Print Glossary & Terms

A print is an image created by a process that enables it to be produced in multiples. The design is created on a matrix (woodblock, copper plate, or stone, for example) that is inked and impressed onto a sheet of paper or other suitable material, and transferred by relief, intaglio, or planographic methods.

A la poupée

A single plate is selectively inked in different colors, using stumps of rag known as a “poupée.”

After

When a printmaker uses the design (often a painting or drawing) of a previously existing painting as a basis for a print.

Albumen Print

This printing process is used in photography printing processes. Egg whites are used in the emulsion.
Antique print
Any print printed and published prior to 1900 is considered an antique print. A modern reproduction of an old print is not itself an antique. The cut-off date of 1900 is not firmly fixed, however, and in many circumstances original prints made before World War II are also considered to be antiques.

Aquatint

Fine particles of acid-resistant resin are deposited on the plate and heated so they adhere to the surface. The plate is immersed in acid which bites into the plate in tiny pools around each particle. The tiny depressions retain the ink and when printed give the effect of a soft grain similar to watercolor.

Blind stamp

A blind stamp (also “chop mark”) is an embossed seal impressed onto a print as a distinguishing mark by the artist, the publisher, an institution, or a collector.

Brayer

In printmaking, a Brayer is a roller which is used to apply ink to printing surfaces.
Catalogue Raisonné
A book listing all of the prints by a certain artist. References to it are by the author’s last name.

Chine appliqué (chine collé)

A chine appliqué or chine collé is a print in which the image is impressed onto a thin sheet of China (or other similar) paper which is backed by a stronger, thicker sheet. China paper takes an intaglio impression more easily than regular paper, so chine appliqué prints generally show a richer impression than standard prints. Proof prints are often done as chine appliqués.

Cibachrome

A process where a photographic print can be made directly from a color transparency.

Drypoint

Drawing directly on the copper plate with a sharp point creates a rough ridge of metal–a burr–along the furrow. When the plate is inked, the burr catches the ink, producing dark, velvety accents.

Edition

An edition of a print includes all the impressions published at the same time or as part of the same publishing event. A first edition print is one which was issued with the first published group of impressions. First edition prints are sometimes pre-dated by a proof edition. Editions of a print should be distinguished from states of a print. There can be several states of a print from the same edition, and there can be several editions of a print all with the same state.

Embossing

Any process used to create a raised or depressed surface, sometimes without ink.

Engraving

Lines are incised into a copper plate with a burin. The curls of copper thrown up at the sides of the furrow are cleaned away with a scraper.

Etching

A metal plate is coated with a varnish-like substance (known as the “ground”) that is impervious to acid. The artist creates an image by drawing through the ground with an etching needle, thus exposing areas of metal. The whole plate is then immersed in acid until the exposed lines are sufficiently bitten, producing grooves in the metal that will hold the ink. The ground is then removed, and the plate is ready to be inked and printed.

Fine Art & Historical Prints

Prints can be separated into two general types, fine art prints and historical prints. These types can best be understood through a differentiation of their emphasis. The distinction between the two types of prints is not clear-cut nor is it understood by all experts in the same way, but generally a fine art print is one conceived and executed by an artist with as much or more concern for the manner of presentation of the print as for its content, whereas the concern of the maker of an historical print is focused more on the content of the image than on its presentation.

Giclee

Pronounced ‘jee-clay’ is a French term used to describe a specialized process in which pigmented inks are applied to canvas or paper to reproduce a fine art reproduction.
Highly trained technicians spend countless hours in spectrophotometry, matching color hues and textural effects of original pieces of art.
Using high-resolution digital photography and scanning equipment exceeding tens of thousands of dollars, a fine art reproduction is then created picking up every nuance of the original painting.

Hors de Commerce (HC)

These prints in addition to the regular edition but are the same as the edition and are used as gifts or payments to those involved in the production of the edition. They are marked “HC” and are usually numbered but not always. They may also be released to the market.

