lithography

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lithography (Greek: lithos, ‘stone’, and graphein, ‘to write’). A method of printing from a design drawn directly onto a slab of stone or other suitable material. The design is neither raised in relief as in woodcut nor incised as in line engraving, but simply drawn on the flat printing surface; initially this surface was provided by a slab of special limestone, but metal sheets are now usually preferred, as they are less cumbersome. The process is based on the antipathy of grease and water. The artist draws his design with a greasy ink or crayon on the stone, which is then treated with certain chemical solutions so that the drawing is fixed. Water is then applied. The moisture is repelled by the greasy design but is readily accepted by the remainder of the porous surface of the stone. The stone is now rolled with greasy ink, which adheres only to the drawing, the rest of the surface, being damp, repelling it. A sheet of paper is placed on the stone, they are passed through a press, and an exact replica of the drawing is transferred, in reverse as with all prints, to the paper.

The most recent of the principal printmaking techniques, lithography was invented in 1798 by Aloys Senefelder, a Bavarian playwright who was experimenting with methods of duplicating his plays; he records that the idea came to him when he made a laundry list with a greasy pencil on a piece of stone. Senefelder appears to have realized at once the significance of his invention and how it could be used. He called it ‘Chemical Printing’, insisting that the chemical principles involved were of more importance than the stone on which the designs were made, and in this he was right, for metal plates produce virtually identical results; zinc was first used in about 1830 and aluminium in about 1890. Senefelder also introduced the use of transfer paper, whereby the design is drawn on paper and transferred subsequently to the stone for printing—a method much used by artists ever since.

As its inventor foresaw, lithography has proved to be a highly flexible medium, capable of producing the most varied effects of transparency and texture. Instead of being drawn with pen or crayon, the design may be painted on the stone with a brush; the washes may be opaque or dilute, they may be scratched or scraped to produce white lines on a background of black, or they may be textured in any way the artist's ingenuity can suggest (Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the greatest masters of the technique, sometimes created tonal effects by spattering ink on the stone with a toothbrush). Colour lithographs, first made in the 1830s, are produced in much the same way as in any other graphic method, that is by preparing a separate stone for each of the colours in the design.

The lithographic principle has also been widely used in the commercial printing industry. Offset lithography, in which the ink is printed from the stone or metal onto a rubber-coated cylinder before being transferred to the paper, allows the design to be made the right way round instead of in reverse and also enables a very thin film of ink to be used, thus permitting the reproduction of the finest lines. Photo litho offset involves the photographic printing of an image, usually by means of a half-tone screen, onto a sensitized metal plate, which is then, after certain chemical treatments, printed on an offset lithographic machine. By contrast with these complex commercial procedures, the simplicity and directness of lithography in its basic form has attracted many artists of the 19th and 20th centuries to use it as a means of original expression (the artist need do nothing more than draw on the stone, plate, or transfer paper—the printer can handle all the technicalities).

Goya, in his old age, was one of the first major artists to take up the new medium. Those who followed him included Géricault, Delacroix, Daumier (the first great artist to execute the bulk of his life's work in lithography), Manet, Degas, Whistler, Redon, Bonnard, and Vuillard. Meanwhile, in the USA, the firm of Currier & Ives was producing a series of lithographs that had little in common with the sophisticated European prints of the period but show us a cross-section of the life of the American nation in terms of a genuinely popular art. Among more recent artists, Picasso has been one of the most notable exponents of lithography, producing a large and varied oeuvre in the medium.

lithography , type of planographic or surface printing. It is distinguished from letterpress (relief) printing and from intaglio printing (in which the design is cut or etched into the plate). Lithography is used both as an art process and as a commercial printing process. In commercial printing the term is used synonymously with offset printing.

The Process

All planographic printing is based on chemical action, and lithography is based on the mutual antipathy of oil and water. As the name [Gr.,=writing on stone] implies, a lithograph is printed from a stone (except in commercial processes, where grained metal or plastic plates are employed). The process was invented c.1796 by the playwright Aloys Senefelder , and the Bavarian limestone that he employed is still considered the best material for art lithography.

The slab of stone is ground to a level surface, which may be of coarse or fine texture as desired. The drawing is made in reverse directly on the stone with a lithographic crayon or ink that contains soap or grease. The fatty acid of this material interacts with the lime of the stone to form an insoluble lime soap on the surface, which will accept the greasy printing ink and reject water. Accordingly, those parts of the stone that have been drawn upon have an affinity for ink.

