Graphic art

Relief printing techniques such as woodcuts and linocuts are among the oldest printing techniques, which were already found in Europe towards the end of the 14^th century. By means of special knives (carvers) and gouges a picture is carved out of a block of wood or linoleum. As a result you get high and low sections. Then the block is inked with a brayer or dabber, whereby the low sections do not take up any ink whereas the high sections do. When the block and the paper are run through the press, the mirror image of the drawing is transferred to paper. In a color print the print is run through the press several times.

A variant of relief printing is blind printing. It involves the same procedure, but no ink is used. The uninked plate is covered with a damp paper, and then the two are run through an etching press so that the relief of the illustration appears in the paper.

Relief printing
Planographic printing
Intaglio printing
Stenciling
Mixed media