Printing: Lithography

Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia in 1797. In the early days of lithography, a smooth piece of limestone was used (hence the name "lithography"—"lithos" (λιθος) is the ancient Greek word for stone). After the oil-based image was put on the surface, acid burned the image onto the surface; gum arabic, a water soluble solution, was then applied, sticking only to the non-oily surface and sealing it. During printing, water adhered to the gum arabic surfaces and avoided the oily parts, while the oily ink used for printing did the opposite.
Within a few years of its invention, the lithographic process was used to create multi-color printed images, using a new process developed by Godefroy Engelmann (France) in 1837 known as Chromolithography. A separate stone was used for each colour, and a print went through the press separately for each stone. The main challenge was of course to keep the images aligned (in register). This method lent itself to images consisting of large areas of flat color, and led to the characteristic poster designs of this period.
Modern high-volume lithography is used to produce posters, books, newspapers, packaging, credit cards, decorated CDs – just about any smooth, mass-produced item with print on it. (From wikipedia.org)