Transparent business cards

Extremely unique business cards are made of transparent material. They can be completely, partially transparent, or have a frosted effect. Combinations of prints, including decorative ones (selective varnish, metallic prints), together with transparency and appropriate lamination, can create very elegant and highly attractive business cards.

Transparent business cards – technical aspects of printing

First of all, remember that a transparent substrate causes the printed colors to lose their intensity. In the case of a transparent substrate, this is a natural phenomenon and cannot be avoided. To make the colors more intense, a white underprint may be a solution, but this solution is not sufficient for some projects.

The attached photo of a business card illustrates this phenomenon. On one side, the prints were made directly on transparent PVC, and on the other side – on a white background. The difference in color saturation is clearly visible – the red print on the white subprint seems vibrant.


Because the actual printing on the business card is made using one technique (CMYK) and the white underprint using another (screen printing), there is minimal shift within the design in the process of overlaying two layers at different production stages. The attached visualization illustrates this phenomenon – a white background printed under colorful design elements may slightly protrude from underneath them. Unfortunately, this effect is unavoidable because the white background and colored details are applied in separate printing processes. Therefore, it is not always recommended to use a white background under the elements selected by the client, especially under small texts or details.

Transparent business cards – additional printing options

Despite several technological limitations, by experimenting with the transparency of business cards, you can often achieve very interesting effects. In the example below, almost the whole card was printed in white, and only a small part of the card was left transparent.

It is worth mentioning that transparent business cards can also look great in combination with a glitter/metallic background and prints. The attached example shows the combination of partial transparency with a white background covered with a gold glitter base.

In the case of transparent business cards, it is important to choose the appropriate lamination. It is recommended that transparent business cards have a matte finish to minimize the visibility of scratches on the card surface. Here you will find more information about lamination methods.

Selective varnish, metallic prints, embossing, hologram, hot-stamping… the transparent material allows for many printing techniques and thus the production of unique transparent business cards.

They are very unique, and definitely stand out from other business cards, especially standard paper ones. Your ideas and our printing capabilities can create quite unique business cards, but their production may involve technical nuances and limitations, so please contact us to consult on your business card design.