A guide to different types of prints

 

There are four basic categories of print­making, which are defined by the form of the origination material, i.e. the block, plate or microchip. These are relief, intaglio, surface and digital printing, each of which is described below. However, there are two anomalous types of print: the photocopy and the silkscreen. Photocopies are produced electrostatically, and some would argue that they are facsimiles, not prints, but there is no getting away from the fact that some galleries are selling them as prints. Silkscreening is in many ways a special way of applying paint, and is closer to stenciling than print-making.

 

Digital prints differ dramatically from other types of print in that they are not made from physical origination material, such as metal plates, but their format is stored in a microchip which sends messages directly to an inkjet printer. Digital printmaking is the newest technique and is one that is already revolutionising the art market.

 

Relief prints are made by cutting the background away from the parts to be printed, then applying ink to the raised parts. Less pressure needs to be exerted onto the printing block in order to transfer the ink to the paper, than for intaglio prints (see below), so relief prints can be printed by hand, rather than with a press, though a press is generally used as it is quicker and ensures consistent results. Relief printing is the oldest printing method, dating back to the C9th. Relief printing blocks wear out over time, causing later images to suffer a loss of definition. Relief prints include woodcuts, wood engravings and lino cuts.

 

Intaglio prints are made by engraving into a plate; the ink is pushed into the hollowed-out lines, as opposed to resting on the surface of the plate, i.e. the opposite to relief printing. The word ‘intaglio’ is Italian for engraving. The plate is often warmed so that the metal expands, which makes it slightly easier to force the ink into the lines. Substantial pressure is required to force the ink out of the lines and onto the paper, so the paper is normally damped to make it more malleable and a strong press is required. Intaglio plates wear out over time, so the lines become less sharp, which means that prints produced early in a run may. be of a better quality and so can be more desirable to collectors. This category includes engraving, etching, mezzotint and photogravure.

 

Surface printing is the most commonly used today, as off-set lithography is a surface method. Here, the plates are not engraved or cut away

 

 

 

Engravings

Engravings are made with metal plates; these were originally copper, which is a soft metal so is easy to engrave, but steel became more widely used in the Cl9th, as it is longer-lasting. Copper plates can be electro­plated with steel to prevent them from wearing out so quickly; this can be stripped away and the plate can be re­faced. Deeply engraved lines hold more ink than shallow ones, giving tone and shade to the print. Skilful variation of line width creates contours and shapes.

 

 

 

Etchings

There are many types of etching, including aquatint, silver point and drypoint. Etching methods are defined by the fact that a metal plate is coated with wax (or ‘etching ground’, a mixture of wax and bitumen), the wax is engraved with metal tools, then the whole is immersed in acid which erodes the exposed areas. Lines can be ‘stopped out’ with varnish at any time during the immersion process if very fine lines are required. The longer the plate is exposed to acid, the sturdier the lines become. Ink is then applied to the hollowed out areas. Drypoints are engraved with a needle-like tool which lightly scratches the surface, rather than removing a slither of metal; the metal which is ‘scratched away’ stays on the plate and holds some of the ink, giving dark patches of colour. To make an aquatint, aquatint ground is applied to a metal plate before it is immersed in acid, so the areas covered by the ground remain uneroded. Granules of ground are scattered on the plate and the acid only attacks the plate between the granules, giving aquatints a ‘dotted’ look. The ground is brushed or blown over the plate, which is generally heated so that they bond to the metal. The granules can be dissolved in alcohol, which is a less commonly used method of application. Areas of the plate can be masked out so they are not attacked by the acid, and they can then be exposed at a later date and for different lengths of time, giving graduations of tone.

 

 

 

Giclée

This digital process involves inputting an image into a computer, saving it as a digital file, then outputting it onto paper or canvas using a high-resolution inkjet printer. The image may be computer-generated, created with a digital camera or scanned in. The word ‘giclée’ is French for ‘spurt’, as this is how the ink is applied to the paper. Giclée prints are high quality with good lightfast properties, but the equipment is expensive and it can take an hour to produce each print, so they tend to be more expensive to produce than off-set lithos. As the image is stored digitally, it is not necessary to print a whole edition at once and the image can be adjusted on-screen before further prints are made.

