What Size Is a Business Card?
Sizes by Country, Print Terms and What to Put on One

A business card looks simple until you order one. The size depends on the country, and printers use their own words for paper and margins. A design that looks right on screen can also come back with white slivers at the edge, or with duller colours.

This page collects the common sizes and explains the print terms in plain words. It also looks at what goes on a card today. Everything here is checked against standards documents and printers’ own specification pages.

Two things to keep in mind. The sizes below are conventions that printers follow, not laws. And where a printer’s spec page is quoted, it is quoted as an example of what printers ask for, not as a recommendation of that printer.

Common sizes by country

No single size is used everywhere. One German printer, in its guide to card sizes, says business cards vary by country and also within countries, then lists the common formats. Its list, checked against printers in some of those countries, looks like this:

Where	Common size	Also confirmed by
United States and Canada	3.5 × 2 in (88.9 × 50.8 mm)	Vistaprint’s US FAQ gives standard cards as 3.5 × 2 in
Germany, France, the UK, Spain, Italy and much of Western Europe	85 × 55 mm	Onlineprinters (Germany): finished size 8.5 × 5.5 cm
Japan	91 × 55 mm	suprint (Japan): the standard Japanese size, known as “Tokyo No. 4” (our translation of 東京4号)
China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore	90 × 54 mm	a Chinese printing service: the most common domestic size
Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden	90 × 55 mm	Space Print (Australia): the size most Australian printers work to
Russia, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and others	90 × 50 mm	the German printer’s list only

Local printers do not always agree with that list. It puts India and Taiwan at 90 × 55 mm. But Vistaprint’s Indian site gives its standard visiting card as 8.9 × 5.1 cm (3.5 × 2 in). And a Taiwanese design studio calls 90 × 54 mm the most common size in Taiwan.

Even within one market, printers differ. MOO’s UK site lists a size of its own, the MOO size, at 84 × 55 mm. Its US site sells both a standard 3.5 × 2.0 in card and a MOO size card of 3.3 × 2.16 in.

One Chinese printing guide gives the European size as 85 × 54 mm rather than 85 × 55 mm. So a European-size card usually means 85 × 55 mm, but the printer’s own template is what decides.

Is a business card the size of a credit card?

Close, in Europe, but not the same. Credit cards follow the ID-1 format of the international standard ISO/IEC 7810, as the Japanese printer notes.

The ICAO’s specification for machine-readable travel documents uses that format for card-sized documents. Citing ISO/IEC 7810:2019, it gives the size as 85.60 mm (3.370 in) wide by 53.98 mm (2.125 in) high.

Here is how the common card sizes compare with that ID-1 size:

• A European 85 × 55 mm card is 0.6 mm narrower and about 1 mm taller than the ID-1 size. The German printer describes it as roughly the size of a bank card.
• The Japanese standard is further off: the Japanese printer says 91 × 55 mm is about 5.4 mm wider and about 1 mm taller than a credit card.
• A US card, at 88.9 × 50.8 mm, is wider and shorter than a credit card.

Print terms, in plain words

Trim, bleed and the safe zone

The trim is the finished size. Cards are cut from larger sheets, and the cut is not perfectly precise: a Chinese printing service gives the cutting error as ±0.5 mm.

Bleed is artwork extended past the trim line, so that a background colour still reaches the edge if the cut drifts. The safe zone is the margin inside the trim where text and logos are kept, so that a drifting cut does not clip them.

Printers ask for different amounts:

• Onlineprinters (Germany) asks for a file of 8.9 × 5.9 cm, including 2 mm of bleed, for an 8.5 × 5.5 cm card. It wants important information at least 4 mm from the edge.
• The Chinese printing service follows what it calls a 3 mm principle: 3 mm of bleed on every side. So a 90 × 54 mm card is designed at 96 × 60 mm.
• Space Print (Australia) says many Australian specs assume three millimetres past the cut on each side.

The card maker’s print guide goes through bleed, the safe area and the smallest readable type in more detail.

DPI for print

DPI (dots per inch) matters for photos and other pixel images at the size they will be printed. Onlineprinters lists a resolution of 300 dpi in its file requirements. The Japanese printer uses 350 dpi as its print standard, which makes a 91 × 55 mm card 1254 × 758 pixels.

At 300 dpi, a 3.5 × 2 in card is 1050 × 600 pixels, because 3.5 × 300 = 1050 and 2 × 300 = 600.

Vector artwork, stored as shapes rather than pixels, is different. MDN describes the SVG vector format as suited to images that must be drawn accurately at different sizes. So text and shapes kept as vectors do not have a fixed pixel count to worry about.

On screens, the dpi number plays a different role, covered in image and file format myths.

CMYK and RGB

Screens mix coloured light, described as RGB. Presses print with inks, and printers ask for files in CMYK, named after the inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

Onlineprinters lists its colour mode as CMYK, with the FOGRA51 profile for coated papers and FOGRA52 for uncoated ones. The Chinese printing service notes that printing needs CMYK mode (印刷需 CMYK 模式).

The two do not match exactly. Writing in CreativePro in 2000, Bruce Fraser noted that a monitor can display many colours that CMYK offset printing can’t reproduce.

Paper weight: gsm, pt and lb

Three units are in common use, and they measure different things.

