The Oldest Printing Process in the World

"Any size! Any shape! Any surface!" Screen print it!

-Early advertisement for screen printing

The oldest printing process was neither European nor Chinese, but Egyptian!

In the twelfth Egyptian dynasty, around 2300 BC, evidence has been found of a stencil printing process. A design was cut in a sheet of papyrus and pigments were forced through the opening with a brush. A master scribe or artist could cut the stencil a multiple images could be applied rapidly by less skilled artists.

This was the first known attempt at the duplication process that some say is the most versatile of all the methods of applying ink. It is a process of several names. While it is basically a process of stencil printing, this doesn’t fully describe the process. “Silk screen printing” was the most popular of all the names owing to the early dependence on silk to hold the stencil in place. A fancier name is “serigraphy” which comes from the Greek “silk writing.” Another coinage is “mitography.” This comes from the Greek words for “fibers or threads.”

Screen printing is one of the five major printing process classifications as defined by the type of plate. The flat plates of offset and lithography are called “planographic.” Letterpress and flexography are called “relief” because of the raised printing surfaces. A sunken image area as in gravure or engraving is called “intaglio.” Modern processes such as xerographic and ink jet printing are sometimes called “reprographic,” pressure less” or “electronic” processes. Screen printing is the fifth of all the processes.

The Egyptian process was limited in use as was an early Asian version of stencil printing using large leaves. Holes were cut in the leaves to create the stencil. Early attempts in China and Japan incorporated the use of silk threads to hold delicate center images or voids in place. Later, images were painted on silk cloth to block out the non-printing areas. Ink could then be pressed through the stenciled-silk openings.

The discovery that a tightly stretched piece of silk, blocked out with either paper or paint, could hold fine details was a technological advance. Using a squeegee to force the ink through the stenciled image was a simple process. Asian immigrants and European explorers brought the process to Europe in the nineteenth century and America at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The process was generally a closely guarded secret being passed on within families. Gradually, other technologies influenced the process. In the mid 1800’s, photographic stencils were experimented with by Mongo Ponton and Sir Joseph W. Swan. In England, the process was very competitive in the field of textile printing, wallpaper printing and sign making.

Silk was not the only fabric used as an image carrier. Organdy, cotton, and linen were also used. The best fabric was not Asian, but a European developed silk. It was called “silk bolting cloth” and was used for sifting flour in the nineteenth century. The use of synthetic fabrics grew after World War II. The shortage of silk during the war encouraged the use of nylon. Long press runs prompted the use of metal mesh screens.

It was chiefly a hand process until the early 1930’s when it became evident that demand was out pacing production. The homemade jigs, machines, and shade-tree inventions gave way to industrially designed machines and processes. Stencils had been cut out of paper or painted on by brush. Carbon tissue and photo emulsions replaced the painting.

The use of screen printing increased as new products were discovered during World War II and in the post war period. Decals and pressure sensitive products began coming on the market in the 1940’s. Flocking applied a short fiber of uniform length, to screen printed glue. The result was a sometimes-called “fake fur.” Textile printers experimented with dyes and inks to create new products. The printed T-shirt was made popular at this time.

Screen printed electronic circuits, were developed as early as 1921 The U.S. Army developed, in secret, an artillery shell with a proximity fuse using screen printed circuits. The shell would only explode when it came in “proximity” to its target. This gave American and Allied troops great advantages over enemy troops who used timed or impact fuses that exploded with less accuracy. This weapon along with the atomic bomb is largely responsible for Allied war success. You might say screen printing helped win World War II.