Albumen Print:  A photographic printing process using egg whites in the emulsion.

Alternative Processes: This term covers at least 35 distinct processes, some historic and some not; most having to do with processing the final print for unconventional effect.

Archival: This term relates to the life span of a print regarding it's resistance to fading in color and depth and yellowing.

Bromoil: A highly involved process than can generate one print or, in a transfer variation, many copies. Its chief quality is a delicate painterly/etcherly look. Lithographic ink is applied with a special brush to a gelatinized paper surface that selectively resists or attracts the ink.

C-print: A process by which a print is made from a color transparency or a color negative that contains three emulsion layers, each sensitized to one primary color: blue, yellow, and red. Each layer contains a different color of the original image. C-prints or Chromogenic prints encompass a whole host of commercial processes, including Ektacolor and Fujicolor.

Cibachrome: A process by which a photographic print is made directly from a color transparency. Noted for rich color, brilliant clarity and unprecedented archival quality for color prints. Also called Ilfochrome.

Cyanotype and Vandyke: These methods, and others, made from metals combined with their ferric salts (platinum, palladium, gold, copper, etc.) can produce infinite monochrome variations with capacity to convey special moods.

Daguerreotype: An early photographic process (invented in 1839) where the impression made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metal plate is developed by mercury vapor. Each is an original since no duplication process exists.

Dye transfer: A method of making color prints or transparencies that gives the maximum control of color, balance and contrast. One of the most permanent color processes.

Gelatin silver print: (see Silver print) Gelatin silver prints refer specifically to the gelatin emulsion of the paper, which suspends the light-sensitive silver salts evenly on the surface. The silver salts are generally made of silver bromide, silver chloride, or a combination of the two. The are a range of papers used in gelatin silver prints providing a variety of tones, weights, and surfaces.

Giclee Prints: Prints created using professional quality printers from manufacturers such as Iris or Epson that spray a concentrated volume of drops per inch (dpi) of pigments of cyan, magenta, yellow and black to produce an image. Technological advances in this process in recent years allow that with the proper inks and papers these prints are archival and high quality retaining the colors for 50 and sometimes 75 years or more.

Gum Bichromate: Often called "gum." An early process in which exquisite colored prints are made by printing on paper coated with layer(s) of sensitized and pigmented gum arabic.

Gumoil: A recently discovered process which has the look and feel of some of the ancient processes. In combination with non-pigmented gum, etching bleach and oil pigments, it is possible to build monochrome or polychromatic images.

Iris print: A high quality giclee print created using the Iris printer. Iris is a specific manufacturer. See Giclee.

Orotone: An image printed on glass then backed in gold; also called gold-tone or curt-tone. It is often found in ornate, molded or gilded frames.

Pinhole: An old, but currently popular way of taking pictures using a simple box without a lens, but with a tiny hole and a sheet of film pinned inside opposite the hole. Produces unique perspective and dreamy focus.

Platinum/Palladium: A print in which the final image is formed in platinum or palladium. Both of these processes are extremely permanent and have delicate rich tones and ranges of greys that are unattainable in silver prints. These processes are enjoying a revival today with a number of contemporary photographers coating their own paper.

Photogravure: An intaglio printing process in which the image has been placed on the plate by photographic means using carbon tissues.

Polaroid Transfer: It is possible to float off the emulsion layer of a conventional Polaroid print and apply it to a new paper support with interesting effects.

Silver print: A generic term referring to all prints made on paper coated with silver salts. Most contemporary black and white photographs are silver prints. See also Gelatin silver print.

Vintage: A photograph printed within a very few years of the date when the negative was made. Prints made recently from original negatives that are old are called modern prints.