You need cards by Saturday's market, or you only want twenty, not a box of five hundred. Printing at home is quick and lets you fix a typo on the next sheet. This guide covers the paper, the test page, two-sided cards and cutting, then how to print with Card Cat, our business card app for iPhone.
Pick your paper
You have two choices:
- Perforated card sheets. Sheets of business cards that snap apart along pre-cut lines, usually 10 to a page. No cutting, but every card has to land inside its own little rectangle, so the layout has to match the sheet.
- Plain card stock or thick paper. Cheaper and easy to find. You cut the cards out yourself, so the edges are as neat as your cutting.
Check what your printer can take before you buy: its manual or settings list the thickest paper it feeds. Thin office paper works for a test, but it makes a flimsy card.
Get the size right
Business cards are 3.5 × 2 in in the US and Canada and 85 × 55 mm in Europe and most of the world. Pick the size before you design, since a card stretched to fit later looks squashed.
Print on card sheets
- Make your card in Card Cat, then tap Print & download. The button comes on once you've typed your details.
- Leave Use on Print.
- Under Paper, pick Avery 8371 (Letter) for 3.5 × 2 in sheets, or Avery C32011 (A4) for 85 × 54 mm sheets. Both put 10 cards on a page and fit similar 10-up sheets from other brands.
- Print a test page on plain paper first. Hold it against a card sheet, up to the light, and check that each card sits inside its rectangle.
- Tap Print now, or Save or share PDF to print later from another device.
Card sheets have no cut lines printed on them, because the perforations do that job.
Avery is a trademark of its owner. Card Cat isn't made by or affiliated with Avery; the sheet names only say which sizes the layouts fit.
Print on plain paper or card stock
Under Paper, pick Plain paper (Letter) or Plain paper (A4). The note under it tells you how many cards fit on the page. The cards keep their real size and sit edge to edge, with light dashed lines around each one, so a single cut separates two cards.
Two-sided cards
If your card has a back (a logo, a tagline, a colour or a QR code), the PDF has two pages: the fronts, then the backs. The cards on the back page are placed in mirrored order, left to right, so that when the sheet turns over on its long edge, each back is laid out to land behind its own front.
- With a two-sided printer, Card Cat asks for long-edge flipping when it sends the job. If you print the PDF from somewhere else, pick Double-sided, flip on long edge.
- Without one, print page 1, put the sheet back in turned over, then print page 2.
Printers feed paper back in differently, so try your first two-sided run on plain paper. Mark the top of the sheet with a pencil before it goes back in, and you'll see which way yours needs it.
Want a single-sided card? Keep any QR code on the front, then under Back side, pick Single-sided, and the PDF has one page.
Cut them out cleanly
For plain paper, a paper trimmer or a craft knife and a metal ruler on a cutting mat usually gives straighter edges than scissors. Cut the long lines first, then the short ones. Since the cards share edges, one cut on each line is all it takes.
Keep your name and details away from the edges when you design, so a cut that's a little off doesn't clip them.
When a print shop is the better choice
For a big order, colour that runs right to the edge, or heavy card your printer won't feed, send it to a print shop. In Card Cat, switch Use to Print shop and tap Share print-ready PDF. It has ⅛ in bleed for the US size or 3 mm for the European one, crop marks, and the front and back as two pages for a two-sided card. Our guide on how to make a business card on iPhone covers bleed and the rest of the design.
What it costs
The six designs, both sides, colours, your logo, QR codes, printing at home on card sheets or plain paper, the print-shop PDF, the image and My Cards are free, with no watermark: nothing is printed on your card except you. There are no ads, no sign-up and no account. Card Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase that adds six Studio designs, five more typefaces for your name with a smaller or larger name, and taking the white background off your logo, on your device. More on the Card Cat page.
Your details and logo are kept on your device and in your own backups unless you share, save or print them.
Quick answers
Can I print business cards on regular paper?
Yes. Pick Plain paper (Letter) or Plain paper (A4) and cut along the lines. Card stock or thick paper makes a sturdier card than office paper.
How many business cards fit on a page?
Card Cat's two card-sheet layouts put 10 on a page. On plain paper, Card Cat shows the count under Paper.
How do I print double-sided business cards at home?
Print the two-page PDF with Double-sided, flip on long edge. No two-sided printer? Print page 1, turn the sheet over, put it back in and print page 2. Test on plain paper first.
Can I add a QR code before printing?
Yes. Our guide on how to add a QR code to a business card shows how, and Card Cat test-scans it at the card's size.
Try Card Cat
Try Card Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/card-cat