AMR - HISTORY OF PRESS

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Printing Techniques.

A relief print is an image created by a printmaking process, such as woodcut, where the areas of the plate or block that are to show printed black (typically) are on the original surface; the parts of the plate or block that are to be blank (white) having been cut away, or otherwise removed. Printing the image is therefore a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the plate or block and bringing it in firm contact with the paper. Examples of Relief Presses are the Albion, Columbian, Imperial, Adana range of presses, Treadle Presses, Proof Presses etc. AMR can supply, maintain, transport and install all of these types of machine.

The relief family of techniques includes woodcut, wood engraving, linocut etc. Traditional text printing with movable type is also a relief technique, which meant that woodcuts were much easier to use as book illustrations, as they could be printed together with the text, whilst intaglio prints such as engravings had to be printed separately.

This contrasts with an intaglio print, such as an engraving or etching, where the areas to print black are below the original surface of the plate, and the original surface of the plate will print blank. To print these the whole plate is inked, and the ink then wiped away from the surface, so that it remains only in the lines (classically) that the artist has made below the surface of the plate. Much greater pressure is then needed to force the paper into the channels containing the ink, and a high-pressure press will normally be required. Examples of etching presses include Rochat, Graphic Arts, Hunter Penrose, Littlejohn Greig etc. AMR can supply, maintain, transport and install all of these types of machine too.

Screenprinting or silkscreening is a printmaking technique that creates a sharp-edged image using a stencil. A screenprint is an image created using this technique. It began as an industrial technology, and was adopted by American graphic artists in the early 1900s. It is currently popular both in fine arts and in commercial printing, where it is commonly used to print images on T-shirts, hats, CDs, DVDs, ceramics, glass, polyethylene, polypropylene, paper, metals, and wood. Its versatility on this variety of substrates makes it extremely popular. Screen equipment includes screen printing benches, drying racks, wash out baths etc. AMR can supply, maintain, transport and install all kinds of screen printing machinery, please make an enquiry.

Other traditional techniques also include: intaglio, including engraving, etching, drypoint and wood engraving, Planographic, including lithography, where the image rests on the surface of the matrix, which can therefore often be re-used.

Both intaglio and relief, as well as Planographic printing processes, print a reversed image (a mirror-image of the plate), which must be allowed for in the composition, especially if it includes text.