Printmaking of all types utilize a huge array or tools, supplies, materials, and techniques. Whether shopping for prints, or learning about printmaking, this list should demystify the printmaking definitions and makes this printmaking world less esoteric, and more accessible for everyone to understand!
- Acid-free
- Describes paper made with an alkaline pulp (often with added calcium carbonate) rather than acidic wood-pulp chemicals. Because acids break paper down over time, acid-free stock is used for prints meant to last.
- Aisuki
- A rounded, bevel-edged chisel used in Japanese woodblock printing. It's typically used to clear away larger areas of wood rather than cut fine lines.
- A la poupée
- An intaglio inking method in which several colors are applied directly to different areas of a single plate using small dabbers or wads of fabric. This allows a multicolor print to be pulled from one plate in a single pass.
- Aquatint
- An etching technique that produces areas of tone rather than line, made by coating a plate with an acid-resistant granular ground before biting it in acid. Longer time in the acid bath produces darker, richer tones.
- Artist's Proof (AP)
- A print pulled by the artist to check quality and color before the full edition is run, usually capped at about 10% of the edition size. These proofs are typically identical to the edition prints, marked "AP" instead of a number.
- Baren
- A disk-shaped hand tool used to burnish paper against an inked woodblock, transferring the image without a press. It's central to Japanese woodblock printing and other hand-burnished relief techniques.
- Bed
- The flat surface of a printing press on which the inked block, plate, or stone is placed. Paper is laid on top before the bed passes under the press's roller or platen.
- Bench hook
- A simple workshop tool that hooks over the edge of a table and holds a block steady while it's being carved. It protects both the block and the carver's hands.
- Binder
- The clear liquid vehicle that pigment is mixed into to make printing ink; also called medium. It carries the color and helps it adhere to the printing surface.
- Bite
- The etching or biting action of acid eating into an exposed metal plate. Deeper or longer bite produces darker, more heavily inked lines or tones.
- Blanket
- A padded felt sheet used in a printing press between the roller and the paper to cushion and evenly distribute pressure. It helps force damp paper into the plate's recesses during intaglio printing.
- Bleed
- Ink that spreads or appears outside its intended printed area. In design and digital printing, it also refers to extending artwork past the trim line so color runs to the edge of the finished piece.
- Blind emboss
- A raised or recessed impression pressed into paper without any ink, usually from an uninked block or plate. The design reads through texture and shadow alone.
- Block
- The carved surface used in relief printmaking, such as lino, wood, or plywood. The raised areas of the block hold ink and print, while carved-away areas remain blank.
- Bon à tirer (BAT)
- French for "good to pull" — the single approved proof that matches how the artist wants the entire edition to look. The printer uses this reference sheet as the standard for every subsequent print in the run.
- Brayer
- A hand-held roller used to spread an even layer of ink onto a printing surface. Brayers come in different densities and widths depending on the technique and ink type.
- Burin
- An engraving tool with a sharp, V-shaped metal point set into a wooden handle. It's pushed through a plate's surface to cut clean, controlled lines directly into the metal.
- Burr
- In drypoint, the ridge of displaced metal or plastic thrown up along the edges of a scratched line, which holds extra ink and gives drypoint its soft, velvety line. In mezzotint, it refers to the roughened texture raised across the plate by a rocker.
- Carborundum
- A silicon carbide grit used in intaglio printmaking to build a rough, ink-holding texture on a plate, often applied with adhesive to create dark, textured tones. It's also used to level and grain lithography stones.
- Chine collé
- A technique in which a thin sheet of paper (often delicate tissue) is bonded to a heavier backing sheet at the same time an image is printed onto it. It's used to add fine detail, subtle texture, or blocks of color to a print.
- Chop
- A small stamped or embossed mark printed in the margin of a print to identify its maker, printer, or publisher. It functions like a maker's signature or seal.
- CMYK
- The four-color printing model — cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) — used to build full-color images from separate layers, each printed through its own screen or plate. Overlapping the four colors reproduces a wide range of hues.
