Business Cards

CALL: 020 8123 6699

Choosing paper weight and finish for business cards

A business card has one job: to survive in someone's wallet, pocket or card holder and still look sharp weeks later. That makes stock choice more important than it is for most other paper print — a card under 300gsm tends to feel flimsy, while 350–400gsm gives a stiffer, more premium handle that holds up to daily use.

The UK standard size is 85 x 55mm, though we can also print to other regional sizes on request. Finish matters as much as weight: a matt or silk lamination resists fingerprints and creasing better than an uncoated card, while gloss lamination makes colours and logos pop but shows fingermarks more readily. Uncoated stock, on the other hand, takes a pen well if you want to write a note on the back.

Sizing, sides and quantity

Single-sided is the standard choice for most businesses, but double-sided is worth considering if you want a second language, a QR code, social handles or terms on the reverse rather than crowding the front. For quantity, smaller runs (50–100) suit a new business testing a design or a single networking event, while larger runs bring the per-card cost down significantly if you know the design is final.

Design tips for business cards that print well

Design-wise, keep anything important, text, logos, contact details, away from the very edge of the card. A small margin protects against slight shifts in trimming, and cramming detail right to the edge is the most common reason a design looks off once it's cut. High-contrast text over a busy background photo is another common mistake, since it's often unreadable at business card size even when it looks fine on screen.

A business card is frequently the only physical thing a new contact keeps after meeting you, so it's worth treating the reorder as seriously as the first order. If your role, phone number or address changes, update your file straight away rather than handing out cards with an old number crossed out and rewritten.

Colour consistency is worth checking too: if your brand has a specific colour, particularly a Pantone or exact match used elsewhere in your marketing, tell us before printing so we can advise on how closely standard CMYK printing can match it, rather than being surprised by a slight shift once the cards are printed.