Small stores were the mainstay of postcard publishing. Tens of thousands of these establishments such as family owned pharmacies would either send their own photographs off to be printed or they bought cards directly from catalogs and salesmen. A few small businesses such as stationers were sometimes capable of printing cards on their own. Some of these cards were manufactured by small local commercial printers that were not in the postcard business. These publishers are responsible for the vast amount of view-cards that capture small town America.
Large businesses associated with the tourist industry were also major publishers of postcards. These included the Grand Hotels as well as the many steamship lines and railroads that brought people from one place to another. These cards were ussually contracted out with larger postcard publishers and they became a form of self promotion.
There were also large publishing houses with some being little more than middlemen moving cards from printers to stores while others were totally self sufficient from the printing of cards to their final distribution. It must be noted that some small companies produced large quantities of postcards for that was the main focus of their business. Some of the worlds largest publishing houses also began producing postcards at the beginning of the craze as well as other types of companies not normally associated with postcards. But despite their large size they often did not produce cards in quantity for they were only riding the wave of opportunity with this sideline.
Photographer - Anyone with a camera could make a contract with a printer to have a photograph turned into postcard. Small stores would sometimes hire a local photographer to take pictures for them. Many professional photographers also sent their work out to printers and supplemented their studio work with postcard sales. In this way they became publishers of their own work. Larger publishers had their own staff photographers that would travel the country capturing scenes of small towns and attractions. Sometimes publishers would acquire images from photo supply houses. There was little copyright protection and different publishers would use the same photograph.
Production Manager - Once the black & white photograph was printed it would go on to the printer’s production manager who would make decisions on how to alter it for postcard production. Notes regarding colors may have been provided by the photographer or the customer ordering the card. Many production managers were artists in their own right so in the absence of any instructions they could make these decisions alone. They might paint over image areas most open to interpretation to denote desired colors. Instructions might also be written directly on the photo to indicate other needed changes. Sometimes cut and paste techniques were used to alter the composition, or add or subtract various features. The photo would then be passed on to the retoucher to carry out the instructions.
Retoucher - Though some means of optical color separation was available through filtering since the 19th century, many postcards used nothing more than the eye of the printer’s artists. The retoucher removed all parts of the image on each plate except those that would print a designated single color. This could be based on the production managers instructions, or in their absence on his own creativity. Productions managers usually worded out general color schemes and important details but for the more mundane parts of an image such as sky or trees the retoucher made the decisions. Because skies were often washed out of the photograph it was the retoucher who would draw them in. It was during this process that any feature deemed unattractive within the composition could be removed. At other times objects showing specific fashion or other tell tale details were removed so not to date the card and give it longer shelf life. People, cars, and boats were also sometimes added. Many of these subjects were stocked as decals that could be transfered to the printing plate with pressure without the time consuming task of drawing them in. But if they were added to the picture plain at the wrong level, which all too often happened, they fell out of scale with the rest of the image. Tone was sometimes added in a similar manner by adding bed day patterns.
Printer - After the printer received the retouched negative from the production manager it would be copied onto a photo sensitive tissue. Depending on the process by which the postcard was to be printed a halftone screen might be needed to impart tonal gradations. This tissue would then be adhered to a plate or litho-stone and the image chemically transfered. This process would be repeated with a new plate for every color that was to be printed. Most printers would only use four basic colors while others might employ over twenty plates to produce a more natural look. Much retouching work was done at this point directly on the printing surface. The cost for monochrome printing obviously required less labor and was much cheaper, which also made it popular. Paper would be fed over each plate on the press printing one color at a time in perfect registration. Many images could be printed at one time on a single sheet if a large press was available. The large printed sheets or webs would be cut down to size after drying.
Distributor - While small publishers may have had cards printed to sell in their own store, larger publishers may not always have had specific customers in mind for the cards they printed. These cards would be handed over to distributors who already had business arrangements set up with jobbers on a national or regional basis. Many large distributors also published cards on their own, often using various printers as quality or price dictated. Some like news agencies distributed postcards among their own newsstands. Distribution was highly competitive and unfair practices often led to battles in court.
Some postcard companies functioned as the distributor for postcards from other publishers as well as their own. Advertisements would be aimed directly to the collector offering assortments of cards on different subjects. These cards were often priced below the retail price available to most consumers.
Jobber - Jobbers often purchased postcards from distributors or small publishers, who in turn would sell them to various retail stores or newsstands they had created ties with. Many small businesses needed to carry a variety of cards but couldn’t afford to publish them in quantity, so they bought their cards from jobbers who would sell the same cards to different stores. These middlemen could disperse large quantities of cards among the many. Jobbers were often in conflict with publishers and printers who sold postcards directly to retailers causing them to organize boycotts.
