An E-card is an electronic postcard or greeting card, sent by means of the Internet, usually through e-mail.
A sender of an e-card would select a pre-written card style with image and message, and would add their own personal message, and specify the recipient's e-mail address. On sending the card, the recipient would receive an e-mail with a link to the e-card provider's webpage, and this link would go to the e-card as a webpage, with the sender's personal message and card. Note that the actual card is not usually sent through the e-mail, but only a link to the card hosted at the e-card provider's website.
There are five common types of visual E-Cards.Flash Animated which use Macromedia's Flash software, Postcards which use static (non-moving) images, Animated cards which are similar to Postcards yet may have some minor repetitive movement, Javascript cards which typically combine Postcard images with some kind of JavaScript-based animation, and most recently Talking greeting cards, which incorporate speech synthesis.
Flash animated (talking) greeting cards, such as those found on Bluemountain.com or uptv.net, allow the user to tell an animated image to say whatever the person wants (in this way, they can be interactive, asking the viewer to perform an action, press a button, or ask the viewer to choose a picture to animate). Flash Animated cards are typically the most advanced and popular cards. They are typically used to create a full animated effect, similar to an animated cartoon.
Postcards are the oldest form of E-Cards and are still popular. They typically show more artistic or nature images such as animals, mountains, sunsets, people, or other scenic scenes.
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