After printing the result of this graining will be a kind of dotted pattern that can be compared to the effect of a screen . This is in opposition to using lines to express tints and half-tone's. There are several methods of graining a plate but these methods are described in the article on granulated plate surfaces. The first of these consists in making little holes through an acid resist or a ground which, when bitten, will create little holes on the plate surface itself. Once the biting is done all that is left to do is to ink these hollows and print a black grain on a white background.
Hollows thus appear around the protected areas which remain in relief.
After impression the protected areas will show up as a white grain on a black background. The next step is to plunge the plate into water, which causes the varnish layer to crack in those places where the water receptive grains were deposited. Negative graining can be done by depositing dry resin or asphaltum dust on a plate and then fixing it to the plate by heating. Another way is to cover the plate with alcohol mixed with resin dust. The resin settles on the plate as the alcohol evaporates.