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

Tabs
See Writing Tabs

Talio-Chrome
A color gravure print utilizing a simple RGB pallet. The colors were separated photographically and printed through the use of a line screen so small it creates the illusion of continuous tone. The process produces a photographic-like image similar in appearance to photochromes except that the surface is very matt.

Talking Postcard
A type of novelty postcard that played a message or short tune as a record. They were known by many other names including Gramophone cards and Singing cards. Invented in Berlin in 1903, talking postcards would take on many different forms. Max Thomas would patent this idea a year latter. His single sided disks had a hole punched through them and the card as well so it could be played on a gramophone. They were made of celluloid to be less brittle than traditional shellac records. This also made them transparent so the printed image on the card show through. While this idea was patented in the United States in 1907 they are not known to have been used until cards from the Federal Novelty Importing Company of New York showed up in 1915. The American talking postcards were opaque and were usually stapled to the card. The French Pathe Company also came out with a variation, the Phonal-Postal, in which the sender could record a short message with the aid of a specially sold device. Most of these cards play at 78rpm but as speed format changed only a few publishers continued to make cards at 45 and 33rpm.

Tarjeta Postal
Spanish for postcard. While this term is found on postcards from Spanish speaking countries, it is sometimes specifically used to refer to cards published by Americans but sold in the former colonies of Spain (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines) that were seized by the United States in the war of 1898.

Tarnishing (Mirroring)
A form of age deterioration on a photograph manifesting as a metallic sheen within its darker values. Processing residue or silver, migrating out from the image can form a very noticeable surface crust that takes on various colors. Though found in almost all silver bromide images and developed out prints, it can occur on any silver based images that use an organic emulsion.

Tartan
A pattern of bands of color crisscrossing at right angles. These patterns first appeared on woven cloth in the British Isles. This design is most often associated with Scotland and specific patterns have become associated with specific clans and thus the place they come from. Many postcards depicting scenes of Scotland have used Tartan designs on their borders to create these associations. The term Plaid is used exclusively in North America to describe these types of patterns.

Taylorchrome
A trade name for the photochrome postcards published by photographer G. Morris Taylor through the 1960’s. These were mostly view-cards of western Canada.

Ten-Cent Magazine
A type of picture magazine that appeared in the 1890’s because of cheaper printing and photo reproductive methods. The many illustrations they contained combined with lower price, down from about thirty-five cents, attracted greater readership among the working class, which in turn attracted more ads. As magazines moved from being subsidized by readers to being supported by advertising, they no longer had to be published for a niche audience, and a plethora of general interest magazines began to appear. As magazine advertising grew, the use of postcards for advertising declined.

Territorial Postmark
A cancel of postage indicating the correspondence was sent from an American Territory prior to their becoming a State. During the years that postcards were in widespread use the following Territories became States; Utah in 1896, Oklahoma in 1907, Arizona and New Mexico in 1912. Hawaii became part of the United States in 1898 as a Territory, achieving Statehood in 1959. Alaska was considered a District and only became a Territory in 1912, then finally a State in 1959.

Textured Paper
Generally a paper that has not been flattened by pressing it with rollers during production, thus retaining its natural rough finish. Specifically a paper that has been embossed with a texture by pressing it with rollers incised with a pattern. Though most postcards were printed on smooth hot pressed paper, textured embossing has been used since the beginning of the 20th century. It has a tendency to obscure the printing process used often blurring the patterns of halftones. The most familiar texture is that on linen postcards, though different manufacturers had slightly different patterns.

Theochrome
A trade name for postcards published by Theodor Eismann.

Thermography
A printing process in which raised print is created. A resin powder is applied to the surface of a freshly pulled print that only sticks to its wet printed ink. When heated this chemical combination swells and the printing on the finished sheet will be raised. Used mostly with printed text such as stationary and business cards.

35mm Film
A photographic film originally manufactured by George Eastman in 1892 to be used for Thomas Edison’s motion pictures. By 1909 the 35mm film width, and a length of 16 frames per foot was accepted as the international standard for movies. It differed from other film not just by its small format, but also from the sprocket holes running down its sides allowing it to move through a motion picture camera at high speed. Starting in 1908 a number of still cameras were developed to make use of this film. The best known are the ur-Leicas invented in 1913. Because of material shortages caused by the First World War they did not go into full production until 1925. In 1934 Kodak introduced its own 35mm Retina camera that featured a film holding cartridge that could be loaded in daylight. Even so 35mm photography did not become popular until the 1960’s. Unlike large format film this new format could not be contact printed into real photo postcards; it needed to be enlarged. Faster enlarging paper such as Agfa-Ansco, DOPS, EKC, and Vitava entered the market to meet this demand. An enlarging an easel is often used to hold this paper down flat instead of a glass plate, which made white borders more common.

Timbre Cote Vue (T.C.V.)
An advisory written into the stamp box of a postcard to notify the postal employee that the postage stamp was applied the other side of the card. Variations in other languages sometimes appear or just the word Verso. Occasionally these cards would be marked Postage Due when the postal clerk took no notice. Placing a stamp on the picture side of cards was a common practice for those who collected postcards and stamps. In this way both picture and stamp could be visible when mounted into an album. These practices eventually evolved into the Maximum Card where the image, stamp, and cancel reached maximum concordance. The first known TCV card was mailed from Greece in 1896, while the first known use of the term Maximum Card was in 1932. Placing stamps on the image side of a card was always more popular among stamp collectors than postcard collectors who tend to prefer their cards in mint condition.