 

 

Inkjets

Many types of desktop and commercial printers can produce colour inkjet prints of varying quality. Giclée prints are top-of-the-range inkjets. An inkjet printer is controlled by a computer, i.e. the image is stored digitally. Tiny jets of ink are used to create the image. Prices for inkjet printers ranges from around £150 to over £50,000. ABT recently commissioned lightfastness tests on two types of inkjet print; both achieved very low scores indicating that the prints would probably fade quickly in daylight.

 

 

 

Lithography

Lithography is based on the antipathy between grease and water and the technique does not involve cutting into, or hollowing out, the printing plate. Traditional lithographs are drawn onto stone; when the technique was invented in the 1820s many artists were attracted to it as drawing onto stone is much more like drawing onto paper than engraving metal or wood. A pen and a special type of greasy ink, or lithographic chalk, are traditionally used to draw onto a smooth stone. The inked areas show as black on the actual print, so lithographers do not work ‘back to front’ as do many print-makers. Lithographs drawn with lithographic chalk have a textural appearance very similar to chalk or crayon drawings. The stone is damped, then greasy printers’ ink applied with a roller, which will only adhere to the greasy drawn lines.

 

 

 

 

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a ‘tonal’ rather than a linear process; the background is roughened so that it prints shades of grey. A ‘rocker’ is used to achieve the overall background tone and highlights are created with burnishers and scrapers. Pale areas are scraped away the most heavily, while dark greys are only lightly burnished. Mezzotints often have a delicate, elegant look as there are areas of soft colour as opposed to a mesh of clearly visible criss-cross lines, so they were popular for portraits. The method is not used very much today, as creating the background with the rocker is very time-consuming.

 

 

 

Off-set lithography

This mechanised process is not to be confused with traditional lithography (see definition above). Most of the open and limited edition prints on the market are off-set lithos. The original artwork, or a transparency, is scanned, then printing plates are produced. Off­set lithos are printed using the same basic principles as traditional lithographs, with considerable technical sophistication.

Off-set lithography is used for creating accurate reproductions of original artwork. As this process is automated, many thousands of copies can be speedily produced if required and the last prints will be identical to the first.

 

 

 

Photocopies

These reproductions are made with powdered toner, rather than inks. The dust-like grains of toner are electrostatically drawn to certain areas. Toner is a basic pigment, whereas inks can be mixed and adjusted until the correct colours are achieved. Images with bright and contrasting colours tend to photocopy the most clearly; many copiers cannot reproduce subtle pastel hues and tend to exaggerate colours. Most photocopiers cannot handle paper that is sufficiently thick for producing high quality fine art prints. The lightfast qualities of photocopies vary.

 

 

 

Photograveure  

This etching process was pioneered in 1827 and is still used today. It involves photographically etching an image onto a copper plate. Often areas of the plate are further engraved by hand. They are printed in the same way as an engraving.

 

 

 

Silkscreens  

Making silkscreens involves pushing paint or ink through a stencil or mesh. The stencil can be made using a photomechanical, computerised or electronic process, or it can be hand-cut. Any number of screens can be used to create a print, depending upon the detail and depth of colour required. It can take four screens to produce one colour. The process can be automated, such as when mass producing screenprinted T-shirts or posters, but fine art silkscreens tend to be produced largely by hand. Silkscreens are usually printed in colour, unlike many other ‘original’ prints which are printed in monochrome and then hand-coloured. Silkscreens are sometimes called screenprints and are called serigraphs in the USA and Europe.

 

 

 

Woodcuts

Woodcuts are made from planks of soft wood and the grain is incorporated into the design, giving impressionistic results.

 

 

Wood engravings  

Wood engravings are carved into blocks of hard close-grained wood. The wood around the areas to be printed is removed with a range of gouges and chisels (the opposite to engraving and etching, where the lines to be printed are hollowed out).

Most wood engravers work in one-colour; multi-coloured work such as Japanese prints can involve about seven different blocks with two or three colours applied to each one.