Woodblock printing is a technique for
printing text,
images or patterns used widely throughout
East Asia and originating in
China in antiquity as a method of
printing on textiles and later
paper. As a
method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from
China date to before 220, and woodblock printing remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century.
Ukiyo-e is the best known type of
Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term
woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the 15th century.