What Is Printmaking?

Printmaking entails applying ink to one surface and printing that ink onto another surface. The printmaking process includes several types and techniques. To ensure a successful print, it’s essential to have the appropriate pressure and quality equipment.

Types of Printmaking

Printmaking can be divided into four main types. All four methods involve adding an inked impression onto a surface and transferring that ink onto another. What differs is how the ink is transmitted. The types of printmaking include:

• Relief
• Intaglio
• Planographic
• Stencil

Printmaking Techniques

Whether it is fine art printing for B2B sales or high-quality recreations for private collectors, printmaking generally uses a technique that falls into one of four main categories: relief, intaglio, planographic, or stencil. Most of these are descended from the four traditional printmaking types:

• Engraving
• Lithography
• Woodcut
• Etching

While most contemporary artists use techniques like screenprinting and digital printing, many in the art world still love the rustic charm of older solutions.

A Brief Background on Printmaking

Printmaking requires artistry and skill to turn every project into a success. In the early years, printmaking required extraordinary levels of care and dedication to achieve the desired effect. People soon realized the value of this art form — allowing seamless reproduction of text and images. Additionally, many people who couldn’t afford one-of-a-kind artworks could afford print reproductions.

By simplifying the mass production of books, essential images, and even maps, printmaking made itself a practical and indispensable addition to the lives of many. It remains a valued art form to this day, and many collectors or art enthusiasts actively pursue original prints by talented artists.

About Printmaking Through the Ages

Printmaking dates back to China, and the first paper print occurred during the seventh century. Printmaking as a whole dates back further, with the oldest existing print being a woodcut print made on silk and dating back to between 206 B.C. and 220 A.D.

The original form of printmaking used a small wooden board as the matrix. Carving away from the wood would create negative space on the print after the ink was transferred onto fabric or paper. When the Chinese introduced movable type sometime between 1041 and 1048 and improved on the design over the coming centuries, bookmaking became much more possible and versatile. Since then, printmaking has spread throughout the world, serving many purposes and artists over the centuries.

The 15th Century

The earliest European prints date back to the beginning of the 15th century, which saw several print styles:

• Woodcuts: Originally, woodcut prints were used to make paper playing cards in Germany. The technique soon passed down to artists, who used it to render bold figures against blank backgrounds. As the practice evolved, artists began creating more complicated designs, with architecture and landscapes in the background and elaborate borders.
• Metal engraving: The first intaglio printing form, metal engraving swiftly became the most popular printmaking technique for its refined results, traveling to Italy and throughout Europe. The images combined tiny dots and short cuts punched into the surface. Unlike woodcuts, the metal matrix’s sunken areas held the ink, which was transferred onto paper. The earliest known intaglio print is the 1446 German print, “The Flagellation.”
• Gutenberg’s printing press: Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized the art form and the culture. While not the original inventor, Gutenberg perfected the movable type printing press around 1450 and popularized it in Europe. His most famous works, the 1,300-page Gutenberg Bibles, were masterful prints that used printed gothic type designed to look like hand calligraphy.

The 16th Century

In the early 16th century, printmaking masters emerged. Among them were:

• Albrecht Dürer: This German artist’s travels in Italy led him to influence the printmaking world across Europe. His work brought great detail to his subject matter, including religion, history, folklore, mythology, and portraiture. He worked in woodcuts, etchings, drypoints, and metal engravings.
• Albrecht Altdorfer: Altdorfer was the first to print landscapes as subjects rather than as backgrounds.
• Hendrik Goltzius: This Flemish engraver used his cuts to imitate different surfaces and textures.
• Marcantonio Raimondi: As an Italian technical master rivaling Dürer, Raimondi became the engraver to Raphael. He printed reproductions of the famous painter’s work and was influential in reducing printmaking from an original art form to the craft of reproducing famous works.

During the latter half of the 16th century, publishing houses and skilled artisans took over the printing world. Printed maps became increasingly popular as people began traveling more frequently. Publishers would also buy plates from their original artists and print them in massive quantities, sometimes ruining the original plates in the process.