- Collagraph
- A print made from a plate built up with layered natural or found materials glued to a base and usually sealed with varnish. The resulting textured surface can be inked and printed either intaglio-style or in relief.
- Cutting tool
- Any of the various blades used to carve into a printmaking block, including V-gouges, U-gouges, and knives such as the hangito. Different profiles create different line widths and textures.
- Cyanotype
- An early photographic printing process that uses two light-sensitive chemicals to produce distinctive blue-toned images when exposed to UV light. It's often used to print photograms or negatives onto paper or fabric.
- Dabber/dauber
- A small pad of cloth used to apply ink or acid-resistant ground evenly to a block or plate. It's especially common for applying grounds in etching.
- Deckled edge
- The naturally rough, feathered edge of handmade or mould-made paper, formed where the pulp meets the edges of the paper mould. It's often left visible as a decorative border on fine art prints.
- DPI
- Short for dots (or pixels) per inch, a measure of image resolution. Around 300 DPI is typically considered the standard for high-quality print reproduction.
- Drypoint
- An intaglio technique in which a sharp needle scratches a design directly into a plate, throwing up a burr that catches extra ink. This gives drypoint lines their characteristic soft, slightly blurred richness.
- Durometer
- A scale that measures the hardness of a material, commonly used to rate squeegee blades in screen printing. A higher durometer number means a harder, less flexible material.
- Edition
- A set of identical prints pulled from the same matrix or matrices, each typically numbered and signed. An edition can be limited, meaning no further prints will ever be made, or open.
- Emboss
- A raised or recessed impression pressed into paper, often from an uninked block, to create texture rather than color. When done without ink at all it's called a blind emboss.
- Emulsion
- A light-sensitive coating, mixed with a sensitizer, that's applied to a screen mesh to create a stencil for screen printing. Areas exposed to light harden, while unexposed areas wash out to leave the printable image.
- Engraving
- A printmaking technique in which lines are cut directly into a plate's surface using a burin, without the use of acid. The incised lines hold ink and print in intaglio.
- Etching
- An intaglio technique in which a metal plate is coated with an acid-resistant ground, then drawn into to expose bare metal before the plate is placed in an acid bath. The acid bites into the exposed lines, which then hold ink for printing.
- Exposure
- The step in screen printing where a coated, light-sensitive screen is exposed to light through a transparency of the design. Light hardens the emulsion it reaches, while the shielded areas stay soft and wash away to form the stencil.
- Giclée
- An archival, high-resolution inkjet printing process used for fine art reproduction. It's valued for its color accuracy and longevity compared to standard commercial digital printing.
- Gouge
- A carving tool with a curved cutting edge — V-shaped or U-shaped — used to remove material from a relief printing block. Different gouge profiles create different line widths and textures.
- Halftone
- The breakdown of a continuous-tone image into a pattern of small dots that simulate shading and gradients. Grayscale photographs are typically converted to halftones before being exposed onto a screen for screen printing.
- Hand burnish
- Printing by rubbing the back of paper against an inked block by hand, with a spoon, or with a baren instead of using a mechanical press. It allows direct control over pressure across the image.
- Hangito
- A Japanese woodblock cutting tool resembling an angled knife with a single beveled edge, used to outline and detail a design. It's typically the first tool used when carving a block.
- Hardground
- An acid-resistant coating applied to an etching plate before a design is drawn through it with a sharp tool. Only the exposed lines are then bitten by the acid.
- Honing
- The process of sharpening or maintaining a fine edge on a carving or cutting tool, usually with a whetstone. Regularly honed tools cut more cleanly and with less effort.
- Intaglio
- A family of printmaking techniques — including etching, engraving, drypoint, and collagraph — in which the image is incised or bitten below the surface of a plate. Ink sits in these recesses and is transferred to dampened paper under heavy press pressure.
- Japanese Woodblock (Mokuhanga)
- A relief printmaking method in which watercolor paint and rice-starch paste are brushed onto a carved woodblock and printed onto dampened paper, often in many registered layers. It's also known as mokuhanga.
