Woodblock printing: Difference between revisions

 

'''Woodblock printing''' or '''block printing''' is a technique for [[printing]] text, [[image]]s or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in [[China]] in antiquity as a method of [[textile printing|printing on textiles]] and later on [[paper]]. Each page or image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a [[relief printing]] process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed.

As a [[Woodblock printing on textiles|method of printing on cloth]], the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD. Woodblock printing existed in [[Tang China]] by the 7th century AD and remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. ''[[Ukiyo-e]]'' is the best-known type of [[moku hanga|Japanese woodblock]] art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term [[woodcut]], except for the [[block book]]s produced mainly in the 15th century.