Woodblock printing is a method for print book, images or outline used widely throughout East Asia and almost certainly originating in China in antiquity as a process of printing on textiles and later paper. The wood block is prepared as a relief matrix, which proceeds the areas to show 'white' are incise away with a knife or chisel, disappearance the characters or figure to show in 'black' at the inventive surface level. The block was cut all along the grain of the woodland. It is only indispensable to ink the block and bring it into firm and even write to with the paper or cloth to achieve an okay print. The at ease would of lessons print "in repeal" or mirror-image, a further complication when text was concerned. The art of carving the woodcut is technically known as xylography, although the term is rarely used in English.

For color printing, multiple blocks are second-hand, each for one color, although overprinting two colors may make additional colors on the turn out. Multiple colors can be on paper by keying the manuscript to a casing around the woodblocks.