Until about 1960, the names of plate and film formats in Japan
were usually not direct translations of those used in other
countries. The plate formats used in Japan came either from the
inch-based English system or from the metric continental system.
From the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1920s, inch-
based formats were the most popular. The three main formats were
called kabine (カビネ) or kyabine (キャビネ), tefuda (手札) and meishi
(名刺). Kabine (from the French cabinet) corresponds to "half-
plate": 4¾×6½″=12.1×16.5cm. Tefuda (elsewhere used to mean
"nameplate") corresponds to "quarter-plate": 3¼×4¼″=8.3×10.8cm.
Meishi (a card identifying oneself, e.g. a business card) is
half of tefuda, about 5.4×8.3cm. In today's sources, these
formats are usually rounded to 12×16.5cm, 8×10.5cm and 5.5×8cm
respectively. Other formats were less widespread. Nimaigake
(二枚掛) is the half of kabine: 3¼×4¾″=8.3×12.1cm, easily rounded
to 8×12cm. Hagaki-size (はがき判) is a direct translation of
"postcard size": 3¼×5½″=8¼×14cm, oft