Midterm: Letterpress Halftone Printing

Popular for nearly 100 years (c. 1875-1970), the letterpress halftone process is one of the earliest printing methods and has been used for the printing of everything from postcards, pamphlets, and magazines. This method is characterized by a distinctive halftone pattern of dots. Upon closer inspection of a letterpress photograph using a magnifying device, one can easily discern ink rims, or “squeeze-out,” in these dots. Essentially, these dots, which vary in terms of proximity and size, are what make up the printed solid images. At a distance, the image seems to have a continuous tonal range, but this is merely an illusion.

The origins of the letterpress halftone process can be traced back to the beginning of the 1850s, when prolific British inventor William Fox Talbot conceived the concept of combining intaglio (or surface incision) techniques with photographic screens or like materials to create a halftone image. The very first instance of newspaper halftone printing was achieved by Stephen Horgan while working for the New York Daily Graphic in the early 1870s, but it was not until years later that the newspaper proudly gave the world "A Scene in Shantytown" which was "the first reproduction of a photograph with a full tonal range in a newspaper" in 1880. The beginning of this decade would see the earliest known halftone plates for this process, which were made and patented by Frederick E. Ives. At about the same time, Max and Louis Levy were responsible for developing the first halftone screens for commercial use; the two brothers would later join forces with Ives, using higher quality screening processes to bring halftone printing to a new level of success.

Traditionally, how was it done? First, a glass, grid-lined screen was put inside of a camera. With this screen close (but not too close) to the high-contrast emulsified surface inside the camera, light would then penetrate the screen through each grid square, resulting in the image being reduced to a series of dots of various sizes. It's important to note that halftone printing does not fall under the "permanent" photograph process category; that is, classic halftone reproductions lack the relief image and stability that characterize processes that eschew photographic chemicals (like emulsions). Nowadays, with the advent of digital technology, we can replicate this process using computers, yielding full-color prints.

A magazine from 1953

That same magazine, under 50x magnification

References:

Gupta, Sia R. "Identification of Letterpress and Halftone Printing." The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 57.1 (1966): 112-14. Web.

Ferguson, Lorraine, and Douglass Scott. "A Time Line of American Typography." Design Quarterly 148 (1990): 23-54. Web.

Ritzenthaler, Mary L, Diane Vogt-O'Connor, and Mary L. Ritzenthaler. Photographs: Archival Care and Management. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006. Print.  

Encyclopedia Britannica: The Halftone Process
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/457873/photoengraving/36801/The-halftone-process

Ted's Photographics: The Science of Photography -- Halftone Reproduction
http://www.ted.photographer.org.uk/photoscience_halftones.htm

Graphics Atlas
http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=45