075 × 650
Korea	90 × 50 mm	1063 × 591

The US "standard" 3.5×2 in is the most common globally because Avery and Moo default to it. If you're not sure where the recipient is, use US.

Print specs every printer expects

When you submit a card for print, the printer expects three layers in your file:

Bleed (3 mm or 0.125 in beyond the edge). — Background color or images must extend into the bleed area. The cutter is mechanical and drifts by up to 1 mm — without bleed, you get thin white edges.

Trim (the actual card edge). — The line where the cut happens.

Safe area (3 mm or 0.125 in inside the trim). — All critical content (text, logo) lives here. Anything closer to the trim risks being cropped.

So a US card actually exports as 3.625 × 2.25 in canvas (bleed extends the canvas), with the trim at 3.5 × 2 in, and content kept inside 3.25 × 1.75 in.

**Resolution:** 300 DPI minimum. Below that, text edges get visibly fuzzy. If you're using a vector source (SVG), DPI is irrelevant — set the canvas size at print dimensions and export.

**Color mode:** CMYK for print. Designing in RGB and converting at export usually shifts vivid blues toward purple and saturated greens toward yellow-green. Either design in CMYK from the start (Figma, Illustrator, InDesign) or accept the shift.

**File format:** PDF/X-1a is the printer-standard. Most modern printers also accept high-res PNG, but PDF preserves vector text crisply and color profiles correctly.

Paper stock — the single biggest quality lever

Paper choice changes how the card feels in someone's hand more than any design decision. The benchmarks:

300 gsm: Standard. Most "premium" cards from cheap printers are this weight.

350 gsm: Minimum for a card that feels substantial when handed to someone.

400+ gsm: Premium. People comment on the weight before they read the card.

600+ gsm (double-thick): Luxury. Used by law firms, fashion brands, and signaling exercises. Roughly 3× the print cost.

Finish options stack on top:

Uncoated: Matte, slightly toothy. Reads professional and quiet.

Coated matte: Smooth matte, easier to write on with a fine-point pen. Versatile default.

Gloss: Shiny. Reads cheap unless used intentionally (e.g., photographers showcasing image work).

Soft-touch lamination: Velvet-feeling coating. The single best ROI for premium feel.

Spot UV: Selective gloss on a matte card — used to highlight a logo. Distinct, slightly dated in 2026.

Foil stamping: Metallic ink pressed into the paper. The most expensive option; signals legal/luxury contexts.

Letterpress: Recessed printing. Niche; mostly used by creative-industry professionals.

Layout patterns that work

The modern 2026 default is what I'd call **asymmetric minimal**: one side is just the logo, centered on a solid color or generous whitespace. The other side has name + title + 2–3 contact lines, left-aligned with significant left margin. Nothing else.

The patterns to avoid:

Crowded one-sided cards with logo, name, title, phone, mobile, fax, email, website, two addresses, two social handles. Reads desperate.

Centered everything , with a vertical line of icons next to contact info. Reads "made in Canva in 2015."

Background image of the company building or product. Reads dated regardless of execution.

Holographic gradient + foil + custom shape die-cut . Reads "look at me." Sometimes intentional, usually not.

Information hierarchy

In order of size and weight:

Name — largest, boldest. The single most important piece of information.

Title — small, regular weight, directly under name.

Company — usually represented by the logo on the other side, or as a small line above name. Don't repeat both.

Contact channel(s) — phone and email at minimum. Pick two; don't include four.

Website — usually small at the bottom or in a footer.

What to leave off in 2026: fax number, social handles for every platform, physical address (unless legally required), QR code linking to vCard (people will scan the card with their phone's camera anyway, which extracts contact info via OCR).

QR codes — when they help, when they don't

The 2020s vCard-QR pattern peaked around 2022. Today most phones extract contact info from a photographed business card via the OS-level Live Text / Google Lens. Adding a QR code is redundant for that use.

QR codes still earn their space for: linking to a portfolio, booking page, or product demo. Don't put a QR code on a card just because you can — every visual element competes for the recipient's attention.

How AI generation helps

LogoQuill's business-card maker generates both sides in a single prompt, sized correctly with bleed and safe area baked in. The output is 300 DPI PNG and SVG. Customizable in the in-browser editor — swap your name/title/contact info without re-rendering.

The fastest workflow: generate a logo first (or upload an existing one), then prompt "professional business card for a [profession] using this logo, US size, asymmetric minimal layout, [paper color] background." Tweak the result, export, send to your printer.

Design a business card with AI →