print holder (printhol"der)

1. A small frame, standing like an easel by means of a support at the back, used to hold a photograph or an engraving.-2. In photog., any device for holding a print flat, or in a desired position. printing (printing), n. [Verbal n. of print, v.] 1. In general, the art or proce of making copies or superficial transfers by impre ion; the reproduction of designs, characters, etc., on an impre ible surface by means of an ink or a pig printing ment (generally oily) applied to the solid surface on which they are engraved or otherwise formed. This sense is used specifically in typography of the actual taking of impre ions by the operation of a pre ; in other uses, it is generally accompanied by some descriptive term; and in typography itself different methods are discriminated, as type, letterpre , or stereotype printing, color-printing, etc. Type or stereotype printing is done from a surface in high relief; lithographic printing, from the surface of a flat stone; copperplate printing, from inked lines engraved below the surface of a flat plate of copper or steel. The art of printing with ink from blocks of wood was practised in China at an early undetermined date. Silk and linen fabrics were printed from engraved hand-stamps in Europe in the twelfth century; playing-cards and prints of images were impre ed on paper in the beginning of the fourteenth century. Calico-printing, oilcloth-printing, and carpet printing are also distinct arts, each requiring specially made inks and machinery. Printing for the blind, in letters embo ed in relief, is the only form of printing done without ink. 2. The art or proce of producing printed matter for reading (including illustrations, etc.) by composition and imposition of types, and their subjection when inked to pre ure upon paper in a printing-pre ; the typographic art; typography in the fullest sense. Although documents of a much earlier date exist, which show strong evidence of having been printed in some manner analogous to the modern practice, the history of printing properly begins with the first use of movable molded types, and is accredited to Gutenberg, with the aid of Schoeffer and Fust, of Mainz in Germany, in which city appeared the first book with an authenticated (written) date, 1456. Gutenberg's invention, however, is disputed in favor of his contemporary Coster, of Haarlem in Holland, from whom the former is said to have derived the proce . Improvements have since been made in the speed of type-making and in the methods of type-setting, but there has been no radical change in their theory or proce . The simple screw hand-pre first used for printing from types received no considerable improvement before 1800. Since that date many inventions have been made in printing-machinery, and the collateral arts of stereotyping and electrotyping have been developed. Machines that print from 5,000 to 50,000 copies an hour are to be found in many large cities. The earliest Italian copperplate-print is by Maso Finiguerra, a goldsmith of Florence (1452). Lithography was invented by Aloys Senefelder, of Munich, about 1796; he made prints in 1798, and received a patent in 1800. Typography, also known as letterpre printing, obtains its greatest advantage from the mobility of its types of metal, which can be repeatedly used in endle combinations. Type-printing machinery permits the use, along with types, of engravings on wood, or of stereotype or electrotype plates. In all other kinds of printing, the use of an engraved design in a new combination is not practicable; it can be used only in its first state. Printing comprises two distinct trades-composition, or the art of arranging types, and pre work, or the art of getting impre ions from composed types. See compositor, pre man1, and printer, 2. 3. In photog., the act or art of obtaining a positive photographic picture from a negative, or a picture in which the lights and shades are true to nature from one in which they are reversed. When based upon the properties of a salt of silver, such printing is called silver printing, and similarly with other salts.-4. In ceram., the art of decorating pottery by means of transfers, either by paper printed with mineral colors or by sheets of gelatin printed in oil. By the first plan, the paper is pre ed, printed side down, on the ware to make the transfer, and afterward removed by softening in water. By the other plan, the gelatin film or bat simply transfers the oil to the ware, when it can be removed and used again, the oil print being then dusted with mineral colors. 5. Advertising-bills, posters, dodgers, window bills, and the like. [The at. slang.] - Anastatic printing. See anastatic.- Artificial or artistic printing. See artificial. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. See bureau. Chromatic printing. See chro matic. Lithographic printing. See lithography. Logographic printing, printing with types bearing whole words or syllables. See logography. - Natural printing, the taking of an impre ion from an etched plate as it comes from the bath, for the purpose of showing its exact state. See also nature - printing. - Polychrome printing. See polychrome. - Solar printing, in photog., the proce or operation of printing or enlarging from a negative by the use of the solar camera. copying camera, under camera. See