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            <Abbreviations in Printmaking>
 

Abstraction
The mental process of forming ideas from characteristics and qualities common to the object but not necessarily representing any known object.
Alternatively, what we can call an image that did not quite come out as intended and therefore represents nothing that looks like anything.

Acid
A corrosive liquid used for etching metal plates. It is bad stuff and should not be breathed or dumped on any living thing.

Acrylic
Acrylic Polymer Emulsion-based printing paint, soluble in water but waterproof when dry.

Agitation
The gentle rocking of a tray containing water or acid.

À la poupée
A print is printed in color à la poupée when colored ink is applied directly to a plate's surface and worked into the appropriate area of the design using cotton daubs called dollies, or in French, poupée. This method can be used with small rollers also, thereby using the principle of economy and cutting one block instead of two.

Antiquarian
Paper size of 31 inches x 53 inches or 79 centimeters x 135 centimeters.

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
An etching technique that creates areas of tone through the use of powdered resin that is sprinkled on the etching plate prior to being bitten by the etching acid. The result is a finely textured tonal area whose darkness is determined by how long the plate is bitten by the acid.

Artistic license
The leeway that artists take to make off the wall images, say weird incomprehensible things about them, and generally behave irrationally. I have mine hanging in the studio.

Artist's Proofs (A/P or a/p)
Proofs taken for and often by the printmaking artist. Traditionally the number of proofs will not exceed 10% of the total number edition. Artists proofs can be numbered, often in Roman numerals I/X, II/X, III/X, IV/X and so on.

Asphaltum
A composite mixture of asphalt rock and bitumen used to stop out or mask metal surfaces that must not etch (in intaglio printmaking).

Baren
An instrument in the form of a slightly convex, circular pad covered with a bamboo sheath, used for burninshing the back of paper when printing from an inked relief block. Traditional Japanese Barens are made of woven bamboo strands, while a variety of printing instruments imitating the original are fashioned of all types of materials. See BARENS.

Bath
An acid-proof container made of glass, porcelain or plastic in which metal plates are etched or bitten.
Alternatively, a form of hygene which artists employ on occasion.

Bench hook
An aid used by printmakers to steady the block during cutting, made from a wooden baseboard with one strip of wood along the top edge to hold the block in place, and another underneath hooking the board against the work surface.

Bevel
To create a loping or rounded smooth edge of a block or metal cutting tool.

Bite
The etching action on metal or alkali on linoleum.
Alternatively, a possible reply to a rejected submission, as in the expression: "bite me."

Birch, Baltic Birch
A common and easily obtainable wood for woodcuts. Birch plywood is easy to cut and widely available. See WOODS.

Blanket
Felts used in printing intaglio plates on an etching press. Also the rubber-covered roller on a letterpress proofing press. Felt blankets used in the manufacture of paper.

Bleed image or bleed print
An image that extends to the edge of the paper with no margins.

Bleeding
Oil or waterbased inks spreading beyond the intended printed area.
Alternatively, what happens when the wood chisel slips into the flesh of the hand.

Blind stamp
A blind stamp is an embossed seal impressed onto a print as a distinguishing mark by the artist, the publisher, an institution, or a collector.

Block
A {wood} block is a piece of wood used as a matrix for a print. Wood blocks are used primarily for woodcuts or wood engravings. Also (really) any material which is adapted, cut, or built up, to create a surface from which a print can be taken. Most common blocks for relief printmaking are wood, linoleum, rubber, hardboard, masonite. Less common but very successful are cork, plastics, plaster, or found blocks as in any relief surface which can be inked and printed or a rubbing pulled from its surface.

Block-books
Early form of illustrated book where text and pictures were cut together from the same block of wood.

Boxwood
A superior dense hardwood made from the boxwood tree, prepared in end-grain blocks used for wood engraving.

Brayer
A gelatine, composition, or rubber-covered roller for inking plates or blocks.
Alternatively, a whiny artist.

Bridge
An aid used in monoprinting (and oil painting) which allows close work when drawing but keeps any other pressure off the prining paper. A piece of wood raised by supports at each end. You must never burn these.

