printing block

A wooden plate into which the woodcut is cut. The black lines that appear on the printed page are parts of the original surface of the smooth wooden plate, while areas that are to appear white on the print must be hollowed into the wooden plate so that they cannot contact the inking pad or the paper. (This reproductive technique is called relief printing). A fifteenth- or sixteenth-century printing press kept its printing blocks for decades, using them over and over again.

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