Plastic Print
Definition
A three-dimensional impression in a soft material such as putty, soap, candle wax, wet paint or chocolate. Recorded by photography and silicone casting.
- Type
- Three-dimensional impression
- Materials
- Putty, soap, candle wax, wet paint, chocolate
- Recording method
- Photography and silicone casting
- Category
- One of the three classic fingerprint types alongside patent and latent
Common questions
Why photograph a plastic print before casting it?+
Casting can subtly distort or damage a soft impression, so photographing it first under raking light preserves an accurate record of the ridge detail as originally found before any physical processing risks altering it.
How does examining a plastic print differ from examining a latent print?+
A plastic print already shows visible ridge detail as a physical depression and needs no chemical or powder development, while a latent print is invisible until a development technique such as powder, cyanoacrylate fuming, or a chemical reagent is applied.
Related terms
- ACE-V
- Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation, Verification: the four-stage method for latent print examination used by accredited forensic fingerprint laboratories. Analysis examines the latent in...
- AFIS / NAFIS
- Automated Fingerprint Identification System. NAFIS is the NCRB-operated national instance running on the Idemia Morpho engine, integrated with CCTNS under ICJS.
- Cyanoacrylate Fuming
- A fingerprint development technique in which ethyl cyanoacrylate vapour polymerises onto eccrine sweat residue on a latent print, producing a stable, white...
- Latent Print
- An invisible or barely visible impression of friction ridge skin deposited on a surface by eccrine sweat and sebum, requiring a development...
- Minutiae
- Level 2 ridge characteristics (ridge endings, bifurcations, dots, islands, lakes, spurs, crossovers). The primary individuating features used by AFIS algorithms and human...
- Ninhydrin
- A chemical reagent (2,2-dihydroxyindane-1,3-dione) that reacts with alpha-amino acids in latent print residue to produce a purple-blue compound (Ruhemann's Purple); the primary...
- Patent Print
- A visible fingerprint left in a coloured medium (blood, ink, paint, dust, grease). Photographed in situ; usually no chemical development needed.