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

Palladiotypes (Palladium Print)
A Palladiotype is a photographic image based on the chemistry of the cyanotype in which paper is photo sensitized with iron salts. When developed out, the salts are replaced with palladium. This process has been used to create homemade photo paper since the 1870’s. Commercial palladium paper was introduced in 1916 as a substitute for platinum paper that was not unavailable during the First World War. In the post war years the cost of palladium rose alongside that of platinum and its production was discontinued during the 1930’s. Palladium and platinum share many characteristics; their colors can range from a silvery gray to a warm brown; and they were sometimes even mixed together. Both metals are very stable for they embed themselves into the paper, rather than lie on the surface. This also gives the paper made with them a very matte finish that makes them almost unrecognizable as photographs. Palladium paper was used for real photo postcards but they are not very common.

Panchromatic (Pans Film)
Panchromatic refers to the ability of film to capture the entire visual spectrum of light. Earlier silver based film was only sensitive to the blue and ultra violet wavelengths. The color sensitivity of panchromatic film is closet to that of the human eye. Because of its greater sensitivity this film must be processed in total darkness. By employing color filters when first shooting, color photo separations can latter be made from black & white film. Panchromatic emulsion was invented by Frederick Ives in 1881 and introduced to the public as commercial film in 1906.

Panorama
A panorama refers to a large-scale 360-degree painting within a cylindrical structure (rotunda) that is viewed from its center to immerse the viewer into an illusion of reality. The first such panorama was patented by an Irishman, Robert Barker in 1787. Though originally built in Europe, they were based upon earlier traditions of wide format paintings and prints. In the United States very long paintings to which a viewing admission was charged were common. By the 1880’s the panorama returned to America in the form of cycloramas where many were built depicting battles, religious themes, and foreign views. Panoramas were a major art form of the 19th century and a leading form of mass entertainment until dioramas with wax figures and sound effects began to accompany these paintings to help compete with the movies that were siphoning of customers. The 20th century saw disasters and science fiction themes added as subjects to peak interest but the audience for this type of entertainment continued to decline. By the 1930’s most had been demolished, and only two Cycloramas survive in the United States today depicting the battles of Atlanta and Gettysburg. As postcards emerged amidst their popularity it was only natural for fold out cards to develop in order to present elongated views. Though not a panorama by classical definition, all wide views are now commonly referred to by this term. Cycloramas themselves provided imagery for a number of postcards.

Parallax Stereogram
A Parallax Stereogram is a two dimensional photograph made to look as if it were three dimensional through alterations in its surface. Based on principals discovered in 1896, Frederic Ives invented the Parallax Stereogram in 1903. Alternating strips cut from two photographs taken of the same subject at slightly differing angles are first pieced together then aligned behind thin opaque bars of the same frequency as that of the divided strips. The left and right eye each perceive this image at different angles making it appear three dimensional. The problem with this method was that the effect only took place when the image was views at a specific angle. This obstacle was overcome by Gabriel M. Lippmann who developed the fly’s-eye lens, a sheet of small round globules through which the photograph would be taken and then viewed. Ives’ son Hubert refined this idea in the 1920’s by replacing the fly’s-eye with a linear array. Photographs were first shot through a parallax barrier but later directly onto a lenticulating sheet of plastic with a photo sensitized back. When the image is viewed through a thin layer of lenticulating plastic, each linear lenticule acts as an individual lens and reflects light back to the eye at the same angle as the image was exposed. As the light fractures at various angles it appears differently to each eye creating the illusion of seeing the objects in the image from a different perspective. This principal was applied to early movie production and by 1964 it saw its first use in commercial magazine illustration under the name Xograph.

Paste-On Card
A paste-on-card is an embossed or printed postcard, usually in color letterpress, with a real photograph or intaglio print pasted onto it. Any small printer or individual with a hand press who had access to images could publish these cards. They were cheep and quick to produce and could be printed in small number so that artwork that could not stand up to large press runs could be incorporated here. This made them very appealing to publishers afraid of financial risk, and to those who wanted to get in on the growing postcard market but that didn’t have a large enough client base to support large press runs. Past-on cards made their first appearance in the 1890’s. They draw on the tradition of cabinet cards and were a precursor to the pennant card.