Impression

An impression is a single piece of paper with an image printed on it from a matrix. The term as applied to prints is used in a manner similar to the term “copy” as applied to a book.
Intaglio
The line has been created by incising the plate, as in engraving or etching. The lines are sunken grooves in the plate.

Lettering or Letterpress

The lettering of a print refers to the information, usually given below the image, concerning the title, artist, publisher, engraver and other such data.

Limited Edition

A limited edition print is one in which a limit is placed on the number of impressions pulled in order to create a scarcity of the print. Limited editions are usually numbered and are often signed. Limited editions are a relatively recent development, dating from the late nineteenth century. Earlier prints were limited in the number of their impressions solely by market demand or by the maximum number that could be printed by the medium used. The inherent physical limitations of the print media and the relatively small size of the pre-twentieth century print market meant that non-limited edition prints from before the late nineteenth century were in fact quite limited in number even though not intentionally so. German printmaker Adam von Bartsch, in his 1821 Anleitung zur Kupferstichkunde, estimated the maximum number of quality impressions it was possible to pull using different print media.
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Engraving: 500 (and about the same number of weaker images)
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Stipple: 500 (and about the same number of weaker images)
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Mezzotint: 300 to 400, though the quality suffers after the first 150
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Aquatint: Less than 200
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Wood block: Up to 10,000
It was only with the development of lithography and of steel-facing of metal plates in the nineteenth century that tens of thousands of impressions could be pulled without a loss of quality. These technological developments led to the idea of making limited edition prints, by which printmakers created an appearance of rarity and individuality for multiple-impression art.

Linoleum Cut (or Linocut)

A relief technique like woodcut but using linoleum rather than wood.

Lithograph

The design is drawn on a stone (or certain types of plates) with a greasy crayon or ink. Water adheres to the bare stone and not the greasy areas, while the printing ink does the opposite–it sticks to the greasy areas and not the wet stone–reproducing the design when printed.

Matrix

A matrix is an object upon which a design has been formed and which is then used to make an impression on a piece of paper, thus creating a print. A {wood}block {metal} plate, or {lithographic}stone can be used as a matrix.

Mezzotint

The copper plate is systematically worked over with a spiked tool called a rocker until it is thoroughly roughened. If inked in this state it will print a solid black. The engraver then works from dark to light smoothing out graduated highlights with a scraper. The smoother the area is the less ink it will hold, creating an image in a range of tones.

Mixed Method

A mixed method print is one whose design is created on a single matrix using a variety of printmaking techniques, for example: line engraving, stipple, and etching.

Monotype

Ink or paint is applied to a smooth plate. Because there is no fixed matrix, only one strong impression can be printed.

Numbered Print

A numbered print is one which is part of a limited edition and which has been numbered by hand. The numbering is usually in the form of x/y, where y stands for the total number of impressions in this edition and x represents the specific number of the print. The number of a print always indicates the order in which the prints were numbered, not necessarily the order in which the impressions were pulled. This means that lower numbers do not generally indicate better quality impressions. As with signed prints, the numbering of prints is a development of the late nineteenth century.

Offset Lithography

A printing process based on the same principle of the repulsion of water by grease as lithography. however, the inked image is transferred to a drum before being printed on the paper which allows the final image to be printed in the same direction as the original.

Photomechanical Reproduction

Any of a variety of printmaking processes in which the imagery is established photographically.

Planographic

A planographic print is one whose image is printed off a flat surface from a design drawn on a stone or plate using a grease crayon or with a greasy ink. In this type of print the printing ink is absorbed by the greasy design on the stone and is transferred to the paper under light pressure.
Plate Tone
Tone created in intaglio prints by leaving a film of ink on the plate when it is wiped before printing.

Platemark

A platemark is the rectangular ridge created in the paper of a print by the edge of an intaglio plate. Unlike a relief or planographic print, an intaglio print is printed under considerable pressure, thus creating the platemark when the paper is forced together with the plate. Some reproductions have a false platemark.

