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Lithography or lithography (from ancient Greek λίθος líthos "stone" and -graphy) is the oldest planographic printing process. It belonged in the 19th century. In the 19th century it was one of the most widely used printing techniques for colored printed matter; it is also known as the reaction printing process. Lithography refers to: the stone drawing as a printing template and printing form for reproduction using the lithographic process, the print (color transfer) from the stone onto suitable paper in the lithographic press as the result of this reproduction, the manual or mechanical lithographic process itself. A lithographer is someone who creates the stone drawing - i.e. the texts and images to be printed - manually and reversed on a lithographic stone. The lithography is based on an invention by Alois Senefelder from 1798. It was in the 19th century. In the 19th century it was the only printing process that enabled larger editions of colored printed matter. In Germany, a limestone stone that was quarried in Solnhofen in Bavaria served as the printing form. Until around 1930, lithographic printing was a very frequently used printing technique for various printed matter, but was gradually replaced by offset printing and is now only used in the artistic sector. Stone printing is unsuitable for today's mass production of printed matter because it is uneconomical compared to other modern printing techniques. Today, according to din 16500, there are four main printing processes: letterpress, gravure, solid and flat printing. In each of these printing processes, the name refers to the relationship between printing and non-printing areas on the printing form. In letterpress printing, the printing parts are raised, while the non-printing parts are recessed. With gravure printing it is exactly the opposite. However, the ink must have a low viscosity to enter the wells and be removed from the non-printing parts with a tool. When printing through, the printing form consists of a screen-like stencil in which the printing areas are permeable to ink, while the non-printing areas are impermeable (screen printing). Finally, in planographic printing, the printing and non-printing areas lie on the same plane. The principle here is based on the immiscibility of fat and water. While the printing areas are lipophilic, the non-printing areas are moistened with a film of water and repel the greasy printing ink.[1] In fact, modern printing inks rarely contain natural fats or oils, but rather paraffins or other organic solvents, which are also not miscible with water. Stone printing is one of the planographic printing processes. A stone is moistened with water, which penetrates the pores of the stone. The areas of the stone previously sealed with the printed motif prevent water from penetrating. The lipophilic printing ink that is then applied is repelled by the water film, but not by the lipophilic surface of the applied printing motif. The drawing is then transferred from the stone in direct contact to specially coated paper or cardboard using high pressure from a special mechanical press. Every printing process requires a print template, i.e. a medium that contains the texts, drawings and images to be printed. The lithographic stone is used for stone printing. Lithographic stones are available commercially in different thicknesses between 5 and 10 cm. The most productive deposits are mined in France near Dijon, in Switzerland in Solothurn and in Germany in Solnhofen. Solnhofen limestone is considered the world's best material for lithographic printing plates.[3] The quality of a lithographic stone correlates with its color. A yellow stone is of inferior quality because its molecularly open structure means it can absorb a lot of water and therefore does not allow for clean printing. A gray stone is molecularly denser and therefore produces better printing results. Solnhofen limestone has a gray-blue color. Its consistency is even denser, which means it has even better printing properties.[4] Lithographic stones are ground before use. This process can be done both manually and in a grinder. New stones must be ground flat; Stones that have already been used must be freed from the previous print image. Depending on the intended drawing technique, the stone is ground smooth, grained or polished. In order to be used in lithography, the stones must have a specified thickness so that they do not break under the pressure of the lithographic press. The required thickness is around 8-10 cm; To achieve this, the stone on which the printing surface is located is glued or plastered onto a second one of inferior quality. What is crucial is that the stone is absolutely plane-parallel and everywhere has the same strength. However, it sometimes happens that the stone breaks during printing. With the pen technique, a pen drawing is placed directly on a smooth stone. As a rule, the lithographer needs a preliminary drawing as a guide. He uses tracing paper onto which the contours of the original drawing are transferred. The back of the tracing paper is then rubbed with graphite or sanguine crayon and the paper is positioned and attached to the stone inverted. The lithographer traces the contours with a steel needle and transfers them onto the stone in a clearly visible manner. Today, artists project a photo of the motif onto the stone using an episcope and trace the contours. The pen technique is one of the oldest processes in lithography. The drawing is reversed onto the previously smooth surface of the stone using a steel pen or tube pen and lithographic ink. The lithographer makes smaller corrections with the scraper. Once the picture is finished and the ink has dried, the stone is rubbed with talc and then rubberized with gum arabic as protection.