Patriograph
A Patriograph is a trade name for souvenir cards printed by the American Souvenir Card Company between 1897 and 1898. They were not sold individually but only in sets marketed towards the collector.

Payne-Aldrich Act
During the election campaign of 1908, lower tariff rates were an integral part of the Republican platform, so after President Taft was elected he called up special session of Congress in order to address this issue. The House passed a bill close to the President’s wishes, but the Senate’s version was much more protectionist. Through the Payne-Aldrich Act, a compromise agreed to in 1909, tariffs were lowered on 650 items leaving 1,150 unchanged, but for 220 items including postcards, tariffs were increased. Up to this point postcards had only been minimally taxed, but this new protective measure heavily lobbied for by American postcard printers, made importing cards from Europe very prohibitive. Most postcards at this time were imported from Germany and American printers were tired of sharing such a large percentage of profits. Unfortunately they could not match the quality of German made cards and the best of these continued to attract an American audience despite the high tariff. Jobbers who had hoarded cards in fear of the tariff now dumped their overstock onto the marked severely depressing prices. This controversy over protectionism helped propel Woodrow Wilson into the Presidency in the next election. The Tariff Act of 1913 finally lowered the basic tax rates but much harm had already been done to international markets and the crippled postcard industry would never recover its former glory.

Pennant Cards (Felt Appliqué)
A pennant card is a type of pre-printed stock card to which a cut felt pennant baring the name of a location would be attached. They were usually carried by small retailers who would print specific place names onto them as requested by their customers. The felt could easily be printed on by using a small jobbing platen or hand press allowing small quantities of cards to be ordered where the audience for them was limited. Valentine & Son made a variation on the pennant substituting felt with metal foil.

Penny Dreadful
A Penny Dreadful is a type of comic valentine card first designed by Charles Howard in 1870. The message was usually insulting in nature out of the tradition of the Vinegar Valentine.

Penny Postcard
The term penny postcard is informally applied to those postcards of age that only cost a penny to post. While many believe this term refers to the purchase price of a card it is a bit of a misnomer as postcard prices were never consistent. For most of the early years of postcards, they sold for one or two cents. There were however many cheaply produced cards that went for two for a penny. Likewise there were also cards of higher quality selling for three to five cents. Real photo postcards also sold for about a nickel or more. When buying postcards in quantity some sort of discount was usually available.

Philocarty
Philocarty is an archaic term used in the early 20th century for postcard collecting.

Phonopostal
A Phonopostal is a type of French novelty postcard in which a self recorded message could be placed on an attached black lacquer record. A special device was needed to both record and play these messages; as they did not properly fit on a gramophone due to their rectilinear shape. These cards were created by the Pathe Company prior to World War One.

Phostint
Phostint is a trade name established in 1903 for the Swiss photochrom process as used by the Detroit Publishing Company. Not only did Detroit alter some specifics of this process to give it a unique appearance, it underwent further changes during the company’s lifetime so that their cards have sharp to soft looks. The process is based on reproducing a lithographic image from a photograph without the use of halftone screens. Through the use of photosensitive asphaltum a continuous tones could be created but their many different colors required multiple litho-stones for a single image. These pictures were made from black & white photographs with their colors chosen and separated by a retoucher. The precise details of their methods were kept such close trade secrets that when Detroit Publishing went out of business the techniques they developed died with them.

Photo Chrome
Photo Chrome is a trade name for a type of postcard originally distributed by the American News Company and later by Gut & Steers that was printed in four-color lithography. Color on these cards are printed in large random dots, which is overprinted with two sets of screened markings, one in a light grey for value and the other in black for detail. Even though the grain on these cards almost resemble a halftone it is so fine that it creates the illusion of continuous tone. Photo Chrome cards are characterized by bright cool colors and a soft hand drawn look. They were printed in the United States.