Printer’s Proof (PP)

Printers Proofs are impressions exactly the like the edition and is the property of the printers responsible for pulling the edition. They are marked “PP”. It may or may not be numbered, and may be released to the market.

Proof

A proof is an impression of a print pulled prior to the regular, published edtition of the print. A trial or working proof is one taken before the design on the matrix is finished. These proofs are pulled so that the artist can see what work still needs to be done to the matrix. Once a printed image meets the artist’s expectations, this becomes a bon à tirer (“good to pull”) proof. This proof is often signed by the artist to indicate his approval and is used for comparison purposes by the printer. An artist’s proof is an impression issued extra to the regular numbered edition and reserved for the artist’s own use, but may be released to the market. Artist’s proofs are usually signed and are sometimes marked “A.P.”, “E.A.” or “H.C.”
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Proof before letters (Avant les lettres): An impression pulled before the title is added below the image.
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Scratched letter proof: An impression in which the title is lightly etched below the image.
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Remarque proof: An impression pulled before the remarque is removed.
Relief
A relief print is one whose image is printed from a design raised on the surface of a block. In this type of print the ink lies on the top of the block and is transferred to the paper under light pressure.
Restrike:
A restrike is a print produced from the matrix of an original print, but which was not printed as part of the original publishing venture or as part of a connected, subsequent publishing venture. A restrike is typically a later impression from an unrelated publishing project.

Roulette

A tool with a spiked wheel used to create lines of even dots on intaglio plates.

Screenprint (also called Serigraph or Silkscreen)

Silk or synthetic mesh is stretched tightly over a frame. A stencil is adhered to the fabric blocking the nonprinting areas. The image areas are open fabric through which ink is forced with a squeegee.

Signed

A signed print is one signed, in pencil or ink, by the artist and/or engraver of the print. A print is said to be signed in the plate if the artist’s signature is incorporated into the matrix and so appears as part of the printed image. Proof prints were originally signed as “proof” that the impression met the artist’s expectation. Later proof prints were signed in order to add commercial value to these impressions. In the late nineteenth century, in response to the development of photomechanical reproduction techniques, fine arts prints were signed by the artists in order to distinguish between original prints and reproductions. Seymour Haden and James McNeil Whistler are usually credited with introducing this practice in the 1880s.

Softground Etching

A piece of paper is placed over a special soft etching ground. The design is drawn with a pencil on the paper. The pressure of the pencil causes the ground to adhere to the back of the paper, recording the pressure of the artist’s hand. When the paper is peeled from the plate, it takes with it the ground which adhered to it. The plate is then bitten with acid, the remaining ground is removed, and the plate is inked and printed.

State

Any stage in the development of a print at which impressions are taken. A change of state occurs only with the addition or removal of lines on a plate.

Steelfacing

The process of coating a copper plate with a thin layer of steel by electrolysis, thus strengthening its surface for further printing.

Stencil (or Pochoir)

Prints are hand-colored through specially cut stencils.

Stipple

In etching and engraving, a method of rendering tone by means of dots and short strokes.

Sugarlift Aquatint

The artist uses a mixture of sugar syrup and ink to draw on the copper plate. When dry, the entire plate is covered with a varnish that is impervious to acid and put in warm water. As the sugar melts, it lifts the varnish off and exposes the copper plate where the artist had drawn. These areas are now aquatinted.

Verso

Strictly speaking, “verso” refers to the left-hand page in a book, in contrast to the “recto” page on the right. It is used with prints, however, to refer to the back side of the print.

Woodcut

The areas around each line are cut out of the block of wood so that the lines to be printed stand out in relief.

Wood Engraving

A sharply pointed instrument called a burin cuts into the end grain of a hard wood to create the design. The surface of the block is inked and printed, producing white lines on a black background.