Printmaking
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Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine ; however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph.
Katsushika Hokusai The Underwave off Kanagawa, 1829/1833, color woodcut, Rijksmuseum Collection
Rembrandt, Self-portrait, etching, c. 1630
Francisco Goya, There is No One To Help Them, Disasters of War series, aquatint c. 1810
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Portrait of Otto Müller, 1915
Matrix (printing)
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In the manufacture of metal type used in letterpress printing, a matrix is the mould used to cast a letter, known as a sort. Matrices for printing types were made of copper.
Matrices created by Jean Jannon around 1640. The Garamond typeface installed with most Microsoft software is based on these designs.
A composition case loaded with matrices for a font, used to cast metal type on a Monotype composition casting machine in the hot metal typesetting period. The matrices were stamped with punches machined using pantographs from large working drawings and intermediate copper patterns, and used to cast type under the control of a keyboard. This gave much cleaner results than pre-pantograph punches, which had to be hand-carved at the size of the desired letter, and allowed fonts to be issued in more sizes faster than was previously possible.
A punch (left) and the respective matrix produced from it (right). The small letters at the base of the matrix are founders' inventory marks.
Duplexed Linotype matrices for regular and bold styles.