Hand printing
Andrew Williams
Etching
• In pure etching, a metal plate usually copper, zinc or steel, is
covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The
artist then scratches off the ground with a sharp etching
needle. The plate is the dipped in to a bath of acid or has acid
washed over it. The acid bites into the metal where it is
exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate. The
remaining ground is then cleaned off. The plate is inked all
over and then wiped off. This leaves only the ink in the etched
lines.
• The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press
together with a sheet of paper that is often moistened to
soften it. The paper picks up the ink and leaves a print.
Linocut
• Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in
which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden
block) is used for the relief surface.
• A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-
shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas
representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show
printed.
• The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller (called a brayer), and
then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can
be done by hand or with a press.
Screen Printing
• Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven
mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil
forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged
image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across
the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of
the woven mesh in the open [Link] printing is also a
stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed
on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas
coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced
through the mesh onto the printing surface. It is also known
as Screen Printing, silkscreen, seriography, and serigraph.
Woodcut
• Woodcut—formally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in
printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with
the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts
are removed, typically with gouges. The areas to show 'white' are cut away with
a knife or chisel, leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original
surface level. The block is cut along the grain of the wood (unlike wood
engraving where the block is cut in the end-grain). In Europe beechwood was
most commonly used; in Japan, a special type of cherry wood was [Link]
surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller
(brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing
[Link] colors can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the
woodblocks (where a different block is used for each color). The art of carving
the woodcut can be called "xylography", but this is rarely used in English for
images alone, although that and "xylographic" are used in connection with
blockbooks, which are small books containing text and images in the same block.
Single-leaf woodcut is a term for a woodcut presented as a single image or print,
as opposed to a book illustration.
• Letterpress printing is a term for the relief printing of text and
image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and
movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then
pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading
image. It was the normal form of printing text from its invention by
Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century
and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the
second half of the 20th century. In addition to the direct
impression of inked movable type onto paper or another receptive
surface, the term Letterpress can also refer to the direct impression
of inked printmaking blocks such as photo-etched zinc "cuts"
(plates), linoleum blocks, wood engravings, etc., using such a press
