lithography
/lɪˈθɒɡrəfi
/noun [mass noun]
1The process of printing from a flat surface treated so as to repel the ink except where it is required for printing.Printing on aluminum foil can be accomplished by any commercial process, including rotogravure, flexography, lithography, and letterpress....
- Over 10,000 means that we could switch from letter press to offset lithography, a process which depends on the immiscibility of greasy ink and water on a lithographic plate.
- In offset lithography, a printing process commonly used for mass production, the image is taken from the plate by a rubber roller that then transfers the image to the paper.
1.1 Electronics A method analogous to lithography, used in making printed circuits.In microelectronics manufacturing, lithography plays the analogous role....
- For example, polymer nanoimprint lithography could help the electronics industry achieve the resolution requirements needed for next-generation devices.
- Electron beam lithography involves striking a surface with a beam of electrons with patterning capabilities below 100 nm.
The earliest forms of lithography used greasy ink to form an image on a piece of limestone which was then etched with acid and treated with gum arabic. In a modern press, rollers transfer ink to a thin aluminium plate wrapped round a cylinder. In offset lithography the image is transferred to an intermediate rubber-covered cylinder before being printed.
Derivatives
lithographer
/ noun ...- The editor has not only extended the book's coverage by ten years but has included artists primarily known as etchers, engravers and lithographers.
- It's not that he's reluctant to work - he has experience as a printer, lithographer and worker in one of Bulgaria's biggest factories, the Kremikovtsi steel works.
- He came to Indonesia in 1938 as a soldier and a lithographer for the Dutch Army in Indonesia.
Origin
Early 19th century: from German Lithographie (see litho-, -graphy).