The year 1901 falls in the boring period of seed catalogs, after photographic reproductions were considered more modern. Below these images you'll find an article from 1893 describing the new technique of reproducing photographs much more easily than formerly possible. The beginning of the end as far as I am concerned. The low contrast reproductions in the catalog are so boring and lifeless.
However, the cover and back cover of Vicks Garden and Floral Guide from 1901 still has the wonderful lithographed color and energy of the older catalogs.
If you are interested in the engraved seed catalog work, use the search box
(up at the top of the page on the right) and use the query "engravings".
(up at the top of the page on the right) and use the query "engravings".
The beginning of the end...
American Printer and Lithographer, Volume 16 - 1893
A NEW PHOTO-INTAGLIO PROCESS
By Louis E. Levy.
WITH the exception, perhaps, of the domain of electricity, there is no other special field wherein the recent advances of science have opened so many avenues of progress and effected such notable changes as in the range of the graphic arts. From the time when, fifty years ago, the earlier researches of Scheele and Seebeck on light-sensitive compounds were first wrought into practical shape by Niepce, Daguerre and Talbot, the applications of photo-chemistry have increased in number and extent to such a degree that to-day the various processes of photographic reproduction would require a long catalogue to merely name them.
Many of these variations, though marked, are unessential; others have proven of scientific interest only, while quite a long list of practical photo-reproductive processes have from time to time been superseded by simpler and more efficient methods.
The new photographic process which I have the pleasure of announcing is, as I trust will appear in practice, an effective and greatly simplified method of producing a photographic reproduction in the form of an intaglio engraving. Such engravings, technically known by the French term "photogravure" have been produced for some years past by a variety of photo-chemical processes, the most notable of which are those wherein the result is attained by means of a chrome-gelatin film.
The new photographic process which I have the pleasure of announcing is, as I trust will appear in practice, an effective and greatly simplified method of producing a photographic reproduction in the form of an intaglio engraving. Such engravings, technically known by the French term "photogravure" have been produced for some years past by a variety of photo-chemical processes, the most notable of which are those wherein the result is attained by means of a chrome-gelatin film.
The fact that a film of chrome-gelatin becomes insoluble when exposed to light, and remains more or less soluble according to the degree to which light is permitted to act upon it, has been made the basis of a variety of processes for the production of photo engravings.
The gelatin film long served as the most effective means for the production of photo-engravings in relief, and still furnishes the basis for the production of photo-engravings in intaglio. For both purposes the sensitized gelatin film is exposed under a transparent negative or positive, as may be requisite in the subsequent procedure ; the unaffected portions and unreduced quantities of the exposed film are either swelled by absorption of a liquid or are dissolved and washed out, and the film then dried. In this condition it may be printed from direct, or it may be used as a mold to produce a reverse in a fusible metal ; or it may be covered with an electrolytic surface to receive an electrotype deposit, or it may be molded in plaster, wax, guttapercha or other suitable substance,from which, in turn, a reverse can be made by casting or electrotyping.
Intaglio photo-engravings have also been produced by a process wherein the varying amounts of reduced silver left in the developed gelatino-bromide plate are made to serve as a corrosive or etching agency on a plate of copper on which the bromide plate is imposed, but in general practice the washed out gelatin film has thus far proven the most practical means to the desired end.
The gelatin film long served as the most effective means for the production of photo-engravings in relief, and still furnishes the basis for the production of photo-engravings in intaglio. For both purposes the sensitized gelatin film is exposed under a transparent negative or positive, as may be requisite in the subsequent procedure ; the unaffected portions and unreduced quantities of the exposed film are either swelled by absorption of a liquid or are dissolved and washed out, and the film then dried. In this condition it may be printed from direct, or it may be used as a mold to produce a reverse in a fusible metal ; or it may be covered with an electrolytic surface to receive an electrotype deposit, or it may be molded in plaster, wax, guttapercha or other suitable substance,from which, in turn, a reverse can be made by casting or electrotyping.
Intaglio photo-engravings have also been produced by a process wherein the varying amounts of reduced silver left in the developed gelatino-bromide plate are made to serve as a corrosive or etching agency on a plate of copper on which the bromide plate is imposed, but in general practice the washed out gelatin film has thus far proven the most practical means to the desired end.
In all photo-intaglio processes hitherto known or practiced, the nature of the plate produced and the end sought to be attained is akin to that which is technically known as a mezzotint or aquatint engraving. The essential feature of such engravings consists of the varying depths to which the design is sunken in the plate, the graduations of depth in the plate corresponding to the gradations of light and shade in the printed impression. The ink being rubbed into the depressions of the design and rubbed off from surface of the plate, the highest parts of the engraving represent the highest lights of the design, the deepest depressions render the darkest shadows and the intermediate depths produce the half-tone gradations of the picture. The difficulties attending the production of photogravure plates with the particular degree of graduation of depth which is responsible for an artistic effect in the printed impression are such that the process is practiced by only a few, the skill and experience needed for the work being obtained only by such individuals as possess artistic capacity and training.