- Key block
- The block in a multi-layer relief print that carries the main outline or detail of the design, usually printed first or last. Other color blocks are typically registered against it.
- Kento
- The Japanese woodblock system of registration, using notches cut into the corner and side of a block that the paper's edge slots into. This keeps every color layer aligned in exactly the same position.
- Kitchen Lithography
- An accessible, informal version of lithography that swaps traditional stones and chemicals for household materials such as aluminum foil and cola. It uses the same grease-and-water principle as conventional lithography.
- Letterpress
- A relief printing method using hand-set (composed) metal or wood type, printed on a dedicated press. It was the dominant method of text printing for centuries, before offset and digital printing took over.
- Lightfastness
- A measure of how resistant paper or ink is to fading or color change when exposed to light over time. Higher lightfastness means a print will hold its original color longer.
- Limited edition
- A set of identical prints pulled from the same matrix, with a fixed, stated total number and no further prints ever produced. Each print is typically numbered to show its place in the run.
- Lino
- Short for linoleum, a material made from cork dust and linseed oil on a hessian (burlap) backing. It's carved and inked to create relief prints known as linocuts.
- Linocut
- A relief print made from a design carved into a sheet of lino. Raised, uncarved areas hold ink and print, while carved-away areas stay blank.
- Lithography
- A planographic printmaking process in which an image is drawn onto a flat stone or plate with a greasy medium, then treated so water and oil-based ink separate. Water clings to the blank areas and repels ink, while ink sticks only to the greasy image.
- Matrix
- The general term for any printmaking surface — a plate, block, stone, or screen — from which an image is transferred to paper or another substrate.
- Medium (printing medium)
- The clear liquid vehicle that pigment is mixed into to make printing ink; also called binder. It affects the ink's transparency, flow, and drying properties.
- Mesh
- The woven fabric stretched tightly across a frame to form a screen for screen printing. Ink is forced through its open areas with a squeegee.
- Mezzotint
- An intaglio technique in which the whole plate surface is first roughened with a rocker so it prints solid black, then selectively polished smooth to create lighter tones. It's prized for its rich, velvety range of shading.
- Moiré
- An unwanted wavy or striped visual pattern created when two similar repeating patterns overlap slightly out of alignment. It commonly appears when a halftone screen's dot pattern clashes with a printing mesh's own weave.
- Mokuhanga (Japanese Woodblock)
- A relief printmaking method in which watercolor paint and rice-starch paste are brushed onto a carved woodblock and printed onto dampened paper, often in many registered layers. The name combines the Japanese words for wood (moku) and printmaking (hanga).
- Mokulito
- A form of Japanese lithography, literally "wood lithography," in which the image is drawn onto a wood block (instead of a stone or metal plate) using greasy materials. It follows the same grease-and-water printing principle as standard lithography.
- Monoprint
- A print made using a repeatable printmaking technique and matrix, but altered or inked in a way that means only one impression from that specific version can be pulled. It can combine several printmaking methods.
- Monotype
- A one-of-a-kind print made by painting or inking directly onto a smooth, uncarved surface (rather than a cut block or etched plate) and transferring the image to paper. Because there's no reusable matrix, no two monotypes are identical.
- Multi-Block
- A relief print built from several separately carved blocks, each printing one color, layered on top of one another. Careful registration keeps each layer aligned to produce the finished multicolor image.
- Noise
- Faint, unintended marks on a print left by carved-away areas of a block that still picked up a trace of ink from the roller. Printmakers sometimes leave this texture in deliberately for character.
- Nori
- A starch paste used to help watercolor pigment adhere to paper in Japanese woodblock printing. It's also used as an adhesive in chine collé.
- Offset
- The transfer of ink from one surface to another, either as an unwanted accidental transfer or, in commercial printing, as a deliberate process where an image is transferred from plate to rubber blanket to paper.
- Oil-based
- Describes inks that use oil, typically linseed oil, as their vehicle. They're traditionally cleaned up with solvents, though some modern formulations are washable with soap and water.
