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Glite Dictionary
calotype

calotype

9.9
An early way of making photographs on paper coated with chemicals that react to light
  • noun
  • /ˈkæl.əˌtaɪp/
  • Archaic
translation icon : calotipo
  • The artist admired the softness of the images produced by the calotype, contrasting them with modern photographic methods.

Examples

  • The museum displayed several stunning photographs created using the calotype process.

  • In sixty-one, any soldier with a dollar and seventy-five cents could have his aspect recorded in the form of ambrotype, tintype, calotype, or daguerreotype.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • They are outstanding examples of the calotype process, with its characteristic softness, suppression of detail, and uncluttered composition, in contrast to the hard, clear precision of the earlier daguerreotype or the emerging collodion process.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Many photographers in the 19th century experimented with the calotype technique for its unique aesthetic.

Synonyms

print
vscalotype
106 1.3

A photo printed on paper from a negative or digital file

is an early chemically based method using silver iodide

Surface Forms

calotype singular
calotypes plural

Morphology

calotype = type (opaque) = calo + type + calo

The combining form 'calo-' (meaning 'beautiful') is not a standalone English morpheme and is not transparent to average learners, so the meaning of 'calotype' is not derivable from its parts.

Etymology

Calotype comes from Greek roots kalos meaning 'beautiful' and typos meaning 'impression' or 'mark', and the typos root is the same as our English type. A photographer named William Henry Fox Talbot gave the name to his early paper photo process, so a calotype is literally a 'beautiful impression' and now means an early kind of photograph.