Fine Print

Fine Print Knowledge Center

The online guide to print and design.

Introduction
A Brief History of Printing
PrePress
Planning and Strategy
Design Tips
Color Management
File Submission
Proofing
Materials and Stocks
Inks
Platemaking
Types of Printing
Offset Lithography
Digital Printing
Screen Printing
Gravure
Thermography
Flexography
Letterpress
Large Format
Specialty Printing
3D Printing
Promotional
Security Printing
Green Printing
Types of Finishes
Coatings
Binding
Folding
Scoring
Die Cutting
Embossing
Foil Stamping
Perforations

Taught according to established rules in official art schools or academies, which began to proliferate from the early 18th century in Europe.

London’s Royal Academy and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris offered structured curriculums focused on history painting, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and genre in that order of importance. Instruction progressed from drawing from classical statues or plaster casts to modeling from nudes to applying paint to original work.

Because the 19th-century academies in Europe and America tended to be conservative and dominated by males, the term Academic Art has come to mean that which is traditional and which is the opposite of innovative or creative.

In the 20th century with the advent of abstraction, the term Academic Art has negative connotations suggesting that a work is long on knowledge and technical expertise and lacking in emotional inspiration.