A presentation on ancient lithography

1. LITHOGRAPHY

2. Definition:
Lithography is a greek word where lithos means
'stone' and graphein means 'to write‘. It is a
method for printing using a stone (lithographic
limestone) or a metal plate with a completely
smooth surface.

3. History:
The process was discovered in 1798 by Alois
Senefelder of Munich, who used a porous
Bavarian limestone for his plate (hence
lithography).The secret of lithographic printing
was closely held until 1818, when Senefelder
published his book ‘A Complete Course of
Lithography’. It became a popular medium
among the artists who worked in France during
the mid-1800s; Francisco de Goya, Théodore
Géricault, and Eugène Delacroix were among the
first lithographers.

4. What is Lithography??
Lithography is an "offset" printing technique. Ink
is not applied directly from the printing plate (or
cylinder) to the substrate as it is in gravure,
flexography and letterpress. Ink is applied to the
printing plate to form the image (such as text or
artwork to be printed) and then transferred to a
rubber blanket. The image on the blanket is then
transferred to the substrate (typically paper or
paperboard) to produce the printed product.

5. The principle behind it..
Lithography is based on the principal that oil and water do
not mix (hydrophilic and hydrophobic process).
Lithographic plates undergo chemical treatment that render
the image area of the plate oleophilic and therefore ink-
receptive and the non-image area hydrophilic. During
printing, fountain (dampening) solution, which consists
primarily of water with small quantities of isopropyl alcohol
and other additives to lower surface tension and control
pH, is first applied in a thin layer to the printing plate and
migrates to the hydrophilic non-image areas of the printing
plate. Ink is then applied to the plate and migrates to the
oleophilic image areas. Since the ink and water essentially
do not mix, the fountain solution prevents ink from
migrating to the non-image areas of the plate.

6. “Printing Process”
Lithography uses a planographic plate, a type of
plate on which the image areas are neither raised
nor indented (depressed) in relation to the non-
image areas. Instead the image and non-image
areas, both on essentially the same plane of the
printing plate, are defined by deferring
physiochemical properties.
Traditionally, isopropyl alcohol was used to
control surface tension in the fountain solution,
but in recent years it’s use has been reduced, the
reason for this shift is due to the VOC emissions
attributed to the evaporation of isopropyl
alcohol and the level of environmental regulation
this leads to.

7. “Printing Process”

8. Applications:
•Early Lithography
Lithography was originally devised as an inexpensive alternative
to movable-type printing. The first attempts at lithographic
printing used a single ink. As the process developed, printers in
Eurorimenting with multiple-color printing. Lithography was
initially used to print simple images and text.
•Chromolithography
As the lithographic process evolved, increasingly complex
designs and color palettes could be transferred to paper stock.
Godefroy Engelmann introduced the chromolithographic process
in 1837. Through the use of individual printing stones or metal
plates dedicated to the transfer of a single color, elaborate
images could be produced. As this process was more expensive
than the basic lithographic technique, it was used primarily for
large-scale works and gifts.

9. •Quantity Production
Arabic speaking countries were among the first to utilize
lithography for bulk printing. Religious texts such as the Quran
could not be properly printed with movable typesetting due to
the linked nature of letters in the Arabic alphabet. The
lithographic process solved this problem for printers in the East.
In 1903, Ira Washington Rubel developed the offset lithographic
technique that became the standard printing method for
newspapers and periodicals.
•Art Work
Beginning in the 1820s, artists attempted to incorporate the
lithographic process into their works. Towards the end of the
19th century, the increasing affordability of chromolithography
allowed many visual artists to produce colored prints.
Celebrated artists who utilized these techniques include Pablo
Picasso, M.C. Escher and Jasper Johns.

10. E.M. Sanchez-Saavedra

11. Charles Marion Russell
Carson’s Men, 1913.

12. Alfred Concanen
Isabella Grace on a Balcony.
The Talisman (Tales of the
Crusaders)

13. Video clipping of the process

14. LITHOGRAPHY
IN INDIA
From the 19th century to the first decade of the 20th,
India was at the hub of a great expansion in
lithographic printing. Hundreds of lithographic
printing houses flourished in India, and although
books in Persian were only a part of their production,
it was there that the largest number of Persian
lithographed books was published.
Mir Ḥasan Rażawi, Munshi Nawal Kishor, Malek-al-
Kottāb, Mirzā Moḥammad, Akbar Padamsee, Kamal
Mitra and Anil Bihari were some of the lithographers.

15. The first lithographed books can be dated to the
third decade of the 19th century: 1824 in Benares,
1826 in Agra and Calcutta where the Asiatic
lithographic publishing house was at work. Up to
the middle of the fourth decade of the 19th
century, lithography was still a matter of individual
experiments. Lithographed books in Persian started
to come out regularly from the mid-40s of the 19th
century in Bombay, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Calcutta,
and Madras, and from the late 1840s in Agra,
Lahore, and Delhi.

16. Works from the lithographic
printing house of Mir Ḥasan
Rażawi

17. Kamal Mitra’s works

18. Anil Bihar’s works
Sadhna,1995. Agantuk,1995

19. Thank you