Monochrome printmaking

Saint Agnes, mezzotint by John Smith after Godfrey Kneller.[1]
1835 aquatint showing the first production of I puritani.
Coquetry, lithograph by Henri Baron (1816-1885).

Monochrome printmaking is a generic term for any printmaking technique that produces only shades of a single color. While the term may include ordinary printing with only two colors — "ink" and "no ink" — it usually implies the ability to produce several intermediate colors between those two extremes.

In contrast with color printing, monochrome printing needs only a single ink and may require only a single pass of the paper through the printing press.

Halftone newspaper photo of Ernst Alexanderson. The Cordova Daily Times, Cordova, 1920-01-17.

Techniques

Monochrome printmaking techniques include:

  • Mezzotint
  • Aquatint
  • Lithography
  • Halftoning

See also

  • Monochrome painting
  • Monochrome photography
  • Monochromatic image

References

  1. ^ Portrait of Miss Voss as St Agnes 1690s


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