Reproduction (art and printing)

A copy of an artwork or printed image made by reproducing an original. Reproductions range from hand-made copies to mechanically printed or digitally generated images.

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Reproductive printmaking: Printmaking processes that produce multiple impressions from a prepared matrix. A matrix-based print is one way to reproduce an image in repeatable copies.
Original (art): An artwork regarded as the primary object or source against which copies are judged. A reproduction derives its image from an original, though the original need not be a unique object.
Art catalog: A publication documenting artworks, artists, exhibitions, or collections, often with reproduced images. Catalogs use reproductions to document works that cannot be printed in full or gathered in one place.
Reproducibility: The capacity for an image or object to be copied and distributed repeatedly. Reproduction makes an artwork's image available in forms beyond its original object.
Engraving: A printmaking technique in which lines are incised into a hard surface and filled with ink. Incised lines let engravers translate an image into printable marks.
Print: An image transferred to a surface, usually from a matrix or digital file. Reproductions often take the form of prints, but not every print copies an existing artwork.
Art book: A book whose subject or form centers on visual art and its presentation. Art books depend on reproductions to bring paintings, sculptures, and prints into book form.
Walter Benjamin: A German philosopher and cultural critic known for analyzing art, media, and modernity. Benjamin examined how mechanical copying changes art's authority and social presence.
Lithography: A planographic printing process that uses the resistance between grease and water to transfer an image. Lithography reproduces drawings without cutting their lines into a plate.
Matrix (printmaking): A surface or object carrying an image from which multiple print impressions can be made. The matrix is the intermediary that allows one image to generate repeated impressions.