Printing Techniques

By Iona Spence-Dingle

Hand: EtchingMethod: Traditionally etching is the process of using either strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design. However, now sometimes different chemicals are used on different materials. Usually the metal is covered in a waxy substance that is resistant to acid. Then the artist scratches off the waxy layer, with a pointed etching needle, where they wants the line to appear on the finished piece, so exposing the bare metal. Next the metal plate is dipped into acid (called the mordant); the acid ‘bites’ into the metal where it exposed leaving sunken lines where the waxy substance isn't. The remaining wax substance is washed off, the metal plate is ‘inked, and then the surface wiped so the ink only remains in the grooves. The plate is then put through a high pressure printing-press with a piece of paper. The paper picks up the ink that has accumulated in the grooves in the metal, transferring the design onto the paper. The process can typically be repeated several hundred times before the plate shows much wear.

Advantages: • The process can be repeated several hundred times before the plate shows wear• Etching can produce good quality prints• Etching is accurate

Disadvantages• Requires the use of potentially harmful chemicals• It require someone skilled to etch the design onto the plate

Hand: LinocutMethod: Linocut is printing technique that is a variant of woodcut in witch a sheet of linoleum has a design cut into it, inked, and then pressed onto paper- transferring the design. Linocut works so that the uncarved areas come out dark and the carved areas are light. Lino is generally much easier to cut than wood, so its easier to achieve certain artistic effects, although linocut prints can lack the angular quality of woodcut prints.

Advantages: • Straightforward technique• Fairly inexpensive• Linoleum is easier to carve than most woods

Disadvantages • Mistakes (in putting the design on the linoleum) are irreversible• Texture is hard to achieve• Multiple colour application is complicated• Linocut has a comparatively long drying time

Hand: Screen-printMethod: Screen-printing requires woven mesh stretched across a frame to support an ink-blocking stencil. Whatever is being printed is laid out flat beneath the screen, a stencil is placed onto the screen, then ink is spread across the screen with a squeegee. The ink can penetrate through the woven mesh of the screen, but no where the stencil has been placed.

Advantages: • Good for printing onto cotton and poly cotton items.• The ink is heat dried so the garments can withstand machine washing.

Disadvantages: • Each colour is applied separately, so the cost increases with each additional colour. • Separate screens are required for each individual design.• Coated fabrics cannot be screen printed.• Longer turnaround time if many colours are used• Time consuming to set up and clean.

Hand: WoodcutMethod: An image is carved onto a flat piece of wood, so that the area that will be white has carved away, and the areas to remain dark are uncarved. The design must be carved along the grain of the wood. The printing block is then inked up by rolling the surface with an ink roller and then pressed onto paper, so that the design is transferred. More than one colour can be used, however each colour requires a different wooden printing block.

Advantages: • Wood is less fragile than linoleum so mistakes are easier to disguise• Woodcut printing requires cheap and readily available materials• Wood plates are more durable than most other relief-printing blocks

• Disadvantages: • Nowadays people can appreciate woodcut for the skill involved and the rustic finish, however in the past woodcut printing fell out of

fashion because it simply couldn’t compete with copperplate printing.

Hand: LithographyMethod: In modern lithography a printing plate with a relief image is dampened with water, then coated with ink. The ink only sticks to the parts of the plate that are not wet with water. The printing plate is fixed to a roller and the image is transferred onto paper fed under the roller. Although in offset-lithography, the paper does not come into direct contact with the printing plate. Instead, the image is transferred to a rubber roller. Lithography is widely used to produce maps, books, newspapers, and posters, although it is also used by artists.

Advantages: • Lithography is fast• Lithography is very cost effective• The images produced are clear and sharp• Lithography is very consistent

Disadvantages: • Lithography isn’t capable of producing high quality prints• Lithography can only be done in large print runs

Mechanical: Letterpress Method: Letterpress printing is a relief-printing technique that requires the use of a printing press. Individual letters can be inserted and removed from the printing bed to form bodies of text, although wood engravings, zinc plates, and linoleum can also be used along side the metal letter pieces. Whatever is being used are inked up, and then paper is pressed onto the bed so that the ink transfers and leaves the desired text or design on the paper.

