Greeting cards on display at retail.

A selection of birthday greetings cards.

Greeting cards up close

A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions, such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling. Birthday is the name given to the date of the anniversary of a person's birth Lists of holidays The words holiday or vacation have related meanings in different English-speaking countries and continents but will usually refer to one of Greeting cards, usually packaged with an envelope, come in a variety of styles. An envelope is a Packaging product usually made of flat planar material such as Paper or cardboard and designed to contain a flat object which in a postal-service There are both mass-produced as well as handmade versions that are distributed by hundreds of companies large and small. While typically inexpensive, more elaborate cards with die-cuts or glued-on decorations may cost up to US $5 each.

Hallmark Cards and American Greetings are the largest producers of greeting cards in the world. Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City Missouri. American Greetings Corporation Inc is the world's largest publicly-traded Greeting card company In the United Kingdom, it is estimated that one billion pounds are spent on greeting cards every year, with the average person sending 55 cards per year. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located ^[1]

In western countries and increasingly in other societies, many people traditionally mail seasonally themed cards to their friends and relatives in December. Many service businesses also send cards to their customers in this season, usually with a universally acceptable non-religious message such as "happy holidays" or "seasons's greetings".

The Greeting Card Association is an international trade organization representing the interests of greeting card and stationery manufacturers. The Greeting Card Association is a United States Trade organization representing the interests of Greeting cards, Gift wrapping paper and Stationery Trade is the willing exchange of goods, services, or both Trade is also called Commerce. John Beeder, former president of the Greeting Card Association, says greeting cards are effective tools to communicate important feelings to people you care about: "Anyone feels great when they receive an unexpected card in the mail. For me, there’s nothing like a greeting card to send a special message. I’m proud to be a part of an industry that not only keeps people connected, but uses both imagery and the power of words to help us express our emotions. ”

Types of greeting cards

Standard Greeting Cards A standard greeting card is printed on high-quality paper (such as card stock), and is rectangular and folded, with a picture or decorative motif on the front. Card stock (also called cover stock or pasteboard) is a paper stock that is thicker and more durable than normal writing or printing paper but thinner and more flexible Inside is a preprinted message appropriate to the occasion, along with a blank space for the sender to add a signature or handwritten message. A matching envelope is sold with the card. Some cards and envelopes feature fancy materials, such as gold leaf, ribbons or glitter. Metal leaf is a thin foil used for decoration It is also called composition leaf or schlagmetal. A ribbon or riband is a thin band of flexible material typically Cloth but also Plastic or sometimes Metal, used primarily for binding and tying Glitter is the word used to describe an assortment of very small (roughly 1 mm²) pieces of paper glass or Plastic painted in metallic neon and iridescent colors

Photo Greeting Cards In recent years, photo greeting cards have gained wide-spread popularity and come in two main types. The first type are photo insert cards in which a hole has been cut in the center. Your photo slides in just like a frame. The second type are printed photo cards in which the photo is combined with artwork and printed, usually on a high-end digital press, directly onto the face of the card. Both types are most popular for sending holiday greetings such as Christmas, Hanukkah & for baby showers. Hanukkah (חנוכה alt Chanukah) also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the A baby shower is a Party in which parents or expectant parents receive Gifts for their newborn or expected child

Pictures and printed messages in greeting cards come in every style imaginable, from fine art to humorous to profane. Non-specific cards, unrelated to any occasion, might feature a picture (or a pocket to paste in a personal photograph) but no preprinted message.

History

A German New Year's greeting card from around 1470

The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged messages of good will to celebrate the New Year, and to the early Egyptians, who conveyed their greetings on papyrus scrolls. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now Papyrus (/pəˈpaɪrəs/ (Rhymes -aɪrəs)is a thick paper-like material produced from the Pith of the papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus By the early 1400s, handmade paper greeting cards were being exchanged in Europe. The Germans are known to have printed New Year's greetings from woodcuts as early as 1400, and handmade paper Valentines were being exchanged in various parts of Europe in the early to mid-1400s.

By the 1850s, the greeting card had been transformed from a relatively expensive, handmade and hand-delivered gift to a popular and affordable means of personal communication, due largely to advances in printing and mechanization. This was followed by new trends like Christmas cards, the first of which appeared in published form in London in 1843 when Sir Henry Cole hired artist John Calcott Horsley to design a holiday card that he could send to his friends and acquaintances. A Christmas card is a Greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Sir Henry Cole ( 15 July 1808, Bath, England – 18 April 1882, London, England) was a Civil John Callcott Horsley ( January 29, 1817 - October 18, 1903) English painter, son of William Horsley, the musician In the 1860s, companies like Marcus Ward & Co, Goodall and Charles Bennett began the mass production of greeting cards. Marcus Ward and Co had its beginnings back in 1802 with a partnership between John Ward James Blow and Robert Greenfield They employed well known artists such as Kate Greenaway and Walter Crane as illustrators and card designers. Kate Greenaway (Catherine Greenaway (London 17 March 1846 – 6 November 1901 was a Children's book Illustrator and writer Walter Crane (15 August 1845 &ndash 14 March 1915 was an English artist and book illustrator

Technical developments like color lithography in 1930 propelled the manufactured greeting card industry forward. Lithography is a method for Printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface Humorous greeting cards, known as studio cards, became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s. Studio cards were tall narrow humorous greeting cards which became popular during the 1950s

Postcards

Postcards, which are single-sided without the fold, can function in a manner somewhat similar to greeting cards. A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick Paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an Envelope and Postcards appeared fairly early on in the history of the Postal Service as a cheaper way of sending messages, especially those of a tourist nature.

See also

• Christmas card
• Cardmaking
• e-card

References