Salted paper printing is one of the earliest photographic printing techniques, invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1834. The process involves soaking paper in a weak salt solution, then applying silver nitrate to create light-sensitive silver chloride. The image is produced through contact printing onto starch-sized art paper, followed by rinsing and thorough washing in several changes of water.
Salted paper prints are prized for their delicate rendering of lighter tones, although fine detail is often less pronounced. The natural colour of these prints is usually reddish-brown, but toning with gold can produce a wider range of hues-from reddish-brown to blue or purple-brown-while also enhancing image permanence. This historical process is valued today for its aesthetic quality and its importance in the development of early photographic art.