Page "Mezzotint" Paragraph 4

This became the most common method.

The whole surface ( usually ) of a metal, usually copper, plate is roughened evenly, manually with a rocker, or mechanically.

If the plate were printed at this point it would show as solid black.

The image is then created by selectively burnishing areas of the surface of the metal plate with metal tools: the smoothed parts will print lighter than those areas not smoothed by the burnishing tool.

A burnisher has a smooth, round end, which flattens the minutely protruding points comprising the roughened surface of the metal printing plate.

Areas smoothed completely flat will not hold ink at all: such areas will print " white ," that is, without ink.

By varying the degree of smoothing, mid-tones between black and white can be created, hence the name mezzo-tinto which is Italian for " half-tone " or " half-painted ".

This is called working from " dark to light ", or the " subtractive " method.