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Coloured postcards
[English]
[français]
Color appeared very early on postcards, well before 1904. It wasn’t just the title or borders that were colored, but the entire view of the card. It was a veritable visual revolution for the time, offering recipients a far more vivid and immersive experience than traditional black-and-white cards. Yet despite this initial boom, the use of color did not endure systematically, and black and white remained predominant for many years.
Why hasn’t this transition been more striking? Several factors may explain this resistance to change. One of the main reasons was the high cost of coloring processes, which restricted the use of full-color cards to the most popular formats or special occasions. The quality/price ratio was not always favorable. The technical processes of the time, although in full development, were not as accessible and efficient as they are today. Higher production costs forced publishers to favor black and white cards, which were much less expensive, while maintaining image quality that was quite acceptable to the public.
So, although color postcards were initially all the rage, black and white remained the norm for several decades. But what did the consumers of the time think? What were their impressions of colored cards before 1940? Was the appeal of novelty and diversity enough to justify the adoption of colorized cards, or did the charm of black and white retain a certain cachet with the public?
As part of its research, Cartacaro is endeavoring to gather studies on the coloring processes used, to understand why black and white persisted as the preferred choice for so long, and to gather the opinions of customers at the time regarding color postcards. If you have any resources, testimonials or impressions to share on this subject, please don’t hesitate to pass them on to Cartacaro. We’d be delighted to publish your contributions to enrich this collective reflection and better understand the dynamics that have marked the history of the postcard.
