Woodburytype: A historical process resurrected by modern methods

Abstract

One of the technological achievements of the 19th century was the mass reproduction of photographic images. Woodburytype was the
first commercially successful photomechanical continuous tone printing method, of unsurpassed quality until today. Along with Collotype and Goupil gravure, it used the relief of dichromated gelatin exposed to light as the basis for the printing plates. In this article we will discuss the historical printing processes and present how a) modern embodiments of the printing plates can be made by either CNC milling or using photopolymer plates and b) how optimal contrast and grayscale can be achieved by ink formulations tuned to the relief depth of the printing plate.