— guide
What a printer needs, and why.
Six things decide whether a business card comes back right. This page explains each one in the order it will bite you, with the numbers the app checks against.
What size should a business card be?
Sizes vary by country, and the two you will meet most are not interchangeable. Western Europe uses 85 × 55 mm. The US and Canada use3.5 × 2 inches, which is 88.9 × 50.8 mm. Japan, China and Korea each use a slightly different size again, so pick for where the card will be handed over.
What is bleed, and why is my card white at the edge?
Cards are printed on a large sheet and cut down. The blade has tolerance, so if your background stops exactly at the finished edge, any drift leaves a white sliver. Bleed is artwork extended 3 mm past the trim on all four sides so there is something to cut into. Printers ask for different amounts — about 1.4 mm (Vistaprint), 2 mm (MOO) or 1/8 in (4over4) — and 3 mm covers all of them. The Studio editor's PDF, PNG and SVG all include it, and its PDF adds crop marks and a TrimBox telling the press where the finished card sits. TheClassic editor exports at the trim size: its PDF carries crop marks, but neither of its files has bleed.
What is the safe area?
The same tolerance works inward. Printers set this line between about 2 mm and 1/8 in. Anything closer than 3 mm to the trim can be shaved off. Keep every piece of text and every logo inside that line. The app draws it as the inner dashed rectangle and fails the card if anything crosses it.
How small can text be on a business card?
6 pt is the floor. Printers put the floor at 6 to 7 pt (Jukebox 6, MOO 7); below that, fine strokes start to lose detail. 8 pt is a common floor for contact details, and MOO and Vistaprint both advise 8. Under a foil or spot finish the minimum rises to 10 pt — the figure MOO gives for foil and spot gloss.
Stock changes this. Smooth coated paper keeps small type crisp; linen and cotton soften it.
How big does a QR code need to be on a business card?
20 mm square is the working minimum, and 25 mm is what some QR-code makers advise — both measured including the quiet zone. Below 20 mm the code needs a closer, steadier phone, so test a printed proof.
The quiet zone is the clear margin around the code. ISO/IEC 18004 requires4 modules on all four sides. A module is one of the small squares, so a code with 0.5 mm modules needs a 2 mm clear margin. Put anything in that margin — a rule, a logo, a flood of ink — and scanners start failing.
Watch the module size as well as the overall size. A full vCard needs far more modules than a short link, so encoding a whole contact card at 20 mm can push each module under 0.4 mm — the line this app treats with caution, because ink spread on uncoated stock can close small squares up. If the code has to be small, encode a URL rather than a vCard.
Should the QR code hold a vCard or a link?
A vCard puts your name, title, phone, email and website into a contact the phone offers to save and works with no internet connection — but it is the largest payload, so it needs the most modules and the most space. A URL is far smaller, scans more reliably at small sizes, and can be changed later if the page behind it is yours. Pick the vCard when you have room; pick the link when you do not.
Why does the printed colour not match my screen?
Screens emit light and mix red, green and blue. Presses lay down cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink, and that gamut is smaller — some colours a monitor shows simply cannot be printed. The app shows a CMYK value beside each colour so you can see roughly where it lands, but that conversion has no press profile in it. Your printer's profile is the one that decides.
What is total ink coverage?
Add the four CMYK percentages together and you get total area coverage. Past roughly300% — the limit in SWOP 2013 (GRACoL 2013 allows 320%, and FOGRA39 profiles range from 260% to 330%) — the paper may not absorb it. The sheet stays wet, offsets onto the next one, and the run is delayed or scrapped. Some profiles for sheetfed offset on coated stock allow up to 330%, so this is one to confirm with your printer.
What do I actually send?
- Send the PDF. It has the bleed and the crop marks already; do not add more. Its colours are RGB, which the printer converts with their own profile.
- Say the trim size and that the file includes 3 mm bleed.
- Ask which colour profile they want. If they name one, it beats anything this site told you.
- On the proof, check the smallest text first, then the edges, then the colour.
What this site does not do
It does not print anything, take payment, or recommend a printer. It makes the file and tells you what is wrong with it before someone else charges you to find out. The checks report against published thresholds; they cannot know your press.