Photochrom Process
Photochroms are produced by a continuous tone multi-color lithographic process developed in Switzerland in the 1880’s by Orell Fussli & Company. Litho-stones were coated with a photosensitive Syrian asphaltum, exposed to a negative, and then processed as a normal lithograph. Ten to eighteen hues were typically used creating very rich results. It was primarily used for the color printing of postcards and prints. The process was exclusively owned by the Swiss PhotoGlob Company who licensed it out to Photochrome Ltd. of England, and the Detroit Publishing Company in the United States who eventually applied the trade name Phostint to it in 1903. The precise details of this method varied by licensee giving each firm’s cards a distinctive look. A close variation of this process was patented by Wezel & Nauman in Saxony.

Photochromes (Chromes)
Photochromes are postcards printed in offset lithography with process colors. The name is derived from Kodachrome, the first high quality, multi layered film developed by Kodak in 1935. Color separation for litho-plates were made from this new film by the process camera that took halftone negatives broken down into four CMYK colors. The different screens were then rotated to create a rosette pattern enhancing the method’s subtractive color properties. These printed cards resemble color photographs even though they are made through halftone offset lithography. The Union Oil Company was the first to use photochromes in 1939 as giveaway postcards available at their service stations. Since the mid 1950’s almost all postcards have been printed as photochromes. These cards are usually simply referred to as Chromes.

Photochromie (Vidal Process)
A Photochromie is made through a variation of the photochrom process, invented in 1875 by Leon Vidal. It was a hybrid of chromolithography with elements of the photographic reproductive methods used to create woodburytypes. Very high quality reproductions could be obtained through this method but it was difficult and expensive so rarely used. The firm of Nenke & Ostermaier patented this process in Saxony and used it to create high quality postcards. The photochromie process was eventually adapted for use on offset presses.

Photoglyphic Engraving
Photoglyphic engraving is a type of photogravure process developed by W.H. Fox Talbot in 1858. Prior to the invention of the crossline screen it was a way to create small ink cells on metal printing plates when transferring an image through a photo gelatin process. By melting the granules of an aquatint dusting made of gum copal powder to the plate before the photosensitive gelatin is applied, the random narrow channels left between them could later be etched where the gelatin was washed away during processing. This development not only created richer tones in the printed image but it allowed the plate to print wide expanses of black.

Photogravure
Photogravure is a form of intaglio printing in which a photographic image is chemically etched into a metal plate. First the printing plate is coated with a fine resin powder, which is melted onto it to create an acid resist with a random dot structure. Next a photosensitive dichromate gelatin emulsion is applied and exposed to a positive transparency. When washed, the gelatin hardened by light will remain on the plate and form an acid resist. The remaining gelatin will wash away in proportion to the density of the transparency that covered it, exposing the metal surface of the plate. When placed in successive acid baths of decreasing strength, the metal will dissolve in the exposed areas between the rosin dots. The thinner areas of gelatin will eventually wear away in proportion to their light exposure to revile the metal of the plate underneath; but because they have less contact time with the acid they won’t etch as deeply thus producing lighter tones. This process produces thousands of irregular ink cells in varying depths that merge into a subtle continuous toned image. Though the results obtained by this process are of a higher quality than many other printing methods, its complexity makes it more expensive to produce. This process was not typically used for American made postcards, but in Europe many monochromatic cards were employed it. Before color separations could be made photographically black & white photogravure was often combined with color lithography.

Experiments have been made with photogravure since the 1820’s but various problems prohibited its commercial use for many years. By 1852 W.H. Fox Talbot was using a gelatin emulsion as an acid resist on metal plates. Six years later he achieved richer tones by first aquatinting the plate before sensitizing it. In 1864, J. W. Swan discovered a way of transferring an image onto a metal plate by using a photosensitive gelatin tissue. In 1879, Karl Klic replaced Talbot’s step of aquatinting the plate by infusing the gelatin tissue with a dot pattern. This process was able to produce an attractive random grain along with fine detail. Klik’s method provided more consistent results and became the most widely used. The use of gelatin tissue allowed this method to migrate to the faster rotary press. From here it would evolve into a more efficient form called rotogravure.

