A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

False Intaglio
A false intaglio is any type of printed image surrounded with a plate mark that was not actually made by the plate that printed the image. After the ink on the printed image has dried it is placed over a blank intaglio plate and run through a press again. This process creates an embossed plate mark without disturbing the original picture. Postcards in photogravure employed false intaglio plate marks the most to make it look like a hand pulled print of an artist rather than a massed produced product. Even though gravure is an intaglio process most cards were printed in large sheets, which were latter cut down leaving no plate marks behind.

Fancy Card
A fancy card was one of the terms in popular use during the 1880’s and 1890’s to describe trade cards printed in chromolithography.

Farbenphotographie
Farbenphotographie is an old German reference to natural color photography, sometimes also called heliochromy. These early color photographs were largely produced through the autochrome process. Many were made into prints and postcards using three color process printing in RGB colors. These types of postcards have the same look as that of early photochromes because their color was achieved through photomechanical color separation utilizing filters rather than a retouchers hand. It was an expensive process and not as widely used as printing in halftones. Many news photographers became attracted to autochromes during the First World War so there is a predominance of these postcards portraying war imagery.

Ferrotyping
Ferrotyping is a process of drying photographs with a silver gelatin emulsion while pressed against a sheet of polished metal or glass. A high gloss finish is imparted when the photo is peeled off. Ferrotyping can also refer to a type of damage done to a photograph when it is inadvertently stored under pressure against a smooth surface as pressure can impart irregular patches of gloss to a photo. This can sometimes be seen on real photo postcards stored in plastic that have been bundled too tightly together.

Field-post Cards
A field-post card is a type of early postcard that was made available to soldiers operating in the field during wartime. They were first introduced in Prussia during their war with France in 1870 to provide a convenient way for soldiers to keep in touch with family. These cards were originally government issued holding a printed stamp but no pictures as they were designed strictly for brief correspondence. In latter years, especially by World War One, many private postcard publishers began producing field-post cards with imagery on them. This is best illustrated by the feldpostkartes produced in Germany.

Film
A film is a thin flexible transparent surface that holds a photosensitive emulsion on one side. Commercially available glass plates were first manufactured in 1875, and their convenience and availability helped create a large amateur photography market during the 1880’s. Even so these plates were still very cumbersome to deal with, and when the Eastman Dry Plate Company offered a substitute for glass with a flexible nitrocellulose roll film coated with a photosensitive gelatin emulsion in 1889 it was quickly accepted by the marketplace. By 1913 film became available in sheets. This early type of film with collodion emulsion was replaced in 1950 because of its highly unstable properties.

Finger Cancel
A finger cancel is an ink mark applied to postage by the literal hand of a postal employee when a hand stamp has failed to cover it during canceling. This will often occur when a large number of postage stamps is applied or to make up for simple misaiming of a hand stamp.

Flatbed Cylinder Press
A flatbed cylinder press is a particular type of printing press in which the form or plate is mounted on a flat press bed and pressure is applied with a heavy cylinder. Grippers on an impression cylinder pick up paper one sheet at a time, and as the cylinder revolves, the inked plate moves under it, and the paper and plate are squeeze together between the cylinder and the bed, which transfers the image to the paper. When the impression is complete, the flatbed returns to its original position and the plate is then inked for the next impression.

Flexography
Flexography is a relief printing process where a flexible plate made of molded rubber is adhered to a printing cylinder, then inked with a finely textured roller, and directly rolled onto a substrate to create a printed image. Its basic principles are the same as letterpress printing but this process is more versatile. Flexography can be used to print on almost any surface, porous and non-porous alike, such as, leather, plastic, metal, paper, plastic, and wood. It was used in the creation of certain novelty postcards where printing needed to be applied to unusual materials that could not be run through a more conventional press.

Fluxus (Flowing)
Fluxus is an international collective movement founded by the artist George Maciunas in 1960, to promote anti-art ideals. Fluxus, like Dada, sought to enlarge the meaning of art by challenging the public’s more limited definition of it. Common forms of media were often recombined in unpredictable ways to create new meaning. The group’s first activities containing music and street performances took place in Germany, then moved on to Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London and New York. Many avant-garde artists of the 1960’s worked with this group, who later branched out to form different movements of their own. One of these newer trends was mail-art, which incorporated the wide use of postcards.