In only one establishment, and that in Paris, has the work been brought to a high degree of quality, and there, as well as in other workshops, the hand of the skillful retoucher is frequently to be credited with the largest share in the final result.
To free this result as far as possible from the limitations of human handiwork, and to bring it forth under the more uniform and definite control of scientific procedure has been my aim in the experiments which have resulted in the present method.
To free this result as far as possible from the limitations of human handiwork, and to bring it forth under the more uniform and definite control of scientific procedure has been my aim in the experiments which have resulted in the present method.
This method I have named "Photo-mezzotint", not because that is the most exact term by which to denote it, but because all the other good names have been pre-empted and made to do service in other directions.
The essential feature of the new method lies in the general fact that the picture, instead of being obtained from a graduated depth of the engraving, is produced from a sunken surface of uniform depth, the graduations of light, half tone and shade being effected by minute lines and stipples of varying thicknesses, but of uniform distance apart from centre to centre.
In this respect the photo mezzotint may be regarded as a development of the so-called half-tone relief process, the true mezzotint or photogravure effect being attained by reducing the thickness of lines and stipples and multiplying their ratio to the surface to such a degree as to render them invisible to the naked eye. In that way all the finest gradations from pure white to deep black are obtainable, with the result shown by the specimens before us. In these the picture is made up of equidistant stipples, varying from a microscopic point up to a size where they coalesce into a solid black, the half-tones consisting of stipples of about one four-hundreth of an inch in diameter and about 44,000 to the square inch. If a coarser stipple is used the effect varies from that of a mezzotint and approaches more nearly that of a line engraving, the lights and shades being made up of perceptible lines and stipples, like the effects of a steel or copper plate engraving of equal texture.
The processes at present in vogue for the production of photo-intaglio plates require not only long experience and a high degree of manipulative skill, but also take up quite a length of time—frequently a week or more—for their completion, and the plate, after passing the stages of the photo-chemical process, has then still to be extensively helped by the work of the retoucher. The retouching of photogravure plates inevitably introduces a degree of uncertainty as to the accuracy of the reproduction, the result as left by the retoucher being frequently very different from the original in its disposition of lights and shades.
By this new process all of these undesirable factors are eliminated; its manipulations are far more facile, the length of time for the entire work is reduced to a few hours, and the result is complete without the supplementary aid of the skillful engraver, except, possibly, in cases of local blemishes or accidental defects. It is therefore reasonably to be assumed that this new method of intaglio engraving, which has been the subject of an application for letters patent, may be regarded as a desirable addition to the category of the graphic arts.
The essential feature of the new method lies in the general fact that the picture, instead of being obtained from a graduated depth of the engraving, is produced from a sunken surface of uniform depth, the graduations of light, half tone and shade being effected by minute lines and stipples of varying thicknesses, but of uniform distance apart from centre to centre.
In this respect the photo mezzotint may be regarded as a development of the so-called half-tone relief process, the true mezzotint or photogravure effect being attained by reducing the thickness of lines and stipples and multiplying their ratio to the surface to such a degree as to render them invisible to the naked eye. In that way all the finest gradations from pure white to deep black are obtainable, with the result shown by the specimens before us. In these the picture is made up of equidistant stipples, varying from a microscopic point up to a size where they coalesce into a solid black, the half-tones consisting of stipples of about one four-hundreth of an inch in diameter and about 44,000 to the square inch. If a coarser stipple is used the effect varies from that of a mezzotint and approaches more nearly that of a line engraving, the lights and shades being made up of perceptible lines and stipples, like the effects of a steel or copper plate engraving of equal texture.
The processes at present in vogue for the production of photo-intaglio plates require not only long experience and a high degree of manipulative skill, but also take up quite a length of time—frequently a week or more—for their completion, and the plate, after passing the stages of the photo-chemical process, has then still to be extensively helped by the work of the retoucher. The retouching of photogravure plates inevitably introduces a degree of uncertainty as to the accuracy of the reproduction, the result as left by the retoucher being frequently very different from the original in its disposition of lights and shades.
By this new process all of these undesirable factors are eliminated; its manipulations are far more facile, the length of time for the entire work is reduced to a few hours, and the result is complete without the supplementary aid of the skillful engraver, except, possibly, in cases of local blemishes or accidental defects. It is therefore reasonably to be assumed that this new method of intaglio engraving, which has been the subject of an application for letters patent, may be regarded as a desirable addition to the category of the graphic arts.
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