A Brief History of Graphic Design: Module 4: On Chromolithography

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Chromolithography

began to gain popularity in 1840 in the US
used to print images and type for various industries, including packaging labels, greeting cards, and posters, as well as scientific and medical texts
stone or zinc plates can be used
planographic printing
- images are printed from a flat surface, rather than incised (intaglio) or raised (relief) surface
led to development of lithotints (in which the oil-based medium is applied with a brush)
allowed for cheaper illustrated texts
- important for creating medical texts
allowed for cheap color printing for the first time in history
irregular dot pattern present in prints
William Sharp was first American to use chromolithography
Offset printing replaced chromolithogrpahy in the 1930s (1)

Process:

artist creates watercolor sketch
design is transferred to Bavarian limestone slab
designs drawn in black oil-based medium (such as crayon, or pencil), reversed
lithograph artist had to determine how colors would be created by interactions of various layering
- gradient colors made by over-printing; over-printing creates tonal shift
lithographic stones needed to be registered accurately in order to recreate design
- registration is a process by which several different lithographic images are lined up, so that different layers of color printing print correctly
after printing was complete, the stone was washed off to be reused

Lithography

created by Bavarian printer Aloys Senefelder circa 1798 (2)
“oil and water do not mix”
- by drawing an image with an oil-based medium, and wetting the remainder of the stone with water, oil-based inks can be applied to the stone—oil ink will stick to the parts of the stone that have been drawn on with oil-based medium, and a printed image can be obtained by pressing paper to the stone

Color separations

modern way to print color
replaced chromolithography

The Industrial Revolution led to a profusion of efficient, reproducible machinery which could accurately (or accurately enough) duplicate the mundane tasks of industry. The ability to create nearly identical replications of a work with nearly minimal effort revolutionized all aspects of human endeavors. This was certainly troublesome for individual artisans who specialized in crafts like type-setting, or manuscript creation; on the other hand, the profusion of information snowballed. In about 150 years, we went from the steam engine, to the internal combustion engine, to the internet--well, a bit more than 150 years to get from the steam engine at the start of the Industrial Revolution to the internet at the start of the Information Age, but technology has boomed in the last 150 years. Chromolithography is one feature of this technological boom which combined ingenuity with knowledge gained from predecessors.

Chromolithography was a step towards modern color printing methods. It came about because of a need for cheaper techniques for color printing. The drive for less expensive methods for sharing information has led to the modern information age, where information is cheaply available on the internet (where the quality of the information isn't always assured, but there certain is a lot of information for very little money).

Chromolithography certain enabled the public appreciation of art. It allowed for most everyone to own art which they could hang in their homes. It's easy to take color posters hanging on your wall for granted, since we live in a world in which color printing technology is ubiquitous and inexpensive. In the days before chromolithography, when color needed to be applied by hand to printed images, the only people who could own color images were the wealthy.

References:

Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. John Wiley and Sons. 2011. Kindle Edition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromolithography (September 2012)

http://chicagoantiquesguide.com/archives/20060216135609.php

http://seeing.nypl.org/planographic.html (2001)

Citations: