Lithography

Charles Marion Russell's The Custer Fight (1903), with

the range of tones fading toward the edges

Lithography (from Ancient Greek λίθος,

lithos, meaning 'stone', and γράφειν,
gráphein, meaning 'to write') is a method of
printing originally based on the
immiscibility of oil and water.[1] The
printing is from a stone (lithographic
limestone) or a metal plate with a ball
grained surface. It was invented in 1796 by
German author and actor Alois Senefelder
as a cheap method of publishing theatrical
works.[2][3] Lithography can be used to
print text or artwork onto paper or other
suitable material.[4]

Lithography originally used an image

drawn with oil, fat, or wax onto the surface
of a smooth, level lithographic limestone
plate. The stone was treated with a
mixture of acid and gum arabic, "etching"
the grease content of the drawing material
into the pores of the stone and chemically
creating grease reservoirs. The open stone
(without drawing) was affected by the gum
arabic creating a thin gum layer that would
then attract water. When the stone was
subsequently moistened, these gummed
areas retained water; an oil-based ink
could then be applied with a roller sticking
only to the original drawing. The ink would
finally be transferred to a cotton fine art
paper sheet, producing a printed page.
This traditional technique is still used as a
fine art medium today.

In modern lithography, the image is made

of a polymer coating applied to a flexible
plastic or metal plate.[5] The image can be
printed directly from the plate (the
orientation of the image is reversed), or it
can be offset, by transferring the image
onto a flexible sheet (rubber) for printing
and publication.

As a printing technology, lithography is

different from intaglio printing (gravure),
wherein a plate is either engraved, etched,
or stippled to score cavities to contain the
printing ink; and woodblock printing or
letterpress printing, wherein ink is applied
to the raised surfaces of letters or images.
Today, most types of high-volume books
and magazines, especially when illustrated
in colour, are printed with offset
lithography, which has become the most
common form of printing technology since
the 1960s.

The related term "photolithography" refers

to when photographic images are used in
lithographic printing, whether these
images are printed directly from a stone or
from a metal plate, as in offset printing.
"Photolithography" is used synonymously
with "offset printing". The technique as
well as the term were introduced in Europe
in the 1850s. Beginning in the 1960s,
photolithography has played an important
role in the fabrication and mass
production of integrated circuits in the
microelectronics industry.[6][7]

The principle of lithography

19th-century lithograph by Abraham Salm

Lithography uses simple chemical

processes to create an image. For
instance, the positive part of an image is a
water-repelling ("hydrophobic") substance,
while the negative image would be water-
retaining ("hydrophilic"). Thus, when the
plate is introduced to a compatible printing
ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere
to the positive image after it is etched with
a mixture of gum arabic and acid then
subsequently replaced with asphaltum
stabilizing the drawing. This allows a flat
print plate or stone 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 the Kingdom of Bavaria in
1796. In the early days of lithography, and
much like fine art lithography today, a
smooth piece of limestone was used.
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
was repelled by the oily parts, while the
oily ink used for printing did the opposite.

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. After 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.[8]

[9] 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 that applies even pressure over the
surface, transferring the ink to the paper
and off the stone.

Senefelder had experimented during the

early 19th century with multicolor
lithography; in his 1819 book, he predicted
that the process would eventually be
perfected and used to reproduce
paintings.[2] Multi-color printing was
introduced by a new process developed by
Godefroy Engelmann (France) in 1837
known as chromolithography.[2] A separate
stone was used for each color, and a print
went through the press separately for each
stone. The main challenge was to keep the
images aligned (in register). This method
lent itself to images consisting of large
areas of flat color, and resulted in the
characteristic poster designs of this
period.
"Lithography, or printing from soft stone,
largely took the place of engraving in the
production of English commercial maps
after about 1852. It was a quick, cheap
process and had been used to print British
army maps during the Peninsula War.
Most of the commercial maps of the
second half of the 19th century were
lithographed and unattractive, though
accurate enough."[10]

Modern lithographic process

A 1902 lithograph map (original size 33×24 cm)

High-volume lithography is used presently

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.
For offset lithography, which depends on
photographic processes, flexible
aluminum, polyester, mylar or paper
printing plates are used instead 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 by
direct laser imaging in a CTP (Computer-
To-Plate) device known as a platesetter.
The positive image is the emulsion that
remains after imaging. Non-image
portions of the emulsion have traditionally
been removed by a chemical process,
though in recent times plates have come
available that do not require such
processing.

