Printmaking is one of the main types of paintings in plastic arts, which is characterized by the author's use of knives and brushes or other means of engraving and drawing on the layout of different materials or through a certain chemical treatment for production, and can be printed directly out of multiple copies of the original work.

Printmaking and printing are inseparable, the so-called "language of printmaking" is the use of a certain printing means of painting to produce a variety of art, rather than a certain means of printing to copy the painting. Traditional woodcut is only one kind of prints, according to the examination of our country for the hometown of woodcut prints. Historically, woodcuts are mostly used to reproduce drawings, painting, carving, printing division of labor, known as reproduction prints, and later developed into an independent art form, by the author of the self-painting, self-interpretation.

Printmaking with its variety of types, the form of rich, colorful appearance and its unique artistic characteristics for other types of paintings can not be compared, at the same time itself has limitations, modern technology, science and technology for the development of printmaking provides an extremely broad world.

(1) Silk Screen Prints

Printmaking is a kind of printmaking, also known as silk screen prints and silk screen prints, which belongs to the category of perforated prints. The use of silk screen holes in the ink and pigment directly leakage printing on paper, the principle of the same "mimeograph" printing method, is a modern process for artistic creation of printmaking varieties, for the 20th century, a new type of printmaking, the international popularity of a long time ago, has begun to be popularized in our country in recent years.

Screen prints are characterized by simple and easy printing principle and plate making method, the layout can be large or small, the same plate can be used repeatedly, water color, oil color can be printed, rich and loud colors, can be overlapped and changed at will, various techniques, can show a variety of texture and color uniformity of the rendering of the gradient effect, in particular, the image of the layout and the printed image of the screen image is the same, there is no difference between the positive and negative, it is easy to master, operation.

(2) Paper Prints

Prints of one of the new varieties of prints, paper as a plate, the use of paper, multi-layer collage overlap, smooth and rough points, different oil and water absorption to show a variety of texture, paper flavor and content, and through manual or machine printing, resulting in other types of prints can not be replaced by the picture of a unique artistic charm.

The main characteristics of paper prints are simple materials, easy to produce, easy to popularize; production methods are randomly varied, rich and varied expression; both can be water-printed, oil-printed, and can be mutual overprinting. Paper prints to gravure-convex version of the main printing principle is basically the same as copperplate prints, can also be set concave, convex, flat, hole plate in a combination of printing, with a "knife flavor of the paper sense" of the characteristics.

(3) Copperplate

Prints of a kind. Because of the metal material used to copper plate-based, so the name; now popular zinc prints, lead prints also belong to this category. 15 century, 16 century when the copper plate began to be popular in Europe, 1715 by the Italian Lang Shining to Beijing missionary and introduced to our country, the art of copperplate art in our country before the development.

The production method is mainly dry engraving method, corrosion method, flying dust method, etc., so there are corrosion prints, skeleton etching plate, engraved copper plate and other names, now collectively referred to as copperplate. Among them to corrosion method is more common, first coated with a layer of preservative on the metal plate, with a knife or needle carving, and then acidic corrosion solution, carve away part of the corrosion that is to become a concave line, it is known as intaglio, printing will be filled with ink in the concave line, and wipe off the excess ink on the plate, through the pressure of the cylinder of the copperplate machine, so that the ink in the four lines of the ink printed to the paper to go up to the formation of the raised lines, with a unique artistic effect.

(4) Lithograph

A type of printmaking. By the end of the old century Sunnafield invented lithography based on the development of the first introduced to China in 1876, the 1950s lithography art had been fully developed in China.

Lithographs are mainly based on the principle of incompatibility between oil and water to form the printing plate, the first oil containing ink in the lithographic plate or special lead skin painting, and then coated with a layer of acidic gum arabic on the plate; because the plate is painted with ink part of the ink and only accept the ink and refused to water, did not draw the part of the opposite only to accept the water and refused to ink, by adjusting the ink on the plate can be copied more than one, can maintain the spirit of the original work completely. Lithograph by its material, printing press limitations, it is difficult to popularize the popularity of folk.

(5) Hemp Gum Prints

Prints of a kind. On the base of jute cloth coated with a mixture of resin drying oil and soft wood shavings pressed. Originally used as a construction material for flooring and walls. Because there is no vertical and horizontal texture of the layout, engraved prints convenient, its production process, methods and effects are similar to woodblock prints.

China's existing plastic prints also belong to this category, industry, construction of thin plates can be used for carving, and lightweight and thin, not used as a base, easy to arbitrarily intercept, storage, its shortcomings are smaller, easy to age, more hurt knife.

(6) unique prints

Prints should be plural, the only unique prints only one original, mainly this original through the topography process, while the picture has a print flavor, so the name.

The production method is to use ink or oil color directly on the smooth base plate above the painting, in the pigment is not yet dry, put on the printing paper by hand grinding plate or printing machine printing, after the pressure, so that the base plate on the painting printed on the paper to become. Solo prints have a great deal of discretion, and can utilize a variety of plates, pigments, occasions, including the author's mood, improvisation, creation, and often have unexpected special effects. The use of water and oil to separate the printed texture of the picture also belongs to this category. Because of the flow of water and oil so that any texture can not repeat the same picture.

(7) prints bookmarks

Bookmarks is a small work of art with the name of the book collector, due to the form of prints produced, also known as prints bookmarks. Bookmarks and China's bookmarks stamped on the book is the same, is a book collector's art mark.

Collector's stamps originated in Germany in the 15th century, the early 1930s was introduced to China, the 1980s in China again, there has been a great development, in 1984, the establishment of the Chinese bookmarks research society. The content of the performance of the Tibetan bookplate is extremely wide, birds and animals, flowers, plants and trees, mountains, rivers and springs, antiques and cultural relics, portraits of the genus, historical myths and so on can be into the painting, writing. Realistic, figurative, abstract, deformation and exaggeration, carved and described various artistic techniques can show its skill.

The production of bookmarks, printing with a variety of printmaking techniques, the specific size of the general in 0.080.1 meters, in various forms, small and exquisite, known as the pearl of prints, paper gems. Bookmarks activities can not be separated from the book and the book owner, as well as reading, love of books, book collection, knowledge, beauty of the connection, so that bookmarks is a practical value and aesthetic value of the artwork.