A Historical Guide to Prints and Printmaking

In this technologically advanced world, people rarely give much thought to the art of printmaking, but its invention made it possible for people to reproduce and share their artistic works. Prior to this advancement, a single image would be one of a kind. This would make it difficult for people without the financial means to own and enjoy art. With printmaking, images became more accessible to everyone, as artists could reproduce them multiple times. These printing processes not only helped mass produce one's work, but it would eventually affect how images and text are used for commercial purposes.

Despite the technological advances in printmaking, some traditional printmaking techniques are still in use today. To best appreciate how printmaking and its various techniques have developed over time, one should understand its history.

Relief Printing

In 105 C.E., in the Eastern Han Dynasty, a Chinese court official named Ts'ai Lun invented paper. After this invention, people started creating techniques to transfer impressions onto various media. One of the earliest methods was relief printing using blocks of wood or soft stone.

Relief printing was first used during the latter part of the Han period, primarily on silk or other cloth. It involved the carving of images or Chinese characters onto the blocks. Once the carving was complete, any areas not part of the image or character was cut away. The individual would then add ink to the raised image and apply pressure to transfer the image onto the material. These were commonly used to re-create scriptures and text.

Relief printing became more common during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century. It was during this period that they began using paper for the first time to print religious scriptures and other important texts.

Movable Type

Relief printing techniques continued to develop with the creation of a process called movable type. Sometime around 1040, during the Song Dynasty in China, an artist and inventor named Bi Sheng created the first movable type print. The process used a type of baked clay to create individual pieces, each bearing a single character or letter. Unlike the whole-block printing technique, one could arrange these pieces and then rearrange them to create different combinations of characters. Because of the great number of characters in the Chinese language, this method never became as popular as the wood-block printing technique.

Paper did not make its way to Europe until the 11th century, and it wasn't until the 14th century that Europeans produced their own paper. Around the 1300s, wood-block printing made its way to Europe with Marco Polo upon his return to Italy. After this, woodcut printing on paper became increasingly popular in Europe.

Intaglio

Intaglio is a printmaking technique that first came into practice somewhere in the late 1430s. The name comes from "intagliare," an Italian word that means "to carve" or "to engrave."

This process uses plates typically made of metals such as copper, brass, aluminum, or zinc. The artists cut designs deeply into the surface of the plates. To print, ink is poured over a plate, where it settles into the incisions. The surface is then wiped clean, but the ink remains in the incisions. Paper is placed over the plate, and a roller is then used to press the paper into the incisions and transfer the image. Throughout the European Renaissance came the development of more intaglio techniques. These techniques, which included etching and drypoint, made it possible for artistic works to be made affordable for more people.

Also in the 1400s, Johannes Gutenberg would make movable type printmaking famous when, in 1450, he created a printing press. It was during this time that he used his printing press to create the Gutenberg Bible. With his invention, it became easier to mass-produce books and other works.

Engraving

Engraving is an intaglio process that has a long and varied history. Prior to its use in printmaking, engraving was widely practiced to create designs on armor and the blades of weapons.

As a printmaking process, engraving was a technique that involved incising a design onto a metal plate, often made of copper, using a sharp metal tool called a burin. The engraving was often used to create illustrations for books such as medical books. It also was used to reproduce paintings.

Mezzotint

Mezzotint, another intaglio process, added shading to images. Created in the mid-1600s by Ludwig von Siegen, a German soldier and printmaker, this technique uses light and shade to create the image. The process involved the roughening of a metal plate that was then burnished in areas to create variations in tone. This technique was often used in portraits for a more realistic look.

Aquatint

Aquatint is a process that was invented around 1650 by Jan van de Vele IV, a printmaker in Amsterdam. It uses acid on a copper plate to create a tonal effect similar to watercolor. The range of tones depends on several factors, such as how long the plate remains in the acid bath and the acid's concentration. The technique did not gain in popularity until the late 18th century, when it became the most popular method of creating toned prints.

Lithography

Lithography is a printmaking technique in which an image is drawn on a flat stone, such as limestone, using an oil-based crayon. The process, which was discovered in the late 1700s by German actor Alois Senefelder, involved dampening the stone with water, which prepared it for inking. The ink would only adhere to greasy areas of the image, drawn by the crayon, and was repelled by the water on all other areas. The image was then transferred from the stone onto paper using a lithographic press. Senefelder, who was not an artist, created this technique by accident when trying to find a cheaper way to print his plays.

Around 1825, lithography gained popularity, particularly for commercial purposes. By 1860, color lithography became a popular method of printing advertisements such as posters.

Offset Printing

Offset printing is a form of mass printing that was created at the turn of the century. Its inventor, Ira Washington Rubel, was an American who accidentally forgot to put paper into a printing press. When he tried to transfer the image, it printed onto the press's roller, creating an offset image. Images created using this new technique were much sharper and became popular for commercial, high-volume printing projects.

Screen Printing

The screen printing people most closely associate with the term today was introduced in 1910 when printers experimented with processes using photoreactive chemicals and other photographic technology. They were not, however, the inventors of screen printing, which dates back to the Song Dynasty in China, where stencils were used to allow ink to pass through materials such as silk.

In the 1900s, pochoir was another technique that was gaining in popularity, particularly in France. This technique used stencils and hand coloring to produce a fine print and was popular in the Art Nouveau and Art Déco eras.

From 1962 to 1987, Andy Warhol famously used photographic silk-screen printing to create some of his most iconic works.

Digital Printing

Digital printing has become one of the most convenient and common forms of printmaking. This is due in part to the invention of inkjet printers. The concept of inkjet printing dates back to Japan in the 1950s, but they were not able to generate prints from images on computers at that time. Inkjets were introduced on the market in the 1970s but gained popularity with consumers in the 1980s and 1990s. With this form of printmaking, reproducing art was accessible and affordable to even more people.