Page 199 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

196 ART AND CRAFTS

periodicals. The oldest example of an engraved print within the geographic boundary of
undivided Bengal can be found in the first volume of Asiatic Researches (1788)
published by Asiatic Society. It was used in Bengali books much later, in the second
6
decade of the 19th century (1816). Six years later, in 1822, lithograph was introduced
7
in Kolkata. The extensive use of this method in the print industry of Bengal started in
the middle of the 19th century, in the fifties (fig. 4.2). The wood engraving method was
8
very popular at that time although by the19th century the trend of copper plate
engraving was abolished. Wood engraving continued to be used for quite some time
more (fig.4.3). It has been known that in Kolkata this method was used for book
illustration until about the third decade of the 20th century. In Bangladesh, it was in use
9
since the beginning of the print industry (1849) until the 70s and 80s of the 20th century.
Until today, wood engraving is used for some printing in small towns. The exact date of
the beginning of its practice in Bangladesh could not be definitely identified. After
partition, some cinema posters and other works were done in lithograph. 10
The quality of work was not always up to the mark in wooden block, copper plate or
lithograph as these methods had some limitations. In order to get better prints,
innovative media like zinc halftone block, photo litho and photogravure method were
invented. The credit for inventing halftone or process block goes to a Bengali,
Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri at the end of the19th century. At the beginning of the
20th century (1903), halftone or process blocks were already being made and used in
Kolkata. In Bangladesh there was no such institution, therefore, at the beginning of the
Pakistani regime, blocks had to be imported from Kolkata. The first organization for
making process block in Bangladesh was Eastern Process, established at the end of
the1950s. Before the invention of offset press at the end of the 70s (even later in the
90s), printing was done in letterpress almost everywhere in Bangladesh and usually
line and halftone blocks were used. The most widely used printing method today is the
photo litho, which we generally call offset printing. Posters, calendars, different kinds
of books, cartoons, cards etc. are mostly printed in this method these days. In the
photogravure method prints can also be taken on aluminum foil, cellophane paper etc.
This method is thus very suitable for the packaging industry and popular for printing
fig. 4.3 Bat-tala wood different types of wrapping. However, the extensive use of the offset press in the
engraving 1970s, especially in the 80s and the availability of computer technology in the 90s
brought major changes in the graphic
design of Bangladesh. To the new
generation, wood engraving, lithograph
or process blocks are just memories from
the past.
It goes without saying that the
technological change in the printing
industry had significant effect on all areas
of graphic design related to printing. Let
us now enter into our major discussion.