Business card size in Australia, with bleed and print specs

In Australia. Australian printers quote 90 × 55mm. Templates made for the US are sized in inches and are a visibly different shape.

Business card specifications for Australian printers

Australian standard	90 × 55mm
Credit card size	85.5 × 54mm
Bleed	3mm on every edge: 96 × 61mm and 91.5 × 60mm
Safe margin	4mm inside the trim: 82 × 47mm and 77.5 × 46mm
Resolution	300dpi: 1134 × 720px for the standard card with bleed
File	PDF
Colour	RGB accepted by most Australian trade printers, who convert to CMYK

The size, the bleed, the safe area and the resolution, with the figures for both card sizes Australian printers use.

What size is a business card in Australia?

90 × 55mm is the size most Australian printers quote, and 85.5 × 54mm is credit card size.

• 90 × 55mm. The size most Australian printers quote when you ask for business cards.
• 85.5 × 54mm. Credit card size, formally ISO 7810 ID-1. It fits a wallet card slot exactly, which is the usual reason to choose it.

The two are different shapes. A design moved from one to the other has to be recomposed, or it is distorted, or it leaves slivers at the edges.

The American business card, sized in inches, turns up in templates downloaded from overseas. It prints here, but it is a visibly different shape and it will not sit flush in a stack of Australian cards.

What are the full business card specifications?

Both sizes take 3mm of bleed and a 4mm safe margin, and the table gives every dimension at 300dpi.

The pixel sizes are what a design needs at 300dpi, the resolution Australian printers ask for. You only need them if you are setting up a raster file. A PDF from a design program carries its own size.

How much bleed does a business card need?

Australian printers ask for 3mm on each edge. Bleed is artwork that runs past the trim line, so the guillotine has something to cut through.

Two things go wrong. The first is supplying no bleed on a design with a coloured background. The cut always drifts a little, and where it drifts a white hairline shows down one edge. The second is scaling the whole design up to fill the bleed area rather than extending it. Scaling moves the text closer to the edge and changes every measurement on the card.

The right way is to keep the artwork at its true size and extend the background outward into the bleed. Our bleed PDFs are built that way: the trim artwork sits at exactly its own size and the edges are extended into the margin. The bleed calculator works out the document size for any trim.

What is the safe area on a business card?

Keep anything you cannot afford to lose at least 4mm inside the trim line. That covers text, logos and any border. Borders are the worst offenders on a business card, because a border close to the edge reads as uneven the moment the cut moves, and the cut moves routinely.

What resolution should a business card be?

Raster artwork should be 300dpi at the size it will print. A photograph taken from a website looks soft and slightly muddy on paper even when it looked sharp on screen.

Vector artwork has no resolution, which is why a logo should be supplied as vector wherever you can. It stays sharp at any size.

Should a business card file be RGB or CMYK?

Most Australian trade printers accept RGB files and convert them in their own workflow, which usually gives a better result than a conversion done by hand. Screens work in RGB and printing presses in CMYK, so a conversion happens somewhere between your file and the paper. If your printer asks for CMYK, tell them the file is RGB and let them convert it. Expect a small shift in the most saturated colours, especially bright blues and vivid greens, which CMYK ink cannot fully reproduce.

Large areas of black print better as rich black, a mix of all four inks that your printer will set. Small black text should stay black ink only, because a four-colour mix on small type shows colour fringes where the plates do not line up exactly.

What file format should a business card be?

Send a PDF. It carries the artwork, the size and the colour in one file the printer's software understands, which a Word document, a JPEG or a link to a design app does not. If the PDF contains live text, the fonts must be embedded or converted to outlines, or the printer's machine substitutes a different face and nobody notices until the cards are printed.

Why do printers reject business card files?

Four reasons account for most rejections: no bleed, low resolution images, missing fonts, and text too close to the trim.

1. No bleed. The most common rejection by a wide margin.
2. Low resolution images. Anything well under 300dpi at print size draws a query.
3. Missing fonts. Usually from sending a design file instead of a PDF.
4. Text too close to the trim. Inside the 4mm safe margin. Some printers reject it; others print it and let you find the problem.

What files come with a BrandLaunch business card?

Every card purchase produces both sizes, front and back, and each comes as two PDFs: one trimmed exactly to size for proofing or desktop printing, and one with 3mm of bleed on every edge for a commercial printer. The bleed is made by extending the artwork, never by scaling it.

The artwork in each PDF is drawn at 312dpi, above the 300dpi printers ask for. It is placed as a finished image, so there is no live type in the file for a printer's software to substitute. Our business card templates are $19 each, and you edit the design in the browser before you pay.

Common questions

What size is a business card in Australia?

90 × 55mm is the size most Australian printers quote. Credit card size, 85.5 × 54mm, is also widely used. The two are different shapes, so a design has to be set for the one you are printing.

How much bleed does an Australian printer need?

3mm on every edge. On a 90 × 55mm card the artwork you supply should measure 96 × 61mm. Extend the background into the bleed rather than scaling the design up.

What is the safe area on a business card?

Keep text and logos at least 4mm inside the trim. On a 90 × 55mm card that leaves a safe area of 82 × 47mm.

What resolution should a business card be?

300dpi at final print size for raster artwork. On a 90 × 55mm card with bleed that is 1134 × 720px. Logos should be vector where possible, because vector stays sharp at any size.

Should my business card file be CMYK or RGB?

Most Australian trade printers accept RGB and convert it themselves, which usually beats a manual conversion. If your printer asks for CMYK, tell them the file is RGB and let them convert. Expect a small shift in the most saturated blues and greens.