- Bast
- The inner bark of a stem — the long-fiber layer that makes the strongest paper. Found in flax, kozo, milkweed, nettle, hemp.
- Brayer
- A small hand roller used to spread an even film of ink on a printing plate.
- Burnish
- To rub the back of a print firmly with a smooth tool (spoon, baren) to transfer ink without a press.
- Couching
- Pronounced 'coo-ching'. The act of flipping a freshly-pulled sheet of paper from the mould onto a damp felt.
- Deckle
- The empty frame that sits on top of the mould; it defines the four edges of the sheet.
- Drypoint
- An intaglio technique where the image is scratched directly into the plate with a sharp needle — no acid involved.
- Edition
- The total number of identical prints pulled from one matrix; e.g. an 'edition of 25' means 25 numbered copies.
- Felt
- Any thick, soft, lint-free cloth used for couching or pressing wet sheets — not necessarily woolen felt.
- Gesso
- A white, chalky priming coat applied to a panel or canvas to give paint something to grip.
- Gum arabic
- Sap from the acacia tree — the universal water-soluble binder for watercolor, gouache, and lithography.
- Imprimatura
- A thin transparent wash of color applied over white gesso before painting.
- Intaglio
- Any printing method where ink sits in recessed lines (etching, drypoint, engraving). Latin for 'cut into'.
- Lampblack
- Soot collected from a smoking oil flame — the world's oldest pigment.
- Lift
- The moment you raise a freshly-pulled mould out of the vat, holding it level so pulp settles evenly.
- Mordant
- A chemical that bonds dye or pigment to fiber so it doesn't wash out — alum, iron, tannin.
- Mould
- The screened frame used to scoop pulp from the vat. The screen catches the fibers; the water drains through.
- Mulling
- Grinding pigment with a glass muller on a flat slab to break up clumps and disperse it into binder.
- Planographic
- Printing from a flat surface — neither raised nor recessed. Lithography is the classic example.
- Pulp
- Plant fibers broken down in water until they form a slurry; the raw material of paper.
- Relief
- Any printing method where ink sits on raised parts of the matrix (woodblock, linocut, foam plate).
- Retting
- Soaking plant stems in water for days or weeks so bacteria break down the soft tissue, freeing the fibers.
- Sizing
- A thin coat of glue (gelatin, PVA, starch) that fills the surface of paper so ink doesn't bleed.
- Tannin
- An astringent plant chemical (oak galls, walnut hulls) that reacts with iron to make black ink.
- Vat
- The tub of dilute pulp the mould is dipped into.
- Washi
- Traditional Japanese paper made by hand from kozo, mitsumata, or gampi bark.