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28-469: Full-colour printing in the 19th century relied on the relief process and colour wood engraving . Bamber Gascoigne explains that the "vast majority of colour wood engravings are reproductive work of the second half of the nineteenth century, at which time they were often referred to as chromoxylographs—meaning colour from wood, just as chromolithograph means colour from stone." Relief prints were made by printing with engraved and coloured wood blocks. In

56-442: A broad palette of colours and hues. To make a relief print, the printer began with a wood block, engraved the image on the block by carving out areas that were not to be printed (or inked). A wood block was carved for each primary colours, with the coloured ink coating the areas left in relief. Gascoigne explains that the process required a "master craftsman [to sit] with an original painting in front of him and work out which areas of

84-411: A faint tint when seen at a normal viewing distance)." Overlapping diagonal lines were carved to create dot-like shapes on the surface that took less ink and resulted in paler tones. Thicker hatchings were less expensive and easier to produce, but the result was not as attractive. Books that were to be produced as inexpensively as possible showed less engraving work and colour separation. The chief problem

112-529: A shilling. Toy books were often released as a series, and the most common subjects were popular rhymes and tales . John Harris took over Newbery's publishing firm at the beginning of the 19th century, and within a few years was producing small (4 inches by 5 inches) books, colorfully illustrated, that were meant to amuse children. Early toy books, particularly in the 1840s, were hand-coloured often by children apprentices in print-shops, until mechanical colour printing became more prevalent, and toward

140-444: A variety of hues and tones . To create a blend of colours, blocks were hatched horizontally and diagonally to allow applications of multiple colours that resulted in browns, greens and greys. Gascoigne explains that a "blockmaker would know whether to engrave thin white lines (for an almost solid tone), medium white lines (a mid-tone) or crosshatchings (leaving larger or smaller lozenges of colour to achieve sometimes little more than

168-440: Is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix , which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas the recessed areas will not. A printing press may not be needed, as the back of the paper can be rubbed or pressed by hand with a simple tool such as a brayer or roller. In contrast, in intaglio printing,

196-632: The recessed areas are printed. Relief printing is one of the traditional families of printmaking techniques, along with the intaglio and planographic families, though modern developments have created others. In the relief family of printing, the matrix was historically made subtractively , by removing material from the surface of areas not intended to be printed. The remaining surface would then receive ink. The relief family of techniques includes woodcut , metalcut , wood engraving , relief etching , linocut , rubber stamp , foam printing, potato printing, and some types of collagraph . By contrast, in

224-423: The 1830s, George Baxter repopularized colour relief printing, then called chromoxylography, using a "background detail plate printed in aquatint intaglio , followed by colours printed in oil inks from relief plates—usually wood blocks". Chromoxylography became a popular technique in the production of inexpensive books, such as children's toy books and serialized stories into the early-20th century. The process

252-513: The 18th century when John Newbery began printing 'gift books'—such as A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744)—with small toys such as pincushions for girls included in the packaging. The earliest toy books were picture books bound in paper, of six to eight pages, often left blank on the back, with a small amount of text, and coloured illustrations rarely attributed to illustrators. The books were usually bound in heavy paper; some that were guaranteed to be indestructible were bound in linen and sold for

280-503: The Victorian period with an emphasis on the artistic value of the work at a period when the middle and upper classes had funds to spend on books for their offspring. Brightly coloured and well-designed toy books in particular became extremely popular. When the English publishing house Routledge and Warne contracted with printer Edmund Evans in 1865 to provide toy books for a growing market,

308-444: The best known illustrators of late-Victorian toybooks, and "did much to develop the sense, the shape, and the look of the modern picture book". Evans considered full colour printing, using the relatively inexpensive technique of chromoxylography to be well-suited to the simple illustrations in children's books, He objected to crudely coloured children's book illustrations, which he believed could be beautiful and inexpensive if

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336-500: The block, thereby tinting the paper in specified areas. The colour was applied as a solid, or in stripes of various of thickness, allowing for changes in hue. According to Gascoigne, 19th century chromoxylographs are identified by embossing on the back of the paper, distinctly delineated outlines, created by pressing the paper against the engraved blocks, and the presence of crosshatchings. He writes that "an impossibly and perfect and delicate area of crosshatching will suggest at first that

364-481: The century. In the mid-19th century picture books began to be made for children, with illustrations dominating the text rather than supplementing the text. The earliest toy books were hand painted, but in the mid-19th century London publishing house Dean & Son began printing toy books using chromolithography to colour the illustrations. Edmund Evans was the premier engraver and printer of toy books in London from

392-931: The end of the century children's books became quite elaborate. In the mid-19th century, the primary publishers of toy books in London were Dean & Son , using popularly coloured chromolithographs for the illustrations. By the end of the 1850s they published more than 200 titles, each book of equal size, each costing sixpence . The main characteristic of a toy book was that it was a coloured picture book with emphasis on pictures rather than text. Vicki Anderson, author of The Dime Novel in Children's Literature , writes that toy books were both temptingly colourful and not instructive. The books were inexpensive and often were reprints and condensed versions of existing stories such as fairy tales, which were commonly reprinted as toy books, as were books such as Defoe 's Robinson Crusoe . Children's illustrated books became fashionable during

