A model comp card is a printed card, also kept as a digital file, that carries at least two of your best current photos, your name, your agency's contact details and your measurements, and that you leave with a client after a casting as a business card. It summarizes your portfolio rather than replacing it: the book shows range, while the card makes you easy to remember and to book. Signed models usually have cards produced by their agency. Freelancers make their own, and the common mistakes are stale stats, photos printed without the photographer's permission and personal details that should never be on a card at all.
This guide covers comp card layout and content. Choosing the images that feed it is covered in our modeling portfolio guide, and the unedited snapshots your stats must match are in our model digitals guide. Sources were read on October 1, 2026.
Comp card versus portfolio
The British Fashion Model Agents Association glossary gives the industry's working definition. A composite card, also called a comp card, sedcard, zed card or model card, is printed with at least two photos showing the widest variety of poses, settings, outfits and looks, plus your name, your agency's details and all your measurements. Formats vary by city, agency and type of model; agencies issue cards after they sign you; and the card serves as the latest and best of your portfolio, left with the client at a casting. The same glossary defines the book as your full portfolio, in print or on a tablet.
| Question | Comp card | Portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| Its job | A reminder the client keeps after you leave the casting | The evidence you walk a client through during the casting |
| Images | A handful of your most current, most varied frames | A fuller edit grouped by story, including tearsheets |
| Format | A printed card, with a matching digital file for email submissions | A physical book or, more often now, a digital version on a tablet, as the BFMA glossary notes |
| Who produces it | Your agency once you are signed; you, if you freelance | Built with your agency and photographers over time |
| When it changes | Reprinted whenever your look or stats change | Updated image by image as better work arrives |
Comp card layout spec
If you are signed, use your agency's template, since it carries their branding and their market's conventions. If you freelance, this slot-by-slot spec gives you a layout any printer can produce.
| Slot | What goes there | Spec notes |
|---|---|---|
| Front: hero image | Your strongest current headshot or beauty frame | It must look like you walking in today, so check it against your latest digitals |
| Front: name | The name you work under, set large | Spelled exactly as on your agency page, booking forms and online book |
| Back: image grid | Several frames showing range: a full length, a commercial smile, an editorial look, a movement shot | Choose images that each do a different job, following the glossary's call for the widest variety |
| Back: stats block | Height, bust or chest, waist, hips, dress or suit size, shoe size, hair color, eye color | Give metric and imperial figures if you work across markets; Elite's application form lists both |
| Contact block | Agency logo, booker email and phone, website; or, for freelancers, a work email, a work phone and a link to your book | No home address, no personal number and nothing that reveals where you live |
| Credits line | Photographer credits for the images used | Required only if your license says so, but good practice either way |
| Optional code or short link | A QR code or short URL pointing to your online book and digitals | Test it on several phones before printing, and point it at a page you control |
Stats: what to list and how to measure
Clients use your stats to pull clothes before a job, so accuracy matters more than flattery. Elite Models' application form gives a practical method: wear a bikini, have someone you are comfortable with measure you with a tape, stand with your feet together, and measure your hips around the largest part of the lower hip and bottom. Measure bust or chest and waist the same way, at the fullest and narrowest points.
If an agency measures you, the BFMA's code of practice commits its members to do it with privacy, discretion and respect, and says members will not ask models to reach or maintain measurements that are unrealistic for their frame. Record the date you measured, re-measure whenever your body changes, and reprint rather than leaving old numbers in circulation.
Proofing checklist
Check every item on a printed proof, not only on screen.
- Your name matches your agency page and booking paperwork letter for letter.
- Every stat matches a recent measurement, with the date recorded in your own notes.
- Every image still matches your current hair, skin and build.
- You hold written permission to print each photo on promotional cards. The UK Intellectual Property Office's notice on photographs says a commissioned photographer usually keeps the copyright, and a license for one purpose does not automatically cover another.
- Credits appear wherever a photographer's license requires them.
- The email, phone number and any QR code all reach you when tested.
- No face, hand or foot is cut off by the trim line or lost in a fold.
- Skin tones on the printed proof look like you, not like a color cast.
- Your agency has approved its logo and contact block, if you are signed.
- A matching digital version exists for email submissions, with the same layout and a file name that includes your name.
Print in small runs. A card that still shows last year's hair costs you more in confused castings than a reprint costs at the printer.
Freelancer workflow: from images to a finished card
Without an agency, you are the designer, the proofreader and the print buyer. Working in this order avoids the expensive mistake of printing before the rights and numbers are settled:
- Shortlist from your book. Pull candidates for each slot in the spec, favoring the most recent frames and the widest spread of looks.
- Clear the rights. Email each photographer, name the images and ask for written permission to use them on printed and digital promotional cards, with or without a credit line.
- Measure and record. Take your stats the same day you finalize the layout, and write the date down.
- Lay out both versions. Build the print file and the digital version together so they never drift apart.
- Proof on paper. Order a single proof, run the checklist above against it, and fix everything before the full run.
- Distribute with care. Hand cards to clients and casting teams in person or send the digital file to verified addresses; do not leave stacks in public places.
The digital version matters as much as the print, since it is what you attach to emailed submissions. Save it as a single-page PDF or a high-quality JPG, keep the file small enough to attach comfortably, and put your name and the month in the file name so a booker sorting through many submissions can find yours again.
Privacy: what never goes on a comp card
Cards get left on tables, passed between offices and photographed. Treat yours as a public document. Australia's Scamwatch tells job seekers to be careful about including a physical address or date of birth even on a resume, and a comp card travels far more widely than a resume does.
- Home address: leave it off entirely and use your agency's details, or no address at all.
- Date of birth: leave it off; age questions for a booking go through your agent.
- Personal phone and email: use a work number and a dedicated business inbox.
- Identity details: no license, passport or tax numbers, ever.
- Location clues: skip social handles that post your whereabouts in real time, and check photos for house numbers or street signs in the background.
Who pays for printing
The BFMA's advice to new models says your agency will help you create the tools of the trade, including photographs, index cards and a portfolio, and that a good agent may advance some expenses and reclaim them over time from what you earn. Its code commits members to clear guidance on commission, statements and any recharges. In New York, the Fashion Workers Act requires a model management company to get your written approval, with an itemized explanation of each charge, before paying for anything it plans to deduct from your earnings, and bars deductions you did not agree to in writing.
What should worry you is a demand for money up front. The FTC lists being told to pay for photos, or to use a specific photographer, as scam signs, and a mandatory comp card and photo package sold before anyone has signed you fits both.
A comp card is not a media kit
The BFMA notes that models increasingly need their own social followings to attract advertisers, so it is tempting to merge the two documents. Keep them separate. A comp card answers a casting director's questions about your look and sizes; a media kit answers a brand's questions about your audience, content and past partnerships. Our influencer media kit template covers the second document. If the same photo appears in both, check that your license from the photographer covers advertising use as well as promotional cards; our TFP shoot guide explains how to write that permission down.
Limits of this guide
We found no official standard for comp card size or layout, and the BFMA itself says formats vary by city, agency and type of model, so treat the spec above as a sensible default rather than a rule. The measuring method comes from one agency's application form; your agency may measure differently. The copyright and New York points are general information drawn from official pages, not legal advice, and a dispute about deductions or image rights is worth taking to a lawyer or the relevant regulator.