Lithography

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Part of the series on the
History of printing
Woodblock printing 200
Movable type 1040
Printing press 1454
Lithography 1796
Laser printing 1969

Lithography (from Greek - lithos, 'stone' + - graph, 'to write') is a method for
printing using a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface.
Invented in 1796 by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder as a low-cost method of publishing
theatrical works,[1][2] lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or another
suitable material.

Contents
[hide]

1 Introduction
2 The principle of lithography
o 2.1 Lithography on limestone
o 2.2 The modern lithographic process
3 Microlithography and nanolithography
4 Lithography as an artistic medium
5 Gallery
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Introduction
Lithography originally used an image drawn in wax or other oily substance applied to a
lithographic stone as the medium to transfer ink to the printed sheet. In modern times, the image
is often made of polymer applied to a flexible aluminum plate. The flat surface of the plate or
stone is slightly roughened, or etched, and divided into hydrophilic regions that accept a film of
water and thereby repel the greasy ink, and hydrophobic regions that repel water and accept ink
because the surface tension is higher on the greasier image area which remains dry. The image
may be printed directly from the stone or plate (in which case it is reversed from the original
image) or may be offset by transfer to a flexible sheet, usually rubber, for transfer to the printed
article.

This process is different from gravure or intaglio printing where a plate is engraved, etched or
stippled to make cavities to contain the printing ink, and in woodblock printing and letterpress
where ink is applied to the raised surfaces of letters or images.

Most books, indeed all types of high-volume text, are now printed using offset lithography, the
most common form of printing production. The word "lithography" also refers to
photolithography, a microfabrication technique used to make integrated circuits and
microelectromechanical systems, although those techniques have more in common with etching
than with lithography.

[edit] The principle of lithography

Lithography uses simple chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the positive part of
an image is a hydrophobic, or "water hating" substance, while the negative image would be
hydrophilic or "water loving". Thus, when the plate is introduced to a compatible printing ink
and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative
image. This allows a flat print plate to be used, enabling much longer and more detailed print
runs than the older physical methods of printing (e.g., intaglio printing, Letterpress printing).

Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia in 1796. In the early days of
lithography, a smooth piece of limestone was used (hence the name "lithography""lithos"
() is the ancient Greek word for stone). After the oil-based image was put on the surface, a
solution of gum arabic in water was applied, the gum sticking only to the non-oily surface.
During printing, water adhered to the gum arabic surfaces and avoided the oily parts, while the
oily ink used for printing did the opposite.

[edit] Lithography on limestone

Lithography stone and mirror-image print of a map of Munich.

Lithography works because of the mutual repulsion of oil and water. The image is drawn on the
surface of the print plate with a fat or oil-based medium (hydrophobic) such as a wax crayon,
which may be pigmented to make the drawing visible. A wide range of oil-based media is
available, but the durability of the image on the stone depends on the lipid content of the material
being used, and its ability to withstand water and acid. Following the drawing of the image, an
aqueous solution of gum arabic, weakly acidified with nitric acid HNO3 is applied to the stone.
The function of this solution is to create a hydrophilic layer of calcium nitrate salt, Ca(NO3)2,
and gum arabic on all non-image surfaces. The gum solution penetrates into the pores of the
stone, completely surrounding the original image with a hydrophilic layer that will not accept the
printing ink. Using lithographic turpentine, the printer then removes any excess of the greasy
drawing material, but a hydrophobic molecular film of it remains tightly bonded to the surface of
the stone, rejecting the gum arabic and water, but ready to accept the oily ink.[3]

When printing, the stone is kept wet with water. Naturally the water is attracted to the layer of
gum and salt created by the acid wash. Printing ink based on drying oils such as linseed oil and
varnish loaded with pigment is then rolled over the surface. The water repels the greasy ink but
the hydrophobic areas left by the original drawing material accept it. When the hydrophobic
image is loaded with ink, the stone and paper are run through a press which applies even pressure
over the surface, transferring the ink to the paper and off the stone.

Senefelder had experimented in the early 1800s with multicolor lithography; in his 1819 book,
he predicted that the process would eventually be perfected and used to reproduce paintings.[1]
Multi-color printing was introduced through a new process developed by Godefroy Engelmann
(France) in 1837 known as Chromolithography.[1] A separate stone was used for each colour, and
a print went through the press separately for each stone. The main challenge was of course to
keep the images aligned (in register). This method lent itself to images consisting of large areas
of flat color, and led to the characteristic poster designs of this period.

[edit] The modern lithographic process

A 1902 lithograph map (original size 3324 cm)

The earliest regular use of lithography for text was in countries using Arabic, Turkish and similar
scripts, where books, especially the Qur'an, were sometimes printed by lithography in the
nineteenth century, as the links between the characters require compromises when movable type
is used which were considered inappropriate for sacred texts.

High-volume lithography is used today to produce posters, maps, books, newspapers, and
packaging just about any smooth, mass-produced item with print and graphics on it. Most
books, indeed all types of high-volume text, are now printed using offset lithography.

