I also gather even high end photographers back in the day were occasionally making post cards.
Remember Kodabromide is a fast enlarging paper. The old cards were printed on slow contact papers like Azo and Kruxo.
That looks great! If you do switch to fiber based, you have to be diligent in the fix and wash procedure.
I’ve experienced it myself. You get excited and make a modest run and try to batch a few in the process. Sometimes the fix exhausts and you don’t notice or they wash isn’t efficient or long enough and you get yellowish stain and gray or black marks. Might get white fingerprints too if you pick a fresh card with wet hands dripping with fix.
Even some of Hammond’s Studios vintage RPPC were affected with processing defects. I knew of him when I worked in Porterville. He was my boss Marty Sanders’ best friend’s dad. Mental block right now if his name was Alan Hammond or his son was Alan. Maybe both. Met the younger Hammond once and took a photo of him shoeing a Percheron. Only met the photographer in his studio once after moving away. Still working for the same company I took some colleagues on a day trip to the Porterville plant. We went sightseeing and made a stop looking for photo supplies. I picked up an old Kodak self timer (new old stock) and picked several postcards from his rack for something like fifty cents each. Some of them had those defects I mentioned.
If you put an adhesive label on the back of the 4"x6" paper, it will both stiffen the card and accept the ink.
These are one example: https://www.amazon.ca/Avery-Permanent-Shipping-Labels-Inches/dp/B004HGME70
When I do postcards for the Photrio postcard exchange, I use smaller labels on a sheet that runs through my laser printer.
Are you sure about your sizing information?
From the USPS website:
"to qualify for mailing at the First-Class Mail postcard price, it must be:
Rectangular - At least 3-1/2 inches high x 5 inches long x 0.007 inch thick
No more than 4-1/4 inches high x 6 inches long x 0.016 inches thick"
And
"TIPS
0.007 inches? How do I measure that? As a guide, an index card is thick enough. If in doubt, contact a Mailpiece Design Analyst (MDA) at the Post Office near you. MDAs have tools for precisely measuring thickness and can tell you if your mailpiece is thick enough."
umm... wow... I swear I looked this up, but I think you're correct... so a vintage card can be mailed.
I attempted a label and it did print fine. Technically that made the double weight photo paper too thick for a postcard, but that could be gotten around by simply using a thinner photo paper. The bigger issue for me was how it felt in the hand. Even though I trimmed the edges with a razor, it was still pretty obvious that the edges were a bit goofy.
I also tried a more standard photo mount of 3M repositionable adhesive and a simple plain paper backing. The edges were actually worse on that.
I ordered my 4x6 rubber stamp, so we'll see how that works, but I have high hopes. I had to tweak the layout of the graphics, since, of course, the "real photo postcard" wasn't 4x6. I would have liked to have figure out how to just have one stamp that I could use either for 3.5 x 5.5 non-mailed "more authentic" reproductions and also the mailable 4x6, but I just felt it'd be too much of a comprimise, looks wise.
Here's what I used for a 4x6 layout... a clone of the card I'm using as a model:
View attachment 385522
Kinda rolling the dice on how this will reproduce as a rubber stamp (graphics are kinda small/detailed).
I never did figure out how these 3.5" tall vintage postcards have no border... other than a theory that they might be from 5x7 negatives out of view cameras.
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