These small card rectangles are handed out to potential customers to, often to provide them with a means of contact to the business or representative of the business in question or the company he represents.
Business cards evolved from a fusion of traditional trade cards and visiting cards.
Visiting cards first appeared in China in the 15th century, and in Europe in the 17th century. The footmen of aristocrats and of royalty would deliver these first European visiting cards to the servants of their prospective hosts solemnly introducing the arrival of their owners. Visiting cards became an indispensable tool of etiquette, with sophisticated rules governing their use. As an adoption from French and English etiquette, visiting cards became common amongst the aristocracy of America and Europe. They included refined engraved ornaments and fantastic coats of arms. The visiting cards served as tangible evidence of meeting social obligations, as well as providing a streamlined letter of introduction. The stack of cards in the card tray in the hall was a handy catalog of exactly who had called and whose calls one should reciprocate. They did smack of affectation however, and were not generally used among country folk or the working classes. With the passage of time, visiting cards, or calling cards, became an essential accessory to any 19th-century upper or middle class lady or gentleman.
Trade cards first became popular at the beginning of the 17th century in London. These functioned as advertising and also as maps, directing the public to merchants' stores, as no formal street address numbering system existed at the time.
Businesses used their cards as marks of distinction and thus introduced the first modifications in their design. Later, as the growing demand for the cards boosted the development of color printing, more sophisticated card designs appeared, making the cards works of art. That category of clients for whom the more expensive and fanciful the card appeared the better helped in the development of the art-form..
However, there appeared an ever-growing social group of private entrepreneurs who had a constant need to exchange their contact information. These pragmatic people did not wait for the printing industry to turn to their needs and started to print out their own cheaper business cards to give out at presentations, exhibitions, etc.
With the economic leveling of the 20th century, and the wane of social formality, the rigid distinction between trade cards and visiting cards slowly faded, except in the highest socio-economic classeses.
In the highest socio-economic classes, there remains even today a rigid distinction between business cards and visiting cards. In such social circles, it is still considered to be in very poor taste to use a business card when making a social call. A business card, left with the servants, could imply that you had called on business.
For the rest of the world, the exchange of business cards has become common. Even "personal" business cards are popular which contain personal contact information, with no relation to business.
The usual dimensions of a business card are 3-1/2" × 2" or 89 mm × 51 mm.
In recent time, technology advances have resulted in a move to replace the standard cardboard business card with a square CD-ROM containing 35 - 50 megabytes of data. Advocates of these "CD-cards" note that dynamic presentation of the business can be done with the amount of data on such a card, though these cards have not picked up in popularity as of now.
Furthermore, with handheld computers, the ability to "beam" or send through infra-red communication one's own electronic business card as a data file has become possible.
See also: VCardHistory