Business Card Sizes in Millimetres: Standard, Square and Slim

Three different cards are called standard in Dubai. Exact millimetres for standard, slim, square and mini formats, what each costs and where each one fails.

Ask ten Dubai printers for business card sizes and you will get three answers for the standard format alone. That is because the UAE inherited the 85 x 55 mm European card, the 90 x 55 mm card common in Asia, and the 89 x 51 mm American card all at once. Add square and slim formats and the choice stops being obvious. We print every one of these in Ajman, and this guide lays out the exact millimetres, what each format costs relative to the others, where each one fits or fails, and how to set up the artwork so the trim lands where you expect.

Business card sizes in millimetres

Format	Finished size	Fits a standard wallet slot	Relative cost per 500	Typical buyer
Standard (Europe and UAE)	85 x 55 mm	Yes	Baseline	Most companies, banks, clinics
Standard (US)	89 x 51 mm	Yes	Same	Firms with US head offices
Standard (Asia)	90 x 55 mm	Tight	Same	Trading companies, Japanese clients
Slim	85 x 35 mm or 90 x 40 mm	Yes, with room to spare	About 10 percent less	Architects, consultants, salons
Square	55 x 55 mm or 65 x 65 mm	Only the 55 mm	About 10 to 20 percent more	Creative studios, cafes, tech startups
Mini	70 x 28 mm	Yes	About 20 percent less	Loyalty cards, tags, appointment cards

Cost differences between business card sizes are small on paper cards because the sheet is the main cost and all of these impose on the same sheet. The square premium comes from extra trimming and, for rounded corners, an extra die pass. On thick duplex and triplex cards the differences grow, since more board is wasted around a square.

The standard business card and why it still wins

The 85 x 55 mm standard business card fits every card holder, wallet slot and desktop scanner on the market. Receptionists file it without thinking. Business card sizes that stray from it ask the recipient to make a small accommodation, and some will not. For banks, law firms, clinics and anyone whose clients skew older, standard is the right answer and the budget goes into finish instead. A standard card with spot UV looks far more expensive than an odd shape on plain stock. The same is true of a foil stamped logo on a heavy board.

Slim business cards: when a narrow format earns its place

Slim business cards at 85 x 35 mm keep the standard width, so they still slide into a wallet, but lose a third of the height. Of all the business card sizes we print, this one reads as the most restrained. Architects, interior designers, boutique consultancies and salons choose it because the format forces minimal content: a name, one title, one phone number, one address line.

That constraint is also the limit. If you need two phone numbers, an email, a website, a QR code and a bilingual address, a slim card becomes crowded and the type shrinks below 7 point, which is unreadable for many people. We suggest slim business cards only when the content fits in five lines or fewer per side. They look sharpest on a thick uncoated stock with coloured edges, because the long thin edge becomes a visible design element.

Square business cards: bold, but check the wallet

Square business cards at 55 x 55 mm fit a standard slot because 55 mm is the standard height. At 65 x 65 mm they do not. Square is the one of the business card sizes where the wallet test decides everything: a 65 mm square is memorable in the hand and photographs beautifully for social posts, but it lives in a drawer rather than a wallet.

Square business cards suit brands whose logo is itself square or circular, cafes and bakeries that want a card to double as a loyalty stamp card, and tech startups pitching at events where a different shape gets a second look across a table. Rounded corners at 3 mm or 5 mm radius soften the format and stop corners dog earing. Our die cut cards page shows square, circle and custom outlines side by side.

Choosing between business card sizes by how the card is used

• Handed out in volume at exhibitions: the standard business card. People collect dozens and anything odd gets lost or binned.
• Given one at a time in meetings: slim or square work, because the recipient has a moment to notice the format.
• Left on counters or in holders: standard or 55 mm square, since most acrylic holders are built for 85 x 55 mm.
• Attached to products or gifts: mini or square, often with a hole for a ribbon, and many clients order these as printed tags rather than cards.
• Tapped rather than handed over: an NFC business card stays at standard size because the antenna needs the area.

Thickness and material change the feel of every size

Business card sizes describe width and height, but thickness is what people notice first. Standard board is 350 gsm, which is roughly 0.4 mm. Duplex construction doubles that to around 0.8 mm and triplex reaches 1.2 mm, which is where a slim card stops feeling flimsy and a square card feels like a token. Plastic PVC cards at 0.76 mm match a bank card and suit membership and access use, but they only come in the standard size without tooling.

Textured and cotton stocks suit letterpress printing, and the technique works on any of the business card sizes above. The same goes for embossed cards, where a raised logo needs only a few millimetres of clearance from the trim. Foil on the edge, as on our edge foiled cards, shows best on thicker duplex boards where the edge is wide enough to catch the light.

Artwork setup for all business card sizes

Set the document to the finished size and add 3 mm bleed on all four edges. Keep text and logos 4 mm inside the trim line, and 6 mm on slim cards where a small shift is more visible. For bilingual cards, Arabic on one side and English on the other, mirror the layout so the logo sits in the same corner when the card is flipped along its long edge. Export as PDF at 300 dpi in CMYK with fonts outlined. For square business cards with rounded corners, do not draw the corners in the artwork, just tell us the radius.

Minimum runs, pricing and turnaround

Minimum order is 100 cards for digital printing on any of the business card sizes listed. As a guide, 500 standard cards on 350 gsm with matt lamination cost in the region of AED 120 to 180, slim cards slightly less, and 65 mm square cards with rounded corners AED 160 to 240. Specialty finishes add to that. Standard sizes ship in one to two working days across the UAE, and die cut shapes take three to four. Send your artwork by WhatsApp for a proof. The full range of formats and finishes sits on our business card printing page. Our business card design guide covers layout in more depth.

Related resources: See our business cards and marketing materials pages for specifications, quantity pricing and design options across the UAE.