Photo Helio
Photo Helio is a trade name for a type of postcard distributed by the American News Company that was characterized by a fine grain with smooth color transitions in the skies and crisp foregrounds. While similar in appearance to a heliograph they aactually employed a black & white halftone printed over color lithography. These cards were printed in yellow, red, and blue, which had a the effect of a bright cool pallet. These cards were printed in Germany.

Photolithography
The printing method by which an image is transferred to a lithographic printing surface by photochemical means is known as photolithography. This process was first used with litho-stones and then litho-plates including those designed for offset lithography. Each type of substrate has specific requirements and there are variations in processing but all basically begin by preparing the printing surface with a photosensitive gelatin emulsion. This can be done by applying the emulsion directly to the substrate, or indirectly by first exposing a sheet of gelatin tissue and then adhering it to the plate. After exposure to a negative, processed and washed out, the light hardened gelatin remains on the plate as if it were a drawing. When the plate is dampened and rolled up with a greasy ink, the moisture will sit in the grain of the bare substrate, and the ink will only stick to the remaining emulsion. It is then printed as a normal lithograph. Most postcards were printed using some form of photolithography.

Photo-Mezzotype
A photo-mezzotype is a print created by a process similar to that of a collotype. It can reproduce richly toned images from photographs.

Photo Supply House
A photo supply house is a business that would gather and warehouse negatives then sell them on demand. They were a forerunner to the stock photography industry that developed in the 1920’s. Most of these photos were not copyrighted; the photographer had little to no say on how they would be used and the same image was often sold to different publishers at the same time. Few if any records were ever kept of the photographers who supplied their images.

Phototypie (photo-type)
A phototypie is a popular alternative name for a collotype in Europe.

Pierrot (Little Peter)
A Pierrot is a white-faced figure in a white floppy clownish costume with big black buttons based on the character of a common servant named Pedrolino, created by the Italian Giuseppe Giaratone in the 1600’s. A French actor Jean Gaspard Debureau turned this awkward mischievous servant into a silent suffering lover called Pierrot in the early 1800’s. After his death his son Charles continued this character's tradition by opening a school for mimes. The Russian performer Alexander Vertinsky created a black Pierrot variation in 1916. Pierrot was a commonly recognized figure when postcards emerged and he was placed on many illustrated cards.

Pigment
Pigment is a colorant consisting of insoluble particles made up of many molecules. They are commonly ground into a resin, oil, or varnish base to create inks and paints. Pigments are generally more stable and lightfast than dyes of the same color.

Pinking
Pinking refers to the pinkish stains found on paper where water soluble Aniline dyes were used in printing and have run. Sometimes these stains are found on linen postcards and postage stamps.

Pin Registration
Pin registration is a process of aligning small pinholes in the printing surface with mounting pins (locating pins) on the printing plate to achieve precision registration. This method was adaptable for use with flexography, rotary letterpress, and offset lithography. Because plates with pins could be aligned immediately without trying to match up printed registration marks by trail and error every time a new color was printed it saved much time and money. Registration marks are eventually trimmed off a printed image’s edge when dry but the use of pins left small undesirable holes behind in the picture. Because of the holes, pin registration was not widely used commercially except when embossing was also employed; an irregular surface makes alignment more difficult when using traditional means. Many embossed postcards have one to three pinholes in them due to this. They were usually placed in areas where they would be least conspicuous.

Pioneer Cards
A pioneer card is a pictorial postcard, authorized by the U.S. government, that was produced prior to the effective date, July 1, 1898, of the Private Mailing Card Act of May 19, 1898. Any image or message could only appear on the card’s front as the back was reserved exclusively for the address and stamp. Most images were printed directly onto government postals and could be mailed for one cent. If cards were privately printed they required two cents postage, which greatly hampered their usage. Since there was no national distribution system for cards at this time, many were just manufactured for a local audience by small printers and publishers that did not record their names on the cards. Pioneers were used for correspondence, souvenirs, advertising and many other business activities.