Brush inking
Colored inks, usually in the form of paint, applied to the block using brushes instead of rollers. In traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking, brushes are used to apply waterbased inks and rice paste to the relief block. The traditional Japanese method is best described in the Encyclopedia for Woodblock Printmaking, reachable from the links page.

Burnisher
A hand tool, of metal, wood or bone, slightly flattened and highly polished, used for making prints by rubbing the reverse side of the printing paper. Improvised tools are spoon handles, smooth stones, wooden doorknobs, folding bones, old cell-phones, the hand, the elbow, someone else's head, the back of the remote control, etc.

Burnishing
Rubbing the reverse side of the printing paper, which has been placed over the inked surface, with a smooth, rounded object or a baren.

Burr
The rough edge of a metal cutting tool left by the action of sharpening. Viewed very closely, this looks like a fuzzy edge on the opposite side as the cutting edge. Remove the darned thing, will ya. A few strokes on a polishing stone will do the trick.

Carborandum
An abrasive in solid or powder form used for sharpening wood engraving and linocutting tools. Also used for surfacing litho stones.

Catalogue raisonné
A catalogue raisonné is a documentary listing of all the works by an artist which are known at the time of compilation. It should include all essential documentary information.

Chase
A rectangular metal frame in which the composed type forms or blocks are locked in place with furniture and placed on the bed of press for printing.

Chiaroscuro Woodcut
A form of woodcut involving several blocks in which one or more of the blocks is used to print large areas of tone. Typically, a chiaroscuro woodcut will involve a line block to indicate the outlines of the composition and tone blocks with areas carved out to create highlights by allowing the white of the paper to show through. The final effect is similar to an ink wash drawing with highlights and line drawing.

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 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.

Chromolithograph
A color lithograph usually involving a large number of lithographic stones to allow a complex color separation. The term is often used to describe late nineteenth-century color lithographs that emulate or reproduce paintings.

Clamp
An implement for holding a block firmly on a work-bench. Can take the place of the bench hook.

Collage
A block built up from various materials glued on to a backing board, often cardboard or hardboard.

Color print
A print using more than one color in its composition.

Color separation
A separate drawing for each color to be used in the print. This term also describes printed color proofs of each color. It is modern practice and a time saving device to scan a finished drawing into a graphics computer program and have the program separate the colors. It is considered of highly intelligent and proficient artists, geniuses really, to do this in one's head; I use this latter method.
The traditional Japanese method used a key block, usually in black, to delineate the design and produce the color separations. Each color area was then cut on a separate block.

Colored print (hand-colored print)
A print where color was added after printing, usually with watercolors, drawing inks, or the same inks used for printing diluted with the proper medium. A telltale sign of hand coloring is the staining or bleeding on the back of the print.

Composite print
A print made from a variety of materials and methods. A mixed media print.

Composition
The combining of a group of separate elements into a visual whole.

Commission
A contract between artist and publisher. A made-to-order work of art. The percentage taken from a sale, by a gallery of agent, usually referred to as "an arm and a leg."

Copyright
The right to reproduce the work of the artist. Works in the US are copyrighted as they are created but it is best to display the Copyright symbol © and the year of creation somewhere near every work. Something to worry about after an artist gets famous.

Cross-hatching
One set of drawn or cut lines crossing over another in an effort to represent gradual shading.

Dabber or Dauber
A soft leather inking pad attached to a handle used to ink a block instead of a roller. A finger tip can be used for small areas. A small rubber ball or racquetball, cut in half can also be used (no, really).

Deckle
Irregular edges of all four sides of handmade paper and two sides of mould-made paper, produced by the wet paper pulp slipping under the deckle of the paper-making frame. Flase deckle is made by tearing or irregular cutting.

Digital Print
A printed output of an image originating in a computer graphics program. The debate will be endless as to whether a digital print can be considered a fine art print or is simply a different type of print, as in a photographic print.

Direct cutting
Cutting into a block where the drawing has been painted (positive cutting) or cutting freely nto an undrawn block, leaving the uncut parts raised. This method was widely used by the German Expressionists and gives a woodcut great energy and spontaneity.

Direct inking
Rolling and ink-charged roller directly on to the printing paper. This technique is used to either tint or partially tint printing paper so that the tinted part will show in the cut parts of the printed image.

