engraving

A kind of gravure printing where paper, usually moist, is pushed against a recessed plate. Pressure from the press against the back of the paper forces the ink from the recessed area onto the front. This pressure raises the imprinted area slightly. A less expensive printing technique with a similar appearance is thermography.

En*grav"ing, n.

1.

The act or art of producing upon hard material incised or raised patterns, characters, lines, and the like; especially, the art of producing such lines, etc., in the surface of metal plates or blocks of wood. Engraving is used for the decoration of the surface itself; also, for producing an original, from which a pattern or design may be printed on paper.

2.

That which is engraved; an engraved plate.

3.

An impression from an engraved plate, block of wood, or other material; a print.

⇒ Engraving on wood is called xylography; on copper, chalcography; on stone lithography. Engravings or prints take from wood blocks are usually called wood cuts, those from stone, lithographs.

© Webster 1913.