<p>Yes, traditional lithography can print continuous shading that offset (photo) lithography cannot. Lithography technically is printing using oil based inks on a flat surface that repels the oily ink using water except in the areas where you want to print. There are a couple of ways this is done.</p>
<p>Traditionally lithography is done using limestone printing slabs on which the artist directly creates their design using an oil based medium like grease pencils/crayons or inks. They then prepare the block through a complex chemical and mechanical process called etching (not to be confused with etching by cutting into metal plates ie intaglio printing). The stone block is constantly kept wet during the process, and is made wet again before being inked and run through a special litho press.</p>
<p>This form of lithography allows for subtle shading and naturally varying tones. The fineness of the grain of the plates and the process of preparing allows for gradations in the density of the held ink.  When printing it is transferred to the paper through a special printing press which applies a not too strong but very even pressure across the plate. It is still done today for fine art print editions though easier to manage aluminum plates are now used in addition to limestone blocks. When one hears a work is &quot;<strong>a lithograph</strong>&quot; it is this traditional method that is usually being referenced.</p>
<p>Then technology, specifically mechanical and chemical/photographic technology, came along and invented a new form of lithography also known <strong>offset lithography</strong> or more commonly <strong>offset printing</strong>. This is also a process where water resists oily ink except the areas of a plate where the design is. Only now the plate is prepared photo-chemically, starting by burning the image onto a chemically sensitized metal plate. Then the plates are developed leaving areas that will hold water and resist the ink and areas where the ink will take.</p>
<p>The offset process can only print 100% solid ink. Either there is ink on the plate or there is none so no shaded tones or gradations. Those have to be recreated using half-tone screens; opaque plates covered with a grid of very fine holes. These filter the image during exposure and create a patterns of small dots of varying size which when seen together create tonality.</p>
<p>So Cooper Hewet's Stalin poster and the UM printing press referenced in the first links are talking about offset lithography while the video and the Met demo are showing the making of a traditional limestone lithographs.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-16T16:11:35.823Z
I did a lot of traditional limestone lithography in college, all with shading/gradations and zero stippling or half-toning at all. This is an excellent answer.
Allison C
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-07T15:15:18.420Z
Thanks rebusB!  Can you please clarify why traditional limestone lithography can preserve the gradations of the grease pencil/crayon/ink when offset lithography cannot?  That would really get at the heart of how/why it's possible.  i.e. it isn't clear to the uneducated why the traditional limestone lithography plate behaves differently than the offset lithography plate. Again I'm uneducated in this but it isn't obvious why the oil-based mediums would repel water/ink differently in each type of lithography.  Thanks again for your informative post!
rfii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-13T23:20:12.940Z
2024-07-31T13:27:25.337Z
2024-07-31T13:27:25.337Z
rebusB
<p>The <a href="https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2015/05/11/gustav-klucis-halftone-process/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Smithsonian Design Museum</a> and the <a href="https://gallery.lib.umn.edu/exhibits/show/pre-separated-art/press-halftone" rel="nofollow noreferrer">University of Minnesota</a>, among others, claim that lithography is incapable of producing prints with smoothly continuous shades without the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone" rel="nofollow noreferrer">halftone technique</a> of using the size or frequency of tiny solid dots, however, there are videos of artists using traditional lithography and producing smooth shades from the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awh0k9PICVY&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ftedium.co%2F&amp;source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&amp;feature=emb_logo" rel="nofollow noreferrer">University of Houston</a>(referencing <a href="https://tedium.co/2017/04/18/color-printing-lithography-history/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Tedium article</a>) and <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/drawings-and-prints/materials-and-techniques/printmaking/lithograph" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the Met</a>. There is no hatching, stippling, or similar method used either.  Unless there is some nuance I have missed, it seems these institutions are contradicting each other.  Can lithography produce continuous shading (tones) without halftone dots and how so?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-13T21:15:19.050Z
The existence of examples with continuous shading before the invention of halftone in 1880 also seems to indicate the Smithsonian and UM are wrong. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromolithography#/media/File:Gabriel%C3%A9_Castagnola_-_Love_or_Duty.jpg
rfii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-31T13:28:15.103Z
So... make sense now?
rebusB
<lithography>
Can lithography produce continuous shading (tones) without halftone or stippling?
rfii
# Can lithography produce continuous shading (tones) without halftone or stippling?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-07-13)

