Acrylite - Crystal clear acrylic sheet, produced by CYRO proprietary technology. Impact resistant light weight thermoplastic offering excellent optical quality. This product is significantly higher cost than glass but it makes the shipping safer and half the weight.  Also available in non-glare.

Artist Enhanced -  A  term used to describe prints to which an artist has added color or texture washes after the piece has been printed.

Artist Proof - Often numbered, these copies of a limited edition prints are signed and typically titled "Artist Proof." Artist proofs originally were the first copies printed and were used to indicate the artist's approval of color reproduction and other mechanical aspects of the printing process. Once prized as best quality copies. Artist proofs now exist solely as part of the printmaking tradition and are of a quality similar to the standard edition print. Artists proofs are distinguished by the abbreviation AP and are numbered separately; they often represent 10 percent of an edition and are slightly more expensive.

Canvas Print - A reproduction in which an image is printed directly onto canvas. These prints can be produced using offset lithography, digital printing or other methods. Sometimes artists add brush strokes directly onto the canvas after the piece has been printed.

Canvas Transfer - A reproduction in which inks are chemically lifted off a piece of paper and applied to a canvas.

Certificate of Authenticity - A warranty card or statement of authenticity of a limited edition print that records the title of the work, the artist's name, the edition size and the print's number within the edition, the number of artist's proofs and the release date. It is a guarantee that the edition is limited and that the image will not be published again in the same form.

Chromolithography - Often referred to as four color print because the full range of color tones are achieved with only four plates, red, blue, yellow and black. A separate plate is used for each color.

Condition - A prints physical condition influences its market value. Condition typically is described as ranging from 'mint' completely undamaged and original. To "poor" the print may be creased, torn, water or tape-blemished, trimmed to name a few.

Conservation Framing - Methods of mounting and framing that preserve a print in original mint condition. One important aspect of conservation framing is that all material in actual contact with the print contains no chemicals that might eventually damage the paper or the inked image: these materials are usually described as "acid free" UV protection is also considered in conservation framing.

Diptych - A painting done in two separate panels. Each part is a complete work in itself, but when presented together they form a larger fully integrated work.

Dry Mount - Framing method in which a print is fastened to a stiff backing with non-liquid adhesive. Dry mounting is not recommended for prints of any value.

Dry Point - Often incorrectly called "etchings" - A free-hand drawing scratched or engraved on a metal plate with a sharp tool. The plate is inked and then wiped to remove all ink except what remains within the cut grooves. Paper is laid over the plate and the ink is transferred to using rollers under high pressure.

Etching - The process of rendering an image upon a metal plate by using nitric or other acid to dissolve portions of the metal surface. The image is transferred to paper in much the same matter as dry point. Properly called a "print" or "proof" the resulting copy is more commonly called an etching.

Giclee - A term often used to describe prints or prints on canvas made using digital files and inkjet printers.

Hand-embellished - A term used to describe prints to which an artist has added color or washes after the piece has been printed.

Limited Edition Print - A reproduction of an original work of art that is signed and sequentially numbered by the artist. The total number of prints is fixed or limited by the artist or the publisher. Limited edition can be offset lithographs, digital prints, serigraphs or any other type of reproduction.

Lithography - Originally, a method of printing using a smooth slab of porous stone upon which an image is drawn with a grease crayon.  After the drawing is made, the artist or printer treats the entire surface with solutions of gum arabic or nitric acid. The gum arabic surrounds the grease and at the same time chemically prevents ink from adhering to the undrawn areas; the nitric acid helps the grease and the gum arabic penetrate the pores of the stone. The plate is then wiped down with a solvent such as turpentine to remove all grease from the surface. To print a lithograph, the printer flushes the surface with water, which is absorbed by the undrawn area but the greasy drawn area rejects. The printer then applies oil-base ink with a roller, and since water will not unite with oil the ink sticks only to the grease and thereby forms the image that can be pressure transferred to the paper. In a more modern, mechanized process called "Offset lithography," the image to be printed is photographically applied to a metal plate that is then mounted onto the roller of a printing press.

Mixed Media - An artwork combing two or more artistic media. For example, scratchboard and paint, pencil and watercolor or bronze and wood.

Numbered - Each copy of a limited edition print is marked with two numbers separated by a slash mark. The first number identifies the particular copy, and second indicates edition size; for instance,  42/950 identifies print number 42 of an edition of 950.

Original Lithograph - Original pieces of art created on the printing press by an artist or master printer who creates the master plates and executes the printing process. No original exists from which the prints are produced, and each print is an original work of art.

Original Painting - One of a kind image created by an artist that often sells for several thousands of dollars.

Original Prints - Prints, such as serigraphs or original lithographs, that are created without the use of photography. They are original because every print in an edition is created directly by the artist and may vary slightly from the other prints in the edition.

Scratchboard - Cardboard coated with chalk forms a smooth, glossy surface and is used as a ground for drawing or painting in ink. Parts of the image may then be scratched off with a pointed tool to create a variety of effects.

Secondary Market Value - The value of a print, determined by supply and demand, after all copies have been sold at the original issue prince.

Serigraph - A print created by using the process of using stencil made on tightly stretched silk. Ink is forced through the silk and onto paper to make copies of the image. The process frequently is call "Silkscreening" and the prints are called "serigraphs" or "Silk-screens". Because each color requires a separate screen and separate step in the printing process, serigraphs often come in small editions.

Serilith - As the name suggests, the combination of serigraphy and lithography.

Signed and numbered - A print bearing an original signature and copy/edition numbers.