Guide
Business card specs Australian printers accept
Most rejected card files fail on one of four things. All four are fixable before you upload anything.
Short answer. The common Australian business card is 90 × 55mm. Credit card size, 85.5 × 54mm, is also widely accepted. Add 3mm bleed on every edge, keep text at least 4mm inside the trim, supply artwork at 300dpi, and send a PDF. Those five settings clear most Australian printers without a conversation.
Size
Australia has two sizes in regular use.
- 90 × 55mm. The size most Australian printers quote by default, and the one Officeworks, Kwik Kopy and the online trade printers list first.
- 85.5 × 54mm. Credit card size, formally ISO 7810 ID-1. It fits a wallet card slot exactly, which is the reason people choose it, and every printer we have dealt with accepts it.
The American 3.5 × 2 inch card, which works out to 88.9 × 50.8mm, 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.
Our card templates are drawn at 85.5 × 54mm. If your printer has quoted 90 × 55mm, tell them the file is credit card size before you send it, because they will otherwise scale it to fit and your margins will shift.
Bleed
Bleed is artwork that runs past the trim line so the guillotine has something to cut through. Australian printers ask for 3mm on each edge. On a 90 × 55mm card that makes the supplied artwork 96 × 61mm.
Two things go wrong here. The first is supplying no bleed at all on a design with a coloured background, which leaves a white hairline down one edge on any card where the cut drifts, and the cut always drifts a little. The second is scaling the whole design up to fill the bleed area rather than extending it. Scaling moves your text closer to the edge and changes every measurement on the card.
The correct approach is to keep the artwork at its true size and extend the background outward into the bleed. Our bleed PDFs are built this way: the trim artwork sits at exactly one hundred percent and the edges are extended into the margin.
Safe area
Keep anything you cannot afford to lose at least 4mm inside the trim line, and 5mm is safer. That includes text, logos, and any border. Borders are the worst offenders on a business card, because a border 2mm from the edge will read as uneven the moment the cut moves half a millimetre, and it moves half a millimetre routinely.
Resolution
Raster artwork should be 300dpi at final print size. On a 90 × 55mm card with bleed that is roughly 1134 × 720 pixels. A photograph pulled from a website at 72dpi will look soft and slightly muddy on paper even though it looked sharp on screen.
Vector artwork has no resolution, which is why logos should be supplied as vector wherever possible. A vector logo is sharp at any size, including on the side of a truck.
Colour
Screens are RGB. Presses are CMYK. Somewhere between your file and the paper, a conversion happens.
Most Australian trade printers now accept RGB files and convert them in their own workflow, which usually produces a better result than an amateur conversion. If your printer asks specifically for CMYK, tell them the file is RGB and let them handle it. Expect a slight shift in the most saturated colours, particularly bright blues and vivid greens, because those sit outside what CMYK ink can reproduce. This is normal and it is not a fault in your file.
Two colour details that catch people out:
- Rich black. Large black areas printed as 100% K alone look washed out and grey. Printers usually want a rich black mix, commonly around C60 M40 Y40 K100. Small black text should stay 100% K only, because a four colour mix on 8pt type shows registration fringing.
- Pantone. Spot colours cost more and are worth it only when you need an exact brand colour repeated across many print runs. For a single card order, CMYK is the sensible choice.
File format
Send a PDF. Not a Word document, not a JPEG, and not a Canva share link. A PDF carries the vector artwork, the fonts and the colour information in one file that the printer's software understands.
Two settings matter. Fonts must be embedded or converted to outlines, otherwise the printer's machine substitutes something and your typography changes without anyone noticing until it is printed. And the PDF should be flattened if it uses transparency effects, because transparency handling differs between systems.
The four things that get a file sent back
- No bleed. The most common rejection by a wide margin.
- Low resolution images. Anything under about 200dpi will draw a query.
- Missing fonts. Usually from sending a native design file rather than a PDF.
- Text too close to the trim. Some printers reject it, others print it and let you discover the problem yourself.
Paper, briefly
Card stock is measured in gsm. Anything under 300gsm feels flimsy in the hand, 350gsm is the common default, and 400gsm and above reads as expensive. Matt laminate resists fingerprints and cannot be written on with a normal pen. Gloss shows fingerprints. Uncoated stock takes a pen well and suits anything trying to look handmade or editorial.
What our card files contain
Every card purchase produces two PDFs at 300dpi. One is trimmed to 85.5 × 54mm for desktop printing. The other carries 3mm bleed on all four edges for a commercial printer, composed by extending the artwork rather than scaling it. Both have fonts embedded. You can hand either to an Australian printer without editing anything.
Common questions
What size is a business card in Australia?
90 × 55mm is the size most Australian printers quote by default. Credit card size, 85.5 × 54mm, is also widely used and accepted everywhere. The American 3.5 × 2 inch card is a noticeably different shape and is worth avoiding here.
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 outward into the bleed rather than scaling the design up, because scaling changes every measurement on the card.
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, which is normal.
What resolution should a business card be?
300dpi at final print size for any raster artwork. Logos should be vector where possible, because vector has no resolution and stays sharp at any size.
Why did my printer reject my business card file?
Usually one of four things: no bleed, images under about 200dpi, fonts that were not embedded because a native design file was sent instead of a PDF, or text sitting closer than 4mm to the trim line.
Templates mentioned here
Written by BrandLaunch. Last reviewed August 2026.