Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking process in which photographic images are printed using forms of mechanised etching of plates.
The process is similar to an aquatint, but the image is put photographicly on the plate. Photogravure registers a wide variety of tones, through the transfer of etching ink from an etched copper plate to special dampened paper run through an etching press. The unique tonal range comes from photogravure's variable depth of etch, that is, the shadows are etched many times deeper than the highlights. Unlike half-tone processes which merely vary the size of dots, the actual quantity and depth of ink wells are varied in a photogravure plate and are often blended into a smooth tone by the printing process.