Demystify the various stages of production of engraving and printing

Printing is one of the four great inventions in ancient China. Engraving printing, a unique printing method for Chinese culture, has been in China for more than a thousand years, and there are still some institutions in China that are making engraving books. In the Wenjin Sculpture Museum in Beijing, the reporter fully understands the secrets of various aspects of engraving and printing.

The process of engraving and printing books is roughly divided into four steps. Following the traditional process, almost all of them need to be completed manually:

The first step: making a book

Compared with the ancient manual writing, the current engraving sample preparation is usually done by means of photocopying originals and computerized words. The so-called collection of characters is to pick out the most standard and perfect single characters from the most beautifully handed down ancient books, enter them into a computer to form a font base of at least several thousand words, and use these words for typesetting work.

The second step: engraving plate

Paste the printed book on the polished wood board, and then use the cutting knife to remove the blank space a little. Then the carved version for brush printing is made. The word on the version is reversed, and it is corrected after printing. .

The 27-year-old Xiao Zhao has been in contact with the engraving since 2010. He is a quiet personality and he loves to study. In order to love him, he decided to give up the legal profession he was studying and diverted his work to the engraving work. The collection of poetry now sculpted is the first one he will complete independently. Because of the complexity of the typeface, it can only engrave more than a dozen characters a day. Therefore, although there are only 20 pages of work, it takes nearly a year. .

The third step: brush ink India

Ink on the engraving, paper, brush with a soft brush, lift the paper and become printed. In order to save time and protect the engraving, one version of the brush should be concentrated as much as possible within one day.

The master Wang who is currently printing has been engaged in this work for three years. He can complete the painting of nearly two hundred papers a day. According to Master Wang, each person who is engaged in brush printing work must undergo training for a certain period of time. From 9 am to 6 pm, they stood and repeated their actions.

Step 4: Add Package

From the central part of the book, the entire piece of paper is folded into two opposite sides of the pattern. This becomes a page of the thread-bound book. All the pages included in a book are arranged in order, and the hole is fixed with a paper basket. Then use the line to bind the cover and the back cover to the book. In general, in order to better protect the books, the book jackets are equipped with jackets or splints.

The Wenjin Diaoban Museum houses many ancient Chinese engraving and printing objects. They have also begun to use the engraving line to build Chinese contemporary celebrity poetry. There have been five or six years of time. The first 10 books have been half completed. , all issued through the formal channels. Mr. Jiang Xun, the curator, said that he hopes that the engraving and printing technology will receive more attention and allow Chinese traditional culture to be more widely disseminated.