Sorry for another OT (should be NE...Not Electronics) but this is the only group I post to...
I'm making a new batch of business cards (paper).
I dunno if I should put
D from BC British Columbia Canada
Just
The prefix identifies the protocol (as you probably know) and may help some more "challenged" software to identify a URL in electronic form but it's really redundant when committed to paper and ink.
The unadorned form also seems to be the more commonly used, on commercial vans, billboards, flyers, etc. at least around here.
-- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
www.domain.** your newsreader and email client should pick it up as a URL, and anyone familiar with the web will too.
If they don't, then they are not in that group that uses the web.
If it works with and without the "www", you could drop that also, but I would leave it there so there is no confusion at all, as WWW indicates World Wide Web to most people.
Some way out URL's may not indicate that it is even a web address, with many new TLD (Top Level Domain) names appearing that are unrecognizable as a TLD's.
Cheers Don...
-- Don McKenzie Site Map: http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email Xbee Wireless Modules, and low cost Interface Boards. http://www.dontronics-shop.com/xbee-boards.html
Which fits better? Mine have www, in blue like a default link. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
-- "it\'s the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
I'll second the other three. Same here on my biz card, starts with www. In most browsers you don't need to key in http, most of them even take the bare domain name. Even if not, everyone should know. Those who don't know won't have the foggiest about what a domain is anyhow.
Sig lines and email sigs are another matter. Those should contain the full path.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Wait.... thats obseleto, put a 2D barcode on it as well, see the wikipedithingummy, just scan it into the client's pda, you only have to get one made, save trees
martin
Thanks to all for replies... :)
D from BC British Columbia Canada
I just looked through my disorganized pile of business cards. All that list a web site does so WITHOUT the http://.
Mine is the only one with http, ftp, mailto, callto, and sip. Argh...
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Without. Definitely!! Business cards should be free of all unnecessary clutter. Pay more attention to legibility. It will serve you better in the long run.
If you want to stand out, either make them out of something else (old, unused circuit boards?), or have them cut into weird shapes. I've seen business cards made on CNC machines, for example. Big heavy, not easily discarded - even if only for the "coolness" factor.
However, mine are made of paper, and DO not use "http". For what it's worth...
While I think of it, don't put your email address on a business card either:
Cheers Don...
-- Don McKenzie Site Map: http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email Xbee Wireless Modules, and low cost Interface Boards. http://www.dontronics-shop.com/xbee-boards.html
Don McKenzie wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:
I use Internet Explorer, and it does not automatically add "www" to all websites. AFAIK, one would have to buy both "
Re: HTTP, tho', usually people only include things that are not exactly http://, such as https:// .
HTH!
Don McKenzie wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:
I can give you a simple bit of old (therefore compatible with old browsers as well as new ones) JavaScript that does it - if anyone is interested, I'll post it here.
- Kris
mpm wrote in news:7fbadf2c-9e81-41ee-a7c5- snipped-for-privacy@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:
Weird shapes are very dicey, too easy to use inappropriately. If nothing else, the card needs to still fit into a wallet and/or standard business card holder. Material is another matter - I saw an interesting one for an architectural firm that was on heavy vellum, which went well with teh company's image and preferred architectural style.
Photo backgrounds are around, but be *very* careful to not have such a busy photo that it drowns out the text - as has been pointed out by otehrs, teh first consideration is Clarity - people have to be able to
*see* your info. If you want to se a photo, use something that is "graphic"/simple, with clear reagions of light and dark that will lend themselves well to text that will stand out. Personally, tho', unless you are a photography company, or have some otehr reason to have a photo, or at elast ahve a particularly great photo, IMO it's best to avoid photos, becasue tehy make teh design process more complex, and it's much harder to get a clearly-legible card. One exception would be if you're an artisan - I've seen it where the front is a photo of a work of particular merit or interest, and either the back, or the inside of a folded card, contains the text. MOst fo the time, tho', you're better off with either a simple graphic, or a very light-colored ("transparent") and graphically-simplified photo.But it really depends upon the nature of your business. Most don't particularly benefit from the expense of a photo-card, but again, that's nto a hard'n'fast rule - it depends upon the particular business, wht type of business it is, and what niche it occupies, i.e. what you want to communicate to your target market.
