Block Printing

The wood block is carefully prepared as a relief pattern, which means the areas to show “white” are cut away with a knife, chisel, or sandpaper, leaving the characters or image to show in black at the original surface level. The block is cut along the grain of the wood. It is necessary only to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would print “in reverse” or mirror-image. The art of carving the wood is known as xylography, though the term is rarely used in English.