Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface, as well as a method of manufacturing semiconductor and MEMS devices. The folder of newspaper web offset printing press Printing is an industrial process for mass production of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. ... Derka semiconductor is a material with an electrical conductance that is intermediate between that of an insulator and a conductor. ... // Introduction Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the technology of the very small, and merges at the nanoscale into Nano Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) and Nanotechnology. ...

Printing

The principle

Lithography as a manual process is based on the repulsion of oil and water. The image is placed on the surface with an oil-based medium; acid is then used to 'burn' the oil into the surface. When printing, the surface is covered in water, which remains on the non-oily surface and avoids the oily parts; a roller can then apply an oil-based ink that adheres only to the oily portion of the surface.

The early process

an example of lithography, 1902;
original size 33×24cm

Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia in 1798, and it was the first new printing process since the invention of relief printing in the fifteenth century. 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, acid burned the image onto the surface; gum arabic, a water soluble solution, was then applied, sticking only to the non-oily surface and sealing it. During printing, water adhered to the gum arabic surfaces and avoided the oily parts, while the oily ink used for printing did the opposite. Download high resolution version (2572x3522, 1315 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (2572x3522, 1315 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Alois Senefelder (November 6, 1771 _ February 26, 1834) was a German inventor. ... Bohemia For the place in the USA, see Bohemia, New York. ... 1798 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... A relief print is an image created by the printmaking process of applying ink to a raised image on a plate or board and printing the resulting image onto paper. ... Limey shale overlaid by limestone. ... Gum arabic, also called gum acacia, is a substance that is taken from two sub-Saharan species of the acacia tree. ...

Within a few years of its invention, the lithographic process was used to create multi-color printed images, a process known by the middle of the 19th Century as Chromolithography. Many fine works of chromolithographic printing were produced in America and Europe during this period. 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). Chromolithography was the first method for making true multi color prints. ...

See: THE INVENTION OF LITHOGRAPHY, by Alois Senefelder, (Eng. trans. 1911)

The modern process

In modern high-volume lithography, which depends on photographic processes, flexible aluminum or plastic 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 light. After development, the emulsion shows a reverse of the negative image, which is thus a duplicate of the original (positive) image. The plate is then chemically treated so the positive image is receptive to printing inks. The plate is affixed to a drum on a printing press. Rollers apply water, which covers the blank portions of the plate, and ink, which adheres to the positive image areas--such as the type and photographs on a newspaper page. Aluminum is a soft and lightweight metal with a dull silvery appearance, due to a thin layer of oxidation that forms quickly when it is exposed to air. ... Photosensitivity is the amount to which an object reacts upon receiving photons of light. ... A. Two immisicble liquids, not emulsified; B. An emulsion of Phase B dispersed in Phase A; C. The unstable emulsion progressively separates; D. The (purple) surfactant positions itself on the interfaces between Phase A and Phase B, stabilizing the emulsion An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible (unblendable) substances. ...

If this image were directly transferred to paper, it would create a positive image, but the paper would become too wet. Instead, the plate rolls against a drum covered with a rubber blanket, which squeezes away the water and picks up the ink. 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. The Offset Printing process Offset printing is a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or offset) first to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. ...

Many innovations and technical refinements have been made in printing process 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, and presses that accommodate continuous rolls (webs) of paper, known as web presses. Another innovation was the Dahlgren inking system, which combined the wetting and inking steps into one. Press is a general term having a number of related meanings stemming from the original definition of pressing as the physical action of applying force: Things relating to Metalworking: Machine press, a machine that shapes material by the application of pressure; Flypress, a machine that cuts material by pressing with...

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. Desktop publishing, or DTP, is the process of editing and layout of printed material intended for publication, such as books, magazines, and brochures, using a personal computer. ... An imagesetter is an ultra-high resolution large-format computer output device. ... A platesetter is a machine which configures a lithographic plate. ...

Lithography as an artistic medium

During the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century, the practice of lithography was predominantly restricted to cheap reproductions of paintings and drawings. However, around 1825 the French artists Ingres, Géricault, and Delacroix embraced the process as a way to avoid the problems inherent in wood-block and copper engraving, namely, the near necessity of middlemen like draughtsmen (who transferred the image to the wood or copper plate) and engravers (who carved the image out of the plate). The advantage to lithography (for an artist's point of view) was that he or she could draw or paint directly onto the lithographic material and avoid entirely the intermediate steps and craftsmen involved in engraving. Therefore, an artist's drawing and a lithographic print made from it were nearly identical — no reworking or transfer to another medium was necessary. It also afforded, at the time, the most complete range of line color from white to black. Angel Botello Angel Botello (June 20, 1913 - November 11, 1986) was a Spanish-Puerto Rican painter, sculptor and graphic artist. ... This article is about a relational database system. ... Théodore Géricaults Insane Théodore Géricault (September 26, 1791 in Rouen, Normandy - January 26, 1824) was a famous French painter, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings. ... Eugène Delacroix (portrait by Nadar) Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (April 26, 1798 - August 13, 1863) was an important painter from the French romantic period. ... Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. ...

Goya's lithographs 'The Bulls of Bordeaux' (1828) and Delacroix's illustrations to Goethe's Faust were the groundbreaking "artist's lithographs" that sparked a flood of (mostly French) artists who dabbled in lithography, including Prud'hon, Cezanne, Manet, and, of course, its greatest practitioner, Daumier, whose prints began to appear in the 1830s. This article is about Francisco Goya, a Spanish painter. ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Faust or Faustus is the protagonist of a popular German tale that has been used as the basis for many different fictional works. ... Pierre Paul Prudhon (1758 - 1823) was a French Romantic painter. ... Categories: 1839 births | 1906 deaths | French painters | Post-impressionism | Artist stubs ... Édouard Manet - 19th century French painter Mobile_ad-hoc_network - A self configuring wireless network This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Honoré Daumier (portrait by Nadar) Honoré Daumier (1808 - 1879) was a French caricaturist and painter. ...

For the first time in history, an artist was able to send out into the world his or her own drawing, not in unique specimen but in editions. Each impression had all their personality, skill, and genius, with no recourse to intermediary persons and technological steps.

See: Delacroix's Faust lithographs at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University

See: Goya's lithographs at La Biblioteca Nacional de España

External links

• Museum of Modern Art information on printing techniques and examples of prints

• Examination of Prints by David Cycleback

• THE INVENTION OF LITHOGRAPHY, by Alois Senefelder, (Eng. trans. 1911)(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format)

DjVu (pronounced deja-vu) is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned images. ...

Further Reading

Ivins, William Jr. Prints and Visual Communication. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953. ISBN 0262590026 William Ivins, Jr. ...