Lithography press for printing maps in Munich

Lithography machine in Bibliotheca Alexandrina

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. Hydrophobic ink, which is
repelled by the water and only adheres to
the emulsion of the image area, is then
applied by the inking rollers.
If this image were transferred directly to
paper, it would create a mirror-type 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 passes between the
blanket cylinder and a counter-pressure or
impression cylinder and the image is
transferred to the paper. Because the
image is first transferred, or offset to the
rubber blanket cylinder, this reproduction
method is known as offset lithography or
offset printing.[11]
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 on older
presses (conventional dampening), which
are rollers covered with molleton (cloth)
that absorbs the water. This increased
control of 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".

Archive of lithographic stones in Munich

The process of lithography printing is
illustrated by this simplified diagram . This
press is also called an ink pyramid
because the ink is transferred through
several layers of rollers with different
purposes. Fast lithographic 'web' printing
presses are commonly used in newspaper
production.

The advent of desktop publishing made it

possible for type and images to be
modified easily on personal computers for
eventual printing by 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 during the late 20th
century eliminated film negatives
altogether by exposing printing plates
directly from digital input, a process
known as computer to plate printing.

Microlithography and
nanolithography
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 for fabricating
Microelectromechanical systems (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 greater
patterning resolution (sometimes as small
as a few nanometers). Electron beam
lithography is also important
commercially, 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 a
mask is not 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
being developed, including nanoimprint
lithography, interference lithography, X-ray
lithography, extreme ultraviolet
lithography, magnetolithography and
scanning probe lithography. Some of these
new techniques have been used
successfully for small-scale commercial
and important research applications.
Surface-charge lithography, in fact Plasma
desorption mass spectrometry can be
directly patterned on polar dielectric
crystals via pyroelectric effect,[12]
Diffraction lithography.[13]

Lithography as an artistic
medium

Smiling Spider by Odilon Redon, 1891

During the first years of the 19th century,
lithography had only a limited effect on
printmaking, mainly because technical
difficulties remained to be overcome.
Germany was the main center of
production in this period. Godefroy
Engelmann, who moved his press from
Mulhouse to Paris in 1816, largely
succeeded in resolving the technical
problems, and during the 1820s
lithography was adopted by artists such as
Delacroix and Géricault. London also
became a center, and some of Géricault's
prints were in fact produced there. Goya in
Bordeaux produced his last series of prints
by lithography—The Bulls of Bordeaux of
1828. By the mid-century the initial
enthusiasm had somewhat diminished in
both countries, although the use of
lithography was increasingly favored for
commercial applications, which included
the prints of Daumier, published in
newspapers. Rodolphe Bresdin and Jean-
François Millet also continued to practice
the medium in France, and Adolf Menzel in
Germany. In 1862 the publisher Cadart
tried to initiate a portfolio of lithographs by
various artists, which was not successful
but included several prints by Manet. The
revival began during the 1870s, especially
in France with artists such as Odilon
Redon, Henri Fantin-Latour and Degas
producing much of their work in this
manner. The need for strictly limited
editions to maintain the price had now
been realized, and the medium became
more accepted.

Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm by Edvard Munch

In the 1890s, color lithography gained
success in part by the emergence of Jules
Chéret, known as the father of the modern
poster, whose work went on to inspire a
new generation of poster designers and
painters, most notably Toulouse-Lautrec,
and former student of Chéret, Georges de
Feure. By 1900 the medium in both color
and monotone was an accepted part of
printmaking.

During the 20th century, a group of artists,

including Braque, Calder, Chagall, Dufy,
Léger, Matisse, Miró, and Picasso,
rediscovered the largely undeveloped
artform 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 it was
transformed when the founder's grandson,
Fernand Mourlot, invited a number of 20th-
century artists to explore the complexities
of fine art printing. Mourlot 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
resulted in lithographs that were used as
posters to promote the artists' work.[14][15]

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 of 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 good printers, and
the development of the medium has been
greatly influenced by when and where
these have been established.

