KDE has a very strong user community going to events all over the world. During work time we also often meet people who are interested in KDE, from potential sponsors to users and from potential employers to companies wanting to roll out KDE desktops.
In these - and other - cases it is is often beneficial to have KDE-"branded" business cards to hand to interested people. A professional-looking business card can make a large difference.
To avoid requiring everyone to design and print his or her own business cards KDE e.V. offers free KDE business cards to KDE e.V. members who have a need for them. Please read the FAQ for the exact rules about who can request business cards.
Requesting Business Cards
If you are eligible for KDE business cards, please send an e-mail to the KDE Business Cards Team. To ease tracking for us, add your name in the subject. The request consists of the following parts:
All parts are required.
Motivation
Your motivation for needing business cards, like the events you'll be attending or the fact that you meet lots of business people who are interested in your KDE work
Name
Your name as it should be printed on the cards
Personal Data
A maximum of four lines of data. The following fields are available:
(Fields marked with (*) are required)
Role
Your role(s) within KDE
Notes:
E-Mail Address
Your e-mail address
Note:
Phone or Fax Number(s)
(Optional) Your mobile or other phone number(s) if you want them listed
Notes:
Example: +321 456 7890 1234 for country code 321, area code 456 and subscriber number 78901234.
Custom Fields
(Optional) Custom fields that you want listed, if any, like your postal address or web site URLs
Notes:
Back to Personal Data
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City and Country
Your city and country (will be used for the icon at the bottom of the business card)
Delivery Address and Date
Your delivery address and whether you need the cards at a specific time.
Notes:
Please read the FAQ for more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
This page lists a number of frequently asked questions about the KDE Business Cards. If you have a question that is not answered here, please send an e-mail to the KDE Business Cards Team and we're happy to help you!
Members of the KDE e.V. are generally allowed to get business cards. If you're not an official member of the KDE e.V., but you do need KDE business cards we may still make an exception for you. Just make sure you have a really good motivation. In both cases, please follow the instructions on the Business Cards page. Note that the KDE Marketing Team can deny requests even for e.V. members if there are serious reasons to do so, like requesting many cards in a very short time without being active at representing KDE.
The default amount is 500 cards per person. Because we're using offset print with the official KDE spot colors it will hardly be cheaper to print smaller batches. Even larger batches are possible, but probably only make sense for generic cards for local groups like KDE-NL or KDE-DE, or for bigger generic entities like KDE e.V. itself.
Please see the Business Cards page for an example.
Of course. Please submit a new request to the KDE Business Cards Team asking for more, along with a short motivation. If you order lots of cards in a short time we reserve the right to refuse your request though, the cards are not meant for lighting your fireplace. Use them as you would use your employer's cards and you needn't fear anything...
Yes, if you follow the instructions on the Business Cards page you'll see that we ask for a delivery address. However, in order to save costs for KDE e.V., please try combining the shipment with someone else who lives close to you or who you'll otherwise meet during an event. This is not strictly required, but cool as KDE is, the e.V. can still burn money only once.
After ordering the printer will start its work. For most batches we'll let the printer schedule the job whenever they have time, which might take a week or so; only if there's a reason for hurry we'll call them and ask for more urgent processing.
Shipment itself is subject to the speed of the postal service from Germany to your home. Outside Germany that will usually be about a week.
This depends on what you enter in your request, as outlined on the Business Cards page. Your name, e-mail address, role, country and city will be on all cards. Other data is optional. See the example images on the Business Cards page for an idea.
Sure, only your e-mail address is mandatory contact information.
No. The business cards are KDE business cards, not personal business cards. Additionally, GPG fingerprints on the cards give an unprofessional impression and are not in wide use by the general audience for business cards anyway. Business cards are no strips for keysigning parties.
Yes, but keep in mind that there are only four lines of text available, at least two of which will be taken by your role and e-mail address. If your address fits on the remaining one or two lines you can do so. The country is printed on the icon at the bottom of the card, so you don't need to use up a line of text for that.
Put a general description on it, such as
Try to be descriptive and keep in mind that the people you hand the cards out to do not know KDE specific abbreviations. KDE-PIM might be descriptive enough for you, but probably not for people outside the KDE project.
If you have multiple roles that are equally important for use on business cards you sometimes combine them using an ampersand. Example:
KDE Software Architect & Developer
You can also use a second line if there's still a line of text available in the four-line area:
KDE Developer
KDE e.V. Board
No, the cards will be paid by the KDE e.V. Of course you are free to donate money to KDE or find companies who are willing to sponsor KDE e.V. or one of our developer events.
Join the KDE Marketing Team! Please take a look at SpreadKDE or join the kde-promo mailing list.
We believe that KDE is mature enough to present itself in a professional way to the outside world. Therefore, we handed the work over to a professional designer.
Our community is very good at creating a high quality desktop environment, and our artist teams create beautiful icons. Designing business cards, however, is a specialism that is best outsourced to professionals.
Please don't. We use the KDE logo's official colours instead of CMYK print. It is unlikely that printing them yourself for a small batch will be cheaper than the special price that we have with the printer. This also ensures that there will be no color differences in the cards or quality differences in the paper.
Please contact the KDE Marketing Team with your motivation. We'd rather not have all kinds of different cards around, so this should only be done with a very good reason to do so.
You guessed it by now - send an e-mail to the KDE Marketing Team. We'll happily answer it for you and - depending on the question - will add it to this FAQ.