Early printing technique using carved wooden blocks
For Western art prints, see Woodcut. For the related technique invented in the 18th century, see Wood engraving. For Japanese woodblock printing, see Woodblock printing in Japan.
The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang dynasty China, the world's earliest printed text containing a date of production, AD 868 (British Library)
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a relief printing process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed.
As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD. Woodblock printing existed in Tang China by the 7th century AD and remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best-known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block books produced mainly in the 15th century.
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Woodblockprinting or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in...
Woodblockprinting in Japan (木版画, mokuhanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used...
Woodblockprinting on textiles is the process of printing patterns on textile, usually of linen, cotton or silk, by means of carved wooden blocks. The...
pottery imprints, and cloth printing. Initially a method of printing patterns on cloth such as silk, woodblockprinting for texts on paper originated...
of printing called mechanical woodblockprinting on paper started in China during the 7th century in the Tang dynasty. The use of woodblockprinting spread...
pressing an inked image onto paper (using woodblockprinting) appeared later that century. Later developments in printing technology include the movable type...
history of Woodblockprinting in Korea (목판인쇄) contains a famous history like the Tripitaka Koreana. The world's oldest surviving woodblock print is thought...
enormous printing projects using woodblock movable type printing during the 18th century. Although superseded by western printing techniques, woodblock movable...
to simpler black and white or monochrome printing). Woodblockprinting on textiles preceded printing on paper in both East Asia and Europe, and the use...
until the invention of printing. Other parts of the world had comparable traditions, such as the Persian miniature. Woodblockprinting emerged in China, spread...
attraction beyond the limits of a pattern or design. Woodblockprinting is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East...
geographical works. Notable innovations included the development of woodblockprinting. Buddhism became a major influence in Chinese culture, with native...
musical instrument Woodblock printing, a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood Woodblock graffiti Toy block, a type...
printed on the paper. By the Song dynasty, woodblockprinting came to its heyday. Although woodblockprinting played an influential role in spreading culture...
process that woodblockprinting was, Bi Sheng, a key contributor to the history of printing, invented the process of Movable type printing (1041–1048 CE)...
transfer the inks. After 1888, block printing was only used for short-run specialized jobs. After 1880, profits from printing fell due to overcapacity and the...
and chrome yellow were particularly popular. Roller printing supplanted the older woodblockprinting on textiles in industrialized countries until it was...
or stippled to score cavities to contain the printing ink; and woodblockprinting or letterpress printing, wherein ink is applied to the raised surfaces...
press's invention included: manufacturing of paper, development of ink, woodblockprinting, and invention of eyeglasses. At the same time, a number of medieval...
Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the...
centuries after the advent of the Western printing-press to European scribal culture. The invention of woodblockprinting in China almost a thousand years prior...
developments in woodblockprinting, timekeeping, mechanical engineering, medicine, and structural engineering. The popularization of woodblockprinting during...
Dot matrix printing, sometimes called impact matrix printing, is a computer printing process in which ink is applied to a surface using a relatively low-resolution...
Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run...
was enhanced by the rapid expansion of woodblockprinting and the 11th-century invention of movable type printing. Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Zhu...
Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly...
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