Chromolithography

Other methods were developed by printers such as Jacob Christoph Le Blon, George Baxter and Edmund Evans, and mostly relied on using several woodblocks with different colours.

For example, elements of the official British Ordnance Survey maps were coloured by hand by boys until 1875.

The initial chromolithographic technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each colour, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results.

Cheaper images, like advertisements, relied heavily on an initial black print (not always a lithograph), on which colours were then overprinted.

In the direct form of printing, the inked image is transferred under pressure onto a sheet of paper using a flat-bed press.

In order that each colour is placed in the right position, each stone or plate must be precisely 'registered,' or lined up, on the paper using a system of register marks.

[2] Chromolithographs are considered to be reproductions that are smaller than double demi[clarification needed], and are of finer quality than lithographic drawings which are concerned with large posters.

[7] Although Senefelder recorded plans for chromolithography, printers in other countries, such as France and England, were also trying to find a new way to print in colour.

They were prominent after the Civil War because of their low production costs and ability to be mass-produced, and because the methods allowed pictures to look more like hand-painted oil paintings.

[10] Some also felt that it could not serve as a form of art at all since it was too mechanical, and that the true spirit of a painter could never be captured in a printed version of a work.

[10] The reason Prang decided to take on the challenge of producing chromolithographs, despite criticisms, was because he felt quality art should not be limited to the elite.

Of these printers, Lothar Meggendorfer garnered international fame for his children's educational books and games.

The firm, established at Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, was named after his two sons Michael and Nicholas.

[16] Chromolithographs are mainly used today as fine art instead of advertisements, and they are hard to find because of poor preservation and the cheaper forms of printing that replaced them.

[17] As stated earlier, production costs of chromolithographs were low, but efforts were still being made to find a cheaper and faster way to mass-produce coloured prints.

To find or purchase a lithograph, some suggest searching for examples with the original frame as well as the publisher's stamp.