The standard business card size in the US and Canada is 3.5 x 2 inches, which is 88.9 x 50.8 mm, or 1050 x 600 pixels at 300 DPI. That number has stayed put for a reason: it fits a wallet slot, a card holder, and a Rolodex, and every printer in North America is already tooled for it.
Getting the size right is the boring half of the job. The interesting half is what you put on the card, and that’s worth understanding before you open a design file. If you’re still deciding whether cards are worth printing at all, start with why business cards still work. If you already know you want one and just need a layout, browse business card template ideas instead. This guide covers the measurements.
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The Bottom Line
- US and Canada standard: 3.5 x 2 in (88.9 x 50.8 mm), 1050 x 600 px at 300 DPI
- Europe and the UK: 85 x 55 mm, close to the ISO 7810 ID-1 credit card format
- Japan: 91 x 55 mm, the meishi size
- Add 0.125 in (3 mm) of bleed on every side, and keep text 0.125 in inside the trim
- Design at 300 DPI in CMYK, not 72 DPI in RGB
Standard business card size in inches, millimeters, and pixels
Here is the US standard expressed three ways, because your printer, your designer, and your design software each want a different unit.
| Measurement | Inches | Millimeters | Pixels at 300 DPI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finished (trim) size | 3.5 x 2 | 88.9 x 50.8 | 1050 x 600 |
| With bleed | 3.75 x 2.25 | 95.25 x 57.15 | 1125 x 675 |
| Safe area | 3.25 x 1.75 | 82.55 x 44.45 | 975 x 525 |
The finished size is what lands in someone’s hand. The bleed size is what you upload. The safe area is where your name, phone number, and logo have to live if you want them to survive the cutting blade.
One number people get wrong constantly: pixels only mean something once you attach a resolution to them. A 1050 x 600 file is a crisp business card at 300 DPI and a blurry mess at 72 DPI. Set the resolution first, then the dimensions.
Business card sizes by country
If you hand out cards outside North America, or you print for a client who does, the standard shifts. A US card in a European card holder sticks out at one end and looks like it was trimmed wrong.
| Region | Inches | Millimeters |
|---|---|---|
| US and Canada | 3.5 x 2 | 88.9 x 50.8 |
| Europe and the UK | 3.35 x 2.17 | 85 x 55 |
| Japan | 3.58 x 2.17 | 91 x 55 |
| China | 3.54 x 2.13 | 90 x 54 |
| Australia | 3.54 x 2.17 | 90 x 55 |
The European size is the one worth remembering, because it is roughly the ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 format that credit cards, driving licences, and bank cards use worldwide. Anything cut to 85 x 55 mm slides into a wallet the same way a Visa does.
Japan is the outlier that matters most in practice. The meishi is 91 x 55 mm, and card exchange there is a ritual rather than a throwaway gesture. If you’re printing a run specifically for a trip to Tokyo, print them at 91 x 55.
Bleed, trim, and safe zone explained
These three terms cause more reprints than any design decision.
Bleed is artwork that extends past the edge of the finished card. Cards are printed on large sheets and then cut in stacks, and the blade drifts a fraction of a millimeter as it goes. If your background color stops exactly at the trim line, that drift leaves a thin white sliver along one edge. Extending the background 0.125 in (3 mm) past the trim on all four sides means the blade always cuts through color.
Trim is the line where the card actually gets cut. It’s the 3.5 x 2 in rectangle.
Safe zone is the inside margin, another 0.125 in in from the trim. Anything you’d be upset to lose goes inside it. Text sitting 1 mm from the trim line is a gamble on a machine that was never built to be that precise.
A short way to remember it: bleed protects your background, the safe zone protects your content, and they’re the same distance in opposite directions.
How to set up a business card file at 300 DPI
Assuming a standard US card, here is the setup that most print shops accept without a query.
- Create the document at 3.75 x 2.25 in if your software has no separate bleed setting, or at 3.5 x 2 in with a 0.125 in bleed if it does. Both produce the same file.
- Set resolution to 300 DPI. Below that, small type goes soft and logos pick up visible edges. Some shops ask for 350 DPI on premium stock.
- Work in CMYK, not RGB. Screens are RGB and presses are CMYK. Converting late is how a vivid on-screen blue arrives as a dull purple. Rich blacks are usually built as C40 M30 Y30 K100 rather than K100 alone.
- Keep type at 7 pt or larger and avoid hairline rules thinner than 0.25 pt, which can disappear on absorbent uncoated stock.
- Export as a print-ready PDF with fonts embedded or converted to outlines, bleed included, and crop marks on.
- Design both sides at the same dimensions, even if the back is one flat color.
If you’re working from a downloadable layout, most of this is already set for you. That’s the main argument for starting from a template rather than a blank canvas.