Planographic
Any printmaking process in which the printing and non-printing surface rests on the same flat plane that is not cut or incised by any means is called planographic. Lithographs make up the majority of planographic prints.

Plastichrome
Plastichrome is a trade name for postcards produced by the photochrome process that were published by Colorpicture. These cards are usually labeled P Series.

Plate
A flat substrate, usually of metal, that holds an image that can be printed is referred to as a plate. Plates can vary in thickness, so they can be rigid as those used in most intaglio processes, or thin and flexible as those used in lithography. Intaglio plates are highly polished before use while plates for lithography must have a grain ground into them to mimic the texture and absorbent quality of a litho-stone.

Plate Mark
A plate mark is the slight but visible embossment that surrounds an intaglio printed image. It is caused by the tremendous pressure placed on the back of the paper and the difference in height between the press bed and the printing plate as it is run through a press. Plate makes can usually be found on intaglio prints that were hand pulled from small plates. Commercial presses that utilized impression cylinders with a number of images on them did not create plate marks as each image is cut apart from large printed sheets. Sometimes embossing was placed around an image after it was printed to create the illusion of a fine art intaglio print (false intaglio) as a marketing ploy.

Plate Tone
The tonal qualities of an intaglio image that are printed not from its incised lines, but from the un-wiped ink lying atop the plate’s surface is known as plate tone. Just prior to printing, the entire surface of an intaglio plate is covered with ink. If it is to be hand wiped as in fine art printing, rags or cheesecloth are employed to remove the excess ink from this surface but this method cannot remove all the ink leaving behind a very thin film. Sometimes ink is purposefully pulled out of the incised lines while hand wiping to create unique tonal effects (retroussage). Plate tone is also part of the expected look from intaglio methods such as drypoint and mezzotint that tear at the plate’s surface to leave burs behind that trap excess ink. Ink left behind through wiping provides each impression with its own individual look. In most commercial printing methods this excess ink is removed with the aid of a mechanical blade that wipes the surface completely clean. This speeds up the printing process and creates uniform prints.

Platen Press
A platen press is a simple type of press where a printing plate or letterpress form is placed on the press bed and locked in position. Grippers will then move single sheets of paper from the feeding stack to the heavy metal platen. Rollers apply ink to the plate on the press bed and then the bed and the platen are pressed together like a clamshell transferring the image onto the paper. When the platen and the bed spread apart, grippers remove the paper and place it in a tray. Platen presses were operated by pressmen and could be used in small shops. Smaller versions of this press that were developed in the United States are known as Jobbing Platens.

Platinotype (Platinum Print)
A Platinotype is a photograph produced by a process patented in England by William Willis in 1873, based on the iron salt chemistry of cyanotypes. As iron salts are developed out of the paper’s emulsion, they are replaced by platinum, which is added to the wash solution. This process yields a matte finish with very subtle gradations of silver. Another version that created sepia tones was later patented in 1878. In both methods the platinum imbeds itself into the paper, rather than lying on the surface as with albumen and silver gelatin prints. These are some of the most durable of all photographs for they are not prone to fading. Almost half of the prints made by the great photographers at the turn of the century utilized this process, but it was also used for creating homemade real photo postcards. During WWI platinum was strictly reserved for wartime activities, and in the years that followed its popularity declined in proportion to its rising cost. Because platinum prints needed to be contact printed they also fell out of step with the growing trend of enlarging, and commercial manufacture of the paper was discontinued in 1937. There was a revival of hand made platinum prints in the 1960’s but they were never used for postcards again.