Double elephant
Paper size 40 in x 27 in or 102 cm x 69 cm.

Driers
Used sparingly with oil-based inks to speed the drying process. Most common is cobalt drier, which is very bad stuff and should not be poured into the aquarium.

Drypoint
Similar to etching, but the lines are simply scratched into the plate manually, without the use of acid. The hallmark of a drypoint is a soft and often rather thick or bushy line somewhat like that of an ink pen on moist paper.

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. For limited editions, see below.

Electrotype
Facsimile metal printin-plate made photgraphically from an original drawing or print used for work such as book illustration wehre there is a long printing run.

End grain
The flat surface of a block of wood cut through the trunk at right angles showing the growth rings. End-grain blocks are especially prepared for wood engraving. Woodcuts are made by cuttin on the plank grain of wood.

Engraving
Incising lines or dots into a hard surface of metal or wood with tools. If the printed image is made by filling the lines with ink and impressing these onto paper, this process is referred to as intaglio (e.g. copper engraving). The characteristics of burin engraving differ from that of etching in that engraving, requiring considerable force, is done from the strength of the arm and eliminates the quavering autographic qualities of etching, which is done more from the finger tips like fine drawing. The hallmarks of engraving are often elegantly swelling and tapering lines.
Where the image is obtained by inking up the raised surface, so that the incised or cut lines appear white, this is known as relief printing (e.g. wood engraving).

Etching
The process of biting into a metal plate with corrosive acid solution to form a design to be printed on paper; also refers to the printed image. The plate is first covered with an acid resistant ground through which the artist scratches a design with a stylus or needle, revealing the bare metal below. This plate is then immersed in an acid bath that cuts the incised lines into the plate.

Etching linoleum
A means of creating tones and textures with a sodium hydroxide solution (caustic soda); some household materials containing this corrosive and nasty stuff are oven cleaner, plumbing pipe gunk disolver, and pool alkaline increasers. Y'all be careful, hear?

Etching Press
Press for printing etchings and all other intaglio plates, operating by slipping a press bed between two rollers, one of them being adjustable to increase or decrease pressure. An etching press is easily adapted to print relief blocks. See the Studio Notes Index.

Extender
Also referred to as reducing and tiniting mediums. These dilute the pigment but maintain the intensity of color. Plate oils of different grades are used to obtain the optimum print consistency.

Feathering
Dispersing bubbles on the surface of a plate immersed in an etching bath.

Figure
The visible surface pattern on a piece of timber, AKA grain. The human figure. Go figure.

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.

Flocking
Wool dust glued to a fabric-printing block to increase the amount of ink taken up when printing.

Foil
A metallic paper used for preserving small amounts of printing ink or as a protective covering.

Frisket
A metal frame attached to the tympan on a platen press which holds the printing paper in place.

Frottage
A rubbing of an object or block placed under a thin piece of paper, using a wax crayon or graphite pencil. Try it on a water meter or sewer cover in the middle of the street.

Gesso
A paste-like substance made from plaster of Paris or chalk and glue.

Gillotage
A relief process made by transferring a lithographic image to a metal plate that is then etched to produce a relief plate. The term is also used inaccurately to indicate varieties of photomechanical relief printing.

Gouge (also called: chisel, knife)
A small woodcutting tool with a U curved or V shaped cutting edge. U-gouges leave a burrow like mark, while V-gouges leave a line like mark. These knives or chisels, as they are called, come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. A good selection is necessary for variety of line. In traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking, these tools are used only to clear out wood, all the cutting is done with a straight edged knife called a Toh.

Grain
Describes the direction of the fibers on the plank-side surface of timber. Cutting with the grain is much easier than across the grain. However, cutting with the grain on splintery woods (birch, shina) will cause the wood to splinter. Cutting at an angle to the grain in the direction of the grain will yield the cleanest and easiest cut. Sharpen your knives, grasshopper.

Ground
An acid-resistant coating of asphaltum or wax to protect a surface, or allow an image to be scratched through.

Gum arabic
Plant resin dissolved in water, used for securing fabric on a printing table, and also th eprincipal element in water-based inks. Used as a base to add drops of acid to etch lithographic stones and plates.

