--- title: "What to Put on a Business Card (Paper and Digital)" description: "What to put on a business card: the six essentials, what to leave off, what changes by job, standard sizes, and what a digital card adds. With a checklist." url: https://bl1nk.co/guides/what-to-put-on-a-business-card language: en last_updated: 2026-11-09 --- # What to put on a business card Updated November 9, 2026 The short answer What to put on a business card: your name, job title, company, one phone number, one email address, and a website or QR code. Add a logo and one social profile if they matter in your field, and leave off anything people would not use to reach you. A digital card can also carry a photo, links and details that stay current. ## The six things every business card needs | Put on | Why | Get it right | | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Your name | The thing people search for when they find the card a week later. | The name you go by, largest on the card. | | Job title | Tells them why they would call you. | Plain words beat internal titles: “Sales Manager, Gulf” over “BDM II”. | | Company and logo | Context, and a way to look you up. | Logo on the front, not repeated. | | One phone number | Most people will call or message, not email. | Write it in international format, +971 50 123 4567, and say if it is on WhatsApp. | | One email address | For anything with an attachment. | Your work address, never a shared inbox like info@. | | A website or QR code | Somewhere to learn more than fits on the card. | A short address, or a QR code that saves your contact or opens your profile. | ## Add these only if your work needs them - An office or shop address, if people come to you. Remote and field roles can drop it. - One social profile that does real work for you: LinkedIn for most B2B jobs, Instagram for a designer or a restaurant. Not a row of icons. - A licence or registration number where clients expect to check it: a broker’s registration number in Dubai real estate, a bar or medical licence number. - A short line on what you do, if your title does not say it. - A photo, in work where people buy from a person: property, recruitment, consulting. - Your name in a second language. In the Gulf and the Levant, English on one side and Arabic on the other is a common layout. ## What to leave off - A second mobile number and a landline. Pick the one you answer. - A fax number, unless your clients still send faxes. - Your home address. - Personal social accounts. - Slogans, quotes and a list of every service you sell. - Anything you expect to change soon. A new title next quarter means a box of useless cards. That last point is why many people now keep the paper card short and put the detail behind a QR code. A [digital business card](https://bl1nk.co/digital-business-card) holds your photo, links, portfolio and every number, and you can change it after the cards are printed. ## What changes by job - Sales: a direct mobile on WhatsApp beats a switchboard number. A QR code that saves your contact saves the buyer typing it. - Real estate: photo, registration number, and a code that opens your current listings rather than one property. - Consultants and freelancers: what you do in one line, and a link to work you have done. - Lawyers, doctors and other licensed work: full professional title and licence number, and nothing that reads as advice. - Event staff: a big QR code and your name large enough to read at a busy stand. More by industry, including [real estate](https://bl1nk.co/use-cases/real-estate) and [sales teams](https://bl1nk.co/use-cases/sales). ## Standard business card sizes Design for the size your printer cuts, with a few millimetres of bleed around it. | Where | Size | | ----------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------- | | United States and Canada | 3.5 × 2 in (88.9 × 50.8 mm) | | Most of Europe | 85 × 55 mm | | Japan | 91 × 55 mm | | Credit-card size (plastic, metal and NFC cards) | 85.6 × 54 mm (ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1) | ## Paper card or digital card: what each can hold A paper card is still the fastest thing to hand over, works without a phone and costs little, which is why it has not gone away. Its limit is space and permanence: six details, fixed on the day you print. A digital card opens on the other person’s phone from a QR code, a link or a tap of an NFC card. It can carry a photo, every number and link, documents and a button that saves you to their contacts, and it can change whenever your details do. Many people use both: a short paper card with a [QR code that opens the digital one](https://bl1nk.co/qr-code-business-card). A bl1nk card goes one step further: the profile has an AI assistant that answers the visitor’s questions and asks for their details, so a card you handed out keeps working after the conversation ends. [Make a free card](https://bl1nk.co/create) to see it. ## Check before you print 1. Call the number and send an email to the address, exactly as printed on the proof. 2. Scan the QR code from a printed proof with an iPhone and an Android phone. 3. Read every word aloud. Names and job titles are where typos hide. 4. Confirm the size and the bleed with the printer. 5. Order a small run first if anything is likely to change this year. ## Questions people ask. ### What information should be on a business card? Your name, job title, company, one phone number, one email address and a website or QR code. Those six cover how almost everyone will try to reach you. Add a logo, an address or a social profile only if your work depends on it. ### Should I put my address on my business card? Only if people visit you: a shop, clinic, showroom or office that takes walk-ins. Remote workers and most salespeople can leave it off and use the space for a QR code. Never put a home address on a card you hand to strangers. ### Should I put a QR code on my business card? Yes, if it does something useful: saves your contact to the phone, or opens a profile with your portfolio and links. Print it at least 2 cm across with a clear margin, and say what it does next to it, such as “Scan to save my number”. ### Should I put my photo on a business card? In real estate, recruitment, consulting and other work where people buy from a person, a photo helps them remember who they met. On a paper card it takes a lot of space; a digital card shows it without crowding anything. ### What size is a standard business card? In the US and Canada, 3.5 × 2 inches (88.9 × 50.8 mm). In most of Europe, 85 × 55 mm. Plastic and NFC cards are usually credit-card size, 85.6 × 54 mm. Ask your printer which size they cut before you design. ### Should a business card be double-sided? Usually, yes. Keep the front for your name, title and logo, and use the back for the contact details and a QR code. In the Gulf and the Levant, English on one side and Arabic on the other is a common layout. ## Keep reading. - [QR code business cards](https://bl1nk.co/qr-code-business-card) - [Digital business cards](https://bl1nk.co/digital-business-card) - [How to make a digital business card](https://bl1nk.co/guides/how-to-make-a-digital-business-card) - [Free vCard QR code generator](https://bl1nk.co/tools/vcard-qr-code-generator)