ProfessionalProfessional Services

Digital Business Card Template

One scan saves your full contact card to their phone.

Best Used For

Add to your printed card, badge, or email signature. Scanning offers "Add to Contacts" instantly.

Saves to contacts

Works offline

Name, phone, email, site

Networking-ready

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Using this template

Everything worth knowing before you print it

This template makes a vCard code: your contact details are encoded into the pattern itself rather than stored on a page somewhere. That one design choice decides everything else about it — what it can do that a link cannot, what it can never do, and why it has to be printed bigger than you expect.

The details are in the code, not behind it

What it does

Work with no signal at all. Nothing is fetched — the scanner reads your details straight off the pattern, in a basement, on a plane, at a venue with no bars.
Offer "Add to Contacts" directly, so the details land in the phone rather than in a browser tab that gets closed.
Keep working forever. There is no redirect, no account and no service in the middle that can lapse, expire or be shut down.
Reveal nothing to us. A vCard code is not a tracked code, so your contact details are never sent anywhere, including here.

What it does not do

✕Be changed. Your details are in the printed pattern. Change your number, your title or your employer and every card already printed is wrong, permanently.
✕Be counted. Because nothing is fetched, there is no scan to record — a vCard code produces no analytics, on any plan.
✕Stay small. A full vCard needs a much denser pattern than a link, and density is the usual reason a business-card QR code fails to scan.
✕Carry a photo, a logo or a bio. Those live on a page; a vCard holds text fields only.

So the real choice is not "QR code or no QR code" — it is vCard-in-the-code versus a link to a page you control. A vCard is the right answer when permanence and offline reliability matter more than editing and measurement: a printed card you hand over in person, a conference badge, an engraved plate. A link is the right answer when your details change, when you want a photo and a bio, or when you want to know whether anybody actually scans it.

The size problem, measured

This is the part that gets skipped, and it is the part that decides whether the code works. A QR code's pattern grid grows with the amount of data you put in it. More characters means more modules — the little squares — and at a fixed printed size, more modules means each one is physically smaller.

Encoded with this site's own generator at error-correction level M, here is what that actually costs. A full card — name, company, job title, mobile, email and website — comes to 197 characters and needs a 57 x 57 module grid. Trimmed to name, mobile and email it is 115 characters and 45 x 45. A tracked link to a page is 38 characters and 29 x 29.

The full vCard therefore packs almost four times the module area of the link version into the same square on your card. Print both at 2cm and the vCard's modules are about half the width of the link code's. That is the difference between a code that reads instantly in poor light and one that people give up on after three tries.

The practical consequence: if you are encoding a full vCard, give it room. Below about 2.5cm on a business card a dense vCard becomes unreliable, whereas a link code stays comfortable at 2cm. If the card has no room, that is an argument for the link, not an argument for shrinking the code.

Which fields to include, and which to drop

Every field you add makes the pattern denser, so treat the field list as a budget rather than a form to complete.

Keep: first and last name, one phone number, one email address. That is what somebody actually needs to reach you, and it is the difference between the 45 x 45 grid and the 57 x 57 one.

Add with intent: company and job title if the card will be read weeks later by someone who met forty people, and a website if it is short. A long URL is one of the most expensive things you can put in a vCard.

Drop: a full postal address, a note field, and any second or third phone number. An address alone can add fifty characters for information almost nobody uses from a scan. If somebody needs your address they will visit your site.

Print the details in text as well

A QR code is a single point of failure — a scratch across a card, a phone with a poor camera, a person who simply does not want to scan anything. The text version costs you nothing and rescues all three cases.

This is also why the code should never take the place of your name and number on the card. It is a shortcut past typing, not a replacement for being legible.

Where to put it on the card

Back of the card, not the front, unless the design is built around it. The front is doing brand work; the back is usually empty and gives the code the room it needs.

Leave the quiet zone — the blank margin around the pattern — completely clear. It is part of the code, not padding, and on a business card it is the first thing a designer reclaims and the first thing that breaks the scan.

Keep it well clear of the edge. Cards are guillotined with a tolerance, and a code trimmed even slightly into its quiet zone stops reading. Ten millimetres from the trim edge is not excessive.

Dark pattern on a light background, and skip the logo in the middle. A logo eats modules that error correction then has to cover for, and a vCard pattern is already the densest one this site produces. If you want a logo in the code, use the link version instead — it has the slack for it. The limits are set out in the guide on QR code design that still scans.

A code in an email signature is a different job

A QR code in an email signature is scanned off one screen by a second device, and that only makes sense if the reader wants your details on their phone while your email is open on a laptop. It happens, but far less than people assume, and it costs you an image that many clients block by default.

The template is aimed at print, where the code bridges a physical object to a phone. Keep the signature version as plain text and a link — that is the same reasoning covered in paper business card versus digital QR.

Questions people actually ask

What happens when someone scans it?

Their camera reads the contact fields straight off the pattern and the phone offers to add a new contact. No browser opens, nothing is downloaded, and it works with no internet connection — the details are in the code itself.

Can I update my details later without reprinting?

No, and this is the trade-off worth understanding before you print. A vCard code contains your details, so changing them means generating a new code. If you expect your number, title or employer to change, use a URL code pointing at a page you control instead — that one is re-pointable.

Can I see how many people scanned my card?

Not with a vCard code. Nothing is fetched when it is scanned, so there is no request to count and no analytics on any plan. Scan tracking only exists for URL codes, which route through a redirect — how to track QR code scans covers what that number does and does not mean.

Why does my code look so much busier than other QR codes?

Because it is carrying more data. A full vCard is around 197 characters and produces a 57 x 57 module grid; a link is around 38 characters and produces 29 x 29. Removing your address, a note field and a second phone number is the fastest way to thin it out.

How big should I print it on a business card?

At least 2.5cm across for a full vCard — more than the usual 2cm minimum, because the pattern is denser and each module is correspondingly smaller. If the layout cannot spare that, switch to a link code rather than shrinking the vCard.

Is it free?

Yes. A vCard code is static by nature, and static codes with PNG download are free with no signup. There is nothing to upgrade for here — SVG and PDF export on Pro are useful if you are sending artwork to a commercial printer, but the code itself costs nothing.