A Study Of Color Printing And Book Design Of Victorian Britain(1837-1890)

The19th century is a great turning point in the world book design history, when book design was on a rise and formed a system. At that time, color printing appeared and gradually grew mature. Victorian Britain, from1930s to1990s, witnessed the flourishing development in color printing, book design, illustrating, and book industry. This period was glorified by chromolithography, zincograph chromatic printing, the technical innovations of George Baxter and his contemporaries, and photo-mechanical production developed around1880, which formed the traditional rudiment forms and the basic technologies of book design.This thesis focuses on color printing and book design in Victorian Britain from1837to1890, when an unprecedented competition arose between large-scale industrial production and traditional craftsmanship in book making. The main purpose of this thesis is to present, with detailed historical materials, the development of color printing in the Victorian Era, from its first appearance to a large-scale application; to explore innovations in color printing by printing companies and publishing companies at that time, and what they did to promote the printing technology, in the light of the social and economical conditions and customers'demand for color printing and book design then; and to summarize and analyze the important figures involved in color printing and book design industry and their works during this Era.After the Victorian Era book design began to rely on machines more and more, especially nowadays, when digital technology has become the mainstream. As a result, many craftsmanship and techniques are fading out. With a reference to a large number of foreign language materials, this thesis first highlights book design and color printing technology in Victorian Britain, and displays the design concepts, as well as the book designers and craftsmen of that time, to enrich the current study in China on book design practice, theory and printing of the Victorian Era. Secondly, with research on color printing and book design in the Victorian Era, and the printing technologies against different economic backgrounds, this diachronically study itself demonstrates an invaluable experience for Chinese book design, worthy of the attention from domestic design history scholars. The Author hopes this thesis could draw further studies on book design and color printing of the Victorian Era.