Sanchez Art Werk

The unique quality of printing

Freedom of the Press!
The process of printing was once a huge technological leap. Not so long ago books or manuscripts required a large workshop, a team of workers, and a year or more to produce. As a result they were often chained to book shelves and guarded as absolute treasures. Contrast this to the mass market paper backs produced in minutes and by the millions of copies.
Woodcuts and copper prints were once regarded in the way computer art is today as a new almost magical technology. Medieval and Renaissance artists such as Dürer or Rembrandt that dabbled in this new medium rocketed to fame as a result.
Lithographing or printing with the use of a stone in contrast was a much later invention driven by the need to produce prints when metal was scarce. In times of war copper and bronze were gobbled up in mass but stone had ceased to be used for weapons since the Neolithic. Readying a stone for printing requires washing the stone polishing it down painting or drawing the image onto the stone and then applying gum and acid. Finally one is ready to fill the image with ink. It can take a day or two before a test print or artist proof can be run.
It is very important then to put this in a historic context and think back to a time when life moved at a slower pace. A day for your first print and then as many subsequent prints as you like in the early 1800’s was a huge advancement. Workers were not always paid in wages nor were print shops. Time clocks schedules as we know these things today did not exist in mass (reference the Market Revolution Sellers Charles 19991).

Creating a print
The process of printing was once a huge technological leap. Not so long ago books or manuscripts required a large workshop, a team of workers, and a year or more to produce. As a result they were often chained to book shelves and guarded as absolute treasures. Contrast this to the mass market paper backs produced in minutes and by the millions of copies.
Woodcuts and copper prints were once regarded in the way computer art is today as a new almost magical technology. Medieval and Renaissance artists such as Dürer or Rembrandt that dabbled in this new medium rocketed to fame as a result.
Lithographing or printing with the use of a stone in contrast was a much later invention driven by the need to produce prints when metal was scarce. In times of war copper and bronze were gobbled up in mass but stone had ceased to be used for weapons since the Neolithic.

Stone, test print, wash table

Lithography is a method for printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface. By contrast with intaglio printing which uses a plate that has been engraved (engraving), etched (etching) or stippled (mezzotint) to produce cavities to contain the printing ink, lithography simply uses oil or fat and gum arabic to divide the smooth surface into hydrophobic regions which accept the ink, and hydrophilic regions which reject it and become the background. Invented by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder in 1796, it can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or another suitable material.

1800's printing press

The principle
Lithography is a printing process that uses chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the positive part of an image would be a hydrophobic chemical, while the negative image would be water. Thus, when the plate is introduced to a compatible ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative image. This allows for a relatively flat print plate which allows for much longer runs than the older physical methods of imaging (e.g., embossing or engraving).

The early process
Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder - Czech - in Bohemia in 1796. In the early days of lithography, a smooth piece of limestone was used (hence the name "lithography"—"lithos" (λιθος) is the ancient Greek word for stone). After the oil-based image was put on the surface gum arabic, a water soluble solution, was then applied, sticking only to the non-oily surface and sealing it. During printing, water adhered to the gum arabic surfaces and avoided the oily parts, while the oily ink used for printing did the opposite.

The chemical process
Lithography works because of the repulsion of oil and water. The image is drawn on the surface of the print plate with an oil-based medium (hydrophobic). The range of oil-based mediums is endless, but the dexterity of the image relies on the lipid content of the material being used--its ability to withstand water and acid. Following the placement of the image is the application of an acid emulsified with gum arabic. The function of this emulsion is to create a salt layer directly around the image area. The salt layer seeps into the pores of the stone, completely enveloping the original image. This process is called etching. Using lithographic turpentine, the printer then removes the greasy drawing material, leaving only the salt layer; it is this salt layer which holds the skeleton of the image's original form. When printing, the stone or plate is kept wet with water. Naturally the water is attracted to the layer of salt created by the acid wash. Ink that bears a high lipid content is then rolled over the surface. The water repels the grease in the ink and the only place for it to go is the cavity left by the original drawing material. When the cavity is sufficiently full, the stone and paper are run through a press which applies even pressure over the surface, transferring the ink to the paper and off the stone.