Gravure Printing

Gravure printing is a very old process, the principles of which started in China around 100 AD. For the next 1400 year�s gravure progressed very slowly and all images were produced by hand using an engraving tool. Then, in the 16thcentury chemical etching was invented whereby the image could be scratched into a resistant coating on the metal surface of the plate and then engraved using an acid. This was a major step forward for the gravure process and high quality printing in general. By 1838 the principles of photography had been fully tested and proven and this gave a great challenge to the printing industry to find ways to reproduce these direct images of the real world in a fast and accurate manner.