The calotype (from the Greek kalos, beautiful and typos, printing), or talbotype is a photographic process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot, patented in 1841. It provides a direct negative paper and therefore the ability to reproduce positive images by simple contact printing. The negative-positive process becomes the basis of modern photography.
Thanks to this process, Talbot published “Pencil of Nature” in 1844, the first book to be illustrated with photographs. This book contained twenty-four calotypes.
Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, was the first in France to make prints of photographs with this process.