vCard is a widely used standard for representing and exchanging personal and organizational contact information in a compact, machine-readable form. Typically stored in files with the .vcf extension and attached to email messages, vCards can also be passed between devices, embedded in QR codes, read from NFC tags, or imported into address books. The format is defined and maintained through Internet standards and has evolved through multiple versions to improve character encoding and data types.

Core structure and common properties

A vCard entry is a plain-text record composed of named properties and values. Common fields include:

  • N — structured name (family, given, additional names)
  • FN — formatted name for display
  • TEL — telephone numbers (with type qualifiers)
  • EMAIL — email addresses
  • ADR — postal addresses (structured components)
  • ORG and TITLE — organization and job title
  • PHOTO or LOGO — embedded binary data or URI

Properties may include parameters to indicate types (work, home, fax), encodings (quoted-printable, base64) and character sets (UTF-8 in modern versions). A single .vcf file can contain multiple vCard entries, allowing export/import of many contacts at once.

History and format evolution

vCard originated as a simple interchange format for early email and mobile phone systems and has since been standardized by IETF specifications. Later revisions introduced better support for international characters, standardized MIME media types for email attachments, and richer data values such as structured addresses, geo-coordinates and social profiles. Related standards such as vCalendar and its successor iCalendar address events and scheduling rather than contact details.

Uses and interoperability

Everyday uses of vCard include exchanging contact details by email, importing/exporting address books between applications, embedding contact information in web pages or digital signatures, and encoding contacts into QR codes for quick scanning. Most modern email clients, smartphones and contact-management tools can read and write vCard files. Because implementations vary, some applications extend the format with nonstandard properties; interoperability is usually good for basic fields but can be inconsistent for extended or vendor-specific data.

vCard is a plain-text, structured format; by contrast, hCard is a microformat that represents contact information within HTML using specific class names and attributes. There are also compact alternatives used in certain ecosystems (for example, meCard on some mobile platforms) and richer data models used inside contact-management platforms. When exchanging contacts broadly, the vCard format remains the most universally accepted and convenient option.

For practical use, generate vCards with the basic fields your recipients expect (FN, TEL, EMAIL) and prefer UTF-8 encoding for international text. When embedding photos or binary content, be mindful of size and encoding to ensure compatibility across devices.