清代的缩刻铜版印书

Miniature Copperplate Prints from the Qing Dynasty

本文通过史料钩沉,结合清代缩刻铜版典型图书《诗韵合璧》《吟香阁丛画》《缩刻铜板千百年眼》《康熙字典》等实物研究,从印刷技术史角度,对清代存在于中日汉籍出版活动中的缩刻铜版印书活动进行了探讨。缩刻铜版印书采用凹版印刷,内文字体笔画温和圆润,粗细对比度弱,笔画多采用刻针,直接刻线,字体不再经修饰,经过凹印铜版蚀刻形成等线体,与雕刻木活字经过电铸技术所形成的小字号铅字相比,边缘没有凸印的边缘溢墨,已经达到汉字印刷在当时技术条件下适应可读性要求的极限。本文认为,缩刻铜版印书是中西印刷技术交融的复合技术产物。从中国印刷技术史角度看,其技术、工具对于汉字印刷字体的影响,微字形的形成对于目前屏显字体开发,以及对书籍装帧形式的变化和印刷术语的影响等,都有更深入探讨研究的必要和价值。

Based on historical materials coupled with the physical research of the typical miniature copperplate prints from the Qing Dynasty, such as Poetry and Rhyme, Paintings of Yinxiangge, Miniature Copperplate Engraving over the Millennia, and Kangxi Dictionary, this paper discusses the miniature copperplate engraving and printing adopted in the publishing of Chinese and Japanese books in the Qing Dynasty from the perspective of the history of printing technology. The miniature copperplate printing uses intaglio printing. The text has mild and mellow fonts and strokes of almost even thickness. Most brushstrokes use engraving needles to draw lines directly. The font is not modified since a monofont is formed by intaglio copper plate etching, which compared with the small size t y pe for med by applying the electroforming technology to the carved wooden movable type, has no embossed edge overf low such that the Chinese characters printed under the technical conditions at that time reach the highest readability level. In this paper, it is considered that the miniature copperplate is a kind of composite technology developed based on the printing technology in Chinese and Western.From the perspective of the history of Chinese printing technology, the inf luence of related technology and tools on Chinese character printing font;and the inf luence of the formation of micro font upon the current development of screen display font, upon the change in the bookbinding form and upon the printing terminology all deserve further in-depth discussion and research.