The [Smithsonian Design Museum](https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2015/05/11/gustav-klucis-halftone-process/) and the [University of Minnesota](https://gallery.lib.umn.edu/exhibits/show/pre-separated-art/press-halftone), among others, claim that lithography is incapable of producing prints with smoothly continuous shades without the [halftone technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone) of using the size or frequency of tiny solid dots, however, there are videos of artists using traditional lithography and producing smooth shades from the [University of Houston](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awh0k9PICVY&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ftedium.co%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo)(referencing [Tedium article](https://tedium.co/2017/04/18/color-printing-lithography-history/)) and [the Met](https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/drawings-and-prints/materials-and-techniques/printmaking/lithograph). There is no hatching, stippling, or similar method used either. Unless there is some nuance I have missed, it seems these institutions are contradicting each other. Can lithography produce continuous shading (tones) without halftone dots and how so?

**Tags:** lithography

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The existence of examples with continuous shading before the invention of halftone in 1880 also seems to indicate the Smithsonian and UM are wrong.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromolithography#/media/File:Gabriel%C3%A9_Castagnola_-_Love_or_Duty.jpg  
> **username_1**: So... make sense now?  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-07-13. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

Yes, traditional lithography can print continuous shading that offset (photo) lithography cannot. Lithography technically is printing using oil based inks on a flat surface that repels the oily ink using water except in the areas where you want to print. There are a couple of ways this is done.

Traditionally lithography is done using limestone printing slabs on which the artist directly creates their design using an oil based medium like grease pencils/crayons or inks. They then prepare the block through a complex chemical and mechanical process called etching (not to be confused with etching by cutting into metal plates ie intaglio printing). The stone block is constantly kept wet during the process, and is made wet again before being inked and run through a special litho press.

This form of lithography allows for subtle shading and naturally varying tones. The fineness of the grain of the plates and the process of preparing allows for gradations in the density of the held ink. When printing it is transferred to the paper through a special printing press which applies a not too strong but very even pressure across the plate. It is still done today for fine art print editions though easier to manage aluminum plates are now used in addition to limestone blocks. When one hears a work is "**a lithograph**" it is this traditional method that is usually being referenced.

Then technology, specifically mechanical and chemical/photographic technology, came along and invented a new form of lithography also known **offset lithography** or more commonly **offset printing**. This is also a process where water resists oily ink except the areas of a plate where the design is. Only now the plate is prepared photo-chemically, starting by burning the image onto a chemically sensitized metal plate. Then the plates are developed leaving areas that will hold water and resist the ink and areas where the ink will take.

The offset process can only print 100% solid ink. Either there is ink on the plate or there is none so no shaded tones or gradations. Those have to be recreated using half-tone screens; opaque plates covered with a grid of very fine holes. These filter the image during exposure and create a patterns of small dots of varying size which when seen together create tonality.

So Cooper Hewet's Stalin poster and the UM printing press referenced in the first links are talking about offset lithography while the video and the Met demo are showing the making of a traditional limestone lithographs.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I did a lot of traditional limestone lithography in college, all with shading/gradations and zero stippling or half-toning at all. This is an excellent answer.  
> **username_0**: Thanks username_1!  Can you please clarify why traditional limestone lithography can preserve the gradations of the grease pencil/crayon/ink when offset lithography cannot?  That would really get at the heart of how/why it's possible.  i.e. it isn't clear to the uneducated why the traditional limestone lithography plate behaves differently than the offset lithography plate. Again I'm uneducated in this but it isn't obvious why the oil-based mediums would repel water/ink differently in each type of lithography.  Thanks again for your informative post!  

---

