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Lithography
Lithography (from Ancient Greek λίθος
(líthos) 'stone' and γράφω (gráphō) 'to
write')[1] is a planographic method of printing
originally based on the immiscibility of oil and
water.[2] The printing is from a stone
(lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a
smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the
German author and actor Alois Senefelder and
was initially used mostly for musical scores and
maps.[3][4] Lithography can be used to print
text or images onto paper or other suitable A lithograph of Charles Marion Russell's The Custer
[5]
material. A lithograph is something printed Fight (1903), with the range of tones fading toward the
by lithography, but this term is only used for edges.
fine art prints and some other, mostly older,
types of printed matter, not for those made by modern commercial lithography.
Traditionally, the image to be printed was drawn with a greasy substance, such as oil, fat, or wax
onto the surface of a smooth and flat limestone plate. The stone was then treated with a mixture of
weak acid and gum arabic ("etch") that made the parts of the stone's surface that were not
protected by the grease more hydrophilic (water attracting). For printing, the stone was first
moistened. The water adhered only to the etched, hydrophilic areas, making them even more oil-
repellant. An oil-based ink was then applied, and would stick only to the original drawing. The ink
would finally be transferred to a blank sheet of paper, producing a printed page. This traditional
technique is still used for fine art printmaking.[6]
In modern commercial lithography, the image is transferred or created as a patterned polymer
coating applied to a flexible plastic or metal plate.[7] The printing plates, made of stone or metal,
can be created by a photographic process, a method that may be referred to as "photolithography"
(although the term usually refers to a vaguely similar microelectronics manufacturing
process).[8][9] Offset printing or "offset lithography" is an elaboration of lithography in which the
ink is transferred from the plate to the paper indirectly by means of a rubber plate or cylinder,
rather than by direct contact. This technique keeps the paper dry and allows fully automated high-
speed operation. It has mostly replaced traditional lithography for medium- and high-volume
printing: since the 1960s, most books and magazines, especially when illustrated in colour, are
printed with offset lithography from photographically created metal plates.
As a printing technology, lithography is different from intaglio printing (gravure), wherein a plate
is 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.
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Principle
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 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[1] in the Electorate of Bavaria in 1796. In the early
days of lithography, a smooth piece of limestone was used (hence the name lithography: lithos
(λιθος) 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 was repelled by the oily parts, while the oily
ink used for printing did the opposite.
Lithography on limestone
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 Lithography stone and mirror image print of a map of
Munich
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.[1] 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.[10][11]
When printing, the stone is kept wet with water. The water is naturally 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.[12]
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.[3] Multi-color printing was introduced by a new process developed by Godefroy
Engelmann (France) in 1837 known as chromolithography.[3] A separate stone was used for each
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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.[13]
This very early colour lithograph from
1835 uses large washes of orange and
cyan with black ink providing the details.
"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
Peninsular War. Most of the commercial maps of the
second half of the 19th century were lithographed and
unattractive, though accurate enough."[14]
A lithographer at work, 1880.
Modern lithographic process
High-volume lithography is used 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 printed
using offset lithography.[13]
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 1902 Polish lithograph map of the
CTP (computer-to-plate) device known as a platesetter. western parts of the Russian Empire.
Original size 33 cm × 24 cm (13.0 in
The positive image is the emulsion that remains after
× 9.4 in).
imaging. Non-image portions of the emulsion have
traditionally been removed by a chemical process, though
in recent times, plates have become available that do not require such processing.[13]
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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
Lithography machine in Bibliotheca
only adheres to the Alexandrina.
emulsion of the image area,
is then applied by the
inking rollers.
Lithography press for printing
maps in Munich.
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.[15]
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
(conventional dampening) which is still used on older presses, using 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. Recent 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".
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
Archive of lithographic stones in Munich.
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.
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Lithography as an artistic medium
During the early 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. After early
experiments such as Specimens of
Polyautography (1803),[16] which had
experimental works by a number of British
artists including Benjamin West, Henry Lithographic image of Bothwell Castle near Glasgow, from
Fuseli, James Barry, Thomas Barker of Bath, 1833
Thomas Stothard, Henry Richard Greville,
Richard Cooper, Henry Singleton, and
William Henry Pyne, 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 Adolph 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.[17][18]
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.[19]
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.[20][21]
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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. An American scene for lithography was founded by Robert Blackburn in New York
City.[22]
As a special form of lithography, the serilith or seriolithograph process is sometimes used.
