IndexStyle

A dictionary of design styles, written from the works themselves.

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Terms776

Dictionary

Search by style name or describe what you are making. Name matches come first; purpose, desired effect and medium add relevant alternatives.

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Engraving / Burin Engraving — Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I, 1514, engraving — National Gallery of Victoria / Google Art Project — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Engraving / Burin Engraving

エングレーヴィング（彫刻凹版） / 15th century–present / Technique / Intaglio Printing

An intaglio print made by cutting a metal plate directly with a burin or similar tool. Controlled changes in line width and dense parallel or crossed lines describe form and tone. It differs from acid etching, relief wood engraving and inscriptions cut into objects.

Clearly controlled incised lines / Parallel and crossed hatching / Dense line fields beside paper white / Bundles of lines follow the form

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Wood Engraving — Thomas Bewick, original engraved wood block — photo: Gemena (2012); matrix rather than impression — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Wood Engraving

木口木版 / late 18th century–present / Technique / Relief Printing

A relief technique cut into hard, smooth end-grain wood. Ink prints from the surface that remains, while fine cuts create white lines and small marks that build tone. It supports detail with little visible wood grain; its printing logic differs from metal engraving.

Fine white lines divide black areas / Tone from small cuts and dots / Detail with little visible wood grain / Illustrations sized for printed pages

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Monotype — Edgar Degas, Café-Concert, 1876–77 — pastel over monotype, National Gallery of Art, formerly Corcoran Gallery of Art — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Monotype

モノタイプ / 17th century–present / Technique / Print Expression

Ink or paint is added to or removed from a smooth plate, then transferred to paper. Brushwork, wiped highlights and interrupted edges combine in a largely unique impression. Residual ink can yield a paler ghost print; this differs from repeatedly printing a fixed matrix image.

Marks added or wiped on the plate / Broken contours and broad tones / Brushwork combined with transfer texture / Fainter residual ghost impressions

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Photogravure — Alfred Stieglitz, Kitty Stieglitz, Central Park, New York, 1901 — photogravure, Metropolitan Museum of Art — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

Photogravure

フォトグラヴュール / 19th century–present / Technique / Intaglio Printing

A photomechanical intaglio method that transfers a photographic image to a plate and prints it in ink. Fine detail and apparently continuous tones acquire the character of paper and ink. It is distinct from a silver photograph, planographic collotype and the industrial context of rotary gravure.

Photographically derived detail / Rich printing-ink blacks / Fine grain carrying tonal changes / Plate image in relation to paper

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Collotype — Eadweard Muybridge, Animal Locomotion: Annie G. galloping, 1887 — collotype, Library of Congress — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Collotype

コロタイプ / 19th century–present / Technique / Planographic Printing

A photomechanical process that prints ink from a photographically prepared gelatin surface. Fine, irregular reticulation carries detail and smooth-looking tones rather than a regular halftone screen. It has reproduced photographs and artworks; it is unrelated to the collaged matrix of a collagraph.

Detailed images derived from photographs or originals / Apparently continuous tonal changes / Fine irregular reticulation under magnification / Tone without a regular dot screen

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Chine Collé — Petrus Johannes Arendzen, Portrait of Carel Vosmaer, 1856–85 — etching and engraving on chine collé, Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1909-1539 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

Chine Collé

シン・コレ / 19th century–present / Technique / Print Expression

A thin paper receives the printed image while being bonded to a heavier support sheet. Its colour and texture become part of the image's ground. It can accompany etching, lithography and other methods; it is a support and printing technique, not a synonym for collage generally.

Thin paper beneath the printed image / Boundary against the surrounding support / Printed marks overlay the thin sheet / A two-layer paper support

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Collagraph — Collagraph paper plate — Halvard (matrix rather than printed impression) — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Collagraph

コラグラフ / 20th century–present / Technique / Print Expression

A print made from a matrix built or textured with materials such as paper, fabric or string. Their edges and surfaces carry the image; relief and intaglio inking can be combined. The assembled matrix is printed, distinguishing it from a collage displayed as the finished work or photographic collotype.

Edges of attached materials appear in the print / Paper or fabric surface textures / Tone from ink held by relief and recesses / Lines, areas and pressure marks interact

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Soft-ground Etching — Soft-ground etching on zinc, technical example — OrangeJudex — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

Soft-ground Etching

ソフトグラウンド・エッチング / 18th century–present / Technique / Intaglio Printing

An etching method in which pressure through paper or contact with a textured object marks a soft resist before the plate is etched. It can produce grainy, pencil-like lines or transferred surface textures. These differ from direct drypoint scratches and needle drawing through a hard ground.

Grainy, pencil-like lines / Paper or object textures transferred to the plate / Soft transitions between line and area / Density varies with pressure and contact

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Editorial policy

IndexStyle is not a list of every term used around design. An independent entry must describe a visual language that can be recognised, reproduced and distinguished from its neighbours. Editorial standard

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