Copper Plate Photogravure

Introduction

What is a photogravure print? If you can imagine a photo-real mezzotint or aquatint print with the finest grain possible, you can get a fair picture of what a photogravure print might look like. Photogravure is the only intaglio process, other than the Woodburytype, that gives an apparently continuous tone image. It should be made clear that photogravure is not photo-etching. This latter process is made up of dots of ink on paper—a halftone pattern. The photo-etching resist is made up of tiny areas that are totally protected from the etch and areas that are totally exposed to the etch. There is no half-way, no migration of ferric chloride through gelatin, no smooth tones. Although it gives the semblance of tone, it is not a continuous ...