420-507: The entire surface of the matrix is flat, and some areas are treated to create the print image. Planographic techniques include lithography and offset lithography . Normally, relief and intaglio techniques can only be mixed with others of the same family in the same printed page, unless the page is printed twice. Traditional text printing with movable type is also a relief technique. This meant that woodcuts were much easier to use as book illustrations, as they could be printed together with

448-491: The graver could not possibly have scooped out such small and regular interstices, but on closer inspection the lines in the two directions will be found to be of slightly different colours." Because the process was inexpensive, and commonly used to illustrate covers of inexpensive books such as mysteries and romances ("yellow backs" or " dime store novels ") or magazines, and in rare instances, newspaper covers, complicated colour combinations generally were not necessary. Most often

476-415: The image should be printed in which of the available colours to achieve the desired effect." The printer engraved the image to the finer end grain of the woodblock. For more complicated work the carver worked on the end grain of the wood, and with the use of fine hatchings to the wood that were inked separately achieved the look of blended colours. For the children's book market, which had lower profit margins,

504-413: The intaglio family of printing, the recessed areas are printed by inking the whole matrix, then wiping the surface so that only ink in the recessed areas remain. Much greater pressure is then needed to force the paper into the channels containing the ink, so a high-pressure press is normally needed. Intaglio techniques include engraving , etching , and drypoint . In the planographic family of printing ,

532-483: The mid-19th century to the early-20th century, producing books for Routledge, Warne & Routledge using the wood block printing technique of chromoxylography . He was instrumental in popularizing children's books through the production of toy books during this period. To illustrate the books he hired and collaborated with Walter Crane , Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway —known as the triumvirate of children's toy book illustrators. The term toy book originated in

560-578: The print run was large enough to maintain the costs. In doing so, Evans collaborated with Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott. Books illustrated by Kate Greenaway , Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott , engraved and printed by Evans, became popular and remain as classic examples of illustrations for children's literature. Chromoxylography was additionally used to illustrate natural history books and to reproduce paintings. To achieve realistic reproductions an engraver often used 12 or more colour blocks. Relief printing Relief printing

588-522: The print run was large enough. Toy books that were illustrated by Greenaway, Crane and Caldecott, and engraved and printed by Evans, became popular and remain examples of classically illustrated children's literature. The three illustrators became known as the triumvirate of Victoria toy book illustrators and greatly influenced a younger generation of toy book or small book illustrators such as Beatrix Potter . Books such as The Diverting History of John Gilpin , published in 1878, became popular because of

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616-506: The printer only used primary colors and black. The inexpensive technique of chromoxylography allowed publishers and printers to design covers as an attraction to purchase the book. The process was also used to produce higher quality children's books and toy books . Evans considered full colour printing a technique well-suited to the simple illustrations in children's books. Evans reacted against crudely coloured children's book illustrations, which he believed could be beautiful and inexpensive if

644-413: The printer would use fewer ink colours, which could be optimised by mixing colours such as blue and yellow to create green. The blocks were skillfully carved with extremely fine lines to create stippling and variations in tone. Areas intended to be printed in a solid colour were marked, and then hatching lines of various thickness were carved into the wood so that colours could be overprinted , creating

672-405: The quality of the illustrations and printing. The Diverting History of John Gilpin , written by William Cowper and first published in 1785, was illustrated by Caldecott and carefully printed in bright colours by Evans. Each page was illustrated and Caldecott's illustrations were designed to make a reader turn to the next page. Children's literature scholar Anne Lundin explains that at the end of

700-621: The text. Intaglio illustrations, such as engravings, had to be printed separately. The first relief-printed publication in the US, the multi-page newspaper Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick , was published on September 25, 1690. Toy book Toy books were illustrated children's books that became popular in England's Victorian era . The earliest toy books were typically paperbound, with six illustrated pages and sold for sixpence ; larger and more elaborate editions became popular later in

728-477: The toy books he printed "revolutionized the field of children's books". Large print runs, often exceeding 10,000 for first printings, were necessary. Routledge asserted that each title required sales of 50,000 to be profitable. When the market for toy books exploded, Evans began publishing them himself, choosing and commissioning the artists to design the illustrations. Walter Crane (1845–1905), Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886), and Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) are

756-433: Was to maintain correct register so that the design on the block matched the design on the paper. To achieve a precise register small holes were drilled along each block, and the paper was pinned to it. When done correctly, the block's colour registers matched printed paper, although sometimes ink squash is visible along the edges of an illustration. An electroplate was produced for each engraved wood block, inked according to

784-493: Was used simplistically in the mid-19th century to produce covers and illustrations for dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and children's books that were usually rendered, often ineffectively, only in primary colours , using one colour per wood block. The process became much more elaborate with Edmund Evans 's work, London's premier engraver and printer of children's books, as he perfected the process, often using as many as ten colour blocks, mixing and combining primary colours to create

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