Non-standard business card sizes worth considering
Standard is standard because it’s cheap and it fits everywhere. But a different size is a legitimate way to stand out, as long as you accept the trade-offs.
- Square: 2.5 x 2.5 in (55 x 55 mm). Distinctive and increasingly common in design and hospitality. Won’t sit flush in a wallet slot.
- Mini or skinny: 3.5 x 1 in. Half the height of a standard card. Good for a name and one contact method, bad for anything more.
- Folded: 3.5 x 4 in, folded to 3.5 x 2 in. Doubles your printable area, so it suits a menu, a service list, or a short price list. Costs more and adds bulk.
- Rounded corners: standard size, 1/8 in or 1/4 in corner radius. Same footprint, noticeably different feel, minimal price bump.
- Die-cut: any shape. Highest impact, highest cost, and often needs a custom cutting die that gets charged as a one-off setup fee.
- Thick stock: standard size, 32 pt or heavier. The size doesn’t change but the card feels completely different in hand.
If your card also has to survive a delivery van, a walk-in cooler, or a farmers market table, weight and coating matter more than shape. A 16 pt matte card in a florist’s apron pocket ends up creased by noon. A 32 pt card doesn’t. Anyone planning to start a farm business and sell at weekend markets should assume cards will spend the day in a pocket alongside cash and a card reader, and buy stock accordingly. The same goes for catering teams handing cards over at the door on every drop, the way Deluxe Catering works its Philadelphia delivery routes.
How card size affects printing cost and handling
Standard sizes are cheapest because they nest efficiently on a press sheet with almost no waste. A 3.5 x 2 in card fits a typical sheet layout cleanly. A square or die-cut card wastes paper around every edge, and that waste is billed to you.
There’s a second cost that’s easy to miss. Non-standard cards don’t fit standard card holders, standard business card scanners, or the little slot in a wallet. A card that has to be stored somewhere unusual gets stored in a drawer, and a card in a drawer doesn’t get used. Weigh the design win against that.
Price pressure on the print side is real, too. IBISWorld puts the US quick printing market at $4.2 billion in 2026, down 3.9% on the year, which is the segment that handles most short-run business card jobs. Shops competing in a shrinking market tend to price standard formats aggressively and charge properly for anything custom.
For most small businesses printing a first run, standard size on good stock beats an unusual size on cheap stock every time. The paper is what people notice when they hold it. A run of 500 standard cards on decent stock is a small enough expense that it usually goes on whatever card the business already uses, and if you don’t have one yet, a business credit card you can open with an EIN keeps print jobs and other startup costs off your personal statement.
Common business card sizing mistakes
- Designing at 72 DPI. The file looks perfect on screen and prints fuzzy. Nothing recovers this except starting over.
- No bleed. The most common reason a print shop rejects a file.
- Text too close to the trim. Survives the proof, gets clipped on the run.
- Using the wrong regional size for the audience. A 3.5 x 2 in card handed over in Osaka reads as slightly off.
- Forgetting the back. Many shops charge little or nothing for double-sided printing, and a blank back is wasted space.
- RGB artwork. Colors shift, and you only find out after the run.
- Scaling a logo up from a small web file. Use vector art or a 300 DPI original, or the logo will be the softest thing on the card.
Business card size FAQ
What is the standard business card size? 3.5 x 2 inches in the US and Canada, which is 88.9 x 50.8 mm. Europe and the UK use 85 x 55 mm and Japan uses 91 x 55 mm.
What size is a business card in pixels? 1050 x 600 pixels at 300 DPI for the finished card, or 1125 x 675 pixels including a 0.125 in bleed on all sides.
How much bleed does a business card need? 0.125 inches, or about 3 mm, on each of the four sides.
Is a business card the same size as a credit card? Nearly. A credit card is 85.6 x 53.98 mm under ISO 7810 ID-1. The European business card at 85 x 55 mm is close enough to share a wallet slot. The US card at 88.9 x 50.8 mm is a little wider and a little shorter.
Can I print a business card at home? Yes, on pre-perforated sheets sized for a home printer. The output rarely matches commercial stock weight or edge quality, so it works better as a stopgap than a real run.
Does business card size affect the price? Yes. Standard sizes nest efficiently on a press sheet and cost the least. Square, folded, and die-cut cards waste more paper and often carry a setup charge.
Getting the specs right before you print
Size is the part of a business card you can settle in five minutes and then stop thinking about. Set the document to 3.5 x 2 inches, add 0.125 inches of bleed, keep your content 0.125 inches inside the trim, work at 300 DPI in CMYK, and the file will print the way it looks on your screen.
Everything after that is design and paper, which is where the card actually earns its keep.
