Business card design: the numbers behind type size, QR codes, bleed and size

A business card is held at arm's length for a few seconds, then typed into a phone or scanned, then kept or lost. Design it for those two moments. Three decisions carry most of the weight, and each has a number behind it: the type size, the QR code and the trim. Most guides state them as habits. Here is where each one comes from, so you can check it against your own card.

There is no standard size

Wikipedia's entry is blunt: there is no standard for business card dimensions. Families of sizes exist by region:

Wikipedia also lists the credit-card format (ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1, 85.60 x 53.98 mm) and notes that sharing dimensions with other cards makes storage easier. Our comparison: the European 85 x 55 mm card is within about 1 mm of ID-1 in both directions, while the US card is 3.3 mm wider and 3.2 mm shorter, and its proportion (1.75) is far from Europe's (1.55). A layout for one will not transfer to the other without redrawing. For cards handed out in several regions, the 85 x 55 mm size is the nearest to what wallet slots are cut for. That is our judgement, not a rule.

Bleed is 2 mm or 3 mm, depending on the printer

The old rule of thumb says 3 mm. One printer's guide gives a European 85 x 55 mm card a bleed size of 89 x 59 mm, which is 2 mm per side, and a Japanese card 95 x 59 mm. It describes bleed generally as 0.125 inch or 2 to 3 mm, and asks for critical content at least 0.125 inch inside the trim. At 300 ppi, the European card is 1051 x 697 pixels with 2 mm bleed and 1075 x 720 with 3 mm. The guides disagree, so use the printer's template, not a generic one.

Set the type from the angle, not from habit

Printers give floors. One print shop's guide recommends 7 to 8 pt for phone and email with 6 pt as the minimum, and 9 to 11 pt for the name with 8 pt as the minimum, on a 90 x 55 mm card. Vision research asks a different question: at what size does reading run at full speed?

Legge and Bigelow's review of the vision science puts the critical print size at about 0.2 degrees of x-height. At 40 cm that is an x-height of 1.4 mm, which is 4 pt. Newspaper text averages 0.23 degrees and novels 0.24. Below the critical size reading slows. We turned that into font sizes by dividing the x-height by the typeface's x-height ratio. We measured the ratio in the faces used on this site: Aspekta 0.52, Inter 0.546.

So at 40 cm, 8 pt in a face with a 0.52 x-height is right at the threshold (0.21 degrees), and 6 pt in the same face is 0.16 degrees, below it. A printer's 6 pt floor is where the print survives, not where reading is comfortable. A face with a small x-height needs more: 0.45 needs 8.8 pt. Two cautions. Contact details are read in short pieces, not as running text, so the threshold is a conservative guide, and 40 cm is an assumption (it is the example distance in the paper). If your readers hold the card further away, size grows in direct proportion to distance.

The printer's adjustments still apply on top. The same shop adds 0.5 to 1 pt on uncoated stock and 1 to 1.5 pt for light type on a dark ground, asks for Regular or Medium weights below 9 pt and says to avoid condensed faces below 8 pt. Put together, 8 pt is the floor for contact details in a normal-width face on coated stock, and 9.5 to 10.5 pt for reversed type on uncoated.

Design for transcription

Ask what happens after the handshake. Someone reads a number and types it. So give one name, one role and one way to reach you, plus one place to learn more.

• Phone numbers in international form. ITU-T E.164 numbers have at most 15 digits, and the leading plus sign means "dial with the caller's international prefix". E.123 recommends the plus and spaces only for grouping. Write +44 20 7946 0123, not 020 7946 0123, or the number fails abroad.
• Email on its own line at a size you can read aloud without guessing. Letters that look alike at small sizes (0 and O, 1, l and I) are where typing errors start, so read the address aloud to a colleague from the printed proof.
• Names. In Japan executives often carry two cards, one with the name in Japanese order and one in Western order, and the card is offered face up and received with both hands, according to Wikipedia's entry on the meishi.
• Leave out fax numbers, generic info@ addresses and every social network you do not use for work.

QR codes: a link beats a vCard

A QR code encodes bytes, and more bytes mean more modules, the small black squares. A version 1 code is 21 modules wide and each version adds 4 per side. We computed three payloads with error correction level M:

The full vCard has modules less than half the size of the link's. Ink spreads more on uncoated stock, which is the usual reason printers add size to small type there, and the same spread can fill in small gaps. Deloitte's QR guidance recommends at least 2 by 2 cm, four modules of white around the code and, for a code without a logo, the lowest error correction level to keep it small. A printed vCard also cannot be updated after printing, while a short link can point wherever you need. Encode a short link to a contact or booking page, and test the printed card with two phones.

Paper and finish

Print shops treat about 350 gsm as the standard for a solid card and 400 gsm as noticeably more substantial. Below 300 gsm one shop says it feels like a flyer. The shops we read give no thickness in millimetres, so ask for samples. Finish is a trade-off: uncoated is the easiest to write on, and gloss and soft-touch coatings resist ink and take no handwriting. Uncoated needs the larger type sizes above, so test small type on the actual stock.

Prepare the file

Pass or fail before it goes to print:

1. Template and bleed: from the printer, for your region, with the bleed they specify.
2. Safe area: text at least 0.125 inch (3.2 mm) inside the trim.
3. Type: contact details at 8 pt or more, 10 pt if reversed on uncoated.
4. Resolution: images at 300 ppi at final size.
5. Black: small text at K100 only. White text on colour needs size and weight, since one printer says small knocked-out text cannot be registered correctly.
6. QR code: at least 20 mm, short link, tested on the stock.
7. Proof: read every digit of every number and email aloud.

Where this goes wrong

The type is 6 pt because the printer allows it. Cause: printer floors protect the print, not the reader. Detect: hold the proof at 40 cm for five seconds. Fix: size from the table.

The number does not work abroad. Cause: a national format without the country code. Fix: E.164 form with a plus sign.

The QR code will not scan on uncoated stock. Cause: a dense vCard with small modules and ink spread. Fix: a short link, a larger code and a test on the real paper.

The layout shifts when printed in another country. Cause: no standard size, and a template for the wrong region. Detect: compare proportions, 1.55 against 1.75. Fix: redraw at the printer's size.

Text is clipped at the edge. Cause: a cut that shifts and content outside the safe area. Fix: 3.2 mm inside the trim.

Put it into practice

Print one card at 100 percent at home, hold it at 40 cm and read the phone number aloud. The business cards in our identity work, such as black and mist green for Urbanova, the cards for a first meeting in Creagen Hayes and those set beside the wider identity in Ordin, are designed as part of a system. Graphic design at LAIN typically takes 2 to 4 weeks, and cards work best with the identity they belong to; our guide to brand identity vs logo explains why. For the print file in general, see the brochure checklist, and for hierarchy, typographic hierarchy. If you want cards that match a full brand, start a project.