What's the difference between a 'visible fingerprint' and a 'latent fingerprint'?

What's the difference between a 'visible fingerprint' and a 'latent fingerprint'?

Richard Saferstein (Former Chief Forensic Scientist) gives expert video advice on: How are fingerprints detected at a crime scene?; What's the difference between a 'visible fingerprint' and a 'latent fingerprint'?; How are fingerprints preserved in CSI? and more...

There are two types of fingerprints that we encounter. We encounter fingerprints that are visible in which you maybe touch a dirty object or a muddy object and you leave your fingerprint on the surface of something that you touch. I think we've all experienced that. The other fingerprint is what we call the latent fingerprint, which is a hidden fingerprint, which is the result of us just touching with our fingers an object, which unknown to us. There is perspiration and oils that exists on our fingers naturally that serve to transfer the image of the fingerprint onto the object that we're touching. Of course we would then have to treat that object, because we can't see it, we can't see the fingerprint because it's latent, it's hidden. So we would have to treat that latent fingerprint with powders or chemicals in order to visualize it.