vCard is a proposed standard for personal data interchange, specifically electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web. They can contain name and address information, phone numbers, URLs, logos, photographs, and even audio clips.

The vCard or Versitcard was originally proposed in 1995 by the Versit consortium, which consisted of Apple Computer, AT&T (later Lucent), IBM and Siemens. In December 1996 ownership of the format was handed over to the Internet Mail Consortium, a trade association for companies with an interest in Internet e-mail.

vCard is accompanied by a proposed standard for exchanging data about forthcoming appointments called vCalendar.

Version 2.1 of the vCard standard is widely supported by e-mail clients. Version 3.0 of the vCard format is an IETF standards-track proposal contained in RFCs 2425 and 2426.

Example VCard

Lastname_Firstname.cvf

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
FN:Firstname Lastname
N:Lastname;Firstname
ADR;WORK;PREF;QUOTED-PRINTABLE:;Footown 12345=0AFooland;Foo Street 99
LABEL;QUOTED-PRINTABLE;WORK;PREF:Foo Street 99=0AFootown 12345=0AFooland
TEL;CELL:+358-40-123456
EMAIL;INTERNET:nobody@example.invalid
UID:
END:VCARD

External Links