The wood block is carefully
prepared as a relief matrix,
which means the areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife, chisel, or
sandpaper leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original
surface level. The block was cut along the grain of the wood. It is only
necessary to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the
paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would of course
print "in reverse" or mirror-image, a further complication when text
was involved. The art of carving the woodcut is technically known as xylography, though the term is rarely used
in English.
For
colour printing, multiple blocks are used, each for one colour, although
overprinting two colours may produce further colours on the print. Multiple
colours can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks.
There
are three methods of printing to consider:
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