Business Card Maker

Design a business card in your browser and export it ready to print

A business card still does a job nothing else does quite as well. You hand someone a small, tangible thing, and your name, your role, and a way to reach you stay in their pocket long after the conversation ends. The hard part has never been the idea; it has been the layout, the sizing, and getting a file a printer will actually accept. The Business Card Maker on speedor.net takes that friction away. You design the card right in your browser, see it the moment you change something, and export a finished PNG or PDF. Nothing is uploaded to a server, so your details and your design stay on your own machine.

What information belongs on a card

The temptation is to cram everything in. Resist it. A card that tries to say everything ends up saying nothing clearly. Start with the essentials and stop early:

• Your name set large enough to read at a glance, since it is the thing people look for first.
• Your title or role so the reader knows in what context to remember you.
• Company name and, if you have one, a logo or simple mark.
• Phone number in the format you actually want people to use.
• Email kept short and professional.
• Website or a single key link.

A physical mailing address is optional these days and often skippable. One genuinely useful addition is a QR code on the back, linking to your site, a contact file, or a portfolio. It turns the card into a bridge to your digital presence without crowding the front. If you want one, our QR code generator produces a clean code you can drop into the design.

Sizes and bleed, explained without the jargon

The standard business card in the US and Canada is 3.5 by 2 inches. That number is not arbitrary: it sits close to credit card proportions, so the card slips neatly into a wallet or a card slot. Most of Europe leans slightly narrower, around 85 by 55 millimetres, but for a first card the 3.5 by 2 inch standard is a safe default.

Then there is bleed, the word that trips most people up. Printers cannot cut perfectly along a hairline, so they print slightly larger than the final card and then trim it down. Bleed is that extra margin you add around the edge, normally 0.125 inches (about 3 mm) on every side, so a full-size design ends up around 3.75 by 2.25 inches before trimming. If your background colour or photo runs to the edge, extend it into the bleed; that way a cut landing a fraction off still reaches the edge with no white sliver showing.

There is also a safe area, the inner zone where you keep all text and anything you cannot afford to lose. Stay at least 0.125 inches in from the trim line, and your contact details will never get clipped. Think of it as three nested rectangles: the bleed on the outside, the trim in the middle, and the safe area inside that holds your words.

Design tips that keep a card looking professional

Good card design is mostly about restraint. A few principles carry most of the weight:

• Keep it clean. Generous white space reads as confidence. A crowded card reads as anxious.
• Stay legible. Use one or two typefaces, avoid type smaller than about 8 points, and keep strong contrast between text and background.
• Be on brand. Match the colours, font, and mark you already use elsewhere so the card feels like part of a whole.
• Use both sides wisely. Put the essentials on the front and save the back for a QR code, a tagline, or a bold block of brand colour.
• Align everything. A consistent grid, with edges that line up, is the quiet difference between amateur and polished.

Print versus digital

The two formats reward slightly different choices. For print, export as PDF, work in CMYK colours if your printer asks for it, aim for 300 DPI so text stays crisp, and include the bleed. For digital use, a PNG attached to an email or shared in a chat is more practical, and you do not need bleed at all because nothing gets trimmed. Many people make both: a print version for handing out in person and a sharp PNG for sending online. The maker lets you export either without redrawing the card.

Why a free, in-browser maker is the convenient choice

The advantage of a tool that runs entirely in your browser is that there is no account, no upload, and no waiting. You type your details, pick a layout, and the preview updates instantly. Because the work happens locally, your name, number, and email are never sent anywhere; you simply download the finished file. That makes it quick for a one-off card and just as easy to revise later when your title or phone number changes. If you are putting together a broader set of materials, our other business documents tools follow the same private, in-browser approach.

Frequently asked questions