Business card maker
The output is what matters, and it is where free card makers fail. This produces a proper print-ready PDF: correct trim size, 3mm bleed on all four sides, crop marks, and text kept inside a safe margin — which is the difference between a file a print shop accepts and one they send back.
No account, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded — including your phone number and email.
UK and Europe. The most common size in the world.
The background extends 3mm past the cut line on every side, so a guillotine that lands slightly off still cuts through artwork rather than paper. Three is what most printers ask for.
Rendered from the actual PDF, at 85×55mm, plus 3mm bleed.
Nothing is uploaded. The PDF is built in this page and previewed from it.
Bleed, and the white hairline
Cards are not printed one at a time. They are printed many to a large sheet and then cut apart with a guillotine, in stacks, and a guillotine is accurate to somewhere around a millimetre. That is fine for the paper and fatal for artwork that stops exactly where the cut is supposed to land.
Miss by half a millimetre outwards and you get a thin white line down one edge of every card in the box. The fix is to extend the background past the trim line and accept that a strip of it will be destroyed. Three millimetres on each side is what almost every printer asks for, and it is why the PDF you download here is 91 × 61mm for an 85 × 55mm card.
And the safe margin, which is the same problem inwards
If the cut can land outside the trim line, it can land inside it too. Text sitting hard against the edge is text that might be shaved. So everything here stays at least 4mm in from the trim, which looks like generous white space and is actually insurance.
| Region | Card | PDF page with 3mm bleed |
|---|---|---|
| UK and Europe | 85 × 55 mm | 91 × 61 mm |
| US and Canada | 88.9 × 50.8 mm (3.5 × 2 in) | 94.9 × 56.8 mm |
| Australia and NZ | 90 × 50 mm | 96 × 56 mm |
| Square | 55 × 55 mm | 61 × 61 mm |
The preview is the PDF
Most card makers show you an HTML mock-up and then generate something else when you download. The two drift: fonts measure differently, spacing rounds differently, and the thing you approved is not quite the thing that arrives.
Here the PDF is built first and the preview is a render of it. It costs a fraction of a second on each change and removes the whole category of surprise — what is on screen is the file, at the size it will be cut to.
The one thing to check with your printer
Colour. This produces an RGB PDF, and commercial presses work in CMYK. Most printers convert automatically and the result is fine, but bright oranges and vivid blues are the colours most likely to shift in that conversion.
If the exact shade matters — a brand colour, particularly — send a proof through before committing to a large run. It is a five-minute question that occasionally saves a whole box.
Questions
What size is a business card?
85 × 55 mm in the UK and most of Europe, 3.5 × 2 inches (88.9 × 50.8 mm) in the United States and Canada, and 90 × 50 mm in Australia and New Zealand. All three are offered here. The differences are small enough to look like a mistake if you pick the wrong one for the market.
What is bleed, and do I need it?
Bleed is artwork extending past the line where the card will be cut. Printers trim stacks with a guillotine, which is accurate to about a millimetre — so a background that stops exactly at the trim line produces cards with a white hairline down one edge. Extending it 3mm past means a slightly off cut still goes through artwork. Yes, you need it, unless your printer has specifically said otherwise.
What are the crop marks for?
They show the printer exactly where the trim line is, since the page you send is larger than the finished card. They sit in the bleed area and are cut away with it, so they never appear on the card itself.
Will a print shop accept this PDF?
The geometry is right: correct trim size, bleed on all four sides, crop marks, and text kept inside a safe margin. The one thing to check with your printer is colour — this produces RGB, and some presses want CMYK, which they will usually convert for you. Ask before ordering a thousand.
Why is my text getting cut off at the edge?
It should not be — everything is kept inside a 4mm safe margin for exactly that reason. If you are seeing it, the text is probably longer than the card is wide. Shorten it, or move to a layout with more room.
Is my information uploaded?
No. The PDF is built in this page and the preview is rendered from it here too. Your name, phone number and email never leave the tab, which is worth noticing given how many free card makers ask you to make an account first.
What BriskFile will not do to you
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Your files never leave your device
Every conversion runs in your browser. Open DevTools, watch the Network tab, and you will see no upload — because there is not one.
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No account, no email, no watermark
Nothing to sign up for and nothing stamped on your images. There is no step between choosing a file and getting it back.
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No limits at the download button
No daily cap, no file counter, no "upgrade to download". If the tool starts a job, it finishes it.
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Checkable, not just claimed
Open the Network tab and convert something — nothing goes out. Or load the page, disconnect, and watch it keep working: the tool is already on your machine, and your file never leaves it.