Prints: Most all of the intaglio prints made by Cape Fear Press are copper etchings. We use the photogravure process, photo etching and traditional etching processes to make these etchings. We also make photopolymer intaglio prints using our Skylight photopolymer film. We will occasionally be offering prints on the online store. More prints can be seen on our main website. Please inquire.

A genuine photogravure is made with a copper plate. This process entails sensitizing gravure pigment paper gelatin, exposing this to to a continuous tone positive in contact with UV light. The aquatint is provided with a traditional dust-grain aquatint or a separate exposure to a film based aquatint screen. The exposed gelatin is adhered to the copper plate, developed and etched in a series of ferric chloride baths. This is a continuous tone photographic etching technique invented at the dawn of photography in the mid 1800s. Cape Fear Press makes photogravures in this same tradition using dust-grain box aquatints and our own handmade analog dust-grain screens to create the delicate grain of the plate. The plates are inked by hand with archival, oil based etching inks and printed on an etching press. Photogravure is still the most beautiful process for making a photographic intaglio print.

A photo etching is a process of etching a high contrast image or halftone onto a copper plate. This process works very well for high contrast, graphic and linear imagery. The image is often reworked with tools and traditional etching techniques to expand the tonal range. The printing is very much the same as for a gravure.

Photopolymer Intaglio is a non-etched process where a plate is coated with a thick photopolymer film such as Skylight photopolymer or pre-coated plates that are used for the flexographic industry. These plates are quick and easy to process, requiring only exposure and development prior to printing.