Pneumatic Mail
Pneumatic mail is a method of delivering correspondence placed in sealed cylinders by propelling them through airtight tubes with high air pressure. The exact mechanics of systems can vary but generally compressed air was used to create a differential in pressure that would both push and pull these cylinders through tubes at speeds up to 40 mph. Even though the telegraph had sped up the delivery of messages, they still needed to be transcribed and written down, and the time lost doing this proved crucial in activities such as the trading of stock. The first Pneumatic mail system was built in London in 1853, followed by Berlin in 1865, and then Paris in 1866. This Technology eventually spread across Europe and to the United States. Philadelphia was the first American city to build a pneumatic system in 1893 with; Boston, Chicago, New York, and St. Louis to follow. Though originally conceived of as a technology that would replace the letter carrier by delivering mail to every individual home, the system proved very expensive to operate and even more costly to build. By the end of WWI all American systems were shut down except for those in New York City, which ran its 55 miles of tubes until 1953. Prague was the last city to use pneumatic mail, closing their system in 2002 after 105 years of service. In Europe only mail of a certain size was allowed in most tubes so unique forms of postal stationary and postcards were created. The pneumatic systems in America carried normal mail for they employed larger tubes than those of Europe with cylinders capable of holding 600 letters. Pneumatic systems are still widely used in large businesses for inter office correspondence. (See Pneumatic Mail Feb 22, 2007 in the Blog section)

Pochoir (French Stencil)
Pochoir is a method of adding defined areas of color to any surface by hand though the use of cut stencils of paper or thin sheet metal as guides. Known since the Middle Ages this process was used to achieve subtle coloration on collotypes. It became most popular when used to create flat patterns on the Art Deco postcards of the 1920’s. This simple stenciling method eventually evolved into the screenprinting process.

Poly-Chrome
Poly-Chrome is a trade name for an early type of multi-colored postcard in continuous tone lithography that was distributed by the American News Company. The colors on these cards are bright and so flat that they almost resemble screenprints. While European publishers used the same process, but without the Poly-Chrome name, they all seem to have been printed in Germany before 1907. Poly-Chromes were also printed in the United States during the First World War, with an M prefix and white borders, but these lithographic cards have a different grained texture.

Polyester
Polyester is short for polyethyleen terephthalate. Products made from this stable plastic are safe to use in conjunction with postcards. They are often found under the trade names Mylar D or Mellinex.

Polyethylene
Polyethylene is a stable, flexible, transparent or translucent plastic. Products made from polyethylene are safe to use in conjunction with postcards.

Polypropylene
Polypropylene is a stable, stiff plastic with good transparent clarity. Products made from polypropylene are safe to use in conjunction with postcards.

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
Polyvinyl Chloride is a very popular plastic used in a wide variety of products. It is however unstable and will emit hydrochloric acid as it ages. Postcards should never be placed in contact with this type of plastic as it will cause the cards to yellow and turn brittle over time.

Postal Carditis
Postal Carditis is a term coined by John Walker Harrington in 1906 to describe the pathology caused by cranko-organisms leading to the faddy degeneration of the brain, and well exhibited in the behavior of hoarding postcards.

Postals
The term postal is usually a reference to a postcard issued by a government with preprinted postage on its back. The first U.S. postal was issued in May of 1873. For the most part the postage rate for postals remained one penny until 1952. Publishers or advertisers would often purchase postals in large uncut sheets and then print on them.

Postcard
Postcards were developed as a regulated sized piece of card stock paper primarily created to be used as an inexpensive method of sending correspondence through the mail. In this manner they became important instruments in reinforcing social bonds. As more and more pictorial decoration covered their surface, interest in them as mementos, souvenirs, and collectables increased. While some early postcards played an important role in disseminating pictorial news, they are for the most part instruments of propaganda depicting the world in a manner that represents the values of their audience.

The term Post Card had been exclusively reserved for use on government issued postals until the Post Card Act of 1901 took effect. This legislation lifted the restrictions imposed by the Private Mailing Card Act of 1898 and the words Post Card could now be placed on cards printed by private publishers.

Post Card
The term post card is an archaic spelling of postcard, used primarily in the early 20th century. Its use is still considered acceptable though rarely found.

