Business card maker or builder: which one you want
The maker is a form that gives you a card in minutes. The builder is the full tool. Here is which to open, and how to move between them.
Read it →Here is how to make a business card in about ten minutes: type your name, title, company, phone and email once, pick a design, and leave with a print file for any printer and a card on the web that opens on a phone. Neither costs anything.
Have these five things ready first
Most of the ten minutes goes on hunting for details, so gather them before you start.
- Your name as you want it read, and the title you actually use.
- One phone number people should ring, and whether that number is on WhatsApp.
- One email address you read.
- Your company name, and a logo file if you have one.
- A photograph of you, if the card is a personal one.
That is enough for a card. Everything else, including addresses, opening hours and social profiles, can be added later without redoing the design.
Type the details once
Open the free card maker and fill in the form. The maker asks for the same handful of fields the list above names, and it shows the card changing as you type, so there is no guessing about how a long company name will sit.
The order matters less than the honesty. A title nobody at your company uses will confuse the person holding the card; the phone number you never answer will cost you the work. Put down what is true.
Pick a design, then a colour
There are fifteen designs, grouped as Photo, Plain, Dark, Bold and Business. A design decides the cover, where your picture sits, how the words line up, how large the name is, the shape of the buttons, and whether the card is dark. Colour sets and lettering pairs recolour a design; they never turn it into a different one, which is why you can try six colours in under a minute without losing the layout you liked.
If your company has a brand colour, use it. Type the exact colour and the card works out the readable version for you: it walks the colour darker until white words sitting on it are comfortably readable. A pale brand colour therefore never leaves you with a button nobody can read. Not sure which design fits your work? The pages by trade show a real card filled in for each one, from lawyers to florists.
Take the print file
The paper half is laid out on a real card face, front and back, at a real size. The designer draws four sizes: 85 by 55 mm for most of the world, 3.5 by 2 inches for the United States and Canada, 90 by 54 mm for India, and 91 by 55 mm for Japan. Your country picks the one that is normal where you are and you can change it.
You can download four things:
- A print PDF. Send this to a printer. It is the card at its true size with bleed and crop marks.
- A PNG. Useful in a chat or on a screen.
- An SVG. For a designer who wants to open the shapes.
- A print at home sheet. Ten copies on one page with cutting guides.
All four are clean files you may take to any press, with no obligation to order printing from us. If you want to move a piece by hand, the canvas lets you drag, resize and rotate it, and it snaps to the trim and the safe area so nothing drifts too close to the edge.
Take the digital card too
The same details make a card on the web at your own address, something like yourname.visitingcards.store. It opens in a browser with nothing to install, carries your buttons for calling, WhatsApp, email and directions, lets somebody save you as a proper contact file, and has a short form so a person can leave their details with you instead of the other way round.
That card is what a QR code on the paper card should point at. Print the code once and keep editing the card behind it. There is more on that in our guide to business cards and in the help centre.
The ten minutes after the ten minutes
A card works harder once people keep it. Anyone who scans your code can save the card to their phone, and from then on you can send them card notifications, such as a short hello after a meeting. They can also add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet as a pass, which updates itself when you change a detail and can carry notifications too. Pro is $0.99 a month and includes a monthly allowance of notification credits; the wallet pass is an add-on on top of it.
What people get wrong
Too many phone numbers. Three numbers means the person picks none. Choose one.
Type too small to read. A card is held at arm's length by somebody who may be over fifty. Nine point type is a decision to be unread.
Words in the trim. Anything within 3 mm of the edge risks being cut off. The safe area is drawn for you on the canvas; keep the text inside it.
No reason to keep it. A card with a name on it is thrown away. A card with a reason to scan it, an offer, a menu, a booking page, survives the walk to the car. You have the list now, so make your free card and avoid all four.
Questions people ask
Do I need an account to make a card?
No. The maker runs without one. An account is needed only when you want the card on the web at your own address, so that the address belongs to somebody.
Can I print the file anywhere?
Yes. The PDF has the letter shapes in it rather than a font name, so the printer does not need to own the lettering. Any local print shop can take it.
What size should I choose?
The one that is normal where the card will be handed out. A card that is a few millimetres off the local size feels wrong in a wallet even when nobody can say why.
Is the digital card really free?
Yes. One card at your own address stays free for good; the only thing it carries that you did not choose is a short credit at the foot.