Avoid clip art like the plague!! It's far better to have a simple text- only card using a good, or even elegant (so long as it's clearly legible!) typeface, and good use of white space (i.e. using the Basic Rules of Composition), than it is to willy-nilly fill up space with clip art, which mostly just comes across as being "bargain bin" and "old hat". At least have your graphics designed specifically for you, your company, and what you want to communicate - after all, graphics/art *is* communication, so make it work for you rather than against you. If you can't afford that, stick with text-only.
Oh yeah, and try to use something *other* than Helvetica/Arial, and/or Times New Roman, and/or Courier - IIRC, Helvetica/Ariel and TNR are used on tax forms and tax booklets :p Pick something that's a bit less boring. But definitely avoid anything that is overly ornate (unless your business is selling Victorian-style lace tablecloths and similar) or not clearly legible. There is a balance.
One approach that cansometimes work nicely is to have a very subtly- colored flat background graphic, overlaid with thick/textured dark ink. Not a universal, just another thing to consider.
HTH!
- Kris
Some of my customers use business card scanners such as:
I don't think the mechanism would appreciate being fed a circuit board (especially with components).
I had the same idea when I was working for an RF company. I made a stripline cell phone detector on a 0.032" PCB. On the ground plane side, I silk screened my business card. The geeks thought it was cool. Everyone else thought it was a bomb. I quickly gave up on the idea.
These days, I print my own business cards on my laser printer. I usually do only about 50 at a time. For special events and ocassions, I edit the contents to match the prospective audience. For example, my business title varies from "RF Engineer" to "Keeper of the Faith" (from the movie Planet of the Apes). I have to be very careful as I once handed a prospective customer a card with "Chain Saw Repair" as my occupation.
I just remembered why I used http:// in front of my web sites. Web sites that start with www are obviously web sites. However, I have one that's listed as: 802.11junk.com which does NOT look like a web site to the average person. I had to stuff the http:// in front of it to make it look right.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Like James Garner in 'The Rockford Files', with the printing press in the trunk of his car? ;-)
-- http://improve-usenet.org/index.html If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm Sporadic E is the Earth\'s aluminum foil beanie for the \'global warming\' sheep.
Ugh . I used arial on my new batch of business cards. Next time.. :P
D from BC British Columbia Canada
That seems better than what I'm doing now.. Currently, my email address is a jpeg on my site. The jpeg is also hyperlinked to a 'go ahead bots spam me' address. People have the option of clicking on the pic (jpeg'd text captcha) to spawn their email app... or to type in my address as read off the jpeg. When I get too much spam, I switch the hyperlink email address of the jpeg but not the address as seen in the jpeg.
Problem is... it looks black hat. Click this email address...get another email address. Also, everybody who used the hyperlink will end up with an invalid adress in the future when I switch it due to excessive spam.
It's crappy..but website design is not my thing..
D from BC British Columbia Canada
D from BC wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
It's below. The header "DOCTYPE" info is old, but th epage still ought to stand on its own and work "as is",, even if you add content, as long as it's not PHP or ASP or anything too advanced - then you'd prob need to just use a differrnt page, and copy'n'paste teh DIV info into that.
*Keeping all quotes intact*, substitute YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE with your user name substitute DOMAIN_NAME_HERE with domain name - comic.com, earthlink.net, whatever. **Don't add in the "@" ** - that's handled below.There is a separate DIV (id="Layer80") which is a "Back" function - if you have an image you want to use as a button, type its URL where it says IMAGE_URL_HERE - again, keep teh quotes, they're necessary.
You can play with the DIV values for left, width, height, and so on as need be, to get it all to look the way you want. For all colors, ust type in the desired HEX values for the color you want. (Paint Shop Pro has a converter, so I imagine that Photoshop does also, but if you don't have graphics software, a color-to-Hex converter should be pretty easy to find via Google).
Oh yeah, you can also change the fonts listed in the section: document.write("
Freeware to create a custom javascript:
-- http://improve-usenet.org/index.html If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm Sporadic E is the Earth\'s aluminum foil beanie for the \'global warming\' sheep.
D from BC wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Bummer...Did you have them made, or use Printer cards? Printer cards are more easily replaced - but they are dicey because I've seen people run their fingers on the edges to feel for perforations.
To "cheat", stack your cards together and aand them (yup, with plain old fine sandpaper).
Personally, tho', I've used a cutting template (that gets printed onto the things) and print the things on heavy stock, because the "laser printer cards" tend to be far too light-weight. YOu can then lay them out and give teh tops a very light coat of Krylon spray acrylic, or use the "photo weight" stuff for a glossy photo-finish look.
HTH!
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