lithography

/ləˈθɑgrəfi/

Other forms: lithographies

Lithography is a printmaking technique that's commonly used when text is being printed. Some artists also use lithography to print images.

Unlike other forms of printmaking that involve carving a plate or block that's then coated with ink, in lithography the metal or stone plate is coated with a waxy material. Text or images are carved out of this coating and spread with an oily ink that only adheres to the coated surface. Maps, prints, newspapers, and many other items (often with both images and text) are printed this way. Lithography combines the Greek lithos, "stone," and graphein, "to write."

Definitions of lithography

1. noun

   a method of planographic printing from a metal or stone surface
   types:

   photolithography

   a planographic printing process using plates made from a photographic image

   chromolithography

   single- or multi-color lithography

   offset lithography

   offset printing by lithography

   type of:

   planographic printing, planography

   the process of printing from a surface on which the printing areas are not raised but are ink-receptive (as opposed to ink repellent)
2. noun

   the act of making a lithographic print
   type of:

   printmaking

   artistic design and manufacture of prints as woodcuts or silkscreens