Printing Processes
In the early 1900s, text was transferred onto paper using large printers that had carved blocks for each letter. Ink was applied to a raised image of the letter on the block and paper was run through the press so that the ink on the block letters was stamped onto the paper. A typesetter would lay out a whole page of text blocks, ink them, and then many roles of paper would be run through the press to get multiple copies of that page. All the pages had to be put together to make one newspaper, or one book.
There were several methods used to print images onto paper, each of which involved a process to indirectly transfer the image to the paper. These print methods included, woodcut (like that used for text), lithography, etching, and screen-print. Each method requires the artist to create the image on another medium and then it is transferred to the paper when the paper makes contact with the medium using a printing press. In this way many prints could also be made of an image.
Early 1900s Lithographic Process
In the lithographic process used to create these early 1900s postcards shown on our site, a flat stone was used along with the principle that water and oil don’t mix. The artist drew the design or image onto the stone with a greasy or waxy crayon. Many immigrant women, particularly women from Germany, found jobs and an outlet for their creative talents by applying the drawings to stones for postcard images that were to be copies of photographs or paintings. Due to this aspect of the lithographic printing process, this artistic element, not all cards have the same coloring and have now become valuable collectable items.
The stone was flooded with a watery chemical solution of acid and gum Arabic which was absorbed by all parts of the stone but the places marked by the artist’s crayon. Limestone was often used for its propensity to absorb this chemical solution into its porous surface so that the image would be completely surrounded with a layer that did not accept the printing ink. The printing ink would then only adhere to the artist’s drawing on the stone. Oil-based printer’s ink was then rolled onto the stone being absorbed by the drawing marks of the artist’s greasy crayon and not by other areas that were soaked on the stone with the gum solution.
Fuchs Lang Press used for Lithographic Printing
Paper is then laid on the stone and it is run through a special printing press designed to apply pressure to the paper and stone. The resulting print of the image on the paper is not raised or embossed but level with the plane of the paper.
This early lithographic process resulted in postcards with beautiful coloring that have a romantic, vintage look.