Terry King n.d. The south aisle of Chichester Cathedral
Copper plate gravure Provided by the artist - Terry King As we have said, carbon tissue was not only made for making prints using a transfer method to make prints on paper, but when the picture was transferred to an aquatinted plate and then etched, a continuous tone image was produced in intaglio which gave 'ink on paper' prints. Etching through the varying thicknesses of the gelatine gives a corresponding variation in the depth of the etch which results in varying depths of tone in the final print.
Intaglio itself is the method of printing where ink is in the etch below the surface of the plate. The plate is polished clean before the plate and paper are passed through the press when the ink is forced out of the grooves and transferred to the paper. This is unlike the lithographic processes where the ink is on the surface of the plate.