Seriliths are mixed-media original prints created in a process in which an artist uses the lithograph
and serigraph (screen printing). Fine art prints of this type are published by artists and publishers
worldwide, and are widely accepted and collected. The separations for both processes are hand-
drawn by the artist. The serilith technique is used primarily to create fine art limited print
editions.[23]
See also
Block printing
Color printing
Electron-beam lithography
Flexography
German inventors and discoverers
History of graphic design
Lineography
List of art techniques
Proton beam writing, lithography using MeV ions
Photochrom
Photogravure
Photolithography
Theodore Regensteiner, inventor of the four-color lithographic press
Rotogravure
Stencil lithography
Stereolithography
Typography
References
1. Brooks, Frederick Vincent (1911). "Lithography" ([Link]
p%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Lithography). In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica.
Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 785–789.
2. Weaver, Peter. (1964) The Technique of Lithography. London: B.T. Batsford, p. 49.
3. Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. (1998) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 146, ISBN 0-
471-29198-6.
4. Carter, Rob, Ben Day, Philip Meggs. Typographic Design: Form and Communication, Third
Edition. (2002) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 11. ISBN 978-0471383413
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5. Pennell, Elizabeth Robbins, ed. (1915). Lithography and Lithographers ([Link]
ils/lithographylitho00penn). London: T. Fisher Unwin Publisher. ISBN 9781330310847.
LCCN 15017116 ([Link]
6. Peterdi, Gabor F. (2021): "Lithography ([Link]
y)" section of "Printmaking" article. Encyclopedia Britannica online. Accessed 23 November
2021.
7. Hill, James. "Digital & Photographic" ([Link]
ml). St Barnabas Press.
8. Hannavy, John. editor. Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography: A-I, index, Volume 1.
Taylor & Francis (2008). ISBN 9780415972352. page 865.
9. Mansuripur, Masud. Classical Optics and Its Applications. Cambridge University Press (2002)
ISBN 9780521804998. page 416
10. 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 ([Link]
-PA339), Des Moines, 1903; pages 339–352.
11. 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. ISBN 978-
0500234549.
12. "Lithograph" ([Link]
materials-and-techniques/printmaking/lithograph). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved
19 March 2025.
13. Meyer, Isabella (16 June 2022). "Lithography - Understanding the Art of Lithography
Printmaking" ([Link] Art in Context. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
14. Lynam, Edward. 1944. British Maps and Map Makers. London: W. Collins. Page 46.
15. see diagram at [Link] ([Link]
16. Specimens of Polyautography, Consisting of Impressions taken from Original Drawings, Made
on Stone purposely for this Work ([Link]
51). London: Philipp André. 1803.
17. Huyser-Honig, Steven (1 October 2024). "The Pros and Cons of Limited Editions" ([Link]
[Link]/the-pros-and-cons-of-limited-editions/). Grand River Giclée. Retrieved
20 March 2025.
18. "4 Things to Know About Limited Editions" ([Link]
about-limited-editions-2d6c802d5aeb). [Link]. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
19. "Lithography | History, Process & Applications | Britannica" ([Link]
ogy/lithography). [Link]. 29 January 2025. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
20. History of 20th century lithography by Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Braque, Leger at Atelier
Mourlot, French Institute Alliance Française ([Link] Archived (h
ttps://[Link]/web/20120723085822/[Link] July 23,
2012, at the Wayback Machine
21. Mourlot, Fernand. Twentieth Century Posters. Wellfleet Press: Secaucus, New Jersey, 1989
ISBN 1555213855
22. "Master Printmaker Robert Blackburn Honored in Exhibition at Library of Congress" ([Link]
[Link]/item/prn-03-004/). Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved
19 March 2025.
23. "What is a Serilith?" ([Link]
[Link]). Archived from the original ([Link] on 9
November 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
External links
About Lithography ([Link]
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Twyman, Michael. Early Lithographed Books. Pinner, Middlesex: Private Libraries Association,
1990
Museum of Modern Art information on printing techniques and examples of prints ([Link]
[Link]/exhibitions/2001/whatisaprint/[Link])
The Invention of Lithography ([Link] Aloys Senefelder, (Eng.
trans. 1911) (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu and layered
PDF ([Link] format)
Theo De Smedt's website, author of "What's lithography" ([Link]
Extensive information on Honoré Daumier and his life and work, including his entire output of
lithographs ([Link]
Digital work catalog to 4000 lithographs and 1000 wood engravings ([Link]
g)
Detailed examination of the processes involved in the creation of a typical scholarly
lithographic illustration in the 19th century ([Link]
[Link])
Nederlands Steendrukmuseum ([Link]
Delacroix's Faust lithographs at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University ([Link]
[Link]/web/20100618221600/[Link]
A brief historic overview of Lithography ([Link]
m). 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 ([Link]
[Link]/pos/[Link]). 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 ([Link]
mpoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/94303/rec/1), an exhibition catalog from The
Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on
lithography
Retrieved from "[Link]
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