Business Cards in Rotorua: NZ Card Size, Bleed and Print-Ready Artwork

Last updated November 2026

A business card is small enough that people assume it is simple, and then the box arrives with the phone number sitting a millimetre from the edge, a thin white sliver down one side and a logo that looks muddy next to the one on the website. Almost every one of those problems is decided before the file ever reaches a printer. If you are getting cards made for a Rotorua business, this is what to sort out first.

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What size is a business card in New Zealand?

The standard New Zealand business card is 90 x 55 mm, landscape or portrait. A few printers work to 91 x 55 mm, and cards made to the American size (about 89 x 51 mm) or the credit-card size (85 x 55 mm) do turn up, so the first job is to ask your printer for their template rather than guessing. A card that is a millimetre or two off the standard still fits a wallet, but it will not sit neatly in a card holder alongside everyone else’s.

Bleed and the safe area: the two settings that stop most reprints

Bleed

Printers do not print each card individually. Cards are printed many to a sheet and then guillotined, and the blade can drift slightly from sheet to sheet. If your background colour or photo stops exactly at the 90 x 55 mm line, any drift leaves a white edge. Bleed is the extra 3 mm of background you add beyond the trim line on every side, so the cut always lands inside colour.

Safe area

The same drift works inwards. Anything placed hard against the edge, such as a phone number, a border or the tip of a logo, can be clipped. Keep important text at least 4 to 5 mm inside the trim line. Thin borders that run around the whole card are best avoided altogether, because even a perfect cut makes a border look uneven when one side is a fraction thinner than the other.

CMYK vs RGB: why the colour on screen is not the colour on the card

Screens make colour with light (RGB). Printing presses lay down cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink (CMYK). Some bright screen colours, particularly vivid blues, greens and oranges, simply cannot be reproduced with four inks, so when an RGB file is printed the press converts it and those colours go flat.

• Set business card artwork up in CMYK from the start, not converted at the last minute.
• If your brand has a strong signature colour, ask whether it has a Pantone (spot) reference. Some print runs can use it, and it keeps the colour consistent between jobs and between printers.
• Large areas of black print best as a “rich black” mix the printer recommends, while small body text should stay plain black so it stays crisp.
• Photos and logos need to be high resolution: 300 dpi at the size they are printed. A logo copied off a website is usually 72 dpi and will look soft.

Stock, finishes and how a card feels in the hand

Card weight is measured in grams per square metre (gsm). Most business cards are printed on something around 300 to 350 gsm, and heavier stocks of 400 gsm and above feel noticeably more substantial. The finish changes the feel as much as the weight:

• Matt or silk: easy to read, easy to write on, and does not show fingerprints.
• Gloss: makes photos pop but can glare under lights and resists pen.
• Uncoated: a natural, textured feel that suits earthy or handmade brands; colours print a little softer.
• Spot UV, foiling and embossing: raised or shiny details on part of the card, such as the logo. They need their own separate artwork layer, which is one more reason to have the file set up properly.

If you hand out cards at trade shows or tourism expos, or leave them on a counter, think about how they will be handled. A card that is going to be written on, for a booking time for example, needs a surface that takes ink.

What to put on the card (and what to leave off)

A card is a reminder, not a brochure. Most work well with:

• Your logo and business name
• Your name and role, if the card is personal
• One phone number, an email address and your website
• Your address only if customers actually come to you
• A QR code if it goes somewhere genuinely useful, such as your booking page or Google reviews

If you trade in te reo Māori as well as English, check spelling and macrons carefully, because they are easy to lose when text is copied between programs. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori publishes guidance on written Māori. Whatever you include, use the same details as your website and Google profile. Inconsistent phone numbers across cards, signage and online listings are a common source of missed calls.

Before you approve the proof

1. Print the proof at actual size on a home printer and hold it at arm’s length. Small text that looked fine on a monitor often does not.
2. Dial the phone number and send a test email to the address on the card.
3. Scan the QR code with two different phones.
4. Check the back and front are the right way round relative to each other, especially on portrait cards.
5. Confirm the quantity, stock and finish in writing.

Getting cards designed and printed in Rotorua

If you would rather hand the whole job to someone who deals with printers every week, Page Design Ltd is a Rotorua graphic design business run by Linda Page, who previously worked as a design and print manager. Her print design work covers business cards, letterheads, stationery and signage, with artwork prepared for colour, resolution and finishes such as foiling and embossing, and placed with a suitable print company for each run. Questions worth asking any designer before you start: which printer they recommend for your quantity, whether they will handle the proof process with the printer, and what files you receive afterwards so you can reprint elsewhere if you need to.