1848-1872 1873-1897 1898-1913 1914-1945 1946-1990 1991-2008
Photochrome Postcards
1939
PHOTOCHROMES (Chromes) 1939 - Present
Up until 1939 almost all color postcards were manufactured by heavily retouching images taken from black and white photographs. Though the first color film was developed in 1907, it wasn’t until 1936 that the first high quality, multi layered film was invented that could be used for commercial reproduction. The term Photochrome is derived from Kodachrome the name of this new Kodak film. A number of early photochromes originally referred to themselves as kodachromes. Others were more subtle stating they were taken from natural color photographs. They are now usually just called chromes for short. The new process camera now made color separations for offset litho-plates, taking four halftone negatives broken down into CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) colors. The different halftone screens were then rotated to create a rosette pattern enhancing the method’s subtractive color properties. The printed photochrome cards resemble color photographs even though made through halftone offset lithography. The Union Oil Company was the first to use photochromes in 1939 on the giveaway postcards available at their service stations. But with gas rationing enacted during the Second World War, they soon had little need to advertise and the technique was not revived until after 1945. Mike Roberts was an early pioneer in this medium who did much to make it popular. Some publishers thought this process a fad and continued to print linen cards. But because no retouching was needed on photochromes they became much cheeper to manufacture, and almost all postcards have been printed as photochromes since the mid 1950’s. The large variety of printing techniques that postcards were manufactured in had already vastly decreased, but the coming of the photochrome also marked the end of the artist’s hand on postcards. Though the process has basically remained the same since inception it has not been static as color quality has continually improved since the early dull grainy cards. As photochromes began to dominate the postcard industry much of the printing moved away from small publishers to large multi-national corporations who produced cards in ever larger numbers. In order to insure a long shelf life images tended to grow blander. At first photochromes were highly sought out by collectors because of their novelty, but as years past their sterile look led them to be considered almost worthless. Though these cards are still considered modern, many of the scenes that they portray are now over fifty years old and they may have changed more than some cards of a hundred years. This factor has now created a renewed interest in a select number of these cards among collectors.
Use the link below for a more compleate history of this period.