Handmade Paper
Single sheets of paper wiht a deckle on all four sides. It is usually lightly sized. Handmade paper is a wonder of wonders, every sheet is slightly different and inclusions of plants are some times added. A printmaker ought to, at some point, make a few sheets of paper to appreciate this magic material.

Hardboard
A man-made board that is smooth on one side. It can be cut and printed and is frequently used as a baseboard for lino-blocks. Also known as Masonite; can be tempered which makes it very hard and unusable as a relief matrix.

Heliogravure
A forerunner of photogravure in which the photographic image is projected directly onto the plate rather transferred to it on an emulsion. The term "photogravure" is often used indiscriminately for both techniques.

Hot Pressed (HP)
The smoothest of the handmade papers, with a slightly glazed surface. Hot pressed refers to the process of drying the paper: it is actually "hot pressed" by iron boards which renders the paper flat and dry and leaves the sheet with little or no texture.
 
 
 

Imperial
Paper size: 22in x 30in (56cm x 76cm). Probably the most popular paper size for American, Italian, English and French papers.
 

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
An intaglio print is one whose image is printed from a recessed design incised or etched into the surface of a plate. In this type of print the ink lies below the surface of the plate and is transferred to the paper under pressure. The printed lines of an intaglio print stand in relief on the paper. Intaglio prints have platemarks. Any of the techniques in which an image or tonal area is printed from lines or textures scratched or etched into a metal plate (engraving, etching, drypoint, aquatint, lift ground, soft ground). The plate is covered with ink, then wiped clean leaving ink in the incised lines or textures of the image. This plate is then printed in a press on moistened paper. The paper is forced down into the area of the plate holding ink, and the image is transferred to the paper.

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

Letterpress
Typographic printing from movable type.

Lift-ground aquatint
A form of intaglio printing in which the artists draws with a specially formulated ink on a metal plate. The plate is then covered with an acid resistant ground and immersed in water. The characteristics of the drawing medium (which may be applied with a pen or brush) allow it to dissolve and work through the acid resistant ground. When bitten in acid, the final result resembles pen or brush work.

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.

Engraving: 500 (and about the same number of weaker images)
Stipple: 500 (and about the same number of weaker images)
Mezzotint: 300 to 400, though the quality suffers after the first 150
Aquatint: Less than 200
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
A relief print carved into linoleum rather than wood.

Lithograph
A printing technique in which the image is drawn on a very flat slab of limestone (or a specially treated metal plate). This stone is treated chemically so that ink, when rolled on to the stone, adheres only where the drawing was done. This inked image can then be transferred to a piece of paper with the help of a high pressure press.

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.

Metal Cut
A form of relief printing from an intaglio plate. In the fifteenth century metal cuts often employed drill holes that printed as white dots. Engraved lines will print white rather than black in metal cut since the surface, rather than the marks in the plate, is inked.

Mezzotint
An intaglio process invented around 1650 that allows the printing of rich tonal areas of black and grey. The mezzotint process begins by texturing a metal plate in such a way that it will hold a great deal of ink and print a solid black field. This is done with a tool called a "rocker." A rocker is essentially a large curved blade with very fine teeth along its edge. This blade is rocked back and forth, putting courses of fine dots into the metal plate. After this has been done repeatedly the plate will be covered with fine stipples that can hold ink. The next step is to scrape away the stippled texture where lighter passages are needed. The more vigorously the plate is scraped the less ink it will hold and the whiter it will print. Mezzotint differs conceptually from other intaglio methods because the artist works from black to white rather than white to black. For this reason mezzotint lends itself to scenes with many dark passages.

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
A form of printmaking in which the artist draws or paints on some material, such as glass, and then prints the image onto paper, usually with a press. The remaining pigment can then be reworked, but the subsequent print will not be an exact version of the previous print. Monotypes may be unique prints or variations on a theme.

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, together with the fact that later impressions are sometime superior to earlier pulls, 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.

