Research of the different printing techniques

Luke Bradley & Mark Neale

Many methods have been devised since very early times to produce a surface from which a number of identical impressions could be taken. Printing of a sort could be said to exist as soon as the Sumerian made a triangular pointed tool to impress cuneiform symbols on clay, or used a hollowed out seal, sometimes cylindrical in form, to mould a figure in relief on the same material.

Intaglio
INTAGLIO. Indentations or irregularities are introduced into a plate. A heavy ink or other pigment is applies and is removed from the surface before printing but the pigment remains in the indentations. Under pressure these lines, dots etc. of ink may be transferred to a plastic material such as a damp paper, clay, melted sulphur or wet plaster (all of which have been used.) On the print the pigment will appear to some extent in relief above the background. Etching and engraving are generally printed by this method; also rotogravure and collotype.

Woodcut
Woodcut is one of the oldest techniques used in fine art in printmaking. This is a form of relief printing. The artists design or drawing is made on a piece of wood (mostly on Beechwood). And the untouched areas are then cut away with gouges (A chisel with a concave blade, used in carpentry, sculpture, and surgery) leaving the image which is then inked. Woodcut prints are produced by pressing the selected paper onto the inked image. If colour is used, separate wood is required.

Line Engraving
LINE ENGRAVING. A copper plate and a cutting tool called a graver or burin are all that is required. The cutting is made direct in the copper with a square or lozenge graver. In these prints the classical manner of holding the graver has been adopted: Against the palm, the blade between the second finger, and thumb driven in the line of the forearm. (This method was used by engravers up to the 17th. Century. The cross hold, with the blade sliding across the thumb, was invented for lettering and banknotes.) The tool is sharpened with under surfaces true, parallel and without small turned-up facets used by lettering engravers.

Etching
ETCHING. Offers a more indirect method than engraving of producing the indentations necessary for impression. In principle the surface of the plate to be etched is sealed with a coating which resists acids; with a steel point, other tool, or by applying pressure, openings in the form of lines, dots, textures are made in this coating. By permitting acid of different strengths to attack these openings (or the acid to attack for various lengths of time) the metal is eaten away to a greater or lesser extent. The coatings used (grounds) may be applied by dabbing or rolling on heated plates essentially they should resist acid perfectly, adhere to the plate, and support indefinitely needling or scratching without cracking off. They consist usually of bitumen, beeswax and resin

Aquatint
AQUATINT also used acid to eat away the plate but it is again applied in areas rather than in lines or dots. In one method, resin dust is deposited on the plate, the plate heated to make the grains melt and adhere to it, and areas of different darkness are etched by successive stoppings during the progress of the biting. Graduations of strength are also made by manipulation of the acid, by rocking the plate, or by applying acid in spots. Normally this method gives characteristically opaque tones in prints in contrast to the transparent tone in the softground technique-although a heavier coverage of resin will reduce this, and any previous work on a the plate will, of course, be exposed to attack by acid. Another method of aquatint is the use of a hard etching ground opened by pressing fine sandpaper into it. In effect this is similar to the soft-ground method described, although it permits less variation of texture.

Drypoint
DRYPOINT, which involves the use of a point (steel, sapphire, or diamond) directly on the plate, appears to be one of the simpler methods of working a plate. However owing to the fragility of the result in printing (no two prints being absolutely identical), and the extreme variety of line obtained by different angles of attack, it is found to involve greater manual dexterity than the more mechanically elaborate etching process. When a line is drawn with a point on a plate surface a slight indentation is produced, but it is almost exclusively the burr or flange raised by the tool, which retains the ink in the plate surface and consequently determines the line on the print. This flange may be double, fine and sharp like a knife-edge; single and strong; or single and saw-edged (when it will print a dense matted black like velvet).

Mezzotint
Mezzotint - (mezzo = half and tinta = tone), is a reverse engraving process used on a copper or steel plate to produce illustrations in relief with effects of light and shadow. The surface of a master plate is roughened with a tool called a rocker so that if inked, it will print solid black. The areas to be white or gray in the print are rubbed down so as not to take ink. It was widely used in the 18th and 19th centuries to reproduce portraits and other paintings, but became obsolete with the introduction of photoengraving.

Lithography
Lithography - Printing technique using a planographic process in which prints are pulled on a special press from a flat stone or metal surface that has been chemically sensitized so that ink sticks only to the design areas, and is repelled by the non-image areas. Lithography was invented in 1798 in Solnhofen, Germany by Alois Senefelder. Originally the process was used on stone. The process starts with drawing the image on the stone by using a greasy black lithographic pencil. These usually take three to twelve days, depending on the size and complexity of the image. The main problem is that mistakes cannot be erased. Small corrections can be made with a sharp knife, but major corrections are needed, it is necessary to start again on a new stone.

Giclee
A giclee is a computerized reproduction technique in which the image and topology are generated from a digital file and printed by a special ink jet printer, using ink, acrylic or oil paints. Giclee printing offers one of the highest degree of accuracy and richness of colour available in any reproduction techniques. It can be printed on paper or canvas and re-touched by hand with paint etc.Today this is a very popular form of printing or reproducing art work to a high standard. Many artists reproduce their paintings onto paper as signed limited editions, using this method

Digital
Digital Photocopying Laser printing Inkjet Desktop publishing Digital screen printing

Photocopying
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. The first widely used copy machine for offices was invented by James Watt in 1779.

Laser printing
The laser printer was invented at Xerox in 1969 by researcher Gary Starkweather, A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper.

Inkjet
Inkjet printers have certainly come a long way in the last two decades. And although we didnt see them in the stores until the 1980s, it was as far back as the mid 1970s when printer companies recognised that inkjet technology was going to be the wave of the future. But initially, companies were faced with the challenge of creating an inkjet printer that was affordable while at the same time could provide quality printouts. The more popular type of inkjet printer was invented by Siemens in 1977. These printers, sprayed ink only where needed and although they were less expensive, they were slower than continuous inkjet printers.

Desktop publishing
In the mid 1980s, Apple Computer, Adobe, Aldus and Hewlett-Packard each produced key technologies that, when combined, allowed graphic designers, publishers and pre-press professionals to bring the whole publishing process in-house. Desktop publishing began in 1985 with the introduction of MacPublisher.

Digital screen printing

Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. Screen printing first appeared in a recognizable form in China during the Song Dynasty . Japan and other Asian countries adopted this method of printing. Screen printing was largely introduced to Western Europe from Asia sometime in the late 18th century, but did not gain large acceptance or use in Europe until silk mesh was more available for trade from the east and a profitable outlet for the medium discovered.