Sometimes the drawing is made on paper and transferred to a heated stone by pressure. This is known as a transfer lithograph and does not require the artist to reverse his or her drawing. Next, the surface of the stone untouched by grease is desensitized to it, and the portions drawn upon are fixed against spreading by treatment with a gum arabic and nitric acid solution. The grease has now penetrated the stone, and the drawing is washed off with turpentine and water. The stone is ready to be inked with a roller and printed, but it must be kept moist. The printing requires a special lithographic press with a sliding bed passing under a scraper.

Applications

As a printing process lithography is probably the most unrestricted. It produces tones ranging from intense black to the most delicate gray as well as a full range of colors. It also simulates with equal facility the effects of pencil, pen, crayon, or brush drawing. White lines are readily produced by scratching through the drawing on the stone. Several hundred fine proofs can be taken from a stone. The medium was exploited by many artists in the 19th cent., including Goya, Delacroix, Daumier, Gavarni, Manet, Degas, Bonnard, Whistler, and Toulouse-Lautrec, whose posters are among the most celebrated lithographic masterworks. In the United States, A. B. Davies, George Bellows, Joseph Pennell, and Currier and Ives are among the many artists noted for their lithographs.

For the commercial reproduction of art works, photolithography has played an increasingly important role. In this process a photographic negative is exposed to light over a gelatin-covered paper. Wherever the light does not strike the gelatin, the latter remains soluble while the other parts are rendered insoluble. When the soluble portions are washed away, the pattern to be printed can be inked and transferred to the stone or plate. Color lithography and color photolithography require as many stones or plates as the number of colors employed. The commercial printing applications of the lithographic process are vast in scope and almost unlimited in number.

Bibliography

See J. Pennell and E. Pennell, Lithographs and Lithographers (1915); V. Strauss, Lithographers Manual (2 vol. 1958); W. Weber, A History of Lithography (1966); F. H. Man, Artists' Lithographs: A World History (1970).

lithography. A method of printing from a design drawn directly onto a slab of stone or other suitable material. The most recent of the major graphic techniques, it was invented in 1798 by Aloys Senefelder. The process is based on the antipathy of grease and water, the design being drawn with a greasy crayon. After this has been chemically fixed, the stone is wetted and then rolled with oily ink, which adheres only to the greasy drawing, the rest of the surface, being damp, repelling the ink. Prints can then be taken in a press. Only certain types of stone are suitable for use in lithography, and zinc (from about 1830) and aluminium (from about 1890) have been employed as substitutes. The results they produce are usually identical. Colour lithography, using a different stone for each ink, was introduced in the 1830s. Many distinguished artists of the 19th and 20th centuries have worked in the lithographic technique (beginning with Goya in his old age), attracted by the freedom it allows (the artist need do nothing more than draw on the stone—the printer can handle all the technicalities), and Daumier was the first great figure to execute the major part of his life's work in lithography. Toulouse-Lautrec was another outstanding master of the process; he invented a novel method of creating a speckled effect by spattering ink on the stone with a toothbrush.

li·thol·o·gy / liˈ[unvoicedth]äləjē/ • n. the study of the general physical characteristics of rocks. Compare with petrology. ∎  the general physical characteristics of a rock or the rocks in a particular area: the lithology of South Dakota. DERIVATIVES: lith·o·log·ic / ˌli[unvoicedth]əˈläjik/ adj. lith·o·log·i·cal / ˌli[unvoicedth]əˈläjikəl/ adj. lith·o·log·i·cal·ly / ˌli[unvoicedth]əˈläjik(ə)lē/ adv.

lithography In art, method of printing from a flat, inked surface. In traditional lithography, invented in the 1790s, the design is made on a prepared plate or stone with a greasy pencil, crayon, or liquid. Water applied to the surface is absorbed where there is no design. Oil-based printing ink, rolled over the surface, sticks to the design, but not to the moist areas. Pressing paper onto the surface produces a print.

li·thog·ra·phy / liˈ[unvoicedth]ägrəfē/ • n. the process of printing from a flat surface treated so as to repel the ink except where it is required for printing. ∎ Electr. an analogous method for making printed circuits. DERIVATIVES: li·thog·ra·pher / -fər/ n.

lithology The description of the macroscopic features of a rock, e.g. its texture or petrology.

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