Flycard
Flycard is the brand name for free rack cards that are published by FlyCards in Russia. They currently dominate the Eastern European postcard market.

Foil Stamping
Foil stamping is a mechanical process by which a thin sheet of metal foil is adhered to a paper substrate through the use of a die. Heat is most often used to permanently bond the metal to a paper’s surface but some printers first lay down a thin layer of glue with the aid of a stencil and then apply the cut foil cold. Foil stamping was primarily used on postcards manufactured in Germany in three different formats. Some postcards had broad swaths of foil stamped on to them and were then printed over, usually in black & white lithography. Another method was to add foil only to particular details of a card that had already been printed. A third method applied the foil in a linear fashion and embossed it afterwards so that it would only sit at the bottom of sunken lines. Various types of metal foil were used including those with colored pigments added. Foil stamping can be used without any printing but is unusual for postcards.

Foldout
A foldout is a type of postcard printed on paper at least twice the length of standard size, and then folded into panels so it can be mailed as a regular sized postcard. They have been available since the earliest days of postcard production. Two and three panels were most common size, but some cards had as many as eight panels. Some of these long cards were also sold unfolded to give the purchaser the choice of saving it as is for a unblemished souvenir or folding it themselves to send it through the mail. With excessive wear these folds often tear apart and single panels can find their way into the market. They are often discernible by having only one or two ragged edges and possibly no labeling on them.

Form
Type, spacing bars, and picture blocks, when locked in a cast iron chase, and ready for letterpress printing is called a form.

Fototipia
Fototipia is a term found on Italian postcards indicating that the image was printed by a collotype process.

Foxing
Foxing refers to the brown spot-like stains sometimes found on paper. They can be caused by the oxidation of iron particles (ferric oxide) in the paper’s chemical residue left over from manufacturing. The most common cause of foxing the action of enzymes from mold that has attached itself to accommodating impurities, and encouraged to grow by a damp and warm environment. It is now believed that some of these brown stains are also a form of cellulose oxidation damage caused by repeated drying and wetting from environments with high fluctuations in humidity.

Framed Cards
A framed card is a postcard with a border wider than a simple white edging. While many of these cards are bounded by simulated printed picture frames, cards with plain and elaborate decorative borders can both fit under this definition as well.

Franking
Franking is the ability to send mail through a postal system free of postage. This privilege is given to military personnel who are allowed to send mail for free during wartime, and to Congressmen who can send free literature out to their constituents. Certain written information is required to be placed this type of correspondence before it can be sent. A letter or postcard sent this was is referred to as franked mail or free mail. For some, metered mail can fit under this definition as it is not sent for free but no postage is added to it in the form of stamps; instead a machine prints out a receipt stating the amount of postage paid, which is then adhered to the mail.

Freecards
Freecards is another informal term for free rack cards most often used in Europe.

French Fold
A French fold is a sheet of paper that is folded in half then in half again at the opposite right angle. For cards this forms a double fold creating an underside that is left blank and a two sided outside of one fold that is printed upon. French folded greeting cards were first manufactured in 1913. They quickly replaced the common use of postcards to send birthday and holiday greetings.

French Postcards
A French postcard is a postcard sized photograph or printed image depicting a nude that was published in the latter 19th century. Many of these cards came from the French magazine La Beaute that published 75 monthly poses for the use of artists, though they did not end up being the primary market for them. These were not literally postcards as they have blank backs and were illegal to mail. Sometimes the term French postcard is used informally to denote any postcard with a nude image on it.

Friendly Societies
A friendly society is an out of use term for a membership organization that published postcards to attract more members or publicize their events.

Frosted
Frosted is an informal term used to describe the look of postcards printed by the Photochrome Process Company of Philadelphia and to distinguish them from the Phostints printed by the Detroit Publishing Company. These cards were manufactured to be look a likes for Detroit’s cards but they wound up having a soft dull dry finish instead.

The term frosted was also used to describe both printed and real photo postcards that had a white crystalline substance pasted onto them in order to simulate icy frost or snow. This technique is most often found on Christmas cards.