From its inception, woodcut printmaking took three forms: as “artistic reproductive printmaking,” which reproduced works of art (paintings, murals, etc.); as “technical printmaking,” which enabled the dissemination of technical, scientific, and design drawings; and as exclusively “artistic creative printmaking,” through which artists chose to express themselves. From the 15th century to the present day, leading artists worldwide have carved side-grain wood; among them Albrecht Dürer, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Raoul Dufy, Edvard Munch, Salvador Dalí in Europe, as well as José Guadalupe Posada in Mexico, and Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige in Japan, where woodcut remains the principal printmaking technique. Two prominent Greek artists who created woodcuts are Dimitrios Galanis and A. Tassos.

Alongside the discovery of lithography, another form of woodcut was invented that revolutionized illustration in the 19th century: wood engraving on end-grain wood (the block consists of one or more joined slices cut crosswise from the tree trunk), invented by the English artist Thomas Bewick. By allowing highly detailed carving and the printing of many copies directly within text, it became the dominant technique for illustrating books, newspapers, and magazines in the 19th century. Major artists of the period, such as Gustave Doré and Honoré Daumier, provided numerous designs for illustration, while many professional end-grain engravers became famous for their skill, such as the Dalziel brothers in England and Héliodore Pisan in France. Other artists created original works using this method, including Vladimir Favorsky in Russia in the 20th century. Due to the difficulty of carving end-grain wood and the ease of lithography and later offset printing, only a few artists today work with this technique, mainly for luxury editions or independent artworks.

Engraving emerged in the 15th century in Germany or Italy and soon became a major rival to woodcut. Its invention is attributed to the Italian goldsmith Maso Finiguerra, who used inked metal engravings to transfer designs onto paper. The earliest known copper engraving dates to 1452 in Italy. By the early 16th century, copper engraving gained prominence because it allowed greater precision and detail than woodcut. Artists such as Albrecht Dürer used tools like the burin, drypoint, and etching.

Over time, new techniques developed, including soft-ground engraving in England (17th–18th centuries) and aquatint in France (18th century), often combined on a single plate. Despite being more costly and complex than woodcut, copper engraving became the preferred method for illustrating high-quality books, maps, and albums from the 16th to the 18th century.

Great artists such as Marcantonio Raimondi, Jacques Callot, Rembrandt, and Goya elevated copper engraving to an independent art form, while many famous painters—including Canaletto, Piranesi, Matisse, Chagall, and Picasso—also worked with this technique.

At the end of the 18th century, the Czech Aloys Senefelder brought about a revolution in printing by discovering and perfecting the method of lithography. He also invented a lithographic press. The lithographic technique gradually spread through printing workshops. The fact that the artist could draw directly on the stone and that printing could be done quickly soon made lithography the principal technique for image production in the press and in various forms of advertising. Publishers quickly adopted it for printing musical scores, maps, popular images, and landscapes in travel books. It contributed to the development of illustrated children’s literature and paper toys. The discovery of four-color printing applied to lithography by the Frenchman Godefroy Engelmann led to the relatively easy production of color lithographs.

The invention of linoleum in 1863 by the Englishman Frederick Walton—a synthetic material used for floor coverings made from ground cork and linseed oil varnish—opened a new path for printmakers. This inexpensive material, with its soft surface, could be worked like wood, especially end-grain wood, offering great flexibility and ease of carving. Linoleum was quickly embraced by printmakers across Europe and around the world and came to dominate European printmaking.

From Russia to Latin America, linoleum was enthusiastically adopted for the creation of prints expressing both the beauty of nature and local customs and traditions, as well as the struggles for freedom, democracy, and social justice. Politically engaged artists used linocut as a means of expression, as seen in Europe in 1968 during the student uprisings, when students expressed themselves through linocuts. In Mexico in the 20th century, Adolfo Mexiac and Leopoldo Méndez, through their linocuts, contributed to the global awareness of the Mexican people’s struggles.

Some of the greatest artists created powerful linoleum prints, including Picasso and Matisse in France, and Maurits Cornelis Escher in the Netherlands.