What is a c-print?

I find the definition of a c-print at wikipedia rather confusing.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-print

 

What was the historical origin of c-prints? What makes them "special"? In

galleries I found the term being applied to just about anything. In practice

today, what should be correctly qualified as c-prints, and what should not be?

For examples, should digital prints from film scans be included or excluded?

This has been fully discussed on multiple threads here and on APUG.

 

I have posted a complete history of Kodak color paper there.

 

Type "C" color prints is/was a trademark of Eastman Kodak for its color paper intended to make prints from color negatives. No other material may properly have this name.

 

Ron Mowrey

It's just a normal color print. They aren't in any way special. If you go to Walmart for prints what you get is a c-print.

 

Technically I guess it's Kodak's trademark for their paper, but it's sort of like Kleenex.

 

A better generic name would be dye coupler print.

color prints of any sizes

It's not JUST color prints. An inkjet print is not a c-print. A r-type print from a slide is not a c-print. None of the Ilfochrome processes are c-prints, nor are dye transfers, pigment transfers, polaroids...

Chromogenic. Wet process paper that produces prints from negatives.

 

Bill Pearce

'from negatives...'

 

or from digital files (Frontier, Lightjet, Lambda etc)

a color coupler print made on a color negative paper?

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like the term started out with a rather narrow and strict definition, but is now used more liberally to mean a color print from whatever. I think some galleries use it to "disguise" a digital print. Regardless, the important part is to realize that it really means nothing special.