Designing new business cards is more than just a matter of writing your name, company name and contact information on a piece of paper and giving it to the printer. You need to consider the proper business card title format along with readability, design and font styles. You could find yourself walking a thin line between making your cards memorable and unreadable if you don’t include some important design elements.

Business Card Title Format

Your company’s title – or your name, if you’re self-employed – is the most important piece of information you can put on a business card. It should be printed in the largest font on your business cards.

When it comes to business card title etiquette, you should include your title after your company name or your name. This is the second most important piece of information, and should stand out as well. For example, to include the vice president title on a business card, you might write "Jane Doe, Vice President" in a large font. If you choose, you can make this line a bolded font.

Format for Other Company Information

Address and contact information – business address, phone and fax numbers, email address, website and company slogan – are all included under your company name and title. This information should be printed in the smallest font on the card. Even though it is the smallest print, it should still be easy to read. Your company’s slogan falls into this category, as well.

Alignment of Card Content

Alignment means setting all of your business card information on the left margin, the right margin or centered. Setting the alignment for your business cards to either the right or left margin will make them more readable than if you center all of the information.

Whether you choose left justification or right justification, stay consistent. Don’t switch from right to left for different blocks of information.

Use of White Space

Don’t be afraid of some “white space,” or an area on your business cards that you can intentionally leave blank. While you want an eye-catching business card layout, you also don’t want to confuse anyone either. Stay away from placing all of your information in the four corners of your cards, which leaves the center blank. Don’t “stairstep” your information (putting some information at the top nearest one corner, then setting a new margin to the right of that block, and setting a third margin for additional information).

Clumping all of your business’ information in one large block with no space breaks makes it hard to read the information. Group some information to one side of the card and create a space break, then add more information below the first block. Place the company slogan on the opposite margin, along with your photo, if you plan to include one.

Use of Font Styles

Use only two fonts for your business cards. You can occasionally use a third, but depending on the font styles you’re choosing, you run the risk of making your business cards appear cluttered.

You can choose a serif, sans serif, decorative or script font, as long as it is easily readable. As you are deciding what fonts to use, don’t choose two that are so close to each other that it appears to be a “mistake” on your card.

Choose two visibly different fonts; don’t choose a black, blocky font and pair it with a delicate script font. If you want to use a script font, choose another delicate font that is obviously different from the first script. Choose two fonts that provide a clear contrast to each other. Your cards will be easier and more enjoyable for recipients to read.