The plate is covered with ink, and then cleaned so that only the incised grooves contain ink. The plate and dampened paper are run through a press to create the print. Usually, the plate is smaller than the paper, so that the impression of the plate, or the platemark, remains on the paper. When a limited edition of impressions has been printed, the plate is usually defaced with gouges or holes to ensure that it cannot be used again. The intaglio family of printmaking techniques includes engraving, drypoint, mezzotint, etching, and aquatint .
Engraving is a process in which a plate is marked or incised with a tool called a burin.
As the burin moves across the plate, copper shavings, called burr, are forced to either side of the lines being created, and are usually cleaned from the plate before printing. An engraved line has a sharp and clean appearance. Drypoint prints are created by scratching a drawing on the plate with a needle. The incised lines of a drypoint are shallower than those in an etching, and in this technique the burr is not scraped away before printing. The result is characterized by heavier, softer-looking lines than those in an engraving.