Lorem Ipsum "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit...""There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..." http://www.lipsum.com/
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.
The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.
There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn't anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.e to edit.
The business card is often something placed at the back end of your wallet or in your pocket. Deemed as a small inconsequential piece of paper that is part of day to day meetings with people, the card is seldom considered more than its face value. However, these cards have a long history and an evolution many of us don’t appreciate.
17th Century EuropeBusiness cards began in the 17th century in Europe, where they were used to announce the impending arrival of prosperous or aristocratic people to their local town or even their home. They were shaped and sized in a similar way to a playing card and became a staple of the elite by the middle of the century. In time the cards became engrave with gold and exciting typefaces and by the 19th century the cards were a must have by anyone, who was anyone in the middle class circles of the day. Houses even had card trays, ornate in construction, made so those visiting your house could leave their card in.
19th CenturyBy the 18th and the 19th centuries these ‘social cards’ were taken from each lady upon her first visit to a house. People were offered the card tray upon the opening of the door to the door and had to place their card in it as a matter of etiquette. This card was then delivered to the lady of the household, who would examine it – in many ways it created the first impression of the person.
When the other person waited for those they came to see in the hall, it would have been unheard of for them to look at the other cards. Cards with folded corners had been presented in person, cards folded in the middle indicated the call was meant for all family members. There was also often lettering on the card P/F for a congratulatory visit, P/C for a condolence call.
Unlike in polite society – these cards were also used in the UK for trade purposes. These cards were handed out before or after work was done and included maps to get in contact with the person. Originally produced with wood presses, they would have been created with lithography after its creation in 1830.
FormalityThe effects of the industrial revolution created a lessening of formality in the world. Exchanging of contact information became essential and the visiting card and trade card were merged and handed out on less formal occasions. The upper class still suffered an aversion towards their use on informal occasions, however they became widespread in the USA. There widespread use often created up turned noses when a US business man presented one at a upper class home in the UK.
Modern DayTime has eroded much of the etiquette regarding business cards, however rules do persist. Cards should not be handed out by the left hand, should never be written on and should always be translated to the language of the specific country they are being handed out in on the rear of the card. They should never be carried loose and presented in the best condition.
These days cards should have the name of the card holder, their title, the company, their location, and relevant contact information such as address, email, telephone and anything else you feel the need to add. Cards are usually printed in black ink on white paper, though this varies by country.
Following this logical etiquette means you and your cards won’t have any issues and just think how much more hassle you’d have had handing them out 300 years ago.
About the author: Julie writes on behalf of a business cardprinting company. Julie works in design and marketing. She produces new business card designs every day for customers and clients. In her spare time she likes to learn how to code and plays the piano.