Rack card size: the standard 4×9 and when to break it

A rack card is sized by the furniture it lives in. The acrylic pockets in hotel lobbies, visitor centers and waiting rooms are built around a 4-inch-wide card about 9 inches tall, so the standard rack card is exactly 4 × 9 inches. Print that size and your card fits every rack in the country, fills the pocket, and stands straight instead of slumping.

The numbers

• Trim: 4 × 9 in
• With bleed: 4.25 × 9.25 in
• Safe zone: 3.75 × 8.75 in
• Compact alternative: 3.5 × 8.5 in
• Stock: 14pt or 16pt card

The compact 3.5 × 8.5 exists for smaller countertop racks and for printers who cut it four-up from a larger sheet. It works, but in a standard rack it sits low and shows less of itself, so default to 4 × 9 unless you know the rack it's going into.

Design for the top third

Here is the detail most first rack cards miss: in a display rack, cards sit in tiered pockets that cover the bottom two thirds of your card. The only part guaranteed to show is roughly the top three inches. That strip has to carry the image and the hook. Hours, maps, menus and phone numbers belong below, for after someone pulls the card out.

It mails, too

A 4 × 9 card slides into a standard #10 business envelope with room to spare, and on its own it mails as a letter-size piece. One print run can stock the racks and cover a mailing list, which is a quiet reason the format has survived every marketing fad since the motel brochure.

Quick answer

4 × 9 inches, 4.25 × 9.25 with bleed, headline in the top third, 14pt or heavier. Order from our rack cards page, or if you need panels and a fold, see the trifold brochure layout guide.