This month we ll discuss some of the more common printing processes. The earliest forms of printing were relief printing where ink is transferred by means of a raised printing surface. If you ever did wood block prints in art class, you ve done relief printing. Over a thousand years ago the Chinese used this method, also called block printing. The non-printing areas of a block are carved away from the surface of a piece of wood, leaving the characters and designs in relief.
Ink is painted onto the raised surface, then a sheet of paper is place on top.
The image is transferred by rubbing the back of the sheet. Letterpress printing uses the same concept. This is how Gutenberg printed pages. In letterpress printing, raised type forms are combined to make a printing plate. The paper is laid on top of the inked plate and the press applies pressure to transfer the image.