Glossary of Terms in Map History

W

wood block

[form]
A piece of wood used to hold an image and printed in relief to produce a woodcut or wood engraving. Woodcuts are generally produced from the plank, wood engravings from the end grain.

woodcut

[form]
A positive (map) image created through relief-printing from a wood block, generally worked on the plank. It is positive in that the image is formed from ink transferred from the matrix, so appears blank on white. Also used as an adjective (as in the “woodcut technique”).

wood engraving

[form]
A negative (map) image created through relief-printing from a wood block, generally worked on the end grain. It is negative in that the image is formed from the ink not transferred from the matrix, so appears white on black.