• gsm (g/m²) is weight: grams per square metre, as a Xerox paper guide defines it.
• lb (basis weight) is also weight, measured in a US system. The same guide defines it as the weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a standard size. Each major paper grade, such as cover, bond or offset, has its own basic sheet size.
• pt (points) is thickness, not weight. Vistaprint explains that each point (pt) is equal to .001 of an inch.

The lb figure needs care, because the same number can mean different papers. In the guide’s conversion table, 80 lb text paper is about 120 gsm, while 80 lb cover is about 216 gsm. The paper maker Domtar says heavier cover papers (110 lb, 130 lb and 160 lb) convey luxury and provide stability to projects like business cards.

Weight and thickness do not move together. MOO’s US and UK sites describe papers with the same names in different units. Original is 16pt in the US and 350gsm in the UK, Cotton is 17pt and 298gsm, and Luxe is 32pt and 600gsm.

By those figures, the lighter Cotton paper is the thicker of the first two.

Finishes

Besides the paper, printers offer coatings and extra passes on the press. MOO, for example, lists matte and gloss papers and special finishes including spot gloss, raised spot gloss, gold foil, silver foil and letterpress. Finishes add steps and can change what works: the card maker’s guide notes a larger minimum text size under foil.

What to put on a card

There is no required list, but the details a card can carry are well defined. The vCard standard, published by the IETF in August 2011, is the format behind .vcf contact files. Among the kinds of information it holds are names, delivery addresses, email addresses, several telephone numbers, a photograph and a logo.

A card can now carry those details in a QR code as well as in print. The site’s card maker, for example, can put a full vCard contact or a website address in the code. The card maker’s guides compare vCard, URL and plain-text QR codes and explain how to make a QR code business card.

A QR code needs clear space around it. DENSO WAVE, which released the QR code in 1994, says a QR code needs a margin four modules wide on all sides. A module is one of the small squares in the code.

The guides on why a QR code won’t scan and on adding a logo without breaking the QR code go into the details.

Putting it to use

In short:

• Size comes from where the card will be handed over. A card for Japan, the US and Germany would be a different size in each, and the printer’s template for that market is where the size is settled.
• Bleed and safe zone come from the printer. The amounts differ, from 2 mm to 3 mm in the specs quoted here, and the printer’s own figures are the ones that count.
• Pixel images need enough pixels at print size. 300 dpi is a common figure and 350 dpi is used too; vector text avoids the question.
• Screen colour is a preview, not a promise. Some colours a screen shows cannot be printed with CMYK inks.
• Paper units are not interchangeable. gsm and lb measure weight, pt measures thickness, and lb depends on the paper grade.

The site’s free card maker

The site’s free business card maker runs in your browser; its page says your card details are processed on your device and never uploaded. It has two editors.

• The Classic editor has 50 templates. Its page says its cards “export at 1050×600px (3.5″×2″ @ 300 DPI)”, which is “the trim size with no bleed”. It also offers the QR code on its own and a .vcf contact file.
• The Studio editor offers 85 × 55 mm (Europe) or 3.5 × 2 in (US). Its PDF for the printer has 3 mm of bleed, crop marks and embedded fonts, with colours in RGB for the printer to convert. It checks the card against print thresholds such as the safe area and the minimum text size.

How to use this

Two surprises came up at the top of this page: white slivers at the edge, and duller colours. Both trace back to print terms covered here: bleed, and the gap between screen colour and CMYK ink.

So the useful questions come before the design. What size is the printer’s template, how much bleed and safe zone does it want, and which colour mode does it ask for?

Sources

Standards

• ICAO, Doc 9303: Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 5, “Specifications for TD1 Size Machine Readable Official Travel Documents”, §2.1 (PDF), citing ISO/IEC 7810:2019.
• IETF, RFC 6350: vCard Format Specification, August 2011.
• DENSO WAVE, “What is a QR Code? Point for determining the code area”.
• MDN Web Docs, “Image file type and format guide” (SVG) and “device-cmyk()”.

Printers’ and paper makers’ specification pages (quoted as examples, not recommendations)

• wir-machen-druck, “Visitenkartengröße: Formate, Beispiele & kreative Ideen”.
• Onlineprinters, “Visitenkarten einseitig 85 x 55 mm”, Druckdatenhinweise.
• suprint, “名刺サイズ早見表” (business card size chart).
• 吉印通 (Jiyintong), “名片印刷尺寸与出血设置” (business card sizes and bleed), 5 November 2025.
• Space Print, “Business card sizes, formats and shapes in Australia”.
• Vistaprint, “Standard business cards”, FAQ; Vistaprint India, “Standard visiting cards”, FAQ.
• 魚躍創意 (Fishsaut), “名片尺寸是多少？” (business card size), 14 December 2022.
• MOO, business cards pages, US and UK.
• Xerox paper guide, “Basis Weight Indicators” (PDF).
• Domtar, “Basis Weight Basics”.
• Bruce Fraser, “Out of Gamut: The Proof is on Your Monitor”, CreativePro, 21 February 2000.

We read each page on 5 October 2026. Printers change their specifications and product ranges; the current template is what counts. The sizes quoted are those in common use, not legal requirements. What the site’s card maker does is taken from its own pages on the same date.

Checked October 2026.