How Much Bleed Do Business Cards Need?
If you’re preparing artwork for professional printing, you may be wondering how much bleed do business cards need? For a standard UK business card, we recommend adding 3mm bleed on every edge.
A standard UK business card finishes at 85mm × 55mm. Once 3mm bleed has been added to all four sides, your artwork should measure 91mm × 61mm.
Bleed is an important part of preparing artwork for commercial printing, particularly when your background, photograph or design runs all the way to the edge of the finished card.
What Is Bleed on a Business Card?
Bleed is the extra artwork that extends beyond the finished edge of your business card. This additional area is printed and then trimmed away during production.
For example, if your business card has a solid background that you want to continue right to the edge, that background shouldn’t stop at 85mm × 55mm. Instead, it should extend another 3mm beyond each trim edge.
The bleed itself won’t normally appear on the finished business card. Its purpose is to provide additional artwork around the trim area.
How Much Bleed Do Business Cards Need in the UK?
For our business card printing, we recommend 3mm bleed on each side.
For a standard UK business card, that gives you:
- Finished size: 85mm × 55mm
- Bleed: 3mm on every edge
- Artwork size including bleed: 91mm × 61mm
If you’re unsure about the finished dimensions themselves, our guide to the standard business card size in the UK explains the 85mm × 55mm format in more detail.
Why Do Business Cards Need Bleed?
Business cards are normally printed on larger sheets before being trimmed down to their finished size. As with any commercial cutting process, there can be a small amount of movement during production.
If artwork stops exactly at the trim line, even a very small variation during cutting could result in a thin white edge appearing on the finished card.
Extending backgrounds and images into the bleed area gives the trimming process some tolerance and helps achieve a clean edge-to-edge result.
What Should Extend Into the Bleed Area?
Anything intended to reach the edge of your finished business card should continue through the trim line and into the full 3mm bleed area.
This commonly includes:
- Background colours
- Background photographs
- Patterns and textures
- Large graphic elements that run off the edge
Important information such as your logo, name, telephone number, website and email address should do the opposite. These elements should remain comfortably inside the finished trim area.
What Is the Safe Area on a Business Card?
Bleed sits outside the finished edge, while the safe area sits inside it.
For business cards, we recommend keeping important text, logos and other essential information approximately 5mm inside the finished edge where possible.
This doesn’t mean your entire design has to stay within this area. Backgrounds and decorative elements can extend to the edge and into the bleed. The safe area is primarily there to keep important information comfortably away from the trim.
Typography also needs to remain readable at the finished size. Our guide to what size font you should use on a business card gives practical guidance on names, contact details and smaller text.
Should Business Card Artwork Include Crop Marks?
Crop marks indicate where the finished artwork should be trimmed. If your design software allows you to export a print-ready PDF with bleed and crop marks, this can make the intended finished size clear.
However, crop marks shouldn’t sit inside the artwork itself or overlap the finished design.
The most important thing is that the PDF is supplied at the correct dimensions with the required 3mm bleed clearly included.
What Happens If My Business Card Doesn’t Have Bleed?
It depends on the design.
If your business card has a white background and all of the artwork sits comfortably away from the edges, missing bleed may not cause a visible problem.
If a photograph, background colour or graphic is supposed to run to the edge, however, missing bleed can create problems during trimming.
Rather than simply enlarging artwork automatically, it’s better to prepare the original design correctly wherever possible. Enlarging a finished design can move text and logos closer to the trim and may alter the intended layout.
How Do I Add 3mm Bleed to My Business Card?
Most professional design applications allow you to specify bleed when creating or exporting a document. Set your finished page size to 85mm × 55mm and add 3mm bleed to the top, bottom, left and right.
Your backgrounds should then extend to the outer bleed boundary, while important information remains safely within the finished card.
If you’re still planning the layout itself, our guide on what you should put on a business card explains which details are worth including and how to avoid overcrowding the design.
Should Business Card Artwork Be CMYK or RGB?
Bleed is only one part of preparing your file correctly. Business card artwork intended for commercial printing should generally be prepared in CMYK rather than relying on RGB screen colours.
RGB and CMYK work differently, and a colour displayed on a phone or computer screen shouldn’t be assumed to reproduce in exactly the same way when printed.
Our guide on whether business cards should be CMYK or RGB explains the difference in more detail.
Business Card Printing in London
Once your artwork is correctly prepared, Printpal London offers professional business card printing in London with a choice of stocks, quantities and turnaround options.
We print the standard UK 85mm × 55mm format and recommend supplying print-ready artwork with 3mm bleed. Our team also carries out pre-production checks before an order proceeds to print.
Business Card Bleed Checklist
- Finished business card: 85mm × 55mm
- Bleed required: 3mm on all four edges
- Artwork including bleed: 91mm × 61mm
- Safe area: Keep important information around 5mm inside the finished edge
- Edge-to-edge backgrounds: Extend them fully into the bleed
- Colour setup: CMYK for commercial printing
- Preferred artwork: Print-ready PDF
Final Thoughts
So, how much bleed do business cards need? For standard UK business cards, we recommend 3mm on every edge. An 85mm × 55mm finished card should therefore be supplied at 91mm × 61mm when the bleed is included.
Setting this up correctly from the beginning helps your artwork move through production smoothly and reduces the risk of unwanted white edges after trimming.
If your artwork is ready, you can view our business card printing in London options for available stocks, quantities and turnaround times.