In offset lithography, which depends on photographic processes, flexible aluminum, polyester,

mylar or paper printing plates are used in place of stone tablets. Modern printing plates have a
brushed or roughened texture and are covered with a photosensitive emulsion. A photographic
negative of the desired image is placed in contact with the emulsion and the plate is exposed to
ultraviolet light. After development, the emulsion shows a reverse of the negative image, which
is thus a duplicate of the original (positive) image. The image on the plate emulsion can also be
created through direct laser imaging in a CTP (Computer-To-Plate) device called a platesetter.
The positive image is the emulsion that remains after imaging. For many years, chemicals have
been used to remove the non-image emulsion, but now plates are available that do not require
chemical processing.

Lithography press for printing maps in Munich

The plate is affixed to a cylinder on a printing press. Dampening rollers apply water, which
covers the blank portions of the plate but is repelled by the emulsion of the image area. Ink,
which is hydrophobic, is then applied by the inking rollers, which is repelled by the water and
only adheres to the emulsion of the image areasuch as the type and photographs on a
newspaper page.

If this image were directly transferred to paper, it would create a mirror image and the paper
would become too wet. Instead, the plate rolls against a cylinder covered with a rubber blanket,
which squeezes away the water, picks up the ink and transfers it to the paper with uniform
pressure. The paper rolls across the blanket drum and the image is transferred to the paper.
Because the image is first transferred, or offset to the rubber drum, this reproduction method is
known as offset lithography or offset printing. http://www.compassrose.com/static/Offset.jpg
Many innovations and technical refinements have been made in printing processes and presses
over the years, including the development of presses with multiple units (each containing one
printing plate) that can print multi-color images in one pass on both sides of the sheet, and
presses that accommodate continuous rolls (webs) of paper, known as web presses. Another
innovation was the continuous dampening system first introduced by Dahlgren instead of the old
method which is still used today on older presses (conventional dampening), which are rollers
covered in molleton (cloth) which absorbs the water. This increased control over the water flow
to the plate and allowed for better ink and water balance. Current dampening systems include a
"delta effect or vario " which slows the roller in contact with the plate, thus creating a sweeping
movement over the ink image to clean impurities known as "hickies".

The advent of desktop publishing made it possible for type and images to be manipulated easily
on personal computers for eventual printing on desktop or commercial presses. The development
of digital imagesetters enabled print shops to produce negatives for platemaking directly from
digital input, skipping the intermediate step of photographing an actual page layout. The
development of the digital platesetter in the late twentieth century eliminated film negatives
altogether by exposing printing plates directly from digital input, a process known as computer
to plate printing.

[edit] Microlithography and nanolithography

Main article: Photolithography

'City of Words', lithograph by Vito Acconci, 1999

Microlithography and nanolithography refer specifically to lithographic patterning methods

capable of structuring material on a fine scale. Typically features smaller than 10 micrometers
are considered microlithographic, and features smaller than 100 nanometers are considered
nanolithographic. Photolithography is one of these methods, often applied to semiconductor
manufacturing of microchips. Photolithography is also commonly used in fabricating MEMS
devices. Photolithography generally uses a pre-fabricated photomask or reticle as a master from
which the final pattern is derived.

Although photolithographic technology is the most commercially advanced form of

nanolithography, other techniques are also used. Some, for example electron beam lithography,
are capable of much higher patterning resolution (sometime as small as a few nanometers).
Electron beam lithography is also commercially important, primarily for its use in the
manufacture of photomasks. Electron beam lithography as it is usually practiced is a form of
maskless lithography, in that no mask is required to generate the final pattern. Instead, the final
pattern is created directly from a digital representation on a computer, by controlling an electron
beam as it scans across a resist-coated substrate. Electron beam lithography has the disadvantage
of being much slower than photolithography.

In addition to these commercially well-established techniques, a large number of promising

microlithographic and nanolithographic technologies exist or are emerging, including
nanoimprint lithography, interference lithography, X-ray lithography, extreme ultraviolet
lithography, magnetolithography and scanning probe lithography. Some of these emerging
techniques have been used successfully in small-scale commercial and important research
applications. Surface-charge lithography, in fact PDMS can be directly patterned on polar
dielectric crystals via pyroelectric effect[4], Diffraction lithography.[5]

[edit] Lithography as an artistic medium

Smiling Spider by Odilon Redon

During the first years of the nineteenth century, lithography made only a limited impact on
printmaking, mainly because technical difficulties remained to be overcome. Germany was the
main centre of production during this period. Godefroy Engelmann, who moved his press from
Mulhouse to Paris in 1816, largely succeeded in resolving the technical problems, and in the
1820s lithography was taken up by artists such as Delacroix and Gricault. London also became
a centre, and some of Gricault's prints were in fact produced there. Goya in Bordeaux produced
his last series of prints in lithography - The Bulls of Bordeaux of 1828. By the mid-century the
initial enthusiasm had somewhat died down in both countries, although lithography continued to
gain ground in commercial applications, which included the great prints of Daumier, published
in newspapers. Rodolphe Bresdin and Jean-Francois Millet also continued to practice the
medium in France, and Adolf Menzel in Germany. In 1862 the publisher Cadart tried to launch a
portfolio of lithographs by various artists which flopped, but included several superb prints by
Manet. The revival began in the 1870s, especially in France with artists such as Odilon Redon,
Henri Fantin-Latour and Degas producing much of their work in this way. The need for strictly
limited editions to maintain the price had now been realized, and the medium become more
accepted.

Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm (Lithograph) - Edvard Munch

In the 1890s colour lithography became enormously popular with French artists, Toulouse-
Lautrec most notably of all, and by 1900 the medium in both colour and monotone was an
accepted part of printmaking, although France and the US have used it more than other countries

During the twentieth century, a group of celebrated artists, including Calder, Chagall, Dufy,
Lger, Matisse, Mir, and Picasso, rediscovered the largely unexplored art form of lithography
thanks to the Mourlot Studios, also known as Atelier Mourlot, a Parisian printshop founded in
1852 by the Mourlot family. The Atelier Mourlot originally specialized in the printing of
wallpaper, but was transformed when the founders grandson, Fernand Mourlot, invited a
number of 20th-century artists to explore the complexities of fine art printing. Fernand
encouraged the painters to work directly on lithographic stones in order to create original
artworks that could then be executed under the direction of master printers in small editions. The
combination of modern artist and master printer gave rise to unique and visually striking
lithographs, which were used as posters to promote the artists work.[6][7]

Grant Wood, George Bellows, Alphonse Mucha, Max Kahn, Pablo Picasso, Eleanor Coen,
Jasper Johns, David Hockney, Susan Dorothea White and Robert Rauschenberg are a few of the
artists who have produced most of their prints in the medium. M.C. Escher is considered a
master in lithography, and many of his prints were created using this process. More than other
printmaking techniques, printmakers in lithography still largely depend on access to a good
printer, and the development of the medium has been greatly influenced by when and where
these have been established. See the List of Printmakers for more practitioners.

As a special form of lithography, the Serilith process is sometimes used. Serilith are mixed
media original prints created in a process where an artist uses the lithograph and serigraph
process. The separations for both processes are hand drawn by the artist. The serilith technique is
used primarily to create fine art limited print editions.[8]

[edit] Gallery

"Washington's Residence, An 1836 lithograph of An example of a 19th Sea anemones from

High Street, Philadelphia. Mexican women century lithograph Ernst Haeckel's
1830 lithograph by making tortillas by Carl depicting royal Afghan Kunstformen der
William L. Breton. Nebel. soldiers of the Durrani Natur (Artforms of
Empire in Afghanistan. Nature) of 1904.

[edit] See also

Block printing
Color printing
Etching
Flexography
History of graphic design
Letterpress printing
Lineography
Photochrom
Rotogravure
 Seriolithograph
Stereolithography
Typography
Lithography using MeV ions - Proton Beam Writing

[edit] References
1. ^ a b c Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. (1998) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p
146 ISBN 0-471-291-98-6
2. ^ Carter, Rob, Ben Day, Philip Meggs. Typographic Design: Form and Communication,
Third Edition. (2002) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 11
3. ^ A. B. Hoen, Discussion of the Requisite Qualities of Lithographic Limestone, with
Report on Tests of the Lithographic Stone of Mitchell County, Iowa, Iowa Geological
Survey Annual Report, 1902, Des Moines, 1903; pages 339-352.
4. ^ Surface-charge lithography for direct pdms micro-patterning S. Grilli, V. Vespini, P.
Ferraro, Langmuir 24, 13262-13265 (2008). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/la803046j
5. ^ Flexible coherent diffraction lithography by tunable phase arrays in lithium niobate
crystals M. Paturzo, S. Grilli, S. Mailis, G. Coppola, M. Iodice, M. Gioffr and P.
Ferraro Optics Communications 281, 1950-1953 (2008).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2007.12.056
6. ^ History of 20th century lithography by Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Braque, Leger at
Atelier Mourlot, French Institute Alliance Franaise
7. ^ Mourlot, Fernand. Twentieth Century Posters. Wellfleet Press: Secaucus, NJ, 1989
8. ^ What is a Serilith?

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lithography

Lithography and other printmaking definitions

Museum of Modern Art information on printing techniques and examples of prints
The Invention of Lithography, Aloys Senefelder, (Eng. trans. 1911)(a searchable
facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu and layered PDF format)
Theo De Smedt's website, author of "What's lithography"
Extensive information on Honor Daumier and his life and work, including his entire
output of lithographs
Digital work catalog to 4000 lithographs and 1000 wood engravings
Detailed examination of the processes involved in the creation of a typical scholarly
lithographic illustration in the 19th century
Nederlands Steendrukmuseum
Delacroix's Faust lithographs at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
A brief historic overview of Lithography. University of Delaware Library. Includes
citations for 19th century books using early lithographic illustrations.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithography"
Categories: Lithography | Austrian inventions | Communication design | Greek loanwords |
Graphic design | Lithography (microfabrication) | Planographic printing | Printmaking

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