People judge a business card with their fingers before they read a word of it. Paper weight and finish are the physical half of your design, and they are chosen at the print shop, not in the editor — so it pays to know what to ask for.
Weight: how thick should a card be?
14 pt (around 250–270 gsm) is the industry baseline — solid, professional, and what most shops quote by default. 16 pt adds a clearly perceptible stiffness and is the sweet spot for most small businesses. Premium options like 32 pt or triple-layer stock feel luxurious and suit high-ticket services, but cost several times more. Below 14 pt a card bends in a pocket and quietly undermines everything printed on it.
Finish: matte, glossy or uncoated
Matte is the safe professional choice: no glare, subdued colors, easy to read, and you can write on it. Glossy makes photos and saturated colors pop — good for visual industries — but shows fingerprints and usually rejects pen ink. Uncoated stock feels natural and handmade and takes handwriting best, at the cost of slightly softer color. One practical warning: if your card carries a QR code, avoid high-gloss coating over the code itself, since glare can interfere with scanning — see QR code size and placement rules.
How to do it in AI Business Cards Generator
- Design the card first: template, contact details, logo, colors and optional QR code.
- Think about the finish while choosing colors — deep, rich backgrounds suit matte stock, while photo-heavy designs benefit from gloss.
- Preview both sides and export the high-resolution file.
- When ordering, specify weight and finish explicitly: "16 pt, matte" is a clear, safe request at almost any shop.
- Order a small proof run before committing to a large quantity.
Pair this with color combinations that look professional so ink and paper work together, and see how to print business cards from an iPhone for the full ordering workflow.