woodblock printing

English

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a famous example of woodblock printing. Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1830.

Noun

woodblock printing (uncountable)

1. A technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper.

   Synonym: block printing

   Hypernym: relief printing

   Coordinate terms: woodcut, xylography

   • 2005, Charles Kahn, Ken Osborne, World History: Societies of the Past, Portage & Main Press, →ISBN, page 118:

     They adapted these ideas to woodblock printing. They used pear or jujube wood and cut the wood to the size of two book pages. They then smoothed and softened the wood by covering it with paste.

   • 2011, Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, Collected Writings on Chinese Culture, Chinese University Press, →ISBN, page 145:

     Woodblock printing was first employed by the Chinese around a.d. 700, and movable type in the middle of the eleventh century. Even the indelible lampblack ink, which has been manufactured in the West under the misnomer “India ink,” […]

Translations

technique for printing text, images or patterns

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雕版印刷 (diāobǎn yìnshuā), 雕版印刷術／雕版印刷术 (diāobǎn yìnshuāshù), 雕版印刷術／雕版印刷术 (diāobǎn yìnshuāshù)

• Danish: bloktryk
• Dutch: blokdruk
• Finnish: puupiirrospaino
• French: impression au bloc de bois f
• German: Blockdruck m
• Japanese: 木版 (ja) (mokuhan)
• Portuguese: xilogravura (pt) f
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: impresión xilográfica f
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

See also

• bokashi
• movable type
• ukiyo-e

Further reading

• woodblock printing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia