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 Lithography's Timeline

Lithography's Timeline - The introduction of lithography revolutionized the use of printing in art and much more. With lithography, artists could create a print from a surface. Because the process was difficult to master and expensive, most art at the time was drawn or painted onto metal plates which were then etched with acid and inked by hand. This method of printing involved transferring ink from the metal plate to paper through a direct contact because it required that paper be coated on one side with watercolor paint or oil paint in order to work properly.

By the end of the 17th century, advances in drawing and printing technology became widely accessible. Not long after, several printmakers were inspired to try their hands at a new medium of expression, lithography . A new paper made from cotton linters was also invented at this time that allowed for faster printing and more control over the printing process than previous methods had provided. This new paper was called 'bleached' paper because it had been bleached with chlorine gas to whiten it, giving rise to a new name for lithography : bleach-run lithography.

The "art press" was the first machine designed to run lithographic plates, and was invented by the French engraver Paul in 1787. The concept of a "printing press" had been discussed and developed as early as 1525 when Jan van Eyck had sketched his own press design and concept of a "printing device". Over the next few hundred years there were several inventors that made improvements upon Van Eyck's design, including Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468), Johann Fust (1438-1508), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Thomas Harman (c. 1520 – 1564), and others. In the early 1600's, the Englishman William Caxton developed a carbon printing ink to replace the expensive "blue" ink traditionally used in engraving that required expensive materials such as lapis lazuli. Soon after Caxton's innovation, Johannes Janszoon Koudelaar invented a printing press that used a flatbed printing press and cylinder-sided printing plates, which were easier to be set up than before on a table or frame.

The art press was first invented by Paul in 1787 resulting in more detailed prints being made possible. While Van Eyck's design was a giant step forward for printing technology, the press itself had several problems. In order to make the machine work, Koudelaar had to invent an ink holder that fit inside the press. This created a number of problems as it would have caused ink spills and wastes during the printing process. Other presses came with different tools that needed to be used in a specific order when setting them up, which also required complicated setups. The art press, however, was much easier to set up than any other tool or device at the time and did not require any extra equipment or tools to set up.

Instead of using heated, inked metal plates to print, the art press used a method of printing made popular by Alois Senefelder in the early 1800's. With this new method of printing, a design was pressed onto a special kind of paper using an etching needle. The ink would then be squeezed into the drawn grooves while the excess stayed on the surface of the paper where it would be wiped off with a rag. After printing, each sheet of paper was soaked in water to remove the watercolor paint or oil paint and reveal only the ink printed lines and/or images that had been applied to them. This was a much cleaner and easier way to print images than previous methods which required the artist to use their own portable printing equipment in order to make prints.

The art press became widely popular in the late 1800's with the invention of the Linotype machine. This printer allowed for many more types of fonts and styles of lettering to be printed on 20 line wood type blocks and metal plates. Overall, this made it easier for anyone, from an amateur to a professional, who wanted to print large volumes of text or images on large formats. The art press was also used by artists and designers with sheet-fed offset printing presses before the first 1950s digital photographic production systems appeared.