Business Card Design & Printing Glossary

Designing and printing a custom business card involves decisions that span graphic design, typography, paper science, and print production. Knowing the terminology used across these disciplines makes it easier to evaluate your options, communicate with printers, and produce a finished card that looks exactly as intended.

Template

A pre-designed layout created by professional designers that can be customized with your own text, colors, logo, and images. Business card templates are typically organized by industry or style and provide a polished starting point that eliminates the need to design from scratch. All elements within a template are fully editable.

Blank Canvas

A starting option in an online design tool that opens the canvas with no pre-existing layout, graphics, or text. Choosing a blank canvas gives you full creative control over the placement and proportions of every element in your business card design.

Design Element

Any individual component placed on the canvas, including text blocks, logos, photographs, icons, shapes, lines, and decorative graphics. Multiple elements are layered and arranged to form the complete card composition.

Layer

A stacking level within the design editor. Each element on the canvas exists on its own layer, which can be moved up or down relative to other layers to control which elements appear in front of or behind others. Managing layers is important when text, images, and background shapes overlap in the same design.

Alignment

The positioning of design elements relative to each other or to the canvas boundary. Common alignment options include left, center, right, top, middle, and bottom alignment. Most online design tools display smart alignment guides when moving elements to help achieve consistent spacing and positioning.

Hierarchy

The visual organization of information on a card so that the most important details, typically the person's name and role, draw the eye first, followed by secondary details such as company name and contact information. Hierarchy is achieved through differences in font size, weight, color, and placement.

White Space

The intentional empty areas within a design that are not filled with text, images, or graphics. White space, also called negative space, is a fundamental design principle that improves readability, prevents a cluttered appearance, and gives a card a professional, polished feel.

Grid

An invisible structural framework of horizontal and vertical lines used to align and space design elements consistently across the canvas. Working within a grid produces compositions that feel organized and intentional.

Mockup

A realistic visual simulation showing how a completed design will look on an actual printed business card. Most online design tools generate a mockup automatically so you can review your design in context before placing an order.

Preview

A step in the design process that displays your current design at scale, often in a mockup view, so you can evaluate layout, proportions, and overall visual balance before downloading or ordering. Reviewing the preview carefully before finalizing is the most reliable way to catch errors or adjustments needed before production.

Brand Kit

A saved collection of brand assets within an online design tool, typically including a logo, brand colors, and fonts. Applying a brand kit to a business card project allows all core branded elements to be inserted and applied consistently and quickly, without manually matching colors or re-uploading assets each time.

Hex Code

A six-character alphanumeric code used to identify a precise color in digital design. Entering a hex code in the color picker ensures exact color matching to brand standards rather than relying on approximate visual selection.

Color Palette

A curated set of colors used consistently across a design. A well-considered palette for a business card typically includes a primary color for backgrounds or key elements, a secondary color for accents, and a neutral color for body text.

Contrast

The degree of visual difference between adjacent elements, particularly between text and its background. Sufficient contrast is essential for legibility, especially on small-format cards where text may be printed at 8 points or smaller.

Logo

A visual mark representing a brand or organization. On a business card, the logo is typically placed in a prominent position, often the top left corner, center, or back of the card, and is one of the most important elements for establishing brand recognition at a glance.

Transparent Background

An image property in which the area surrounding the main subject contains no color or fill. Logos uploaded as PNG files with transparent backgrounds sit cleanly on any card color without a visible white or colored bounding box around them.

Gradient

A smooth transition between two or more colors applied to a background, shape, or text element. Gradients add visual depth and can give a card a modern, polished look when used intentionally.

Background Color

The base fill color of the card canvas. The background color sets the overall tone of the design and should be chosen in relation to the text and graphic colors that sit on top of it, maintaining sufficient contrast throughout.

DPI (Dots Per Inch)

A measurement of print resolution describing how many ink dots are placed per inch of printed surface. A minimum of 300 DPI at the final print size is the industry standard for high-quality business card printing. Images below this threshold will appear blurry or pixelated.

Resolution

The level of detail in a digital image, directly related to DPI. For business card printing, all images and uploaded graphics should be supplied at 300 DPI or higher at the intended print size to ensure sharp, clean results.

PNG (Portable Network Graphic)

A digital image format that supports transparent backgrounds, making it the preferred format for uploading logos and isolated graphics to a business card design. PNG files maintain image quality without lossy compression artifacts.

JPG (or JPEG)

A common image format that uses lossy compression to reduce file size. JPG files do not support transparent backgrounds and are best suited for photographic content rather than logos or graphics that need clean edges on a colored background.

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic)

A vector-based image format that scales to any size without any loss of sharpness. SVG files are ideal for logos and line-based graphics that need to remain crisp across different output sizes and print dimensions.

PDF (Portable Document Format)

A file format that preserves the full layout, fonts, and image quality of a design at any output size. PDF is the preferred format for submitting designs to a professional printer as it maintains complete print fidelity.

Vector Graphic

An image defined by mathematical paths rather than a fixed grid of pixels. Vector graphics can be scaled to any size without losing sharpness or clarity, making them ideal for logos and icons used across print materials of different dimensions.

Raster Graphic

An image made up of a fixed grid of pixels, such as a photograph or a PNG. Raster graphics have a fixed resolution and will lose quality if scaled up significantly beyond their original size. For print use, raster images should always be supplied at 300 DPI or higher.

Free Plan

An account tier that provides access to core design features without a subscription fee. Free plans typically include access to a selection of templates, basic editing tools, and standard download options. Some advanced features may require an upgraded plan.

Premium Plan

A paid subscription tier that unlocks a broader range of capabilities including access to premium templates, advanced AI tools, expanded font and asset libraries, and the ability to automatically apply brand kit elements across new projects.

Brand Kit

A stored set of brand assets, including logo files, brand colors, and fonts, that can be applied to new design projects automatically or with a single action. Brand kits save time when producing multiple branded materials and ensure consistency across all printed products.

Template Library

The collection of pre-designed layouts available within the design tool. Free users typically have access to a curated subset of the full library, while premium users can access the complete range including exclusive and premium-tier designs.

Asset Library

A searchable collection of images, icons, illustrations, and other design resources available within the tool for use in your projects. The scope and quality of the asset library varies across platforms and account tiers.

Generative AI Tools

AI-powered features within a design tool that can generate images, graphics, text effects, or other visual elements from a written description or prompt. Generative AI tools are increasingly integrated into online design platforms and can accelerate the creation of unique custom graphics for business cards.

Desktop-Only Printing

A restriction applied by some online design platforms that limits the ability to place print orders to the desktop version of the tool. Designing on a mobile device is typically supported, but completing the checkout and order submission process requires switching to a desktop browser on these platforms.