Microsoft Word might not be the first tool that comes to mind for designing professional business cards, but it's accessible, familiar, and perfectly capable of creating professional designs when set up correctly.
Our business card survey revealed that companies are spending more than ever on business card printing, making it essential to get your design right from the start.
In this guide, we'll show you how to do business cards in Word without relying on templates. You'll learn why Word's built-in templates often cause more problems than they solve, how to set up a document with the correct dimensions and bleed for professional printing, and how to design and export a print-ready business card file.
Whether you're creating a quick mockup or preparing final artwork for printing, this step-by-step guide will help you avoid common pitfalls and teach you how to print business cards with Word that are ready for professional production.
Why Word's business card templates fall short
Word offers built-in business card templates, but in practice, they create more work than they save. The first issue is formatting inconsistency - change the font color on one card and it won't update across all copies on the page, forcing you to manually adjust each one individually. Text formatting is equally restrictive, as you can't bold or underline individual words within a line, only line-specific formatting, which becomes frustrating when you want to emphasize specific contact details or job titles.
The dimensional problems run deeper. Many templates have specific sizing which means you'll most likely need to adjust them before printing. Perhaps most critically, templates are designed for home printing and may not include dedicated bleed setup, which is essential for professional print production. Rather than wrestling with these limitations, setting up a business card properly from scratch is actually quicker and gives you complete control from the start.
How to make business cards in Word without a template
Creating a business card from scratch in Word gives you complete control over dimensions, bleed, and design - here's the step-by-step process. This method ensures your business card is set up correctly from the beginning, with proper dimensions for professional printing and the bleed area needed for high-quality production. Follow these four steps to create a print-ready business card design.
Step one: Create a business card sized Word document
Create a blank document in Word by selecting New from the file tab. The document will open as an A4 which is too big to serve as a business card. To change the document size go to Layout > Size > More Paper Sizes.
Under the Paper tab select the Paper Size drop-down menu and scroll to the bottom to Custom Size. Now you can change the size of your document to fit a business card. Business cards come in a variety of sizes, so it's up to you which size you decide to pick.
Here are the standard business card sizes for reference:
• USA: 3.5in x 2in
• UK: 3.5in x 2.2in
• Japan: 3.6in x 2.2in
At Aura Print, we know a lot about business card sizes. So much so that we have our very own dedicated blog post all about What size is a business card - check it out!
The final thing you need to do before hitting enter is to add a bleed area. Having a bleed area is crucial to create a professional business card. To learn more about print finishing and bleed, we have a post for that too.
Add 0.16in (4mm) to both the width and the height and you'll have a bleed area. That wasn't too hard was it?
Step Two: Change the margins
After changing the document size you'll also have to change the margins. The current margins are designed to fit an A4 but now that your document is smaller, the margins will also need to be smaller. Go to Layout > Margins > Custom Margins.
From here, change the margin to 0.23in (7mm) on each edge. This leaves you with a nice gap between your design and the edge of the page.
Step Three: Create your Word business card design
With the page now set up you can now begin with the design. As we are making business cards in Word without a template, the design you choose is completely up to you. With our Word business card design without a template, these are the steps we took to create the design.
First, we typed out the text we wanted to include on the business card design. Instead of the default font provided by Word, we changed the font to Garamond.
Text typed out, we headed up into the styles panel and clicked Heading 2. This has stylized the first line of text to be larger than the rest. Then we changed the fonts colors to a dark orange and a gray tone.
We then added the company logo to the design. Under the Insert tab we went to Pictures and then inserted the logo image file. At first, the logo file completely altered the layout of the business card. To stop this, we changed the image setting to "tight" and scaled the file into position.
The business card was looking uninspiring. Using the shape tool, we drew two rectangles and added them to the bottom of the card.
And to finish the Word business card, we dropped in some icons to go alongside the contact information. In the Insert tab, we went with Icons and searched Word's available images using the search bar. The chosen icon was made smaller and positioned over to the left. After that, it was just a case of changing the color using the Graphics Fill button in the Graphics Format tab.
Step Four: Save your business cards for print
Design complete the last step is to save your file to prepare it for print. Word provides you with multiple file types to choose from - our personal preference for print is a PDF. Simply head to the file tab, select Save As, and choose PDF from the drop-down menu.
We don't recommend printing your business cards on your office printer. Office printer paper is thin and flimsy, hardly giving you the finish to impress your customers.
Printing your business cards with Aura Print ensures that your cards will have that premium edge. We're all about choice. In fact, with over 10 unique paper types and paper weights, you're absolutely spoilt for choice! Check out our high-quality business card printing or order yourself a sample pack today.