Original Print
An original print is one printed from a matrix on which the design was created by hand and issued as part of the original publishing venture or as part of a connected, subsequent publishing venture. For fine art prints the criteria used is more strict. A fine art print is original only if the artist both conceived and had a direct hand in the production of the print. An original print should be distinguished from a reproduction, which is produced photomechanically, and from a restrike, which is produced as part of a later, unconnected publishing venture.

Paper
Laid paper is made by hand in a mold, where the wires used to support the paper pulp emboss their pattern into the paper. This pattern of closely spaced, crossing lines can be seen when the paper is held up to light. Laid paper often has a watermark. Wove paper is made by machine on a belt and lacks the laid lines. False laid lines can be added to machine-made paper. Though wove paper was invented in the eighteenth century and laid paper is still produced, the majority of prints made prior to 1800 are on laid paper and the majority of prints made subsequently are on wove paper. China paper is a very thin paper, originally made in China, which is used for chine appliqué prints.

Photogravure
A means of printing a photographic image by the intaglio process. The photographic negative (which may be of an artist's drawing) is projected onto a sensitized gelatin emulsion or carbon tissue that is transferred to a copper plate. After washing the plate areas that correspond to the image on the negative are dissolved and the plate can be bitten by acid as in routine etching. In hand photogravure, which is most commonly used in printmaking, the copper plate is first prepared for aquatint etching. The end result can closely resemble a traditional linear etching or soft ground etching.

Photomechanical relief print
There were many means available by the 1880s that allowed a black line drawing to be transferred to a relief printing block by photographic means. These are generically known as line blocks and the images printed from them typically share many of the qualities of woodcut. The means of transferring the image are often complex, and can involve such techniques as etching photosensitized plates or electrotyping light sensitive gelatin plates.

Photomechanical reproduction
This term is used to describe a variety of processes involving the transfer of a photographic image to a printing matrix, such as an etching plate, relief block, or a lithographic stone. The term is used here whenever it is not certain exactly what photomechanical process is involved.
 

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
A metal plate is a flat sheet of metal, usually copper, steel or zinc, used as a matrix for a print. Metal plates are used for intaglio prints and for some lithographs.

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.

Pochoir
A stencil print that does not involve a screen. Usually pigment is brushed across the openings of the template. Often the brush marks are discernable.

Print
A single print is a piece of paper upon which an image has been imprinted from a matrix. In a general sense, a print is the set of all the impressions made from the same matrix. By its nature, a print can have multiple impressions.

Proof
A proof is an impression of a print pulled prior to the regular, published edition 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. Artist's proofs are usually signed and are sometimes marked "A.P.", "E.A." or "H.C." (See glossary of abbreviations) Commercial publishers found that there was a financial advantage to offering so-called "proofs" for sale and so developed other types of proofs to offer to collectors, generally at higher prices.
Proof before letters (Avant les lettres): An impression pulled before the title is added below the image.
Scratched letter proof: An impression in which the title is lightly etched below the image.
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.Relief print : Any print in which the image is printed from the raised portions of a carved, etched, or cast block. A simple example would be a rubber stamp. The most common relief prints are woodcuts. The term "relief print" is used when it is not clear which kind of relief printing has been used (photomechanical or hand carved, for example).

Remarque
A remarque is a small vignette image in the margin of a print, often related thematically to the main image. Originally remarques were scribbled sketches made in the margins of etchings so that the artist could test the plate, his needles, or the strength of the etching acid prior to working on the main image. These remarques were usually removed prior to the first publication of the print. During the etching revival, in the late nineteenth century, remarques became popular as an additional design element in prints and were also used in the creation of remarque proofs.

Reproduction
A reproduction is a copy of an original print or other art work whose matrix design is transferred from the original by a photomechanical process. A facsimile is a reproduction done to the same scale and appearance as the original. Reproductions are often misnamed "prints" by the popular and/or printing industry; they include giclees, iris prints, posters.

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 a later impression from an unrelated publishing project.

Silver print
A photographic print utilizing paper impregnated with silver nitrate (distinct from a platinum print, for example).

Soft ground
An etching technique in which the plate is covered with malleable ground through which a variety textures can be pressed, allowing them to be etched into the plate. For example, a piece of paper laid on top of a soft grounded plate can be drawn upon with a pencil, and the resulting etched image will resemble a pencil line drawn on paper. To be distinguished from "hard ground" used for simple line etching.

