History

• The lithography process was invented by Alois Senefleder in 1798. The process was born of necessity. Alois, attempting to learn the process of copper plate engraving, used stones for practice as they were much easier to obtain than the expensive copper. It was during this experimentation that he created the chemical process now known as lithography, which he chose to call "chemical printing" at the time.
  
  

Art

• For most people, original works from famous artists like Pablo Picasso or Salvador Dali are impossible to acquire--that's where lithographs come in. These types of lithographs are often created by the artists themselves of their original works. The artist creates the image using oil or grease-based paint or crayons; because water and oil do not mix, the artist then adds ink to the oil base and water to the other areas to prevent spreading. These prints are typically made in small batches, and can be quite valuable.
  
  

Newspapers

• Still to this day, we use lithography to create our newspapers and often our magazines as well. These images are created much the same way artists create their lithographs. Special printers print plates for the newspaper machine using an ink that will bond to another ink made for the paper. When color images are made, the image is actually stamped multiple times in three or more colors. Usually the colors are red, yellow, blue and black. With these four colors the newspapers make all the color images you see.
  
  

Why Lithographs?

• Lithographs are so useful because the same image can be made virtually precisely the same any number of times without any need to actually recreate the original. Once a lithograph craftsman creates a plate to be used for his work, this plate need only be re-inked when it is not printing properly. Though the process of making the original plates has always been a lengthy one, the ability to then use that one plate over and over is completely worth the wait.
  
  

Is This a Lithograph?

• Chances are, it is. The easiest way to tell if your art is actually indeed a quality, certified lithograph is to take it to an art historian or proprietor. They will most likely not only be able to tell you whether or not your piece is a lithograph, but whether or not it's a fake, and maybe even when it was made. They might even know how much it's worth on the market.