Characteristics of Lithography
In the future waterless lithography may well provide opportunities for developing wholly non-toxic techniques of printmaking. Paradoxically the very principle of lithography is apparently being turned upside down as water-based drawing materials including pencils, crayons and washes composed of tempera powder, substitute for the use of traditional grease based materials. For a brief period too before the turn of the millennium, it was also possible to print plates using water based inks, but unfortunately these are currently unavailable.
Interestingly waterless lithography is also being developed in conjunction with the use of Polyester Plates marketed in the US as Pronto Plates and in the UK as Omega-EZ Plates. These plates have been designed principally for desk top publishing allowing images and text designed on the computer to be printed quickly using relatively small presses. Not unlike the earlier Paper Plates that were in common use during 1960s, these plates are useful for printing digital images either conventionally or as waterless lithographs.
It is clear then that lithography is a highly versatile medium allowing for an extraordinary range of printing to occur, from the most delicate of marks that merely kiss the surface of the paper to flats of colour that appear bright and bold. I like many other artists have always been impressed by the directness of lithography and the fact that what ever is drawn on the surface of a plate or a stone, each and every mark will in effect be printed on to the surface of the paper.