Sulphur ground
A technique in which a caustic sulphur compound is painted directly on an etching plate, or in which sulphur dust is otherwise applied to a plate. The resulting marks will hold ink and can be printed like an etching. The technique typically creates blotchy expanses of grey tones. This might be compared to printing rust marks on a steel or iron plate.

Screen Print
A form of stencil printing in which the stencil is adhered to a fine screen for support. Ink can be squeegeed through the screen onto paper. Screen printing can have a hard edged quality caused by the crisp edges of the stencil. Also referred to as "silk screen" and "serigraphy."
 

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.

State
A state of a print includes all the impressions pulled without any change being made to the matrix. A first state print is one of the first group of impressions pulled. Different states of a print can reflect intentional or accidental changes to the matrix. States of a print should be distinguished from editions of a print. There can be several editions of a print which are the same state, and there can be several states of a print in the same edition.

Stone
A lithographic stone is a slab of stone, usually limestone, used as a matrix for a print. Lithographic stones are used to make lithographs and chromolithographs.

Watermark
A watermark is a design embossed into a piece of paper during its production and used for identification of the paper and papermaker. The watermark can be seen when the paper is held up to light.

Wood engraving
A relief print carved in the end grain of a block of wood whose thickness is the same as the height as a piece of movable type ("type high"). This was traditionally a commercial technique practiced by specialists and used in magazines and book illustrations.

Woodcut
A relief print usually carved in the plank grain of a piece of wood. After the relief image has been carved in the plank with knives or gouges it is inked with a dauber or roller. It can then be printed by hand (in which case a sheet of paper is laid down on the inked plank and rubbed from the back with a smooth surface such as the palm of the hand or a wooden spoon) or with the help of a mechanical press. The term woodblock is synonymous with woodcut except that it is usually used to refer to traditional Japanese technique relief printing.

Zincograph
A lithograph done on a zinc plate instead of on a stone. The term is also used to designate a photo-etched relief print.
 
 
 
 
 

Abbreviations in Printmaking Through the Ages
 
A.f.  Etched by
A.P.  Artist's proof
Appresso  Published by
Apud  Published by
Aquaforti fecit, aquaforti,
Aquaf., Aq.  Etched by
Aquatinta, aq:tinta  Aquatinted by
 
Bon á tirer, B.A.T.  Proof print for use by the printer
 
Caelavit, cael.  Engraved by
Chez  At the house of
Composuit  Drawn by, referring to drawing from which
the engraver, lithographer, etc. worked
Cum privilegio  Privilege to publish from some authority
 
Delineavit, delin., delt., del.  Drawn by (cf. composuit)
Descripsit  Drawn by (cf. composuit)
Designavit, desig.  Drawn by (cf. composuit)
Dessiné  Drawn by (cf. composuit)
Direxit, direx.  Directed by (head of workshop)
Divulgavit, divulg.  Published by
 
Effigiavit, effig.  Drawn by (cf. composuit)
Engd., Eng.  Engraved by
Épreuve d'Artiste, E.A.  Artist's proof
Ex coll.  From the collection of
Excudit, excud., exct., exc.  Printed by; published by
Ex Officina  From the workshop of
Ex Typis  From the printing house of
 
Faciebat, fac.  Made by
Fecit, fec., f.  Made by
Figuravit, fig.  Drawn by (usually after an original painting)
Formis  At the press of
 
Gezeichnet, gez.  Drawn by (cf. composuit)
Gravé  Engraved by
 
Hors Commerce, H.C.  Not for sale
 
Impressit, imp.  Printed by
Incidit, incidebat, incid., inc.  Engraved by
Inventor, invenit, invt., inv., in.  Designed by (original work)
 
Lithog., litho., lith.  Lithographed by (either drawn on stone
or lithographic publisher)
 
On stone by  Drawn on lithographic stone by
 
Pinxit, pins., pictor, ping.  Painted by (original work)
 
Scripsit, scrip.  Engraved text
Sculpsit, sculpt., sculp., sc.  Engraved by
Sumptibus  At the expense of