Post Card Gun
A post card gun is a type of camera used to make photo lapel buttons and real photo postcards without the need of a negative. An image was exposed directly onto postcard sized printing out paper placed inside the camera. Chemical developers were not needed as the image would appear on the paper when exposed to sunlight. These cameras may not have had a glass lenses but worked on the same simple principal as used by pinhole cameras. Properly sized photo paper with the camera manufacturer’s logo or name on the back was often sold along with it. These devices began being promoted around 1912 as a fast way to make easy money. This fad or possible scam seems to have died out after only a few years leaving much doubt as to its functionality.

Postcard Punk
Postcard Punk is a term used to describe someone brandishing all the classic attire and accruements that were usually associated with the Punks of the late 1970’s such as leather jackets, torn clothing, piercings, and wildly dyed and spiked hair. The term can also insinuate that a person is only posing as a Punk and is not a true one at heart.

Postmaster
The government official in charge of a local Post Office is known as a postmaster. Before the consolidation of Post Offices into full time facilities many small communities had part time Postmasters whose main occupation would be running a store that the Post Office happened to be located in. Postmasters are usually given personal discretion in what they feel needs to be confiscated from the mail as inappropriate.

Postmaster General
In the United States the government official in charge of an entire Post Office Department is known as the Postmaster General. The position has been in existence since colonial times when Benjamin Franklin was appointed to it in 1775. Between 1829 and 1971 the Postmaster General held a seat on the Presidential Cabinet.

Postmistress
A Postmistress is a female Postmaster. It has always been an informal term that is no longer in common usage. In the days when the position of Postmaster was often a part time position both a husband and wife may have taken on official duties even though only one of them was actually employed. Woman have also served alone as Postmasters since the earliest days of the Post Office Department.

Post Office Department
The Post Office Department is a government agency established by the Continental Congress in 1775. At that time Benjamin Franklin was appointed the task of creating a system capable to move correspondence between the Colonies as they began to break their ties with England. After the Constitution was ratified in 1789 the United States Post Office became an official department of the new government to be run as a monopoly. There were 75 post offices in existence at this time. The Post Master General, a Cabinet position, headed the Post Office Department. The original Department only transported mail between post offices and did not deliver mail to homes or businesses until 1863 when free city delivery was instituted. In 1902 free rural delivery became official policy, and in 1913 parcel post delivery became a service. By the 1960’s the Department was having difficulty meeting the demands of the public and it was abolished in 1971 to be replaced by a new agency under the executive branch named the United States Postal Service. At that time the position of Postmaster General was removed as a Cabinet post. The Postal Service however continues to retain the same monopoly on the delivery of regular mail.

Pressmen
Pressmen is a term traditionally applied to workers in a guild who operate hand presses. As presses were first adapted to steam power pressmen continued to work them; but when larger and more complex cylinder presses emerged a new manager class of press operators emerged with them. They were paid more than pressmen and formed a separate guild that often put them at odds with each other. As technology continued to create more advanced presses, a general rise in skills was required for all workers involved in printing. By the 1890’s all different types of workers in the print trades saw common cause and joined together to unionize.

Press Run
A press run is the totality of output from a press in one continuous round of printing. Because of the time involved in setting a press up for printing, and the time needed to clean up afterwards, a printer usually needs to print a minimum number of sheets to realize a profit. This number can vary widely with the size and complexity of the press. Some press runs may be limited by the printing medium as different types of printing plates will ware out at varying rates. If a printer normally prints in high volumes (long runs), it may be too inconvenient to fit in a small order. Since the setting up of a press for printing is a large part of a card’s expense, printing larger quantities brings down the individual cost of a card. A retailer however usually needs to sell half of the cards printed to break even on his investment thus creating some reluctance to place large orders despite any discounted cost.

Primary Colors
Primary colors are the three colors of the visual light spectrum that can be combined to create all other colors. There are no single set of primaries as these colors can vary depending on the way they are to be used. When dealing with optical mixtures of wavelengths, red, green, and blue (RGB) are the Additive Primaries that produce white light. cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY) are the Subtractive Primaries used in modern printing. For the physical chemical mixing of most pigments the three primaries are blue, red, and yellow.

