(Locked) font sizes on business cards

Envato Authors Graphics Authors
1

Hi all,

I’ve been browsing business cards and there’s one general aspect that caught my eye: Many of them look terribly clean with lots of white space and margins.

However I have a feeling that they all use hardly readable font sizes.

What is the minimum you go down to?

I have a feeling that many of these super clean designs actually go down to 6pt, which personally I find completely unreadable. I need at least 8pt to be able to make out the text was some sort of comfort.

Which made me think that many of the super clean designs on display here would not meet my requirements. I’m not going to point out any particular design, it’s something I’ve noted across the board…

Cheers

Chris

2

Hey Chris,

Of course it depends on what typeface you are using. But generally I never go below 9pt, however if 8pt was needed I would drop down…

My ideal size is 10pt, with 12 or 13pt leading.

Hope this helps :wink:

Sleight

3

True. I’ve seen many cards get approved that won’t be readable.

4

I was wandering the same. Font size is my issue since I don’t have much experience with design and I’m stupid with predicting how it’s gonna end on paper, usually it’s too big due to my fear it’s not gonna be readable. Gonna print out font sizes and refer to it while designing.

5

I agree with Chris,
And not only in same cases the font size is way too small, the text is also white with shadow and on a pattern, this combination will surely lead to problems in readability when printed.

6

Same here, my cards usually got minimum of 8pt…maybe…

7

10pt the default size of all print e.g. papers, magazines etc… so I would stick to 10pt it has been proven to be the smallest size that is legible.

8

I have to agree here, generally there’s quite a few business cards that are simply useless. Even if you could read that small perfectly printed solid color text, most of them use cmyk colors where the raster effect makes the thin lines blend into each other, not to mention the white text on black backround that very often makes the text just vanish due to the dot gain. At the moment I don’t see much of point in submiting business card layouts since theres no point in competing with designs that look nice on screen but can not be produced with normal cmyk printing process that is mostly used in business card printing.

For this market place to grow and to keep up the standards, I would say that business cards for one should have a production price estimate, or at least detailed information about the printing process required.

I mean there’s quite a difference between the “default” one sided 300g/m CMYK business card and the 600g/m custom shaped CMYK + 1 spot color and spot UV varnish. If you don’t trust me, call your local printing company. :slight_smile:

9

When I used to upload business cards, I never went below 8pt. Also, sometimes it can depend on the typeface used.