How to Make Membership Cards for Your Club or Association

A membership card proves that someone belongs to your organisation and gives them an easy way to claim the benefits you keep for members. Whether you run a sports club, a society, a nonprofit, a gym or a coworking space, the way to create membership cards is the same. This guide explains how to make membership cards in five steps, from deciding what the card has to do to receiving the finished cards, with the size and file settings to get right the first time.

Membership Cards at a Glance

• Size: CR80, the same format as a bank card: 85.6 × 54 mm (3.375 × 2.125 in), 0.76 mm thick. It fits any wallet or badge holder.
• Details: your organisation's name and logo, the member's name, a membership number and an expiry date are all you need. A photo, a QR code or an NFC chip are optional.
• File: one PDF, PNG or JPG per side, with 2 mm of bleed on every edge and, ideally, a resolution of 300 DPI.
• Quantity: PVC cards print one at a time, so you can order custom membership cards from a single copy instead of waiting for a hundred new members to justify a batch.

Step 1: Decide What the Card Has to Do

Before you think about the design, decide what the card will be used for. That choice determines the type of card you need.

• Proving membership: a printed PVC card without a chip is enough. Members show it at the door of an event, at a partner business that offers them a discount, or at the club office.
• Checking a card quickly: add a QR code or a barcode unique to each member. A smartphone reads it to bring up the member's record or the status of their membership.
• Granting access or checking members in: choose a chip card. An NTAG213 NFC chip opens a link when the card is tapped against a phone. A Mifare 1K chip follows a standard used by many access control readers, but check with the installer of your system that it accepts it before you order. Our article on the benefits of NFC membership cards looks at these uses in more detail.

A tennis club that only needs members to show their card at the clubhouse can stop at the first option. A gym or a coworking space whose members let themselves in usually needs the third.

Step 2: Choose What to Print on the Card

A membership card that people can read at a glance needs only a few elements. On the front:

1. The name and logo of your club or association.
2. The member's first name and surname.
3. A unique membership number.
4. The season or expiry date, for example "2026–27 season".
5. The member's photo, if the card has to prove who is carrying it, as it often does at a gym.

On the back, leave room for practical information: your address or website, a contact, the terms of use of the card and, if you use one, the QR code. Double-sided printing costs nothing extra on a PVC card, so it is worth using both sides rather than squeezing everything onto the front.

Step 3: Design Your Custom Membership Cards

You can design the card yourself in a free tool such as Canva, Figma or Inkscape, or hand the job to a designer. Three rules prevent unpleasant surprises when the cards are printed:

• The right document size: create a document of 85.6 × 53.98 mm, then add 2 mm of bleed on every side, for a total of 89.6 × 57.98 mm. If your software works in inches by default, switch it to millimetres so the measurements match exactly. Backgrounds and images should run all the way to the outer edge of this area.
• A safety margin: keep text and logos at least 3 mm inside the edge of the card so that nothing gets trimmed off.
• Enough resolution: 300 DPI, exported as PDF, PNG or JPG. A logo in vector format stays sharp at any size.

Every member has their own details, so every card is slightly different. You can send one file per card and order the full quantity in one go: the price is calculated on the whole order, not on each design. Beyond a few dozen cards, the card printing API generates the cards from your membership list, so nobody has to prepare each design by hand.

Step 4: Choose How to Print Membership Cards

Three options exist side by side, and their costs are very different.

For most club membership cards, printing online one card at a time is the most economical option: there is no equipment to buy, and you get the same quality as a professionally printed PVC card, in colour on both sides.