| How were maps produced? |
| Manuscript Maps |
| |
|
| Printed Maps |
Maps were
printed in Europe for the first time in the second half of the fifteenth
century. Indeed the first map was printed within a generation of the development
of movable type by Johannes
Gutenberg.
This map is a TO map and is found in a copy of Isidore of Seville's encyclopedia,
printed in 1472 by Günter Zainer in Augsburg, Germany. |
 |
| Two forms
of printing, woodcut and copper engraving (intaglio) were used to produce
the first printed maps. The woodcut is the older printing technique and
comes from China. The oldest example of a printed map is from the ninth
century and shows one of the provinces of China. The method of printing
from a copper engraving was developed at the beginning of the fifteenth
century in Europe and was first used to print a map in 1477. |
 |
| Woodcut |
| The
woodcut is a raised surface printing technique. A cherry or pear board,
cut along the grain, is used. After the map is transferred in mirror image
to the board, the blank area of the map is cut away to a depth of about
1/8 to 1/4 of an inch using variously shaped knives and gouges. Only the
image is left in the form of ridges. To print from the woodcut the raised
surface is inked using a roller and then a sheet of paper is pressed onto
the inked surface of the woodcut in a printing press. |
|
| Copper
engraving |
| Copper engraving
is an Intaglio printing method. The map image is, similar to the woodcut,
transferred in mirror image to a polished copper plate. Unlike in the woodcut
the lines of the map are engraved into the plate using burins with different
profiles, leaving the blank area untouched. To print, the surface of the
copper plate is rubbed with ink so that the engraved lines are filled with
it. The surface is then cleaned leaving only the ink in the engraved lines.
The plate is then run through a roller press with a piece of dampened paper,
transferring the ink to the paper. |
|
| Copper etching |
| The Copper etching
is, like the copper engraving, an Intaglio printing method. The lines though
are etched, not engraved into the plate. For map printing copper etching
is almost exclusively used only for decorating the map with pictures, such
as the title cartouche. The printing process is the same as for the copper
engraving. |
|
| Lithography |
| Lithography.... |
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| to
indepth study |
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