What does wood engraving mean?

Definitions for wood engraving
wood en·grav·ing

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word wood engraving.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. woodcut, wood engravingnoun

    a print made from a woodcut

  2. woodcut, wood block, wood engravingnoun

    engraving consisting of a block of wood with a design cut into it; used to make prints

Wikipedia

  1. Wood engraving

    Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or matrix of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively low pressure. By contrast, ordinary engraving, like etching, uses a metal plate for the matrix, and is printed by the intaglio method, where the ink fills the valleys, the removed areas. As a result, wood engravings deteriorate less quickly than copper-plate engravings, and have a distinctive white-on-black character. Thomas Bewick developed the wood engraving technique in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century. His work differed from earlier woodcuts in two key ways. First, rather than using woodcarving tools such as knives, Bewick used an engraver's burin (graver). With this, he could create thin delicate lines, often creating large dark areas in the composition. Second, wood engraving traditionally uses the wood's end grain—while the older technique used the softer side grain. The resulting increased hardness and durability facilitated more detailed images. Wood-engraved blocks could be used on conventional printing presses, which were going through rapid mechanical improvements during the first quarter of the 19th century. The blocks were made the same height as, and composited alongside, movable type in page layouts—so printers could produce thousands of copies of illustrated pages with almost no deterioration. The combination of this new wood engraving method and mechanized printing drove a rapid expansion of illustrations in the 19th century. Further, advances in stereotype let wood-engravings be reproduced onto metal, where they could be mass-produced for sale to printers. By the mid-19th century, many wood engravings rivaled copperplate engravings. Wood engraving was used to great effect by 19th-century artists such as Edward Calvert, and its heyday lasted until the early and mid-20th century when remarkable achievements were made by Eric Gill, Eric Ravilious, Tirzah Garwood and others. Though less used now, the technique is still prized in the early 21st century as a high-quality specialist technique of book illustration, and is promoted, for example, by the Society of Wood Engravers, who hold an annual exhibition in London and other British venues.

ChatGPT

  1. wood engraving

    Wood engraving is a printmaking and letterpress printing technique, in which an artist works an image or matrix of images into a block of wood. The technique involves carving the image onto the surface of a wooden block, cutting away the areas that are intended to appear white in the print, and leaving the image to be printed at the original surface level. This carved block is then inked and pressed onto paper to create the print. Wood engraving is often used for illustrations in books or other print materials.

Wikidata

  1. Wood engraving

    Wood engraving is a technique in printmaking and letterpress printing where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed using relatively low pressure. By contrast, ordinary engraving, like an etching, has a metal plate as a matrix and is printed by the intaglio method, where the ink fills the "valleys". As a result, wood engravings deteriorated much less quickly than copper-plate engravings and had a distinctive white-on-black character. The technique of wood engraving was developed at the end of the 18th century by Thomas Bewick, whose work differed from earlier woodcuts in two key ways. First, rather than using woodcarving tools such as knives, Bewick used an engraver's burin. With this he was able to create very thin delicate lines, often having large dark areas in the composition. Second, wood engraving traditionally utilizes the end grain of wood, while in the older technique of woodcut the softer side grain is used. The increased hardness and durability that resulted allowed for more detailed images. Wood-engraved blocks could be used on conventional printing presses, which were themselves making rapid mechanical improvements during the first quarter of the 19th century. The blocks were made the same height as, and composited alongside, the movable type within a page layout; as such, thousands of copies of such an illustrated page could be printed with almost no deterioration of the illustration blocks. The combination of this new method of making relief printing blocks and mechanized printing allowed for a rapid expansion of illustrations in throughout the 19th-century. Further, advances in stereotyping and electrotyping allowed wood-engravings to be reproduced into metal, where they could be mass produced for sale to printers.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of wood engraving in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of wood engraving in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

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"wood engraving." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/wood+engraving>.

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