Printmaking is an expressive, technically interesting and diverse artistic genre. There are several methods for making prints, and new ones are constantly being developed.

There is a specialized community of artists involved in printmaking in Finland, focusing both on expression in graphic art and on the development of methods. They use the traditional gravure, lithography, woodcut and silk screen methods but are also quick to take up new methods. Carborundum and photograph-based methods such as polymer gravure and ImageOn have caught on rapidly in Finland. An increasing number of printmakers is interested in digital image processing and in computer-aided graphic art in general.

However, a method is never more than a means to an end. Each artist selects whichever techniques best serve the desired artistic end result.

Photo: Detail of In a class of its own by Pälvi Hanni. Soft ground, copy etching, chine collé, aquatint, 2000.