A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Xerography
(See Electrostatic Printing)

Xograph
The common name for a parallax panoramagram where a two dimensional image creates the illusion of three dimensions. The image is pieced together from multiple views taken through a special barrier screen. When a thin layer of lenticulating plastic is placed over it each linear lenticule acts as a individual lens and reflects light back to the eye at the same angle as the image was exposed. As the light fractures at various angles it appears differently to each eye creating the illusion of seeing the objects in the image from a different perspective. While the technology behind this process dates back to 1896, the xograph was specifically developed in 1964 by Cowles Communications and Eastman Chemical Products in Tennessee. Xographs were first manufactured by Visual Panographics in New York for use for magazine illustrations, baseball cards, and postcards. Many companies followed into production but rather than becoming the wave of the future xographs were only a fad and by the early 1980’s the public had tired of them and the process largely disappeared from commercial use. Computer technology however has been able to take this basic method in new directions. (see Parallex Stereogram)

Xylography
The wood engraving method when used in conjunction with letterpress printing. Because these wood blocks could be surfaced rolled and were durable, it allowed them to be locked into the same forms used with type and printed together as letterpress. Eventually the wood blocks would be made even stronger by casting them into metal through electrography. This also allowed them to be stereotyped, and they became the first means of creating pictures that could be printed on a rotary press. The creation of wood engravings requires highly skilled artists and it was a slow and expensive technique sometimes taking weeks to produce. In order to get illustrations into newspapers in a timely manner, a team system was developed. Engraving blocks are only available in small pieces because they are cuts of end grain woods, not planks, and the hardness required is only available from particular small trees such as boxwood or pear (hardwoods). A number of these small blocks would be clamped together forming one large plate. The master artist would then make his drawing, the clamps would be removed, and each piece given to an individual engraver to work on. When this work was done all sections would then be reassembled, glued together, and the master artist would finish engraving the image where all the pieces met. Because they were open to the artist’s interpretation, and sometimes based on another artist’s field sketches, they often suffered when accompanying news stories for their lack of accuracy. Eventually a method of transferring photographs directly onto the wood’s surface was developed, but by this time the process was already in decline due to cost and alternative methods.