[6] To prepare for a chalk lithography, the stone is grained with sand, giving it a rough surface. Quartz sand was previously used for graining. Today, silicon carbide is used, which is commercially available in various grain sizes of coarse, medium and fine. As with the spring technique, the printed image is transferred to the stone inverted. The chalk is sharpened from the tip with a sharp knife. Depending on the tonal value of the drawing, the lithographer chooses hard chalk for light areas and softer chalk for darker areas of the image. Here too, minor corrections can be made with the scraper. Chalk lithography is one of the most expressive techniques in graphics. By wiping with a special wiper, the Estompe, and rubbing the chalk application, a dim effect with soft transitions can be achieved, for example. The finished drawing is then treated again with talc and gum arabic. Stone engraving was particularly used for business cards, letterheads and securities because of its fine line drawing. The lithographer uses a grey-blue stone of the highest quality, which is first ground and then polished with clover salt. The poisonous clover salt is a potassium bioxalate and forms part of it The limestone creates a compound in which the pores are closed and the processor creates a mirror-smooth surface by polishing with a pad. The stone is then covered with a dark colored layer of gum arabic. Here, too, a preliminary drawing is first created as a guide before the lithographer scratches the drawing with an engraving needle or an engraving diamond. The needle penetrates the rubber layer and the lines in the stone surface must be a maximum of 0.2 mm deep. The stone is then soaked in olive oil before the lithographer removes the rubber layer with water. Although the engraved lines are deeper in the stone, they can be colored with a rough leather roller or with a pad. The absorbent paper must be slightly moistened so that it adheres better to the stone and takes on the color. Before the invention of the screen, so-called halftones could only be created using manual techniques. In lithography there are the following options: In the pen dotting technique, point to point is manually placed on the stone using pen and ink. The dot density and size depends on the respective tonal value of the original. The best-known technique in chromolithography is called the Berlin style, in which the lithographer places the dots together in a semicircle. The colored lithographs often consisted of twelve or more colors printed one on top of the other, which differed greatly in brightness. The lighter colors were roughly dotted and the tones were even completely underlined. The darker, drawing colors were executed by the best lithographers who were able to set particularly fine dots. The tangling style eventually replaced the feather-dotting style in part because it was significantly simpler. Here, a hardened gelatin film already has the desired pattern of dots, lines or other shapes, which is transferred directly to the stone by pressing it after coloring. Areas that should remain free are covered with a repellent layer of gum arabic. However, this technique is only suitable for smooth halftones. Gradients and shading cannot be created with this. In the spraying technique, which was already known to Senefelder, an ink-soaked brush is brushed over a sieve that is held at a certain distance over the stone. Here too, the areas are covered with gum arabic that will not be covered with paint later should be liable. A gradation of tonal values ​​is created by the frequency of the spraying process. With the scraping technique, also known as the asphalt or ink technique, a layer of asphalt is applied over the entire surface of a grained stone. After drying, the clear areas of the image are lightened according to the original using a scraper knife, sandpaper and lithographic needles. The process is particularly suitable for fine tonal gradations. When the drawing is complete, the stone is treated with a strong etching solution made from gum arabic and seven percent nitric acid. The drawing on the stone cannot be printed without preparation. Lithographers and stone printers call this chemical process etching. The grease-friendly printing parts, i.e. the drawing, should be strengthened in their properties and the non-printing parts of the stone should remain grease-repellent and water-absorbent. The etching consists of a mixture of nitric acid, gum arabic and water, which is applied to the stone surface with a sponge and left to work. Etching does not remove or etch anything away, it simply optimizes the printing properties of the stone. The process can be repeated several times and is considered complete when the first test prints have been made without any changes. In addition to specialist knowledge, a lot of experience is required for this job. Today, artists sometimes have their lithographs processed by an experienced lithographer on commission so as not to endanger the result of their work. In stone printing, a distinction is made between the hand press and the high-speed press. Today, in addition to a few high-speed presses, there are also a few hand presses in operation in Germany that produce prints for artists. The best-known hand press or toggle press was created in 1839 in the workshop of the locksmith Erasmus Sutter in Berlin and is more of a tool than a machine. The frame of the hand press is made of heavy cast iron, which contains a cart or carriage and a roller that allows the stone to be moved back and forth manually. The pressing pressure is achieved by depressing a friction device under which the carriage with the stone is pulled. Between the stone previously rolled with printing ink and the grater lies the paper to be printed and, above it, a solid, smooth cardboard, called press cover or pressboard. After removing the press cover, the printed sheets carefully lifted off and examined. In order to set the correct friction pressure, the stone printer needs experience and sensitivity. For each hand press there are graters of different widths that are adapted to the respective stone size.[14] With the further development of lithography in the 19th century Century and the growing demand for printed matter, the hand press could no longer meet the demands. This requirement was met by the high-speed lithographic press, whose hourly printing output was around 800 sheets. The significantly larger stone was not printed with a grater, but rather with a roller. The inking unit ensured an even distribution of the color on the ink table, which was picked up by further ink rollers and transferred to the stone. Dampening rollers took care of the necessary moistening of the stone. The cart with the stone first ran under the dampening rollers, then under the inking rollers and finally under the printing cylinder. The paper was on the cylinder covered with a rubber blanket, was now printed and placed back on the display table. The sheet to be printed was created manually, mostly by women. The high-speed press was initially driven manually, but later by steam engines using drive belts. In contrast to modern four- or six-color machines, this high-speed lithographic press could only print one color at a time. This meant that for a twelve-color lithograph, the printing process had to be repeated twelve times. It is easy to imagine how elaborately colored images were produced back then.
Source: Wikipedia