lithographer

A lithographer is a practitioner of lithography, a planographic printmaking technique based on the principle that grease and water repel each other on a flat surface. The term derives from Greek lithos for stone and graphein to write.

Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in the late 18th century in Germany as a method for reproducing drawings and texts. Early lithographs were produced on limestone, but later it expanded to metal plates and synthetic surfaces. In traditional stone lithography, a drawing is made with a greasy substance on a smooth lithographic stone; the surface is dampened with water, and oil-based ink is applied. The greasy image attracts ink while the damp non-image areas reject it, allowing printing of the image onto paper. In modern practice, many lithographs use metal or polymer plates and may involve chemical processing or photochemical methods. Offset lithography, in which the image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to paper, became the dominant commercial technique for high-volume printing in the 20th century.

Lithography has two main branches: fine art lithography, where artists create original prints by hand and sometimes combine drawing with photographic or digital processes; and commercial lithography, used for posters, newspapers, books, packaging, and other printed matter. The lithographer’s work may involve preparing plates, drawing or transferring images, inking, proofing, and supervising presses. The term can also describe technicians in related fields such as photolithography used in electronics, though that application uses different processes.