A general printing technique. A plate is etched with the image to be printed and then wrapped around a gravure cylinder. The cylinder rotates and during part of the rotation dips the plate into an ink well, causing the ink to collect in tiny "wells" in the pate corresponding to the print image. As the gravure cylinder rotates up from the ink well, a blade removes excess ink from the plate but allows it to remain in the wells. The gravure cylinder carries a piece of paper across it, held on the other side by another cylinder, the impression cylinder, which presses the paper from the back agaist the plate. The paper then picks up the ink through absorption.