Tinseling (Glitter)
The method of adding metallic fragments or mica to the surface of a card. Glue is printed onto a cards surface after the image has dried. Metallic powder is then placed over the card that only sticks to the wet glue. Silver was traditionally used, but as it grew too expensive cheaper substitutes were found in a variety of colors and textures. Unlike bronzing this method produced raised sparkling lines above the cards surface. Publishers would add tinseling to stocks of slow selling cards in the hope of increasing sales. Kits with glue pens were also marketed to the public that allowed tinsel to be added to postcards at home. Because tinseled cards damaged canceling machines and mail handlers, the Post Office Department considered these cards hazardous and required that they be mailed in an envelope. The Post Office Department destoyed millions of these uncovered cards rather than deliver them.

Titling Plate
A printing plate sometimes used to add titles, numbers, and backs onto uncut sheets of printed postcards. Most printing processes used to create the images for postcards were not capable of producing clear sharp lettering, especially when the fonts were small in size. Type was usually set in letterpress, as used for books and newspapers, but not exclusively.

Toning
The addition of a metal into a photo emulsion to change the color of a photograph. Toning is done before or after the fixing procedure. Photographs were often exposed to look dark as toning would lighten the image. Gold was the first metal to be used for toning, which also increases contrast and moves the color balance toward a cooler blue. Selenium increases the range and richness of tones, sometimes producing silvery highlights with rich purple shadows. Toning gelatin silver prints changes their chemical composition by depositing various compounds on their surface resulting in shades that cover the spectrum. Toning never produced the exact same colors twice making it undesirable for commercial printing in quantity. Many photo papers were made with excess metal content to be self-toning when fixed. Toners have also been added to emulsions for many years as they were believed to increase their stability, but it now appears that this practice may have contributed to their fading.

Topicals
Postcards that are sorted into categories denoted by a specific topic as opposed to location. Certain images can be classified as both view-card or topical. There are no set standards as to how topical postcards are categorized. Individual classifications may be determined by the topics popularity among collectors, the amount of inventory, or just plain whim.

Topographical Card
A European term for a postcard whose imagery captures the landscape of a particular place. In the United States these are commonly referred to as view-cards.

Trade Card
A printed card that was used in the 1880’s and 90’s as give away advertising. They were generally printed in chromolithography on 3 x 5 inch paper cards though size and stock could vary to a great degree. They became very popular collectables and were often placed in albums. Trade cards predate postcard collecting.

Trading Card
A card that grew out of the tradition of reward cards but were purchased for the cards themselves rather than being a bonus to another product. While sets were produced as early as the 1930’s they made a substantial appearance in the 1950’s. They came in various sizes but were eventually standardized to 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches so they could be sold from vending machines. A few sets had postcard backs so they could be mailed though few probably ever were. The Topps Chewing Gum Company that sold these cards along with their Bazooka gum acquired a near monopoly on their production. By the 1980’s trading card production was beginning to be geared towards the investment oriented collector. A wide variety of subjects found their way onto trading cards but none were as popular as the baseball card.

Trademark
A word, name, symbol, device, or any combination used exclusively by a single company on their products to distinguish them from the products of another company. In 1946 trademarks became eligible for registration that protected them by law. They need to be distinctive and used for products in federally regulated commerce. Both large and small publishers printed their trademarks on postcards. Printers sometimes added their own trademarks onto cards as well.

Transparency
A general reference to a photographic image on a transparent or translucent support, such as glass or film. Specifically a transparent positive image as opposed to a film negative.

Transparency Postcard
A rare type of hold to light card where an entire sheet of transparent film is sealed between two pieces of die cut paper. This transparency provides for a viewable image, not just illuminated colors.

Trichromie
A lithograph printed in the three RGB colors through the use of halftone color separation. After the first trichromatic camera was developed in 1892 it was possible to create color separations from black & white film with the use of color filters. After this slow and elaborate process was simplified by the introduction of panchromatic film in 1906 it became easier to adapt to commercial color printing. The trichomie method became the most popular technique to print in color before the introduction of color film. It could create the illusion of mutable colors without the need for using the older and expensive chromolithographic pallet. While this process was used by many printers the term Trichromie is usually only found on postcards made in France.

Trim
The part of an image that is cut off and discarded when an image is printed as a bleed. Whenever an image needs to extend to the edges of its substrate it is printed 1/8 inch larger on all four sides and later cut down (trimmed) to final size.

Trimmed Card
A postcard that has been cut down from a larger size. It was not unusual for cards of the pioneer period to be made in unusual sizes. After 1898 many of these cards were trimmed to conform with new postal regulation sizes so they would not go to waste. This is not necessarily considered damage for it is part of the card’s production history. Many early collectors however did damage their cards by cutting off non-image areas such as tabs or borders, or trimmed down the image itself to fit it into an album not meant to hold postcards. When some publishers boaght out stock from another publisher, the card would sometimes be trimmed down to remove the previous printed name.

Tympan
A sheet or blanket that holds the paper in place on a press. It also buffers the paper from the platen or scrapper of a lithography press.

Types
A term often found on postcards of European origin to make reference to a specific classification of people. They most often refer to an ethnic group that is different from the intended buyer of the card, and that can probably found in one of the issuing Country’s colonies. Though less common, Types can also refer to other social classifications within a society or those found within the military.

Typogravure (Relief Halftone)
An early photo reproductive process, developed in France around 1890, in which a halftone image could be printed. The printing plate was cast from a photosensitive gelatin relief, formed when exposed to sunlight through a negative and then washed out. The cast contained many raised peaks of varying sizes from where the gelatin was washed away in relationship to the amount of exposure it received. These peaks could be rolled with ink in the letterpress manner, creating a series of dots that gave the illusion of continuous tone. This process was abandoned in favor of simpler halftone screen techniques as they became available.