A card, called also a visiting or business card, is not an idea of recent times. The history of that unremarkable piece of paper ranges from the Middle Ages. In the Far East countries they were in use far before the Guttenberg’s print invention. Theye were brought from there by Marco Polo, Veniceman, from one of his famous journey. He got them from Mandarines in China, hand-written with ink, on a silk or rice paper.

In Europe cards got into the common use in modern times and made social life easier. Very popular in France during the reign of Louis XIV, cards were then a real piece of art. An artistically written name of the owner was decorated by a painted miniature. As times went on, a miniature was replaced by graphic arts presenting pretty ornaments, properties’ view and scenes of life. Cards arrived to Poland in XVIII century. They were often used by MPs in the 4-year Seym. First regularly printed cards came out at the beginning of the last century in Italy. A slant style of writing, named meaningfully italics, derives from those cards. It is still considered as the most elegant.

As many things connected to culture and social behaviour, cards has had their ups and downs. In between the wars they were extremely popular, commonly used oficially as well as privately. They were, as its name suggested, tightly bound to visits and revisits. A person who had been paid a visit, were supposed to visit him too or just send him his card. If someone unannounced was paying a visit and the host was not at home, he left his visiting card with a folded upper left corner. It meant that the owner visited the house by himself. Visiting cards were unwelcome after the war when they were associated with a rotten aristocracy. Nowadays, the opposite – lack of a card is treated almost like a blunder. Although it is possible to give a telephone number written on a serviette to your pal or ask him to write it down for you, in more official situations it could be, gently speaking, inappropriate.


Generally, two kinds of the cards are distinguished:

• the official – consist of name, science degree, address, telephone/fax number, e-mail and website

• the private – consist of name, address, telephone number, e-mail and a private website if exists

It is possible to write down on the card whole sentences, but there is an international code that facilitates the behaviour in certain situations. Here, the most frequently used abbreviatons.

• p.p. - pour presentation - to be introduced;

• p.f.c. - pour faire connaissance - to make acquaintance;

• p.f. - pour feter - for the celebration;

• p.f.n.a. - pour feter la nourelle anne - on the occasion of New Year;

• p.p.c. - pour prendre cong - farewell.

The business card is usually to inform everyone we get into contact with about us. For this reason it should include complete information about the owner. However, aesthetic look cannot be omitted either. It is far convenient to keep the traditional size of the card to make it fit to typical card-holders, yet the imagination can be used while designing the colours of the card. The safest and most acceptable for every social group set of colours is a black print on a white (cream) paper. Combining white paper with a navy blue ink gives even more elegant card. Such a set of colours is often used by doctors, and financial staff. Green print stands for servicing and positive approach towards a customer while grey paper is often chosen by representatives of the artistic world. Prestigious occupations prefer dark red and sea highlights. A well designed and carefully made card should make the person which it is handed to remember us, give a call and get into a touch with us.


A few hints and tips of the good manner
expert Edward Pietkiewicz.

• on cards always write by hand not type.

• correspondence on a card start writing in front, under or over the name, never at the back; on the back you can only finish the text from the front.

• a text on a card should be written in 3rd person or impersonally; receiver reads the name first "Jan Kowalski" and then for instance "thanks for a nice evening", "thanks for your kindness", "thanks for your help", and not "I thank" but "he thanks", not "I wish", but "he wishes".

• correspondence on visiting cards should not be signed.

• visiting cards should be ordered together with envelopes, without them they won’t be fully used.