Monochrome printmaking

Not to be confused with monoprinting.

Monochrome printmaking is a generic term for any printmaking technique that produces only shades of a single color. While the term may include ordinary printing with only two colors — "ink" and "no ink" — it usually implies the ability to produce several intermediate colors between those two extremes.

Saint Agnes, mezzotint by John Smith after Godfrey Kneller.

1835 aquatint showing the first production of I puritani.

Coquetry, lithograph by Henri Baron (1816-1885).

In contrast with color printing, monochrome printing needs only a single ink and may require only a single pass of the paper through the printing press.

Halftone newspaper photo of Ernst Alexanderson. The Cordova Daily Times, Cordova, 1920-01-17.

Techniques

Monochrome printmaking techniques include:

• Mezzotint
• Aquatint
• Lithography
• Halftoning

See also

• Monochrome painting
• Monochrome photography
• Monochromatic image