is possible to print by hand using a roller or brayer, the best consistency in pressure and even distribution of ink is most effectively achieved on a mechanized press. The collotype printing process was used for volume mechanical printing before the introduction of simpler and cheaper offset lithography. It can produce results difficult to distinguish from metal-based photographic prints because of its microscopically fine reticulations which compose the image. Many old postcards are collotypes. Its possibilities for fine art photography were first employed in the United States by Alfred Stieglitz. Because of its ability to print fine detail, it was also used for business cards and invitations with fine script lettering. Famous collotype works Eadward Muybridge's Animal Locomotion: an Electro-Photographic Investigation of Connective Phases of Animal Movements (1883–86, printed 1887) was printed in collotype from photographs transferred to gelatin. After collotype had fallen out of commercial use, artists began to experiment with collotype. Pablo Picasso’s 1920 artist’s book Le Tricorne was printed in (black) collotype with applied pochoir color. Surrealist Max Ernst printed the frottages in the portfolio Natural History (1926) in collotype. Marcel Duchamp's La Boîte-en-valise (Box in a Suitcase), produced in the 1930s and 1940s, combines the techniques of collotype and stencil to create its "copies." Gerhard Richter's Mao (1968) is a collotype portrait of Mao Zedong. Contemporary Use Commercial In 1997, there were no commercial collotype printers in the United States. As of 2015, there were two commercial collotype printers in Kyoto, Japan. In Europe, the firm Fratelli Alinari (Florence) and Lichtdruck-Kunst (Leipzig) still produce collotypes, primarily as high-quality art reproductions for museums. Non-Commercial or Artistic In 2010, only a small number of facilities in the United States, primarily art studios or organizations, still have the ability to create collotypes. Gallery Monochrome collotypes Monochrome collotypes with applied color Multicolored collotypes References External sources Defibaugh, Denis (1997). The Collotype: & History, Process, Photographic Documentation [MA Thesis]. Rochester, NY: Rochester Institute of Technology. Dusan C. Stulik, Art Kaplan, Collotype. Getty Conservation Institute, 2013 (Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes) Video of collotype printing at Benrido Press, Kyoto, Japan (2009). Photographic processes dating from the 19th century Printing processes