Printing Out (POP)
Printing out is an aspect of certain photo papers where the full image will appear as the exposure is being made. No chemicals are needed for development as light energy alone produces the image. This type of photo paper only needed to be washed and fixed. The ability to end an exposure just as the image appeared perfect proved to be great advantage to photographers. For most of the 19th century all photo papers were printed out.

Private Mailing Card
A Private Mailing Card is the only type of card officially sanctioned for the United States mail between July 1st, 1899 and December 23rd, 1901. These cards could be privately printed and mailed at the same one-cent or two cents overseas rate as government postals, ending the U.S. Post Office Department’s monopoly. There were however a number of unusual restrictions; they had to be made 3 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches, which was smaller than standard size, and the words Private Mailing Card - Authorized by act of Congress, May 19th, 1898 were required to be printed on the back of all cards, along with This side is exclusively for the address in the left corner. No messages were allowed on the back of these cards, only the address and the applied postage. There were also color requirements as they could only be printed in light shades of buff, cream, or gray. A few publishers printed cards with the term Private Mailing Card prior to 1898 in anticipation of the Act but the size chosen was typically too large causing many to be cut down. While a variety a different card types continued to be mailed in this period without penalty, many publishers went out of business because they could not afford to redesign their cards.

Process Camera
A camera with a special lens designed to photograph 2-dimensional objects and render them in high contrast is called a process camera. They come in vertical and horizontal models depending on the type of work to be done. They are most often employed in the production of halftones for printing plates. Before photographing an image a halftone filter is place in front of the camera’s lens. Different types of filters can reproduce an image in dots of varying sizes or same size dots in different densities of area. If the image is to be printed in color a series of photographs are taken with color filters to create four negatives for each CYMK color. Process cameras only came into use in the late 1930’s after a stable high grain color film (Kodachrome) was invented. Digital scanners have now replaced much of the work done by process cameras.

Process Print
A process print was a term originally used to describe a print that had no supplemental retouching or additions made to it such as hand coloring. This term was later applied to those photomechanical prints that could give the illusion of natural color without retouching work added, and that were created from only three printed colors.

Process Printing (Process Color)
Process printing is a printing method that produces the illusion of a full color image through the use of only three printing plates inked with primary colors. This process was originally used with RGB colors according to additive color theory. As color theory evolved in the 20th century the method switched over to the subtractive primaries. Four plates are made to hold the three primary subtractive colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, plus black (CMYK). When portions of the visible light spectrum are subtracted from white light, the remaining wavelengths combine and appear as color. When all three subtractive primaries are combined black should be formed. But chemical color pigments react differently than light energy; they cannot absorb all wavelengths and appear as a dark muddy brown instead. Because of the inability of inks to mix into an optical black, black ink needs to be added to create dark values. Fluorescent and metallic effects cannot be created by using CMYK colors; an additional spot plate needs to be added to the printing process if they are desired. The tricolor printing process was patented by Ducos du Hauron in 1868. Colors separations at that time were made from different black & photographs of the same subject taken through different color filters. Its cost and difficulty in matching pigmented inks to the color wavelengths captured prevented it from being widely used in commercial printing. This changed in the mid 20th century with the invention of color film and the growth of offset lithography.

Proof Sets
A Proof Set is a type of postcard series issued by Raphael Tuck & Sons in a limited edition that was designed to appeal to the serious collector. These cards contained the same images as found on their regular cards, but they had gold borders added and the word Proof was printed on them. Each set was issued with a certificate guarantying that they were from a limited first printing.

Pulp
The cellulose fiber suspended in water from which paper is made is called pulp. Cellulose can come from wood, bamboo, cotton, esparto, hemp, flax, straw and various other organic materials that are extracted by beating, mechanical grinding, or by chemically means.

Punch Out Toy
A punch out toy is a paper toy that is punched out from a printed postcard along die cut perforated edges. These toys were often dolls or animals.

Pyrography (Writing with Fire)
Pyrography is the art of burning designs or pictures into wood or leather. It is more commonly referred to as woodburning or pokerwork. This is an ancient art form that was widely employed on novelty postcards, especially where the material used was difficult to impossible to print on.