William Henry Fox Talbot FRS (February 11, 1800 – September 17, 1877) is an English scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invents the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

His work, in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction leads to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure.

He is the holder of a controversial patent that affects the early development of commercial photography in Britain.

He is also a noted photographer who contributes to the development of photography as an artistic medium.

He publishes The Pencil of Nature (1844–46), which is illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives, and makes some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.

A polymath, Talbot is elected to the Royal Society in 1831 for his work on the integral calculus, and researches in optics, chemistry, electricity and other subjects such as etymology and ancient history.