Advantages: • Letterpress is good at producing lots of copies of something• The letter-blocks can be used again and again• The process of relatively straightforward; especially if you limit the number of colours you use• You can use virtually any type of printer for letterpress• Letterpress produces a sharp, clean finish

Disadvantages:• Setting up the letterpress with all the letters arranged correctly is very time consuming • Because the print will appear as a ‘mirror image’ the text has to be set from left to right• Each colour has to dry before the next one can be applied

Mechanical: GravureMethod: Gravure is a type of intaglio printing process, in which the image is engraved on a cylinder that is attached to a rolling printing press. The paper is passed through the engraved cylinder and the ‘impression roller’ so that engraved image appears on the paper.

Advantage: • The gravure method is capable of producing extremely high quality prints (almost photo-real.)• Can produce multi-coloured prints• Gravure printing is consistent• Gravure can produce many prints once it is set-up• There are only four basic components to every print

Disadvantages: • Engraving the rollers is time consuming• It is expensive to engrave the rollers

Mechanical: Screen ProcessMethod: Screen processing is effectively more advanced screen printing. Ink is applied to the back of the image and pushed through porous holes or open areas.

Advantages:• Screen process is fast and simple• Screen processing is precise

Disadvantages • If there is one mistake then lots of copies can be destroyed

Digital: PhotocopyingMethod: Most current photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a ‘dry’ photocopying technique. Photocopiers can produce many paper copies of something very quickly and cheaply. Xerography uses electrostatic charges on a rotating light sensitive photoreceptor to first attract and then transfer toner particles (a powder) onto paper in the form of an image. Heat, pressure or a combination of both is then used to fuse the toner onto the paper.

Advantages: • Photocopying is a very cheap process• Photocopying is very fast• Photocopiers can copy documents very accurately

Disadvantages: • Photocopiers are big machines that require a lot of space• Photocopiers are very cumbersome and hard to move around• The photocopiers themselves are expensive• Photocopiers can aid in document fraud

Digital: Laser PrintingMethod: Laser printers pass a laser beam over a charged drum that to define a image (that is charged.) The drum then selectively collect charged toner, depending where the laser beam hit the drum, and then transfers the image to paper. The paper is heated to fix the image.

Advantages: • Laser prints can produce very high quality prints• Laser prints are very fast• For high-volume printing laser printers are cheaper to run than inkjets• Due to the technology used the print emerges from the printer dry• Laser printers are compact enough for use at home

Disadvantages:• Laser printers are more expensive than inkjet to buy• Laser printers are larger and heavier than inkjet printers

Digital: InkjetMethod: Inkjet printers works by propelling droplets of ink onto the paper. The ink is released from small movable cartridges that need to be replaced as they run out.

Advantages:• Inkjet printers are cheaper than lasers to buy• Most models are quite light-weight and compact, so don’t take up much space• Higher end printers are capable of producing good quality images- particularly when using special photo paper

Disadvantages• Due to the cost of ink, inkjet printers are more expensive to run than laser-printers• Prints emerge from the printer slightly wet, so need time to dry• Inkjets aren’t designed for high volume printing

Digital: Desktop PublishingMethod: Desktop publishing describes the creation of documents by an individual using software such as Microsoft Publisher on a personal computer; it can be used to create leaflets, menus, posters, business cards and so on. Desktop publishing software allows the user lots of control over layouts, text and images on the document, unlike a word processor such as Microsoft Word. This technology allows anyone to self-publish a wide variety of printed matter without the expense of a professional publishing company.

Advantages:• Desktop publishing allows the user lots of control over the details of their document• Images can be imported onto desktop publishing software from a scanner, graphics from a drawing program, or text from a word

processor

Disadvantages • Users of desktop publishing require previous knowledge and experience of the software to produce good quality documents• Some desktop publishing programs are very expensive