One of the most important components of the business cards design is the textual information. Actually, it is the data you want your card recipient to remember and use to contact you as business representative or professional. In this post, we are going to review the business cards text related recommendations in terms of size of the textual elements. If your text is too small, clients might struggle to read information on the cards. There should be a visual balance between the size and position of the address and the name and title.
Text size general guidelines
For determining the sizes of your typography keep the following tips in mind. Font sizes are indicated in points.
- Address and Phone contact elements should be 7 to 8 point.
- Name should be 1 point bigger or set in a bold typeface.
- The title could be the size point size as your address details or 1 point smaller.
- If needed the Company Name should have a minimum of 12 point (usually 12 to 15 point).
- For the title of your card, if different than any other information, use the same size font as you used for your address. You can also go one point smaller if you prefer.
Like any other design you might make a business card will look messy and untidy if you would go with a different text sizes for everything. Try to go for a typographic consistent design. If the logo you are using has a tag line or payoff try working around that font size in your details.
Industry specifics
You should also consider the type of industry you are in. Most professionals go for smaller sizes such as 6 to 7 point text, especially for their addresses. Doctors and lawyers occasionally use even smaller fonts. If you are a professional, you may want to consider using a 6 point font. Then again, it is much larger when sales agents produce their business cards.
Text size minimums
The address information should not be smaller than 6 point, or 5 point if you are setting in capitals. Anything below this will be hard to read. Add 1 point if you are setting your typography inverted (light typography on a dark background).
Do Not
• NEVER print your address in less than 6 point font, even if you are a professional.
• NEVER print your name in larger than 11 point font, even if you are targeting senior citizens.
• NEVER print your address in larger than 9 point font.
Special Considerations
Some fonts just do not play well with others, as they appear to be a different size than the rest. In other words, if you set some fonts to 6 point, for instance, they will look like 5 point when you type. The “copperplate” font is this way. If a font just does not look right to you, pick a standard font (like Times New Roman or Arial) and type a few characters next to the strange-looking characters, in the same font size. If it is obvious that the font you are using goes by a different size format, go ahead and change the size setting to compensate.
Nothing wrong with serif fonts as long as they are not used too small and you choose wisely. And forget Verdana. It was designed for and is optimized for screen and Web use and there are certainly more interesting fonts to choose from. Gothic fonts are used very rarely for elegant business cards. Arial, Times New Roman and Microsoft Sans Serif are the most common fonts preferred for elegant business cards.
You should also be careful when you are using a preset business card template. When you begin your business card printing project, it will have all the fonts set to the default size. You will want to look at the settings, and change them to the dimensions you want. Otherwise, you might be unpleasantly surprised by the results of your work.
Most importantly, do some research when deciding what fonts’ types to use in your business cards. Fonts like logos have different meaning and impact, depending on what you want to achieve or how the company perceives itself, the competition, etc. There are thousands of typefaces to consider and choose from. There are fonts, that communicate stability, security, and instills confidence in your customers to trust you even before they give you a try. Or perhaps you want to say that your business is not stale and old fashioned, you are trendy with the latest technology, able to adapt quickly to market changes. This can also be done with the thoughtful choice of business card fonts.
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