- Opaque
- Describes ink that fully blocks light and covers whatever is beneath it, showing no trace of the paper, fabric, or previous print layers underneath. It's the opposite of transparent.
- Original print
- A print made in a medium the artist worked in directly — such as a linocut, etching, lithograph, or screenprint — rather than a photographic or digital reproduction of another artwork.
- Overprinting
- Printing one color directly on top of another, previously printed, layer. Depending on the inks used, overprinting can blend to create new colors or build up texture and depth.
- Paper fingers
- Small folded pieces of paper or card slipped between a print and the press blanket to keep fingerprints and marks off the paper and blanket while handling.
- Photo Emulsion
- A light-sensitive coating, mixed with a sensitizer, that's applied to a screen mesh to create a photographic stencil for screen printing. Light hardens the emulsion where the design should not print, leaving the design areas washable.
- Pigment
- The finely ground colored particles suspended in ink that give it its color. Pigment is combined with a binder or medium to form usable printing ink.
- Planography
- A category of printmaking, including lithography, in which the printing and non-printing areas sit on the same flat plane rather than being raised or recessed. The distinction relies on chemical properties, such as grease repelling water, rather than physical relief.
- Plate
- A flat metal, plastic, or card surface into which or onto which an image is worked, most often used in intaglio printmaking. It functions as the matrix from which prints are pulled.
- Platemark
- The embossed rectangular indentation left in damp paper by the edges of an intaglio plate as it passes through an etching press. It's a visual signature of intaglio printing.
- Plate tone
- A faint, overall tone printed from residual ink left across a wiped intaglio plate, rather than only within its incised lines. Printers can control it deliberately for atmospheric effect.
- Poise
- A unit used to measure the viscosity, or thickness and flow, of printing ink.
- Process colours
- The core set of transparent primary inks — typically cyan, magenta, and yellow — that printmakers mix and overprint to build a wide range of colors. Their transparency allows layered colors to optically blend on the printed surface.
- Proof
- A test print pulled to check color, registration, or overall quality before an edition is printed, most often made by or for the artist. An artist's proof is one specific type, usually capped at about 10% of the edition.
- Rainbow roll
- A technique in which two or more colors of ink are blended together on the roller or plate so they merge into a smooth gradient when printed. It's commonly used in relief and screen printing.
- Reduction
- A relief printing method in which the same block is progressively carved further away between each color layer, so earlier colors remain visible only where the block hasn't yet been cut. Because material is permanently removed, the block can't be reprinted once the edition is finished.
- Registration
- The process of accurately lining up one printed layer with another, or a single layer with the substrate, so a multi-color or multi-pass print aligns correctly.
- Registration marks
- Guide marks, drawn or cut into a matrix, used to consistently position the paper or substrate in exactly the same place for each printing pass.
- Relief printing
- A printmaking process in which the areas around a design are carved away, leaving the design raised. Ink is rolled onto these raised surfaces and pressed onto paper or fabric, as in linocut and woodcut.
- Retarder
- An ink additive used to slow down drying time, giving the printer more working time before the ink sets.
- Screen (silkscreen)
- A frame with fine mesh stretched across it, used as the printing surface for screen printing. A stencil, made with paper or photo emulsion, blocks ink from areas that shouldn't print.
- Screen film
- A transparent sheet, either hand-drawn or digitally printed with an opaque design, used during exposure to transfer an image onto a light-sensitive screen.
- Screenprint
- A print made using the screen printing process, in which ink is forced through a stenciled mesh screen onto a substrate.
- Screen printing
- A printmaking technique in which a squeegee forces ink through a mesh screen carrying a stencil, transferring the design onto paper, fabric, or another substrate below.
- Scrim (tarlatan)
- A rough, loosely woven fabric used in intaglio printing to wipe surplus ink from a plate before printing, leaving ink only in the incised lines (and any intended plate tone).
- Serigraphy
- A term for screen printing used specifically to describe it as a fine art process, distinguishing it from commercial or industrial screen printing.
- Shellac
- A varnish made from resin dissolved in methylated spirits, used to seal and protect the surface of collagraph plates.
