If you are a business person or a graphic designer who is left with designing a business card, then there are a few important things to consider getting it done well. It is not so challenging to make a professional business card with the design tools like Photoshop or utilize online design studios. You may start to build it from scratch by using any standard layout, even with MS Word or PowerPoint. Illustrator is another tool with which you can bring up stunning business card designs.
Business card size
Along with the card’s design, it is also important to consider the most appropriate size for the business card. Usually, the standard business card dimensions are 3.5 x 2 inches in many cases. However, to make it standard, the designs also include a bleed. You need to count the bleed idea as an additional 1/8thinch of the design elements or backgrounds extending beyond the card’s finished area. The business cards with bleed will be printed a bit oversized and can be cut down to the size to give the appearance of a bleed off the edges than the standard white borders.
Standard card dimensions
You may use some tips while creating the design files for your business cards in NZ as below.
- Make document page size equal to that of the card size with an additional bleed area like 3.75″ in width and 2.25″ in height. This should be trimmed down to the finished size. If there is no bleed included, the document size may be set to the finished size as 3.5 x 2 inches.
- On planning for a vertical card design with the long size up, then you easily switch the page height and width so that you need to have to rotate the card. In the metric system, the size of a standard business card is about 8.9 cm x 5.1 cm
Take care of the space close to borders
As the cutting of the business cards may vary slightly, it is ideal for keeping your important text and graphics within the safe zone of the card design itself. This so-called safe zone is within the 1/8-inch space around the border margins. Ensure that the text is left within the basic 3.25 x 1.75-inch space. You also may not want the last digit of your phone number trimmed off with the content. It may also be tricky to design with borders. There can be thin borders left outside, and the safe zone within the 1/8th inch may not evenly be trimmed. To avoid this off-center finish, always keep the borderlines off the edge.
You can also think of more design approaches like two-sided business cards and custom business cards etc. When you want to include more content onto the card, then two-sided cards are the best idea. On exploring it online, you will find many options to make your card more attractive and functional. There are several options for you to choose from to make attractive business cards.