As a special form of lithography, the

serilith process is sometimes used.
Seriliths are mixed media original prints
created in a process in which an artist
uses the lithograph and serigraph
processes. The separations for both
processes are hand-drawn by the artist.
The serilith technique is used primarily to
create fine art limited print editions.[16]

Gallery
Washington's Residence, High Street,
Philadelphia, 1830 lithograph by William L.
Breton.

Hé! La chian..... li....li....li..... [It's a

blood...dy...dy...dy... mess], lithograph of
Louis-Philippe of France by Honoré
Daumier, 1834

Butterflies from Adalbert Seitz's

"Macrolepidoptera of the World" (1923).
An 1836 lithograph of Mexican women
making tortillas by Carl Nebel.

An example of a 19th-century lithograph

depicting royal Afghan soldiers of the
Durrani Empire in Afghanistan. (1847)
Queen Victoria visits the HMS Resolute in
a lithograph by George Zobel after William
Simpson (1859)

Alfred Concanen's 1867 design for

Champagne Charlie
At Eternity's Gate, 1882 lithograph by
Vincent van Gogh.

Sea anemones from Ernst Haeckel's

Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of
Nature), 1904.
In the Park, Light – George Bellows 1916

Palace of São Cristóvão, the former

residence of the Emperors of Brazil, 19th
century lithograph by Jean-Baptiste
Debret.
See also
Block printing
Color printing
Etching
Flexography
German inventors and discoverers
History of graphic design
Letterpress printing
Lineography
Lithography using MeV ions – Proton
beam writing
Photochrom
Theodore Regensteiner inventor of the
four-color lithographic press
 Rotogravure
Seriolithograph
Stencil lithography
Stereolithography
Typography

References
1. Weaver, Peter. (1964) The Technique of
Lithography. London: B.T. Batsford, p. 49.
2. Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic
Design. (1998) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p
146 ISBN 0-471-29198-6
3. Carter, Rob, Ben Day, Philip Meggs.
Typographic Design: Form and
Communication, Third Edition. (2002) John
Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 11
4. Pennel ER, ed. (1915). Lithography and
Lithographers . London: T. Fisher Unwin
Publisher.
5.
http://www.stbarnabaspress.co.uk/digital-
photographic.html
6. Hannavy, John. editor. Encyclopedia of
nineteenth-century photography: A-I, index,
Volume 1. Taylor & Francis (2008).
ISBN 9780415972352. page 865.
7. Mansuripur, Masud. Classical Optics and
Its Applications. Cambridge University
Press (2002) ISBN 9780521804998. page
416
8. 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.
9. Gascoigne, Bamber (1988). How to
Identify Prints: a complete guide to manual
and mechanical processes from woodcut to
ink jet. Spain: Thames and Hudson. p. 1c.
10. Lynam, Edward. 1944. British Maps and
Map Makers. London: W. Collins. Page 46.
11. see diagram at compassrose.com
12. Grilli, S.; Vespini, V.; Ferraro, P. (2008).
"Surface-charge lithography for direct pdms
micro-patterning". Langmuir. 24: 13262–
13265. doi:10.1021/la803046j .
PMID 18986187 .
13. Paturzo, M.; Grilli, S.; Mailis, S.; Coppola,
G.; Iodice, M.; Gioffré, M.; Ferraro, P. (2008).
"Flexible coherent diffraction lithography by
tunable phase arrays in lithium niobate
crystals". Optics Communications. 281:
1950–1953.
doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2007.12.056 .
14. History of 20th century lithography by
Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Braque, Leger at
Atelier Mourlot, French Institute Alliance
Française Archived July 23, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine.
15. Mourlot, Fernand. Twentieth Century
Posters. Wellfleet Press: Secaucus, New
Jersey, 1989
16. What is a Serilith?

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Lithography.

Twyman, Michael. Early Lithographed

Books. Pinner, Middlesex: Private
Libraries Association, 1990
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 Honoré
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.
Philadelphia on Stone: The First Fifty
Years of Commercial Lithography in
Philadelphia . Library Company of
Philadelphia. Provides an historic
overview of the commercial trade in
Philadelphia and links to a biographical
dictionary of over 500 Philadelphia
lithographers and catalog of more than
1300 lithographs documenting
Philadelphia.
Prints & People: A Social History of
Printed Pictures , an exhibition catalog
from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(fully available online as PDF), which
contains material on lithography
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Lithography&oldid=821931363"

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