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The Relief Process
When someone talks about 'relief printing' they are usually referring to letterpress,
woodcuts, wood engravings, or linoleum cuts. Relief printing encompasses a broad
range of techniques and possibilities for artists and designers. This is
especially true for the book artist because of its history in the production
of books. Relief printing allows for extremely clean, sharp lines and beautiful
tactile readable texts while woodcuts have many expressive mark-making possibilities.
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Relief printing involves a print matrix which has a raised surface. The
raised surface is what prints. In woodcuts, linoleum
cuts, and wood engravings the recessed areas are physically removed with carving tools.
Others, like lead type, which is cast from matrices specially designed
for the purpose, are machine made. Today, casting type from lead is done
on a limited scale but was once the industry standard for printing most text. It has also become common to photographically produce relief plates
with text or images on magnesium and photo polymer plates.
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Ink is applied to the raised surface area using a special press with automatic
inking rollers, or a hand roller (brayer). As the roller passes over the
surface it only reaches the image area (raised area). This can be controlled and optimized with varying softness of rollers.
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A thin layer of ink is now on the image area.
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The block is put into a special press. There are many different kinds of
presses. Some presses ink the type or blocks while they are on the press.
Pressure is put on the back of the paper either by a cylinder or in a
direct manner as in the case of a platen press.
Sometimes woodcuts are printed on an etching press. This is often discouraged
by etchers but can produce good results. Woodcuts can also be "hand rubbed".
This process involves placing the paper and rubbing the back with what
looks like a wooden Japanese rice spoon or a special tool called a baren.
Hand rubbing is more time consuming and laborious but offers extremely
subtle and beautiful effects for those who master it.
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A relief print is most easily recognized by what is called "impression".
This refers to the indention caused by the relief pressing into the paper.
It is often so subtle that it can barely be felt with ones fingertips.
Controlling the impression is an important concern for letterpress printers.
Subjects:
Woodcut, linoleum cuts the possibilities.
Wood engraving different materials, different tools,
different results.
Letterpress.
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