Relief printing

Part of a series on the
History of printing
Techniques Woodblock printing 200 Movable type 1040 Intaglio (printmaking) 1430 Printing press c. 1440 Etching c. 1515 Mezzotint 1642 Relief printing 1690 Aquatint 1772 Lithography 1796 Chromolithography 1837 Rotary press 1843 Hectograph 1860 Offset printing 1875 Hot metal typesetting 1884 Mimeograph 1885 Daisy wheel printing 1889 Photostat and rectigraph 1907 Screen printing 1911 Spirit duplicator 1923 Dot matrix printing 1925 Xerography 1938 Spark printing 1940 Phototypesetting 1949 Inkjet printing 1950 Dye-sublimation 1957 Laser printing 1969 Thermal printing c. 1972 Solid ink printing 1972 Thermal-transfer printing 1981 3D printing 1986 Digital printing 1991
v t e

Relief printing is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix, which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas the recessed areas will not. A printing press may not be needed, as the back of the paper can be rubbed or pressed by hand with a simple tool such as a brayer or roller. In contrast, in intaglio printing, the recessed areas are printed.

Relief printing is one of the traditional families of printmaking techniques, along with the intaglio and planographic families, though modern developments have created others.

The Relief Family of Techniques

In the relief family of printing, the matrix was historically made subtractively, by removing material from the surface of areas not intended to be printed. The remaining surface would then receive ink. The relief family of techniques includes woodcut, metalcut, wood engraving, relief etching, linocut, rubber stamp, foam printing, potato printing, and some types of collagraph.

By contrast, in the intaglio family of printing, the recessed areas are printed by inking the whole matrix, then wiping the surface so that only ink in the recessed areas remain. Much greater pressure is then needed to force the paper into the channels containing the ink, so a high-pressure press is normally needed. Intaglio techniques include engraving, etching, and drypoint.

In the planographic family of printing, the entire surface of the matrix is flat, and some areas are treated to create the print image.^[1] Planographic techniques include lithography and offset lithography.

Mix Relief and Intaglio Techniques

Normally, relief and intaglio techniques can only be mixed with others of the same family in the same printed page, unless the page is printed twice.

Movable Type: Traditional Relief Printing for Text

Traditional text printing with movable type is also a relief technique. This meant that woodcuts were much easier to use as book illustrations, as they could be printed together with the text. Intaglio illustrations, such as engravings, had to be printed separately.

The first relief-printed publication in the US, the multi-page newspaper Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, was published on September 25, 1690.^[2]

See also

• List of art media
• List of art techniques
• Viscosity printing

References

External links

• Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on relief printing
• Types of Relief Printing Descriptions of woodcuts, engravings, linoleum cuts, and monotype relief printing.
• See also Relief printing techniques as used and described by French printmaker Dominique Lecomte

This page was last edited on 21 October 2023, at 14:42