Historical and alternative processes
The three processes I work with the most are Three Colour Gum Dichromate, Platinum and Polymer Photogravure.
As all these processes are contact processes they use negatives and positives the same size as the final image. For many years the only way to do this was to either use in camera negatives or make internegatives and positives by projection in a darkroom.
Now, the easiest and most cost effective way is to make them digitally. Depending on the final process or size of print, I use either an imagesetter or Epson inkjet printers to output the final film.