How to Design a Plastic Card in Canva

Before you start: which Canva plan do you need?

Canva’s free plan does everything this guide needs except one thing: downloading in CMYK, the colour mode cards are printed in. Canva offers the CMYK colour profile on its Pro, Teams, Education and Nonprofits plans (Canva’s download file types).

On the free plan, design the card exactly as below and download it in RGB. Our free artwork check will flag the colour mode, and we can convert it for you for £10 +vat. Bright colours can look a little different once converted, which our guide to CMYK vs RGB explains.

Don’t start from a business card templateCanva’s standard business card is 3.5 x 2 inches, or 89 x 51mm (Canva). That’s a paper business card. A plastic card is 86 x 54mm: shorter and taller. If you’ve already designed on a template, copy the pieces onto a new custom-size design, or use Canva’s Resize tool if your plan has it, and check nothing has moved too close to the edge.

Step 1: Create a design 86 x 54mm

1. On Canva’s home page, select Custom size.
2. Change the units to mm. Canva offers px, in, mm and cm (Canva help).
3. Enter 86 for the width and 54 for the height. For a portrait card, enter 54 and 86.
4. Select Create new design.

Make the design the size of the finished card, not the 92 x 60mm our artwork setup guide gives for other software. Canva adds the bleed itself in the next step, so a 92 x 60mm design would end up with bleed added on top. Not sure which way up? See portrait or landscape cards.

Step 2: Turn on print bleed

Go to File, then Settings, and select Show print bleed. In some versions of Canva it’s under File, then Rulers and guides (Canva’s guide to margins, bleed and crop marks). A border appears around your design: that’s the bleed.

• Canva’s bleed is 3.175mm on every side (0.125 inches), and it can’t be changed. We ask for 3mm, so it’s a fraction more, and the extra is trimmed off with the rest of the bleed.
• Run every background to the outer edge of the bleed, not to the edge of the card. That goes for background colours, photos and any shape that touches the edge.
• Why it matters: cards are printed on large sheets and cut out, and the cut can move by 1 to 2mm. Without bleed, that movement leaves a thin white line along one or more edges of the finished card.

Our bleed and size help page shows what bleed is for in more detail.

Step 3: Keep words and logos 3mm inside the edge

Anything important must sit at least 3mm inside the edge of the card, in an area 80 x 48mm. That’s the safe area, and it covers your wording, logo, QR code and any number or barcode. Closer to the edge than that, and the cut can clip it.

Canva has no setting for a margin of your own size. Two ways round it:

• Use the bleed as a ruler. The bleed border Canva shows outside the card is 3.175mm wide, just over 3mm. Keep everything important at least one bleed-width in from the card’s edge.
• Or add guides. Press Shift and R to show Canva’s rulers, then drag a guide in from each ruler to mark 3mm inside each edge. Rulers and guides only work on a computer, not in the phone app.

Step 4: Put the back of the card on page 2

Add a second page to the same design. Page 1 is the front of the card and page 2 is the back. Printing the back costs nothing extra, so it’s worth using for opening hours, terms, a map or a signature strip. For a one-sided card, leave the design at one page.

Signature strips, magnetic strips and scratch-off panels are added to the card when it’s made, not printed, so leave a clear space for them and tell us where they go. Our optional extras page gives their sizes and positions.

Step 5: Use the biggest photos and logos you have

Canva’s PDF Print download saves photos at 300 dpi (Canva). Our artwork setup guide asks for 600 dpi for photos at print size. Text, shapes and lines stay sharp at any size, so it’s photos and uploaded logos that can lose detail.

• Upload the original file, not a screenshot, a logo saved from your website or a picture taken from social media. Those are made for screens and print soft.
• Use an SVG logo if you have one. Canva accepts SVG uploads (Canva’s upload formats), and an SVG stays sharp at any size. Our page on raster vs vector images explains why.
• Don’t stretch a small photo to fill the card. Making a picture bigger doesn’t add detail.

You don’t have to judge this alone: our free artwork check looks at resolution, and we tell you before anything is printed if a picture will print soft. There’s more on what “high resolution” means on our high resolution artwork page.

Step 6: Check your colours and small text

Screens show colours that ink can’t match. Canva’s own help says ultra-bright colours fall “out of gamut” and print softer or more muted (Canva’s guide to print colours). Neon blues, greens and oranges change the most. If a colour has to match your brand closely, our CMYK vs RGB and Pantone colours guides explain what to expect, and a postal proof (£65 +vat, optional) lets you see a real printed card first.

Keep all text at 6pt or larger: anything smaller is hard to read on a card. Our font size guide suggests sizes for names, contact details and small print. To check, print page 1 on paper at 100% scale, not “fit to page”, and read the smallest line at arm’s length.

Step 7: Adding a QR code

Search for “QR code” in Canva’s Elements or Apps, choose a static code and enter your web address (Canva’s QR code help). A static code’s link is fixed for good, so point it at a page you’ll keep, such as your home page or a booking page.

• At least 15mm square. Canva suggests no smaller than 2 x 2cm, which fits comfortably on a card.
• Dark on light, with clear space all round it and nothing printed over it.
• Scan it from your screen with your phone before you download, to check it opens the right page.
• The same code on every card costs nothing extra: it’s part of your design. A different code on every card is an optional extra, made from a spreadsheet rather than in Canva.

The same goes for names, membership numbers and barcodes that change from card to card. Design one card with a space for them, and send the details in an Excel file: our guide to numbered plastic cards shows how. More on QR codes is on our QR codes page.

Step 8: Download a PDF Print file

1. Select Share, then Download.
2. Set the file type to PDF Print. It’s the download that includes bleed, crop marks and a colour profile choice.
3. Tick Crop marks and bleed.
4. Set the colour profile to CMYK, if your plan shows the option.
5. Download all pages, so the front and back are in one PDF.

Open the PDF before you send it. It should look like the drawing below: your design running past the card edge into the bleed, and a crop mark at each corner.

1. The bleed. 3.175mm outside the card edge. The background carries on into it, and it’s trimmed off.
2. The card edge, 86 x 54mm. This is where the card is cut.
3. The safe area, 3mm inside the card edge. The logo, wording and QR code all sit inside it.
4. Crop marks. Canva adds one at each corner when you tick Crop marks and bleed. They show where to cut and aren’t printed on the card.

Don’t send a PNG, a JPG or a PDF Standard download instead. None of them gives you the bleed and crop marks. Our guide to which file format to send explains why PDF is the format printers ask for.

Step 9: Email the PDF to us

Email the PDF to sales@cpcards.co.uk with the card type and quantity you want, and we’ll check it and quote by email. We aim to reply within 10 minutes during working hours, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

1. SendEmail your PDF with the card type and quantity.
2. CheckWe check it free for bleed, resolution, colour mode and set-up, and tell you what we find.
3. FixIf something needs changing, fix it in Canva and resend at no charge, or we fix it for £10 +vat.
4. ApproveYou get a free photorealistic email proof to approve before anything is printed.

Our check covers the technical side of the file. Checking the wording, spelling and numbers on the proof is down to you, so read it carefully before you approve it. There’s more on the check on our artwork checking service page.

Mistakes we see in Canva files

Rather not do it yourself?

Our design service designs your card from scratch for £29 +vat, from a sketch, a photo of an old card or a Canva draft you’re not happy with, and there’s no limit on reasonable amends. If you use Photoshop or Illustrator instead of Canva, our artwork guides have a template for every card type.