Custom Business Cards
Nobody reads a business card carefully. They take it, feel it, and form an opinion in about a second — and that opinion is almost entirely about thickness and surface, not about the design on it.
- Stocks
- 300–600gsm; coated, uncoated, kraft, textured, duplexed with a colored core
- Finishes
- Foil, emboss, deboss, spot UV, soft touch, edge painting
- Cutting
- Square or rounded corners; die-cut shapes available
Get a price for Business Cards
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Weight, and where the noticeable steps are
The jumps people actually notice are 300 to 400 and 400 to 540. Between those, extra weight costs money without changing the impression, which is worth knowing before specifying something exotic.
| 300gsm | The cheap default; bends in a wallet and reads as an afterthought |
|---|---|
| 400gsm | The first weight that feels deliberate |
| 540gsm | Two sheets bonded; substantial, and takes a colored core |
| 600gsm+ | Heavy card territory; sits closer to a small board than a card |
A duplexed card — two sheets bonded with a colored layer between them — shows a stripe of color on the edge. It is the cheapest way to make a card memorable.
Uncoated is the one that feels expensive
Gloss lamination reads as high street. Matte lamination is safe and slightly anonymous. Uncoated card — no lamination at all — is the finish people describe as the nicest, because it has texture and it can be written on.
The cost is color. Uncoated stock absorbs ink, so everything prints lighter and softer, and a photographic image loses contrast. Design flat, use a spot color where something must be vivid, and uncoated wins.
Finishes that survive a pocket
- Foil. Metallic, unmissable, and the most reliable premium signal on a card.
- Emboss or deboss. Tactile; deboss on heavy uncoated is the current designer default.
- Edge painting. A line of color around the perimeter; only possible on thick stock.
- Spot UV. Gloss shapes on a matte field; looks best on dark colors.
- Soft touch. Excellent in the hand, and it marks with grease from fingers.
Setting up the file so the trim does not ruin it
A card is trimmed from a larger sheet, and the blade has a tolerance. Anything important within about 4 mm of the edge risks being cut close, and a thin border around a card is the single hardest thing to print well — a fraction of a millimeter of drift makes it visibly uneven.
Bleed the background 3 mm past the trim, keep type away from the edge, and avoid thin frames entirely. Our guide to preparing print files covers the rest of the setup.
Rounded corners and other small decisions
A rounded corner survives a wallet better than a square one and changes the character of the card completely. It is a separate cutting operation, so it costs a little, and it is worth seeing on a sample before committing.
Square-cut heavy card, by contrast, shows its thickness at the corner, which is exactly the point of buying heavy card. There is no right answer; there is only a decision that should be made deliberately.
Printing them with everything else
A business card that arrives in a customer order should match the box and the insert card it arrives with. Printed separately on different stocks, it will not — the same color lands differently on every surface.
Running them together on one job, matched by eye against one reference, is the only reliable way to get there, and the reasoning behind it is set out across our commercial print range.
Business Cards — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Stocks
- 300–600gsm; coated, uncoated, kraft, textured, duplexed with a colored core
- Finishes
- Foil, emboss, deboss, spot UV, soft touch, edge painting
- Cutting
- Square or rounded corners; die-cut shapes available
- Digital as standard; litho and spot colors above a few thousand
- Setup
- 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe margin, CMYK or named spot colors
- Minimum
- 100 cards
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. Both sides as standard on cards, tags and leaflets.
- Color
- CMYK with spot colors for a brand match. Uncoated and cotton stocks print noticeably lighter than coated ones.
- Tolerance
- Trim plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut. Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding.
- Tooling
- A die only where the piece is shaped, perforated or drilled, made once and kept. A plain rectangle needs none.
- Food contact
- Food-safe inks on menus and counter print that will be handled where food is served.
- Sustainability
- Uncoated and unlaminated stocks recycle without separation, and FSC papers are available across the range.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build business cards on
Sheet print is judged in the hand more than a box is: the weight, the surface and whether a pen works on it. These are the stocks we run for cards, folders, leaflets and stationery.
