A good business card in Dubai is 350–400gsm card, standard 90 × 55 mm, with a matte or soft-touch laminate, and carries your name, role, mobile with WhatsApp, email, website and a short Arabic side or line. Expect typical UAE prices of roughly AED 80–200 for 100 standard laminated cards, and AED 250–700 for 100 with premium finishes such as spot UV, foil or thick duplex board.
Business cards still matter here. Dubai runs on in-person meetings, exhibitions and introductions, and a card is often the first physical thing a prospect holds from your company. Our sister company, Dasma Print & Copy in Al Karama, prints thousands of them a month, and the same questions come up every time. Here are the answers.
What paper weight should a business card be?
Paper is measured in grams per square metre (gsm). For business cards:
- 300gsm — the minimum we recommend. Fine for bulk cards, event handouts and short-run jobs. Feels adequate, not impressive.
- 350gsm — the standard for most professional cards. Stiff enough to feel substantial, thin enough to fit any wallet or card holder.
- 400gsm and above — premium. Noticeably thick. Often achieved by laminating two sheets together (duplex), which also lets you have a different colour on each side.
- Speciality stock — textured, cotton, kraft, coloured or recycled boards. Each prints differently, so ask for a sample before committing to 500 cards.
Thicker is not automatically better. A 600gsm card is impressive for a creative studio and slightly absurd for a logistics firm. Match the weight to the brand.
Which finish is right: matte, gloss, soft-touch or spot UV?
The finish changes how the card feels in the hand more than how it looks on a screen:
- Matte lamination — the safe default. No glare, writes on reasonably well, hides fingerprints. Most corporate cards.
- Gloss lamination — vivid colours, shiny, shows fingerprints. Works for photo-heavy or bright designs; feels dated for most professional services.
- Soft-touch (velvet) lamination — a smooth, slightly rubbery matte. The most-requested premium finish in Dubai right now because it feels expensive without looking loud.
- Spot UV — a clear gloss varnish applied only to selected areas (a logo, a pattern) over a matte base. Subtle at a glance, obvious in the hand.
- Foil stamping — metallic gold, silver, rose gold or coloured foil pressed into the card. Best used for one element, not the whole design.
- Embossing and debossing — raised or recessed areas. Pairs well with thick uncoated stock and foil.
- Rounded corners, die-cuts and painted edges — finishing touches that cost little on their own but add up.
A sensible premium combination is 400gsm duplex, soft-touch laminate, spot UV on the logo. It photographs well, feels good and does not shout.
What should go on a Dubai business card?
Keep it to what someone will actually use within a week of meeting you:
- Name — as you want to be addressed, with any professional title that matters in your field.
- Role and company — the company name as it appears on your trade licence helps with credibility.
- Mobile number — with the +971 prefix, and a WhatsApp icon if that number is on WhatsApp. In the UAE, this is the field most people use.
- Email address — on your own domain. A Gmail or Hotmail address on a card undermines the rest of the design.
- Website — short and without "https://".
- Location — area or emirate is enough ("Al Karama, Dubai"). Full addresses rarely get used.
- QR code — optional, but useful if it goes to a contact-save page or WhatsApp link rather than just your homepage.
Leave off the fax number, the landline nobody answers and the three social handles. If you have an active Instagram or LinkedIn that clients genuinely use, one is fine.
Should a business card be bilingual?
In Dubai, often yes. A common and practical layout is English on one side and Arabic on the other, with the logo on both. It signals that you are a local business, it helps with government and semi-government clients, and it costs nothing extra to print.
Two cautions. First, get the Arabic properly typeset — machine translation pasted into a design file produces broken letterforms and reversed text, and native speakers notice immediately. Second, make sure your logo works at a small size in both directions; it often needs a slight adjustment for the Arabic side. This is one of the things covered in a proper brand identity, and one reason we think a logo alone is rarely enough — more on that in brand identity vs logo.
Typical business card prices in the UAE market
Prices vary with quantity, stock and finish, and these are typical ranges rather than a quote:
- 100 cards, 350gsm, matte laminate, full colour both sides: AED 80–200.
- 500 cards, same spec: AED 200–450. Unit cost drops sharply with quantity because set-up is most of the work.
- 100 cards with soft-touch laminate and spot UV: AED 250–500.
- 100 cards with foil or embossing on thick duplex stock: AED 400–900.
- Design, if you do not already have an identity to work from: AED 200–800 for a card layout alone.
Same-day and next-day turnaround is common in Dubai for standard laminated cards. Foil, embossing and duplex stock usually need three to five working days. Our print and signage page covers what we produce in-house.
Five mistakes we see on cards every week
- Text too small. Nothing below 7pt. Many designers set contact details at 6pt because it looks elegant on screen; it is unreadable in a dim restaurant.
- Low-resolution logo. A logo pulled from a website at 72dpi prints blurry. Supply a vector file (SVG, AI, PDF or EPS).
- No bleed. Backgrounds must extend 3 mm past the trim line, or you get thin white edges.
- Dark text on dark backgrounds. Check contrast in print, not just on a backlit monitor.
- Ordering 1,000 cards for a role that changes. Titles and numbers change. Order 200–500 and reprint.