The 17th Century

17th-century artists realized that printmaking was a profitable endeavor and turned their attentions to a form of printing known as etching. Italy soon emerged as one of the main pillars for acid etching, which many viewed as a liberated form of printing that offered greater room for experimentation and creativity. Noteworthy artists from this period included:

• Guido Reni: An Italian printmaker who used a style that incorporated delicate lines and shading to develop the distinctive Italian style, which remains easily recognizable today.
• Jacques Callot: A French artist based in Italy, he was the first printmaker to use repeated acid bitings to create tonal variations. He also used his own custom-made etching needle to recreate the swelling and tapering lines characteristic of engraving.
• Hercules Seghers: A true experimenter from the Netherlands. He created many unorthodox prints, such as printing on colored canvases or placing white lines on dark backgrounds. He developed a unique style dominated by rocky landscapes.
• Rembrandt: One of many artists from Holland, his work has stood the test of time. Through his roughly 300 plates, he rendered everything from religious and historical subjects to the most mundane activities. He explored every possibility of the etched line and later experimented by combining etching and drypoint.

During this century, the Japanese art form ukiyo-e emerged, marking a break from the culture’s heavily Chinese-influenced works. These refined and highly stylized woodcuts depicted everyday life. The first master of the form was Hishikawa Moronobu, who used street scenes, peddlers and crowds as subject matter.

The 18th Century

Italy remained the center for European printmaking throughout the 18th century, and this period included masters like:

• Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: He was famous for his delicate, rhythmic patterns.
• Canaletto: His inventive use of lines and textures mimicked color and light through his printed graphics.
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi: This prolific master architectural printmaker has 3,000 large etchings to his name.
• William Hogarth: This satirist ushered printmaking into England with his national school, and his influence quickly sparked works from fellow caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson.
• William Blake: The poet who took printmaking into new experimental forms in his book illustrations.
• Francisco de Goya: Spain’s first great printmaker, he used satire to comment on human folly, war and religious persecution.

The 19th Century

The 19th century injected many aesthetic styles into the art world, and each artistic revolution brought its respective printmaking masters. Noteworthy developments during this period included:

• Lithography: This German invention presented a new medium to artists, while the French influence dominated the European printmaking world.
• Barbizon school: These midcentury printmakers created landscape etchings that laid the groundwork for the Impressionists to come. Other Barbizon school acolytes depicted peasant life.
• Impressionism: Though known for their use of color, artists like Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro created etchings, lithographs and monoprints in their distinct styles.
• Japanese woodcuts: These prints made their way into Western consciousness and influenced artists like Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the American Impressionist Mary Cassatt with their exoticism, simplicity and abstractions.

As the country’s influence spread, Japanese artists continued to flourish and develop new printmaking techniques. The woodcut master, Hokusai, was prolific, with a body of work encompassing 35,000 drawings and prints. His series “The 36 Views of Mount Fuji” is perhaps his most popular and includes the famed color print, “The Breaking Wave off Kanagawa.” Hiroshige, another Japanese artist, gained fame in Europe for his Impressionist-like style.

The 20th and 21st Centuries

After the invention of photography, art was no longer necessary as a reproduction tool, encouraging more creativity and experimentation.

As art exploded throughout the beginning of the 20th century, many of the era’s most famous artists took an interest in printmaking. Pablo Picasso, while renowned as a painter, employed diverse printmaking techniques, including linocuts and engravings, to develop over 1,000 prints in his career. Other French artists, including Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault, experimented with the form. In the latter half of the 21st century, artists created more prints and introduced more technical innovations than ever before.

The photocopy, invented by Chester S. Carlson in 1938 and later popularized by the Xerox Corporation, was the starting point for many contemporary print techniques. These devices used dry toner powder, which they bound to paper using static electricity. Laser printing, invented by Gary Starkweather in 1969, uses a laser instead of electricity to bind the powder to the page.

