Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces.

Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix to a sheet of paper or other material, by a variety of techniques.

Except in the case of monotyping, all printmaking processes have the capacity to produce identical multiples of the same artwork, which is called a print.

Albrecht Dürer, Hans Burgkmair, Ugo da Carpi, Hiroshige, Hokusai, Frans Masereel, Gustave Baumann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Eric Slater Antonio Frasconi Woodcut, a type of relief print, is the earliest printmaking technique.

Another variation of woodcut printmaking is the cukil technique, made famous by the Taring Padi underground community in Java, Indonesia.

Images—usually resembling a visually complex scenario—are carved unto a wooden surface called cukilan, then smothered with printer's ink before pressing it unto media such as paper or canvas.

Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface of a metal plate, traditionally made of copper.

The burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges.

In the 20th century, true engraving was revived as a serious art form by artists including Stanley William Hayter whose Atelier 17 in Paris and New York City became the magnet for such artists as Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Mauricio Lasansky and Joan Miró.

Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Francisco Goya, Wenceslaus Hollar, Whistler, Otto Dix, James Ensor, Edward Hopper, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Cy Twombly, Lucas van Leyden Etching is part of the intaglio family.

In pure etching, a metal plate (usually copper, zinc, or steel) is covered with a waxy or acrylic ground.

Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving which requires special skill in metalworking, etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing.

Mezzotint is known for the luxurious quality of its tones: first, because an evenly, finely roughened surface holds a lot of ink, allowing deep solid colors to be printed; secondly because the process of smoothing the texture with burin, burnisher and scraper allows fine gradations in tone to be developed.

Norman Ackroyd, Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, William Daniell, Francisco Goya, Thomas Rowlandson A technique used in Intaglio etchings.

Like etching, aquatint technique involves the application of acid to make marks in a metal plate.

Mary Cassatt, Francis Seymour Haden, Master of the Housebook, Richard Spare, William Lionel Wyllie A variant of engraving, done with a sharp point, rather than a v-shaped burin.

Because the pressure of printing quickly destroys the burr, drypoint is useful only for very small editions; as few as ten or twenty impressions.

The technique appears to have been invented by the Housebook Master, a south German fifteenth-century artist, all of whose prints are in drypoint only.

Among the most famous artists of the old master print, Albrecht Dürer produced three drypoints before abandoning the technique; Rembrandt used it frequently, but usually in conjunction with etching and engraving.

Honoré Daumier, Vincent van Gogh, George Bellows, Pierre Bonnard, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Salvador Dalí, M. C. Escher, Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Stow Wengenroth, Elaine de Kooning, Louise Nevelson Lithography is a technique invented in 1798 by Alois Senefelder and based on the chemical repulsion of oil and water.

Gum arabic, a water-soluble substance, is then applied, sealing the surface of the stone not covered with the drawing medium.

Photo-lithography captures an image by photographic processes on metal plates; printing is more or less carried out in the same way as stone lithography.

Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Julian Opie, Bridget Riley, Edward Ruscha, Andy Warhol.

[10] Monoprinting is a form of printmaking that uses a matrix such as a woodblock, litho stone, or copper plate, but produces impressions that are unique.

Monoprints can also be made by altering the type, color, and viscosity of the ink used to create different prints.

They may also incorporate elements of chine colle, collage, or painted areas, and may be unique, i.e. one-off, non-editioned, prints.

: /ʒiːˈkleɪ/ zhee-KLAY or /dʒiːˈkleɪ/), is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne [13] for digital prints made on inkjet printers.

Today fine art prints produced on large format ink-jet machines using the CcMmYK color model are generally called "Giclée".

Each separate plate, screen, or block will be inked up in a different color and applied in a particular sequence to produce the entire picture.

Protective clothing is very important for printmakers who engage in etching and lithography (closed toed shoes and long pants).