Drypoint

Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking technique in which a design is scratched directly into a metal plate, most often copper, using a sharp needle-like tool, without the acid-etching process used in etching, so that the displaced metal thrown up along the edges of each incised line, the burr, holds extra ink and prints as a characteristically soft, velvety, slightly blurred line. Because the fragile burr flattens and wears down after relatively few impressions are pulled from the press, a drypoint plate yields a much smaller edition of prints than an etched plate, and the technique has been used since the fifteenth century, notably by Rembrandt, through to modern printmakers who value its distinctive rich, soft line quality.