Intaglio

Intaglio printmaking emerged in the wake of the woodcut print, and is thought to have begun in the 15th century. Much like how the development of the printing press helped spread the written word, bringing books to people, intaglio enabled the spread of drawings across Europe.

By the 16th century much mass printing was done using this technique including banknotes, stock certificates, newspapers, books, maps and magazines, fabrics, wallpapers and sheet music. In the 19th century, Viennese printer Karel Klíč developed the process of photogravure, which produces a photograph-like image using a chemically etched copper plate.

Artists most notable for their use of intaglio include Albrecht Durer, William Blake, Francisco Goya, Rembrandt Van Rijn, M. C. Escher, Kathe Kollwitz, Giorgio Morandi, and Pablo Picasso.

Today, intaglio engraving is used largely for paper or plastic currency, banknotes, passports and occasionally for high-value postage stamps.

Intaglio printmaking techniques work by incising into the surface of a plate (steel, copper etc.). Afterwards the plate is coated with ink. The surface is wiped clean so that the ink remains only in the incised areas. The printing relies on the pressure of a press to force damp paper into these recessed lines, to pick up ink.

Etching and engraving are intaglio methods of printmaking; etching uses acid where engraving does not. Drypoint, line engraving and mezzotint are a type of engraving.

Engraving: 

Incisions are made directly onto 1-3mm plates using a range of fine steel chisels known as burins or gravers. Like all types of intaglio, first the plate is prepared by sanding and polishing in order to remove imperfections. This technique reproduces only linear marks, though impressions of tone and shading can be created using crosshatching, for example. 

Etching: 

Allowing the most freedom for artistic expression, etching is a very popular and useful printmaking technique. A chemical process, etching involves submerging the metal plate into an acid or mordant. The most commonly used acids include diluted nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and iron chloride. There are growing environmental concerns around this however (see ‘issues affecting the viability’ below).

• Etching
• Engraving
  • Line engraving
  • Drypoint
  • Mezzotint
• Photogravure
• Lithography

• Training and recruitment issues – There is a lack of specialist, work based training for workshop printers.
• Market issues – There are cheaper alternatives to intaglio printing, which make it less commercially viable.
• Environmental issues – many acids used in etching produce toxic fumes, however, innovations such as the Edinburgh etch (reforming the use of ferric chloride by combining it with citric acid solution) works well on many types of metal and with greater speed.
• Skills issues – Whilst intaglio printing as a fine art technique is taught widely in art schools and universities across the UK, the number of institutions with dedicated print shops is declining. Most of the large print studios have now closed.
• Skills issues – Print workshops, where artists can collaborate with highly trained print technicians, are declining in number and there is risk that higher level skills could be lost or become scarce.

• Royal Society of Painter Printmakers
• Printmakers Council
• V&A prints and drawing room
• Ashmolean Print Collection
• British Museum Print Collection

• City Lit – Etching, Intaglio & Lithography short courses
• Double Elephant Print Workshop – Exploring Intaglio 
• https://copper.org/consumers/arts/2012/january/This_History_of_Inta.php

The Print Workshops Directory by Sean Rorke gives a list of around 70 print workshops in the UK.

There are many UK artists and printmakers using intaglio in their work at a highly skilled level. The process is widely used by artists and taught in art schools across the UK. However, the number of print workshops run by highly skilled print technicians is declining.

https://www.britannica.com/art/engraving 

https://hickmandesign.co.uk/blog/history/intaglio-printing/?srsltid=AfmBOoqTJ0LlKDUpB2KCKfZJ6S1CLU666QCsWpCE7Q-CB8fZeE3EIzES