Printmaking: compare lines, tones, surfaces and paper
Compare 17 printmaking techniques through real works and documented processes, from woodcut and engraving to monotype, collotype and chine collé.
What qualifies
Start with what carries the ink: a raised surface, an incised recess, a flat prepared surface or a stencil. Then compare the marks and paper. This is a selected reading route, not a workshop manual or a complete history of printmaking. the five-entry standard
What this guide leaves out
Appearance alone cannot prove a printing process. Mixed techniques are common, and colour on a screen can hide paper layers and microscopic grain. Keep the museum medium record beside the image. Monotype differs from a varied print from a fixed matrix; chine collé changes the paper support and can accompany other techniques.
Relief: read black surfaces and white cuts
Woodcut and linocut print from the surface left after cutting. Wood engraving uses hard end grain to support fine white marks. Compare the block, tool and scale before grouping every carved print together.
062
Woodcut
木版画 / 8th century–
Prints the surface left after carving, raising an image through line direction and the pressure of black and white.
Visual cues: Direction of the cut / Hard black-white contrast / Density of line / The block's materiality
063
Linocut
リノカット / 1890s–
Cuts the smooth block boldly, giving few colors and repeated figures a driving rhythm.
Visual cues: Large cut planes / Overlapping color blocks / Simplified figures / Repeating movement
770
Wood Engraving
木口木版 / late 18th century–present
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.
Visual cues: Fine white lines divide black areas / Tone from small cuts and dots / Detail with little visible wood grain / Illustrations sized for printed pages
Intaglio: separate drawn lines from tonal fields
Engraving cuts controlled lines; drypoint leaves an ink-holding burr; etching uses a resist and acid. Soft ground transfers pressure and surface texture. Aquatint and mezzotint create tonal fields through different plate treatments.
769
Engraving / Burin Engraving
エングレーヴィング（彫刻凹版） / 15th century–present
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.
Visual cues: Clearly controlled incised lines / Parallel and crossed hatching / Dense line fields beside paper white / Bundles of lines follow the form
767
Drypoint
ドライポイント / 15th century–present
An intaglio method that scratches the plate directly. Ink held by the groove and its raised burr gives the line a soft fringe, ranging from dense black to a faint trace. Unlike etched lines, these marks need no acid; the burr wears during printing, so impressions can differ.
Visual cues: Small irregularities in scratched lines / Soft fringes from the raised burr / Dense black beside faint marks / Line character changes between impressions
134
Etching
エッチング／腐食銅版画 / 16th century–
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.
Visual cues: Thin flowing lines / Depth by biting / Cross-hatching / Plate marks
776
Soft-ground Etching
ソフトグラウンド・エッチング / 18th century–present
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.
Visual cues: Grainy, pencil-like lines / Paper or object textures transferred to the plate / Soft transitions between line and area / Density varies with pressure and contact
768
Aquatint
アクアチント / 18th century–present
An intaglio technique that builds tone through small ink-holding recesses etched around a granular resist. Grainy greys and dark fields work alongside drawn lines. Its wash-like effects differ from watercolor itself and from the mechanically roughened plate of mezzotint.
Visual cues: Tonal fields made of fine grain / Lines and areas share the shading / Distinct depths or stages of tone / Paper white against dark ink fields
133
Mezzotint
メゾチント / 1640s–
The whole plate is roughened to hold a deep black, then burnished back to raise the lights, so that the image emerges from soft velvet darkness instead of from lines.
Visual cues: Velvet blacks / From dark to light / Soft gradation / Burnished light
Flat surfaces, stencils and built matrices
Lithography prints from a prepared flat surface; screenprint and pochoir use stencil principles. Monotype transfers a largely unique plate image, while collagraph prints a constructed or textured matrix. Their visible marks can overlap, so check the process record.
131
Lithography
石版画／リトグラフ / 1796–
Uses the repulsion of oil and water to reproduce crayon and tusche drawing from stone or plate, keeping all the softness of the hand.
Visual cues: Greasy crayon / Stone or metal plate / Painterly tone / Multicolor overprinting
130
Screenprint
スクリーンプリント／シルクスクリーン / 20th century–
Parts of a mesh screen are blocked and parts left open, and a squeegee forces ink through, printing hard contours and flat, strong color one layer at a time.
Visual cues: Hard contours / Flat color planes / Layer-by-layer overlap / Slight misregistration
066
Pochoir
ポショワール / 1890s–1930s
Builds print color stencil by stencil, giving publications the crisp planes and fine variance of hand coloring.
Visual cues: Sharp color planes / Stencil edges / Hand-color variance / Fashion plates
771
Monotype
モノタイプ / 17th century–present
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.
Visual cues: Marks added or wiped on the plate / Broken contours and broad tones / Brushwork combined with transfer texture / Fainter residual ghost impressions
775
Collagraph
コラグラフ / 20th century–present
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.
Visual cues: 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
Photographic transfer and layered paper
Photogravure transfers a photographic image to intaglio; collotype uses a prepared gelatin surface with fine irregular reticulation. Chine collé bonds thin image paper to a heavier support during printing and can accompany several of these processes.
772
Photogravure
フォトグラヴュール / 19th century–present
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.
Visual cues: Photographically derived detail / Rich printing-ink blacks / Fine grain carrying tonal changes / Plate image in relation to paper
773
Collotype
コロタイプ / 19th century–present
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.
Visual cues: Detailed images derived from photographs or originals / Apparently continuous tonal changes / Fine irregular reticulation under magnification / Tone without a regular dot screen
774
Chine Collé
シン・コレ / 19th century–present
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.
Visual cues: Thin paper beneath the printed image / Boundary against the surrounding support / Printed marks overlay the thin sheet / A two-layer paper support