In 1976, Japanese inventor Ichiro Endo developed the inkjet printer while working for Canon. Still the preferred method used for fine art printing, it works by spraying tiny ink dots onto a page to form an image. In 1985, the IRIS printer came to market, becoming the first large-format digital printer. It was the first commercial printer adapted for fine art printing in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Printer Jack Duganne coined the word “giclée” in 1991 to market inkjet printing to the fine art world. It made the yet-untested technology sound more refined and dignified. The IRIS printer remained the most popular fine art printer until the 2010s, when the Epson and Canon printing companies developed newer, cheaper technologies that accommodated archival inks.

The Modern Evolution of Printmaking

Modern prints rely primarily on digital archival pigment prints, or giclée. This term was first used only to describe prints made on IRIS printers, but currently refers to any art prints made using inkjet printing. This style of printmaking has become popular due to:

• Greater color accuracy: Digital archival pigment prints can feature more colors and express colors more accurately, making them ideal for art prints.
• Fade resistance: Unlike many traditional forms of printmaking, giclée prints are less likely to fade and may last for over a century without fading.
• Better quality: This technique produces higher-quality prints overall and can be combined with gallery-quality framing for optimal results.

These advantages are some of the many reasons why art lovers prefer these prints over types made through older methodologies. At Tribeca Printworks, we help you create canvas giclée prints and order giclée fine art prints to bring the best of printmaking to your home or office.

The Digital Printmaking Process

Digital printing techniques can render images onto many orthodox and unorthodox materials, including fine art paper, canvas, and aluminum. While the final product varies with the printing technique, every method starts with printing an image using an inkjet printer. At Tribeca Printworks, we use the Epson P20000 large format printer, which allows us to print images with unrivaled definition and depth in many custom sizes.

As part of the printing process, we select the right type of ink technology for the chosen substrate. Printing on acid-free museum-grade fine art paper or canvas requires aqueous ink. At Tribeca Printworks, we use a pigmented ink, which means pigmented particles are suspended within the liquid water molecules. Using a pigmented ink lets the finished piece last longer and resist fading when exposed to sunlight.

The inkjet printing technique employed in giclée paper and canvas printing uses a small ink nozzle to spray microscopic ink droplets onto the page. The term “giclée,” which comes from the French word for “to spray,” refers to this process. The Epson P20000 printer we use at Tribeca Printworks can expel droplets onto the page with astonishing accuracy. The ink nozzles contain piezo crystals, which vibrate, causing the ink to eject from the nozzle.

Commercial Printing and Printmaking for B2B Printing

The advent of digital printers makes perfect reproductions more possible and affordable for artists. Like photography, giclee photo and fine art printing have allowed traditional printmaking to serve its true calling as its own artistic medium. Traditional printmakers no longer have to worry about reproducing other images, and they have the freedom to explore and experiment with their craft.

Giclée printing methods and final products look quite different from the hand-drawn images immortalized in ink and printing plates. Still, the technique requires expertise and a careful eye to capture a piece’s artistic intent and visual effect. To create gallery-quality prints, we start by selecting the right printmaking materials.

For example, our photographers often print on aluminum. With traditional metal engraving or metal etching, the image is carved or burned into an aluminum surface and then transferred to paper. When we print on HD aluminum, the process is reversed. First, we print the photo on transfer paper using archival pigment inks. Then, we unite the paper to a brushed aluminum surface, producing a sleek print with brilliant colors. Depending on the chosen finish, the raw metal may be visible or invisible in the final product.

Explore Tribeca Printworks Printing Services

At Tribeca Printworks, we bring careful craft and technical skill to every printing service we provide. As photographers and painters ourselves, we collaborate with you to review art files and discuss printing materials until we find the combination that brings out the best in your work. Once we’re ready to print, we obsess over every detail until we get the colors just right.

We offer fine art printing and custom framing for interior designers in NYC, as well as a broad array of services for businesses and individuals. Our in-house custom frame shop will create your frame by hand. Explore our fine art printing options or upload your pictures today to start the process. You can also stop by our showroom for an in-person consultation.