contact print

noun

Photography.

1. a photographic print made by placing a negative directly in contact with sensitized paper, with their emulsion surfaces facing, and exposing them to light.

contact print

noun

1. a photographic print made by exposing the printing paper through a negative placed directly onto it

Word History and Origins

Origin of contact print¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Once dry, he presses a piece of glass against the materials, which results in a contact print.

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Fresh from an assignment—it might have been Prague, or London, or Nigeria, or Zambia—Priya told us stories of his travels and showed us contact prints.

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The magazine donated its New York archives to the museum in the 1950s, and for years the negatives and contact prints were buried in its basement.

Read more on New York Times

Ms. Kurland’s black-and-white contact prints of domestic scenes are an interesting supplement to her better-known color portraits.

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Back home, he had some negatives enlarged into single images, and fashioned many tiny contact prints into photocollages that bespeak a slightly crazed obsession.

Read more on New York Times