I had never heard of topographical cards and would have assumed that meant a type of postcard map showing altitudes, contours etc but a quick search on ebay using that term does indeed bring up what I have always called view cards, especially vintage ones from the quick scan I did. I learn something new every day here.
To me a viewcard is a photographic card that shows a specific place, a landscape/seascape or a specific building/statue in a place.
It is a topographical map card.
Thank you all for this discussion.
I learned a lot about several terms.
Before reading the posts I would have thought that a viewcard is a card including some building from a place of touristical interest.
Maybe because some older family members said, if I send them cards from holidays: “That is only nature. I would prefer a card where I can see, where you have been.”
(Well, we have been in nature most of the time …)
I am an English speaker from Canada. The name “view card” implies to me a tourist-oriented card with a pretty view of some sort: very likely a landscape, coastline, cityscape, or some important building(s).
But seeing the other associations that people have, I now realize I cannot assume much about what others may mean!
This is making me think we really need a Postcrossing glossary 
Yes, interesting, I thought view cards are “vykort”.
Seems like “topografiska kort” is only used in tradera etc. and there also “topografiska vykort”. So what does the term topografi mean? Is it a technique (how the card was made) rather than what is on the card? Because why would people describe item as view viewcard?
Appears this is used of those that look like painted or drawn, very old type card, so not a common word for a view card.
Recently I got a profile collecting topographic cards and without a doubt I though they collect the type that shows land formation and hights etc (although a painting can show these well too).
So I guess topographic can be painted and drawn (or is only that?) while view card is a photo.
I always thought view card is a (photo) card showing a scene, landscape, outlook, not focusing on one building or statue etc. but to a larger view.
Edit. Now with a little more thought, a view to me must have some “depth” so some visible distance so that you can relate for example a builduing to something. 
I just realized that in Czech the word for postcard (pohlednice) literally means “view card”. Very often we just call it a pohled = view. 
Very interesting topic, I myself have already trouble with “landscape” trying to understand if it means only nature scenery or general view of the place, like a small village seen from afar with nature around it…
For me, View Cards are all cards that use a photographed real image be it city view or perhaps a landmark, festival or even food. Personally, I am more drawn to illustration postcards and not view cards.
In modern Sweden Swedish vykort means all kind of postcards although word vy means view and originally word was used specifically for postcards with a view, to make a difference from a postcard without picture (these were called postkort or brevkort) Word postkort exists too but I have only seen it used mostly in Finland Swedish when speaking about postcards (which makes sense when thinking of Finland Swedish’ use of more old-fashioned words and tendency to get influenced by Finnish). As I already said in the post you replied too, topografiska kort is a term used by collectors and for example museum collections. All the normal people just call them postcards / vykort. That’s why you are going to see older cards if you search for topographical cards, because collections usually are mostly of older cards.
I took a deeper look into etymology behind “topografi” out of curosity (etymology is my one of my passions). Word, both in English and Swedish, comes from Greek words “top’os” = place / local and “graph’ein” = write, put it together and you get “describing a location”. Topography is therefore a science for studying the forms of terrain etc. but people back in the day thought that Greek and Latin terms are super cool to use for anything, so topographical started to mean anything that has to do with describing a location and let’s be honest here, topographical postcard sounds much fancier than view card.
Now, what I did not find answer for was why American English seems to not use term topographical card, but if I have to guess I would say it has something to do with erasing and avoiding the terms with a clear foreign background at some point of time. But I have never took a deeper look on American English so I have very little of idea of how it has developed.
I think there is some confusion regarding word topography because most of time people see only the aerial pictures called topography and those are the core part of topographical study nowadays, I believe, but the term itself includes also non aerial views. The word itself dates to 1700s, when I guess it was much bigger challenge to take aerial views so topographical pictures were mostly taken on ground over horizon. If we continued to twist this, I would refer to map cards as “cartography cards” 
Just to make more confusion!
If the buildings are in the background, yes possibly a landscape.
Sorry, I for some reason confused you thinking topographic is still used of all view cards as an equivalent. So yes, view card is vykort in Swedish (like often all cards). It’s not topografisk kort/vykort when you shop cards in a shop, on a holiday for example. It doesn’t seem to be commonly used word, and not in Finnish either.
I was mainly comparing and thinking this all in regards to that “topographic card” would be the word to use in Europe.That seems quite an exaggeration when and if this term is only used among part of collectors, and it refers to apparently mainly historic cards.
So this:
is not true. (Or a common word like the above might make one think.)
(It’s a little like telling beer gardens in Finland are called patios. Yes, some are, I think mainly in Oulu area, but not all even here. So it’s not helpful to let people think this is the normal word.)
(Because here the topic was what is and what is not a view card, I think letting people assume this term to be widely use among non collectors too is no beneficial. Maybe someone likes view and dislikes vintage, and they think trying to be helpful to Europeans and tell they like topographical card, and wonder why they start getting vintage cards or terrain maps showing altitudes )
I learned a lot by reading this. And I think, there is not only one scientific exact definition. That calmes me.
I never knew, what a “view card” is. You look at every card! It is not important, how it feels or smells. In German I would translate with “Ansichtskarte”. But this doesn’t help - for my grandmother was “Ansichtskarte” another word for postcard - every postcard was an “Ansichtskarte” And there is no other or better definition for it
I by myself think, view cards are photos with a wide look at something: at the ocean, at African savanne, at the Uluru or something like that. They are often made for the tourists, very romantic. But I am not sure, if I am right, and so I chose another topic every time I saw “view cards” in a profile.
When I read this all I was thinking if landscapes are similar to view cards? I have no idea, what landscapes really mean …
Landscapes means the focus is on how the ground looks: are there green trees? Is it high on a mountain with some grass but no trees? Is it a lava field near a volcano? A beach (with few, if any, people)?
Some businesses that take care of modest size yards (UK: gardens) will call themselves ‘landscapers’ to seem more important.
Oh ok, you think this different way than I. I think view card as a card, where is a view.
Not necessarily a card someone views. (But yes, we view/look at the cards too.)
But like water bottle is a bottle where is or can be water. Not a bottle I water.
Are compound nouns formed differently in German?
This is interesting
Especially this compound noun “view card” (or the same for Ansichtskarte in German) you can understand in two different ways: a card where you look/view at - or a card that shows a view at the image.
When I first read “view card” I thought of the first meaning, because I didn’t know that are special cards I wondered, if there are smelling cards or acoustic cards in other countries 
I learned a lot about postcards since I am at the PC forum 