Etching vs Intaglio
エッチング／腐食銅版画 / 凹版印刷
Both sit in Intaglio Printing, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Etching
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A needle draws through the acid-resistant ground and the acid bites the metal it exposes, cutting lines into the plate that are thin, fluid and close to handwriting.
Intaglio
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Ink is left in lines and hollows cut below the surface of a metal plate, and heavy pressure drives damp paper into them, picking up precise lines and the trace of the plate's edge. How the plate is lowered gives each technique its name, so a plate bitten with acid is an etching and a plate roughened then burnished is a mezzotint.
| Etching | Intaglio | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 16th century– | 15th century– |
| Family | Intaglio Printing | Intaglio Printing |
| Kind | Technique | Technique |
| Cues | Thin flowing lines / Depth by biting / Cross-hatching / Plate marks | Sunken lines / Plate marks / Damp paper / High-pressure press |
| Best used for | Series of travel notes or figures that keep the speed and hesitation of drawing · Book illustration where atmosphere and shadow must come from line alone | Precise line work meant to resist copying, as on certificates and securities · Small editions and cards where the relief in the paper is part of the object |
| Type | Draw the lettering with the same needle so its weight matches the image | Design letters at a weight that can be cut, avoiding sizes that fill in |
| Composition | Build tone from hatching density and keep bare paper as the brightest area | Treat the plate mark as the frame and leave wide margins beyond it |
| Material | Vary line depth by bite time, stopping out in stages as the acid works | Copper or zinc, damp heavy paper, and enough press pressure to emboss |
| Caution | A uniform pen line filter is no substitute, since bite time, overlapping lines, ink left in the wiping and press pressure make the difference, and layering without timing fills detail with black. | Distinguish how engraving, biting, burr and roughened ground change line quality and tone. Treating margin and pressure casually gives a flat print where the paper never rises around the lines. |