Glossary
MeCard
MeCard is a compact contact format created by NTT DoCoMo. It encodes the same essentials as a vCard in roughly 40% fewer bytes, producing a visibly coarser and more scannable code at the same printed size.
The shape
MECARD:N:Lovelace,Ada;TEL:+14155552671;EMAIL:ada@example.com;;
One line, semicolon-delimited, terminated with a double semicolon. Name is
family,given. Fields: N, TEL, EMAIL, URL, ADR, NOTE, ORG.
The size difference
| Format | Same contact | Version at EC M |
|---|---|---|
| vCard 3.0 | ~180 bytes | 8 (49 × 49) |
| MeCard | ~95 bytes | 5 (37 × 37) |
That matters on a business card, a badge, or anything under 2.5 cm.
The trade-off
Fewer field types — no job title, no multiple typed numbers, no photo — and weaker support among desktop scanning tools. Phone cameras handle it fine.
Related
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