- Shore
- A hardness scale, also called durometer, used to describe the firmness of materials such as screen printing squeegee blades.
- Silkscreen
- A frame with fine mesh stretched across it, used as the printing surface for screen printing; historically the mesh was silk, though synthetic mesh is now standard. A stencil on the screen controls where ink passes through.
- Sizing
- A water-resistant coating applied to paper during manufacture to control how much ink or moisture the paper absorbs.
- Snap-off
- The small gap maintained between a screen and the substrate during screen printing, which lets the mesh spring back cleanly away from the ink after each squeegee pass.
- Softground
- An acid-resistant coating applied to an etching plate that stays slightly tacky, allowing objects or tools to be pressed into it to create soft, textured marks before the plate is etched.
- Solvent
- A liquid used to dissolve and clean up ink, most often needed for removing oil-based inks from tools and plates.
- Spit-bite
- An etching technique in which acid is brushed directly onto an exposed plate, mixed with water or saliva, to create painterly, tonal areas rather than uniform bitten tone.
- Squeegee
- A screen printing tool with a rubber or polyurethane blade set in a handle, used to drag ink across a screen and force it through the mesh onto the substrate below.
- Stop Out
- An acid-resistant varnish or fluid painted onto an etching plate to protect chosen areas from further biting once they've reached the desired depth or tone.
- Sugarlift
- An etching technique in which a sugar-and-ink solution is painted onto a plate, covered with ground, then soaked in water so the sugar dissolves and lifts the ground away. This exposes bare metal in the painted areas, which can then be etched to hold ink.
- Sumi
- A dense black ink, traditionally made from soot and animal glue, used in East Asian brush painting, calligraphy, and printmaking.
- Tarlatan (scrim)
- A rough, loosely woven fabric used in intaglio printing to wipe surplus ink from a plate before printing, leaving ink only in the incised lines (and any intended plate tone).
- Thermofax
- A quick, low-cost stencil made by running a carbon-based master through a thermofax machine, which burns the design's dark areas into a mesh screen for printing with a squeegee.
- Transparent Base
- An ink additive, especially common in screen printing, used to increase an ink's transparency and extend its coverage without changing its hue.
- Trap
- The area where two printed layers deliberately overlap slightly at their edges, helping to avoid visible white gaps if registration shifts even slightly during printing.
- Tusche
- A greasy drawing medium, available as a liquid or a crayon-like stick, used mainly in lithography to draw the image directly onto the stone or plate.
- Tympan
- A greased or protective sheet placed over the plate on a lithographic press, positioned between the press's scraper bar and the printing surface.
- Vinyl
- A synthetic block material that can be carved and printed in much the same way as traditional lino, often prized for being softer to cut.
- Viscosity
- A measure of how thick, sticky, or free-flowing an ink is. It affects how the ink rolls out, transfers, and prints.
- Viscosity printing
- A relief and intaglio technique that uses inks of different viscosities and oiliness on a single plate at once, exploiting the way they repel or sit on top of one another to print several colors from one plate in a single pass.
- Water-based
- Describes inks that use water rather than oil as their vehicle. They typically clean up with water alone and dry faster than oil-based inks.
- Wet-on-dry
- Printing one ink layer over another only after the first layer has fully dried, which keeps colors crisp and prevents them from mixing on the paper.
- Wet-on-wet
- Printing one ink layer over another while the first layer is still wet, which allows the colors to blend and mix slightly on the paper's surface.
- Whetstone
- An abrasive sharpening stone used to hone and maintain a fine edge on carving and cutting tools.
- Wiping
- In intaglio printmaking, the process of removing surplus ink from the surface of a plate so that ink remains only in its incised lines (and, if desired, as a faint plate tone).
- Woodcut
- A relief printmaking process in which an image is carved into the plank side (the long grain) of a piece of wood, leaving raised areas to print.
- Wood Engraving
- A relief printmaking technique in which fine lines are cut directly into the end grain of a hard wood block, typically with an engraving tool, allowing much finer detail than a standard woodcut.