Real Photo Postcard A real photo postcard is an actual photograph on card stock that was designed to be mailed. While photographs were sent through the mail in the nineteenth century, it was not until 1902, when Kodak introduced Velox photo paper with a pre-printed postcard back, that real photo cards began to appear in any number. Because these easily made cards could be contact printed with the postcard size negatives available from Kodak cameras, it is sometimes impossible to tell if an image is a unique, home-made oneor one that was mass-produced. Many other gaslight papers were introduced. These types of cards became very common and eventually nearly all photographs were produced in the postcard format. The specific characteristics of these cards varied as photo technology continued to grow. The ability of photochromes to reproduce photo-like images in color at a low price put most real-photo postcard publishers out of business and these cards are rarely seen beyond the 1950s.