Editing Mezzotint (section)

==Printing==
Printing the finished plate is the same for either method, and follows [[intaglio printing|the normal way for an intaglio plate]]; the whole surface is inked, the ink is then wiped off the surface to leave ink only in the pits of the still rough areas below the original surface of the plate. The plate is put through a high-pressure printing press next to a sheet of paper, and the process repeated.<ref>Griffiths (1996b), 31–35</ref>

[[File:Henry Hoppner Meyer - Lady Hamilton as Nature - B1970.3.335 - Yale Center for British Art.jpg|thumb|''[[Emma, Lady Hamilton]] as Nature'', print by [[Henry Hoppner Meyer]] after the painting by [[George Romney (painter)|George Romney]], "posture" size.]]

Because the pits in the plate are not deep, only a small number of top-quality impressions (copies) can be printed before the quality of the tone starts to degrade as the pressure of the press begins to smooth them out. Perhaps only one or two hundred really good impressions can be taken, although plates were often "refreshed" by further rocker work.<ref>Griffiths (1996b), 83; Barker</ref>  In 1832 a writer in ''Arnold's Library'' noted:<ref>Quoted by D'Oench, 8</ref>

<blockquote>...the uncertainty as to the number of impressions this kind of engraving will afford—some plates failing after fifty or even a less number are printed; from two to three hundred are the most that can be taken off, and then it is often necessary to refresh the ground and restore the lights during the progress of the printing."</blockquote>

However, if performed by the printer or the artist's apprentice, refreshing the plate was often done to a lower standard. [[Bamber Gascoigne]] said of an example he illustrated with before and after details "the dark tones have been clumsily renewed with the roulette; the result is brutal in close-up but will seem adequate when the whole print is viewed at a normal distance".<ref>Gascoigne, ills. 60–62</ref>

Standard sizes used in England were known× as "royal", 24 × 19 in., "large", 18 × 24 in., "posture", 14 × 10 in., and "small", 6 × 4 in, and ready-made frames and albums could be bought to fit these.<ref>Barker</ref>