In the past, a carbon copy was the under-copy of a document created when carbon paper was placed between the original and the under-copy during the production of a document. With the advent of email, the abbreviations cc or bcc (blind carbon copy) have also come to refer to sending copies of an electronic message to recipients other than the addressee. Nowadays "carbon copy" is often used metaphorically to refer simply to an exact copy. It is not to be confused with the carbon print family of photographic reproduction processes.