An Original Print or Fine Art Print is a work of graphic art produced from an image worked by the artist on another material, usually a metal or plastic plate. This is substantially different from reproductions, prints made by an electro-mechanical or mechanical process using photographic or digital images which may be taken from an artist's original work of art. An original print usually is limited to an edition of 10 to 250 prints since the work is labor intensive, sometimes requiring as much a one day per print after the image has been produced. Larger editions usually result from a collaboration between an artist and a print workshop. In these collaborations, the artist works in the workshop until the desired result has been achieved and then the process, techniques and results developed are carried out by the workshop under the artist's supervision.
Thick ink is forced into the grooves and pits and the high surface areas are carefully wiped clean.
Damp paper is placed on the surface of the plate and both are run through a press under great pressure, pulling the ink out of the depressions in the plate. This painstaking inking and wiping process is repeated for each color and for each print. In a relief print, the image is taken from the surface and the grooves and pits are ink free. Woodcuts, wood engravings, relief etchings and linoleum cuts are relief techniques in which the artist cuts or etches away the lines and areas which are not to be inked for the finished print. For these prints, a thin layer of ink is rolled on the surface of the plate or block.