_Soft-ground Etching._--The ground, made by mixing lard with common etching-ground, is laid on the plate and smoked as before, but its extreme softness renders it very liable to injury. The outline of the subject is drawn on a piece of paper larger than the plate. The paper is then damped, and laid gently over the ground, face upwards, and the margins folded over and pasted down on the back of the plate. When the paper is dry and tightly stretched, a bridge is laid across, and with a hardish pencil and firm pressure the drawing is completed in the usual manner. The pressure makes the ground adhere to the back of the paper at all parts touched by the pencil, and on the paper being lifted carefully off, these parts of the ground are lifted with it, and the corresponding parts of the plate thus left bare are exposed to the subsequent action of the acid. The granulated surface of the paper, causing similar granulations in the touches on the ground, gives the character of a chalk drawing. The biting-in is effected in the same manner as already described, and the subject may be finished by rebiting and dotting with the graver. See _Etching_.
_Stipple_, or _Chalk Engraving_, in its pure state, is exclusively composed of dots, made with a special form of graver, varying in size and form as the nature of the subject demands, but few stipple plates are now produced without a large admixture of line in all parts, flesh excepted. Etching is often used to put in the more important lines and tone masses.
The processes of _Aquatint_ and _Mezzotint_ will be found under their respective heads, the latter differing from all other styles of engraving in that the lights and gradations are scraped or burnished out of a plate prepared so that it would print quite dark all over, instead of the forms being corroded or cut into a plain surface.
The _Mixed Style_ is based on mezzotint, which, still forming the great mass of shading, is in this method combined with etching in the darker, and stipple in the more delicate parts. By this combination a plate will produce a larger number of good impressions than it would if it were done entirely in mezzotint.
_Engraving on Wood._--The wood best adapted for engraving is box. It is cut across the grain in thickness equal to the height of type, these slices being subjected to a lengthened process of seasoning, and then smoothed for use. Every wood engraving is the representative of a finished drawing previously made on the block, the unshaded parts being cut away, and the lines giving form, shading, texture, &c., left standing in relief by excavations of varied size and character, made between them by gravers of different forms. Drawings on wood are made either with black-lead pencil alone or with pencil and indian ink, the latter being employed for the broader and darker masses. It is now much the practice to photograph drawings made in black and white upon the wood instead of making the drawing on the wood block. When the drawing is put on the wood by washes or by photography, instead of being entirely done by pencil lines, the engraver has to devise the width and style of lines to be employed instead of cutting in facsimile, as is the case when the drawing is made entirely in lines. The tools required for wood engraving are similar but more numerous than those of the engraver on copper or steel. See also _Die-sinking; Gems_.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. Y. Ottley, _Early History of Engraving_; G. Duplessis, _History of Engraving in France_; P. G. Hamerton, _Graphic Arts_; F. Wedmore, _Fine Prints_; A. M. Hind, _A Short History of Engraving and Etching_; J. H. Slater, _Engravings and their Value_; H. C. Levis, _Engraving and Collecting of Prints: Bibliography_.