Intaglio (printmaking)

Adapted from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intaglio_%28printmaking%29

Intaglio (pronounced in-TAL-yo, IPA: [ɪn'tælɪəʊ]) is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or mezzotint. Collographs may also be printed as intaglio plates. To print an intaglio plate the surface is covered in thick ink and then rubbed with tarlatan cloth to remove most of the excess. The final smooth wipe is usually done by hand, sometimes with the aid of newspaper or old public phone book pages, leaving ink only in the incisions. A damp piece of paper is placed on top and the plate and paper are run through a printing press that, through pressure, transfers the ink from the recesses of the plate to the paper.

Etching is also an intaglio process, differing from engraving in that the lines are eaten into the plate by the action of an acid instead of being gouged with a tool. The printing process is as described above.

Normally intaglio techniques can be combined on a plate, and this was in fact extremely common. For example Rembrandt's prints are referred to as "etchings" for convenience, but very often they have engraving and drypoint work as well, and sometimes no actual etching at all.

Apart from intaglio, the other traditional families, or groups of printmaking techniques are:

• Relief prints, including woodcut, where the matrix is cut away to leave the image-making part on the original surface. The matrix is then just inked and printed; not wiped as described above.

• Planographic, including lithography, where the image rests on the surface of the matrix, which can therefore often be re-used.

• Other families have developed, especially in the twentieth century - see printmaking.

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

Quick notes on intaglio/gravure

• Holes sunk into the base plate.
• Recess is filled with ink. [For traditional printmaking, such as relief printing, the opposite is true. For these techniques the non-recessed part of the print is inked.]
• Paper placed over the top of the base plate.
• Rubber roller presses paper down onto the base plate so that the paper comes into contact with the ink held in recess.

• Plates usually made from copper and produced by etching or engraving.
• High quality.
• Very expensive.
• Used extensively for high quality magazines, fabrics and wall papers.
• Most common uses include printing postage stamps and U.S. paper currency.