syllabus — Printmaking

 

 

Common Terms & Vocabulary
 

Burr
Displaced material thrown up when any sharp point (usually a tool called a needle) is used to draw into a plate.
In a method of platemaking called drypoint, the burr clings to the incisions and creates distinctive soft lines in the print.

Chine CollŽ
A method of printing in which an image is printed on a thin sheet of paper and the thin sheet is mounted on a backing sheet during a single pass through the press. The term also describes the process of using a press to mount paper or other collage material such as cloth to a backing sheet, sometimes with printing on it.

Drypoint
A way of drawing directly into an intaglio plate without using acid. Any abrasive or invasive mark can be a drypoint mark, but generally the artist draws into a plate with a sharp tool called a needle. The displaced material clings to the lines in what is called a burr. The burr is mostly above the surface of the plate and holds ink irregularly. A printed drypoint line is rendered more or less fuzzy depending on how the plate is wiped.

Edition
The prints of any particular image that are offered for sale. Editions normally are printed from plates made to hold ink in the same way each time they are inked. Consequently, prints in an edition (even though printed by hand) are very similar to one another, if not exactly the same. Each limited edition print conventionally bears a fraction-like designation, with the number of prints in the
edition on the bottom of a slash mark, and the serial number of the particular impression on the top. Most fine art print shops do not use the serial number to designate the order in which the prints were pulled.
Prints are labeled under the image, left to right:  # of print / # in edition, title (if applicable), signature and date.

Intaglio
A method of printing in which the image is printed from below the surface of the plate. Intaglio platemaking normally involves using etching, drypoint, or engraving processes. Intaglio is the only way of printing that can print ink in varying thicknesses. All other methods deposit ink in a uniform layer from the surface of a plate to the surface of the paper or other material. Intaglio is one of the four basic printmaking methods. The others are relief, stencil, and planographic.

Monoprint
A singular image created by manipulated pigment on a smooth, un-etched, un-carved surface.
A print marked as V/E (Variable Edition) or 1/1 (edition of 1) indicates that the print is a singular image.

Monotype
A print that is similar to a monotype, but with some element of repeatable mark (ex: a carving, a stencil, or something added to the matrix/surface).

Plate
A flat piece of substrate, usually copper, zinc, or acrylic, used to create an image that can be printed.

Platemark
The indented impression of the edges of a plate in the paper.
If the plate edges have been wiped clean of ink, the platemark will be simply an indentation. Otherwise it will hold ink unevenly and print as an irregular line. The presence of a platemark is a sign that the print was printed in intaglio, but all intaglio prints do not show a platemark. Sometimes the paper is the same size as (or smaller than) the plate, or the print is trimmed inside the platemark after printing.

Process Colors / 4-Color Process
The most common method of achieving color in printing is referred to as CMYK, four–color process, or even just process. To reproduce a color image, a file is separated into four different colors: Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Key Color/Black (K). When each color is printed on paper together in properly-registered sequence, the original image is recreated.

Registration
A system to ensure that several plates can be printed in accurate alignment, one on top of the other, to make a single print.

Relief
One of the four basic printmaking methods, which also include intaglio, stencil, and planographic. Relief printing, the oldest print process, encompasses woodcut, linocut, hand-set type, rubber stamps, and related processes like potato prints. The plate or block is incised, but the ink is applied to the top surface rather than to the incisions as in intaglio. Intaglio plates can be printed in relief, and sometimes relief and intaglio inkings are combined.

Stencil
A method of printmaking in which ink is forced through a matrix. ItÕs main use is in screenprinting and pochoir. In screenprinting, also called silkscreen or serigraphy, the stencil is attached to a fabric or wire mesh screen and the ink is pushed through with a squeegee. In pochoir the ink is hand-painted on paper or fabric through a stencil. Stencil printing is one of the four basic printmaking methods, which also include relief, intaglio, and planographic.