Design guide
Visiting card design: a practical guide for Indian businesses
A good visiting card design earns a second look and a saved contact. This guide covers the choices that matter — typography, layout, color, finish and print prep — with the specs we use every day at SA Creative.
1. Start with hierarchy, not decoration
Before picking a font or a color, decide what the person receiving the card needs to see first: your name, the company, the phone number, or the role. On a 88×55 mm surface you have room for exactly one hero element. Make it obvious and let everything else support it.
2. Typography: two families, three sizes
Pair one display or serif face for the name/brand with a clean sans-serif for the contact block. Keep body text at 7–9 pt and the name at 11–14 pt. Anything below 6 pt disappears on press. Avoid free display fonts that look great on screen but break at small sizes — Inter, Manrope, DM Sans, Söhne, Cormorant Garamond and Playfair are safe pairings.
3. Layout: use a grid, protect the edges
- Set 3–4 mm inner margins so no text sits inside the trim zone.
- Add 3 mm bleed on every side for full-color backgrounds.
- Align contact details on a single axis — left or centered, not both.
- Give the logo its own quiet space; don't crowd it with icons.
4. Color: two ink colors read better than five
Restrict yourself to a background + a primary + one accent. High-contrast pairings (deep navy on ivory, charcoal on soft peach, matte black on gold) photograph well and photocopy cleanly. If your brand palette is gradient-heavy, keep gradients on the back and reserve the front for solid, legible ink.
5. Finish is part of the design
The paper stock and finish carry more of the "premium" feeling than any font choice. On a 350–400 gsm matte card, spot UV on the logo or a gold foil monogram lifts perceived value dramatically. Rounded corners feel modern; square edges feel classical. Pick one and commit.
6. Print-ready checklist
- Size: 88×55 mm or 90×50 mm with 3 mm bleed.
- Resolution: 300 DPI, CMYK color mode.
- Text converted to outlines or fonts embedded.
- Rich black for large areas: C60 M40 Y40 K100.
- Export as PDF/X-1a with crop marks.
7. From design to print
Once your design is locked, SA Creative prints premium visiting cards on 350–400 gsm stocks with matte, gloss, spot UV and foil options. Upload a print-ready PDF and we handle the rest — plate, press and cut — with delivery across India.
Order premium visiting cards →
Related reading: Visiting card sizes & dimensions.