Business card templates take the guesswork out of designing for a small printed format. They are sized to match standard card stock sheets, so your design lines up correctly with the cut lines on the printer, and they include placeholder fields for the information that always appears: name, role, contact details, and sometimes a logo. Most business card templates fit ten cards on an A4 or US Letter sheet — the standard 10-up layout — but variations exist for fold-over cards, double-sided printing and slim-format cards.
Standard sizes
Business cards do not have one universal size. The dimensions vary slightly by region.
- US and Canada: 3.5 x 2 inches (88.9 x 50.8 mm)
- Europe (most countries): 85 x 55 mm
- United Kingdom: 85 x 55 mm
- Japan: 91 x 55 mm
- Australia: 90 x 55 mm
The ISO 7810 ID-1 size — the same as a credit card — is also used in some markets at 85.6 x 53.98 mm. When choosing a template, match the size to your printing destination rather than your own preference: a UK printer expects 85x55mm, a US printer expects 3.5x2”.
Add 3mm of bleed (the area beyond the cut line) and keep important content 3mm inside the cut line as a safe zone. This prevents key elements from being trimmed off if the cut drifts slightly during finishing.
Software options
Three pieces of software handle business card templates well.
Microsoft Word has a built-in template chooser under File > New > “business cards”. It includes a range of pre-installed Avery layouts, and any downloaded .docx template opens directly. Word’s mail merge handles bulk runs from an Excel list.
Google Docs offers a smaller selection of templates through File > New > Template gallery, and you can build a card layout from scratch using a table set to the right cell dimensions. The trade-off is fewer pre-installed Avery options compared to Word.
LibreOffice opens .doc and .docx Avery templates and can run a mail merge against a Calc spreadsheet, making it a credible free alternative to Word.
For more visual design freedom, online tools like Canva and Adobe Express also produce business card layouts, though they handle Avery sheet alignment less reliably than the document software.
Common layouts
The 10-up layout — ten identical cards on one sheet — is the standard. It maximises the number of cards per sheet of A4 or US Letter card stock and matches Avery 28371, 8869, 5371 and most equivalent sheets from other vendors.
The 8-up layout is less common but appears on some thicker or premium card stocks where the cards sit slightly larger or with wider margins.
Double-sided layouts come as two sheets — front and back — designed to register correctly when the sheet is flipped. Avery 8870 Clean Edge sheets are designed specifically for this.
Fold-over cards (folded business cards) take a 2-up or 4-up layout, with each card positioned to fold along a centre line.
Compatible sheets
Most templates are designed around the dimensions of the dominant sheet brands. Avery sheets are the most widely supported, with built-in templates in Word for codes including 28371 (matte 10-up), 8869 (linen 10-up), 8870 (Clean Edge double-sided 10-up) and 5371 (Classic 10-up). VistaPrint sells generic 10-up sheets at similar dimensions, and most stationery suppliers stock unbranded A4 or US Letter card stock at 3.5x2” or 85x55mm cut sizes.
If a downloaded template does not match your sheet exactly, the safer option is to choose a different template rather than rescale — even a small adjustment shifts the cut lines off the perforations.
Going deeper
For a step-by-step design walkthrough, see how to design a professional business card. For full sizing references including bleed and safe zones, see standard business card sizes and dimensions. For Word-specific tutorials, see free printable business card templates for Word, and for double-sided layouts see how to print double-sided business cards at home. Google Docs users should look at how to create business cards in Google Docs, and the Avery business card sheets guide maps SKUs to sizes and templates.