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Illustration
New developments in illustration, especially in the art of engraving as a method of high-quality illustration, helped to develop the book as more than just a medium for disseminating words. The early tradition of printing pictures from woodblocks was soon incorporated into printed books, to combine pictures and words on the same page. The quality of these woodcut images also improved, with techniques of shading replacing hand-colouring in order to portray form, tone and texture.
Engraving, which involved making an incision on a copper sheet was a means of producing higher-quality illustrations, as it allowed for greater delicacy than woodcut, but it required a different kind of printing press (known as a rolling press) to be used, making it more expensive and complicated to produce these kinds of illustrations together with printed text.