Woodblock printing
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a relief printing process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed.
For Western art prints, see Woodcut. For the related technique invented in the 18th century, see Wood engraving. For Japanese woodblock printing, see Woodblock printing in Japan.As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD. Woodblock printing existed in Tang China by the 7th century AD and remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best-known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block books produced mainly in the 15th century.
Ajrak
Woodcut
Banhua
Old master print
New Year picture
Kalamkari
Ghalamkar
Bagh Print
Textile printing
Bagru Print
Conservation and restoration of woodblock prints
Barrett, Timothy Hugh (2008), The Woman Who Discovered Printing, Great Britain: , ISBN 978-0-300-12728-7
Yale University Press
Bulliet, Richard W. (1987). (PDF). Journal of the American Oriental Society. 107 (3): 427–438. doi:10.2307/603463. JSTOR 603463. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
"Medieval Arabic Tarsh: A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Printing"
Carter, John (2006). An ABC for Book Collectors (8th ed.). Delaware: Oak Knoll Books. 9781584561125.
ISBN
Chia, Lucille (2011), Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print: China, 900-1400, Brill
Diccionario Larousse de la Pintura (in Spanish). Barcelona: Planeta-Agostini. 1988. 84-395-0976-6.
ISBN
(1978). Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 978-1-56852-481-8. OCLC 475522764.
Lane, Richard
McMurtrie, Douglas C. (1962), THE BOOK: The Story of Printing & Bookmaking, Oxford University Press, seventh edition
Rivière, Jean Roger (1966). Summa Artis XX. El arte de la China (in Spanish). Madrid: Espasa Calpe.
(1985), Science and Civilization in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 1: Paper and Printing, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-08690-6
Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin
Twitchett, Denis (1998b), The Cambridge History of China Volume 8 The Ming Dynasty, 1368—1644, Part 2, Cambridge University Press
Wilkinson, Endymion (2012), Chinese History: A New Manual, Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute
Centre for the History of the Book
(Archived 11 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine)
Excellent images and descriptions of examples, mostly Chinese, from the Schoyen Collection
Chinese book-binding methods, from the V&A Museum
"Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints"
—Numerous links to Online Resources and Other Organizations
American Printing History Association
Block printing in India
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on woodblock printing
Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures
The History of Chinese Bookbinding: the case of Dunhuang findings
a video demonstrating printing of multicolored wallpaper with a press, using blocks produced by William Morris
Video: Block-printed wallpaper
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. 2009.