The sizes
Sizes are quoted landscape. The last four columns are how many cards fit on that sheet with the cards touching and a 5 mm margin — the layout that yields the most, and the one a paper trimmer wants.
| Size | Inches | Where it is used | A4 | Letter | A3 | SRA3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 × 55 mm | 3.35″ × 2.17″ | Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom | 10 | 9 | 21 | 25 |
| 88.9 × 50.8 mm | 3.5″ × 2″ | Canada, United States | 10 | 12 | 24 | 24 |
| 91 × 55 mm | 3.58″ × 2.17″ | Japan | 10 | 8 | 21 | 24 |
| 90 × 55 mm | 3.54″ × 2.17″ | Australia, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, Vietnam | 10 | 8 | 21 | 24 |
| 90 × 54 mm | 3.54″ × 2.13″ | China, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, Singapore | 10 | 8 | 21 | 24 |
| 90 × 50 mm | 3.54″ × 1.97″ | Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Ukraine | 12 | 10 | 24 | 24 |
| 85 × 48 mm | 3.35″ × 1.89″ | Iran | 12 | 12 | 24 | 30 |
| 85.6 × 53.98 mm | 3.37″ × 2.13″ | ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 | 10 | 9 | 21 | 25 |
| 74 × 52 mm | 2.91″ × 2.05″ | ISO 216 A8 | 10 | 10 | 25 | 32 |
| 55 × 55 mm | 2.17″ × 2.17″ | Square (metric) | 15 | 12 | 35 | 40 |
| 63.5 × 63.5 mm | 2.5″ × 2.5″ | Square (imperial) | 12 | 12 | 24 | 24 |
This table is generated from the same data the tool itself uses, so the two cannot drift apart. The card counts come from the layout code that builds the actual sheets, not from arithmetic done by hand.
Conventions, not standards
Only one line in that table is a published standard: ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1, 85.60 × 53.98 mm, which is the credit-card size. It is specified because a card has to fit a machine. A business card only has to fit a wallet and a habit, so every other size is a trade convention — widely followed, occasionally ignored, and not written down by anybody with authority.
That has two consequences worth knowing before you order anything:
- Several countries use more than one size. A printer in a country listed above will usually accept the local convention and the European one without comment.
- A card that fits a wallet everywhere is the ISO credit-card size, or anything close to it. The 90 × 55 mm and 91 × 55 mm sizes are noticeably taller and do stick out of some card slots.
How this table was checked — and what was wrong
These figures were compiled from print-trade sources in August 2026 and cross-checked between them. The first draft was written from memory and several entries were wrong. They are listed here because a table like this is only worth anything if you can see how much to trust it:
- Scandinavia is 90 × 55 mm, not ISO A8 (74 × 52 mm). The A8 claim was invented. A8 is a real paper size and is in the table, but no country is attached to it.
- India is 90 × 55 mm, not the European 85 × 55 mm.
- Taiwan is 90 × 55 mm, while Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia are 90 × 54 mm — the first draft lumped them together.
- Iran is 85 × 48 mm and has its own line. A blanket "Middle East uses 85 × 55" was unsupported and was removed.
- Mexico is the least certain line here. Three sources give 90 × 50 mm, one gives the US size. It is listed as 90 × 50 mm on the majority, and that is a judgement, not a fact.
- Poland and Czechia are deliberately absent. "Eastern Europe uses 90 × 50" is repeated everywhere without ever naming them, so they are left with the European size rather than guessed at.
If you know one of these to be wrong — particularly if you print in that country — tell me and it gets corrected.
Which size should you use?
The one your customers' wallets already hold. If you work in one country, use its convention. If you hand cards to people in several, the European 85 × 55 mm is the most widely accepted, and the ISO credit-card size is the one guaranteed to fit a card slot.
What matters far more than the choice is that the card comes out at the size you chose. A print dialogue set to "fit to page" will quietly hand you cards at 96 %, and they will not match the trim marks, the wallet, or the second batch you print next year.
Lay your card out on a sheet →
Free, nothing uploaded, and it prints a ruler on the sheet so you can catch a printer that scaled it.