In 1436, a German printer named Johannes Gutenberg (c1397 -1468) invented the first printing press to have replaceable letters, punctuation marks, abbreviations and ligatures. These were initially made from wood, though later on metal was used.

The effect of this 'movable type' invention was one of huge reductions in printing costs that made, for the first time, printed works affordable to the masses.

The Gutenberg Press remained the standard for printing well into the 20th century, when slowly other methods based upon Gutenberg's principles slowly started to emerge.

Invented in 1798 by Alois Senefelder, Lithography is a mass printing technique. Senefelder, realizing the potential commercial prospects for his invention, patented the technique in 1799.

In 1837, Godefroy Engelmann added colour into the practice and called it simply 'Lithocolourprinting'. Engelmann refered to colour Lithography as "imitating painting".

Lithography is a type of 'plate' printing technique based upon the proven theory that water and oil do not mix. A 'plate' or stone, usually made of limestone, is drawn upon with a pencil made in part from wax, a litho-crayon, tusche or other grease based writing implement. A chemical solution, that helps the greasy ink to attract, is then wiped over the surface of the drawing; the stone is then dampened, and a roller is used to apply ink. The ink is attracted to the greasy pencil marks and is held there, while the water is repelled.

The stone is then bedded to the press to keep it stable while printing. A sheet of paper is placed on top of the stone, and covered by more layers of paper as protective backing. Lastly a sheet of metal, greased on top, is placed atop the papers. The entire bed platform is then rolled by hand inside a press, and the image is 'pressed' onto the paper by a bar that slides evenly over the top of the greased metal sheet.

Colour Lithography is a far more involved process, as each colour used in the drawing has to be printed separately, in turn, onto the paper.

The word Lithograghy stems from the Greek language; 'Litho-' meaning stone and '-graph' meaning drawing, 'stone drawing'.

One of, if not the earliest printing technique, Woodcuts have been in Europe since the late medieval period and in China since the 5thC AD.

Woodcuts are a relief printing technique; an artist draws the desired image onto a block of wood, which is then carved away using a burin or chisel, the drawn work left in relief. The raised areas of the block face are then daubed with ink and simply 'pressed' upon a sheet of paper to print the image.

Colour woodcuts are a longer process, as each colour used for the image has to be applied and printed in turn to the paper.

Early Silk Screen Printing can be found used by the Chinese and Japanese for making paper currency, and although it has been around for more than 2000 years, the technique was not patented until 1907 in the United Kingdom.

Screen printing involves the forcing of inks, through a mesh screen that is stretched over a frame onto a material beneath. The areas of the mesh that are not to be printed are protected by either a stencil, or by the direct blocking of the mesh itself.

Although originally, and by definition, the process used silk as the mesh screening material, these days polyester is more often used, no doubt for financial reasons.

Serigraphy, a modern term for the screen printing process, was derived by Anthony Velonis in 1940. Velonis wanted to create a definition between early silk screen printing and modern screen printing. He concocted the term from two sources, the Latin 'Seri-' meaning silk and the Greek '-graphein' meaning to draw or write.