Coated card 300–400gsm
The workhorse. Sharp full-color print, matte or gloss, laminated where it is handled. Does not take a pen unless the finish is matte.
300–400gsmUncoated card
No clay coat. Colors read softer and warmer, a deboss goes deeper, and it writes on with anything. Photographs lose punch.
300–400gsmCotton and textured card
Soft, thick and fibrous. Takes a deep blind deboss and reads as an invitation. Foil sits beautifully; four-color does not.
400–700gsmDuplexed card
Two sheets bonded, often with a colored core, for a very thick card with a visible colored edge. The heaviest thing we print.
600–900gsmText paper 100–170gsm
Leaflets, folder inners and booklet pages. Folds without cracking and takes a full-color print on both faces.
100–170gsmManila and kraft paper
Unbleached, tan, and cheap. One or two colors read well; white ink gives a light mark. Envelopes, folders and tags.
90–300gsmSynthetic stock
Polypropylene sheet for tags and cards that get wet, torn or handled outdoors. Prints like paper and does not soften.
200–400 micronBoard-backed
A printed face laminated to grayboard, for a rigid card, a folder back or a display that has to stand up on its own.
1–2 mm boardNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Sheet print takes the widest range of finishes of anything we make.
Matte lamination
Soft, fingerprint-resistant, and it still takes a pen. The default on anything handled.
Gloss lamination
Maximum color depth. Shows every fingerprint and refuses a ballpoint.
Hot foil
Gold, rose gold, silver, holographic or a color. The block is small so the die is cheap.
Emboss and deboss
Deepest on uncoated and cotton stocks; shallow and prone to cracking on gloss coated.
Spot UV
A gloss shape on a matte laminate. Best on a dark ground where the contrast reads.
Edge paint and colored core
Color on the cut edge of a thick or duplexed card. Only seen when the card is picked up, which is the point.
Soft-touch
A velvet laminate on a cover or a folder. Marks on white; excellent on dark.
Uncoated and textured
No film at all. Writes on, debosses deeply, and reads as considered rather than cheap.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing printed sheets, folds and the grain: business cards
A printed piece is specified flat and finished folded, and the difference between the two is where mistakes live. Send the finished size you want and we work back to the flat.
- Finished size
- The size after folding and trimming. A6, A5, A4, DL, US letter and legal are standard; anything else is cut on its own die.
- Bleed and safe area
- 3 mm of artwork past every trim edge, and nothing important within 4 mm inside it. The guillotine drifts by a fraction on every stack.
- Grain direction
- Paper folds cleanly along the grain and cracks across it. We set the grain to the fold, which is why a sheet is not simply cut from the biggest sheet available.
- Fold allowance
- On a roll fold or a gate fold, the inner panels are cut a millimeter or two shorter so the piece closes flat.
- Creasing
- Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding. Without it the fold cracks and the coating flakes along the line.
- Trim tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Spec your Business Cards
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a stock and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about business cards? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What is the minimum order?
100 cards, on any stock we offer.
What weight should I choose?
400gsm is the first weight that feels considered. 540gsm and up is where people comment on it unprompted.
Can I have a thin border around the edge?
You can, and it will look uneven. Trim tolerance makes narrow borders the hardest thing on a card to print well.
Is uncoated worth the color loss?
For most brands, yes. Design flat rather than photographic and uncoated is the nicest card in the hand.
Can you match my cards to my packaging?
Closely, by running them together and matching by eye. Exactly, only with a spot color — different stocks take ink differently.
Do you do rounded corners?
Yes, as a separate cutting operation. It survives a wallet better and changes the character of the card completely.
What weight should I choose?
400gsm is the first weight that feels considered. 540gsm and up is where people comment on it unprompted.
Can I have a thin border around the edge?
You can, and it will look uneven. Trim tolerance makes narrow borders the hardest thing on a card to print well.
Is uncoated worth the color loss?
For most brands, yes. Design flat rather than photographic and uncoated is the nicest card in the hand.
Can you match my cards to my packaging?
Closely, by running them together and matching by eye. Exactly, only with a spot color — different stocks take ink differently.
Same range
