A PVC card is exactly what it sounds like — a card made from PVC plastic, the same versatile material you see all around you every day. In recent years more and more business owners have leaned toward clean, minimal cards, and alongside premium specialty-paper stocks, PVC has become one of the most popular choices. Even Jack Ma carries one.

Further reading: Jack Ma's latest business card revealed — his card collection through the years

You already carry a few PVC cards in your wallet — bank cards, credit cards, your Octopus card, membership cards; they're all made from PVC. Those, though, are too thick and too expensive to work as personal name cards, which is why we produce a 0.38 mm PVC card instead. That's roughly the thickness of one and a half sheets of a 300 gsm matte card, so it's far easier to carry around.

︳ Standard PVC card size: 86 × 54 mm, with rounded corners on all four sides.

Even though a PVC card is about as thin as a paper business card, its plastic (PVC) construction gives it real advantages — it's waterproof, shrugs off dirt and stains, holds up far better over time, resists creasing and is hard to damage. Those qualities are exactly why PVC has become such a popular material for business cards.

Beyond the material itself, PVC cards can be finished in a range of ways to produce very different looks, giving you plenty of options. These include transparent, frosted-transparent (coarse or fine grain), brushed-metal, white-ink and laser finishes, among others.

Transparent PVC cards in particular are a favourite for distinctive, creative business cards. Brushed metallic-coating effects are popular too, along with frosted surface textures.

A closer look at PVC card finishes

Standard PVC cards

Standard PVC cards are fairly transparent, so they suit single-sided printing best; if you want to print on both sides, you'll need to switch to one of the other finishes.

White-ink PVC cards

If you want the information on the card to stay crisp and legible, white-ink cards are the best choice. With a backing layer of white ink behind your design, the colours in your text and artwork look more solid, brighter and sharper.

Frosted PVC cards

Frosted PVC cards come in two main textures: coarse grain and fine grain (fine grain on the left, coarse grain on the right). Fine grain reads as the more refined, elegant option, so it tends to be the more popular pick.

Ready to design your own? Printing Banana prints transparent, frosted and white-ink PVC business cards with delivery across Hong Kong and Macau. WhatsApp us at +852 3001 5678 (English is fine) and we'll help you pick the right finish.