The optical properties of the Woodburytype - An alternative printing technique based on a gelatine/pigment matrix

© 2019 Society for Imaging Science and Technology The Woodburytype is a 19th century photomechanical technique, producing high-quality continuous-tone prints that use a mixture of pigment and gelatine as a relief print, in which the variation in height of the print produces the tone and contrast. We propose a phenomenological optical model for the process based on Kubelka-Munk theory that considers the ink formulation, the print height and the substrate surface in order to provide the ideal combination of printing depth and contrast.