The word lithography comes from the Ancient Greek language: “lithos”, meaning “stone” and “graphein”, meaning “to write”. It was invented in 1796 by German author Alois Senefelder as an economical method of publishing theatrical works. Originally, lithographs were created through a drawing image etched onto a stone. Even if with new technologies, printmaking process has evolved, some artists and printing house are still practicing this traditional printing technique, as we are doing for the production of our lithographs on stone.

•   Traditional techniques

Traditional lithography is based on the immiscibility of oil and water. It consists in painting or drawing with a greasy substance directly onto a flat smooth stone to create an image. The stone is then, wetted and an oil-based ink is rolled onto it. Only the greasy parts of the stone will pick up the ink. Finally, the paper and the stone are run through a press, letting the ink being transferred from the stone to the paper.

•   Modern techniques

Modern lithography employs the same basic principle but in a more efficient way. It consists of covering a printing plate with photosensitive emulsion before the photographic negative of an image is pressed onto it. Then the plate is exposed to an ultraviolet light. Once developed, the emulsion shows a reverse of the negative image – a perfect replica of the original artwork.

At Print Them All, we like to alternate between those two print methods with the objective of creating the best fine prints according to the artist’s desire. Each of our lithographs is numbered, signed by the artist and stamped by our publishing house. We produce all our lithographs at the oldest Parisian printing house, called IDEM, which has been founded in 1881 where artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró and even Marc Chagall used to print their artworks.

Paper quality is one of the most important element of the printing process. Artist’s choice of paper is very important in order to achieve the perfect final effect for the representation of his artwork. Respecting the wish of the artist and to satisfy you, we work exclusively with the best quality paper to make sure to have a perfect replica of the artwork, ensuring optimal results that will stand above time. For that, we used paper that is 100% cotton handmade, such as the BFK Rives or the Arches.

We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter so that we can keep you informed about our new lithographs, new artists coming up, new prints released and other activities on Print Them All.

You can also follow us through all our social media profiles.

If you have any query or suggestion, please do not hesitate to contact us.