What is a Real Photo Postcard?

A Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) is a real photograph printed from a photographer’s negative directly onto photographic paper for the purpose of being mailed as a picture postcard.

Most postcards from around World War I to a bit after World War II that represent actual scenes or buildings began as a photograph. In the case of printed postcards (not Real Photo Postcards), an artist employed by a postcard company referenced the photographic image to create the master postcard image. Technicians performed a color separation process and the postcard image was subsequently printed on a printing press. Although there was some expense in setting up the artwork masters, once this was done postcards could be reproduced inexpensively and in high volume. Depending upon the process used these postcards may be called “white borders” or “linens”. The chrome postcard arrived after World War II. The photo-chrome postcard is almost always color and appears to be a color photograph when viewed from some distance but these are not true Real Photo Postcards.

During a similar time period independent photographers were taking pictures either on speculation or by request of scenes in America, developing the negatives, and then printing the negatives on photographic paper that was strong enough and sized properly for mailing. In the USA the photographic paper was often made by the Eastman Kodak© Company but other companies supplied papers too. Some papers had glossy finishes and some had matte finishes. Any identifying marks from the paper manufacturers would be on the back side of the postcard.

The photographer would either write a caption to the picture on the negative in black ink (and hence the caption, when printed on the paper, would appear to be white) or would use a mask with typeset letters for captioning that would usually be set below or to one side of the actual photographic image but could also be within the image. Some RPPCs had white borders beyond the image edges while some did not.

RPPCs are for all intents and purposes black and white and nearly all have no informational printing about the image scene on the back side. Most printed postcards are color and essentially all have some informational printing on the back side. However, some printed postcards are black and white too but they almost always have printed text on the back side.

The absolute way to confirm if a postcard that appears to be a photograph is a RPPC is to view the image through a magnifying glass. An image composed of discrete dots would indicate a printed postcard duplicated on printing press machinery. An image composed of a continuum of shades of white, gray and black would indicate that it is a RPPC.

Here is a typical RPPC with views of both the front image and the back side. Note that the back side has no printing on it but does have some identifying marks placed on the photographic paper by manufacturer.

The production volume of typical RPPCs was much lower than most printed postcards. Some RPPCs are so rare that they can only be viewed on the internet where someone has actually posted an image for others to see. And for some small-town or cross-roads scenes there are no printed postcards at all: only a RPPC may exist to capture that moment in time.

I think that the most notable difference between a RPPC and any printed postcard is that the RPPC images are clear and crisp. The detail is usually excellent and certainly much higher and more accurate than any printed postcard.