A print is any work of art made in multiple iterations, created through a transfer process. There are many different types of prints, and the four best-known techniques are etching, lithography, screenprint and woodcut.
The design – be it text or image – is drawn directly onto a flat, hard surface, e.g. stone tablet or metal plate, using a range of oil-based lithographic crayon or ink. The resulting impression is a reverse image of the original composition. While black-and-white print is the result of running the print through the press once, multicolored lithography is the end product of running multiple prints through the press, one color at a time, until the desired effect is achieved .The choice of paper is also an important part of the printmaking process because it can directly influence the nature of what the printed image looks like. This process is immensely time-consuming and requires consummate skills, practically an extension of painting, as evidenced by the works of Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí and Zao Wou-Ki.
Last but not least, high quality and limited-edition lithographs are often authentically signed by great names such as these, resulting in lithography’s position as one of the most collectible and valuable forms of printing.