Copper-plate etching

has always enjoyed the position of an important, if not major art medium since the time of its mechanical perfection and improved control of effects, which date from the early seventeenth century. Early writers tell us that during the sixteenth century it was used in the first stages of development as a possible labor-saving substitute for engraving, attempts being made to subordinate its characteristics qualities to imitate engraved lines, rather than to exploit all its characteristics and evolve a unique tradition. The origin of etching has also been attributed to early metalworkers and armourers who used it for decorative designs on metal. It soon superseded engraving as a sensitive artist's medium. The woodcut was the earliest form of multiple reproduction of pictures and designs, but it soon became obsolete for most purposes and was little used until its revial as an medium in our own day. Wood engraving came into wide use as a means of reproduction and illustration during the middle of the nineteenth century, but newer reproduction methods introduced toward the beginning of the twentieth  century caused it ti become obsolete quite suddenly. Although the adaptability of its effects for certain work had caused it to be appreciated as an artistic medium to some extent during its life as a common means of reproduction, it was, with a few notable exceptions, never widely selected as an art medium until its twentieth-century revial as such. woodcut and wood engraving are known as relief processes to distinguish them from the metal-plate prints. The two groups are linked differently. The metal-plate processes, etching and line-engraving, are classed as "intaglio processes"; the ink is applied to the plate and wiped off, the lines being left charged with ink, which is deposited on the paper by running plate and paper through a roller press in contact with each other. The wood blocks are inked by a roller the deposits a coating of ink on the raised surfaces; this in turn is deposited upon the paper by vertical pressure.