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Alois Senefelder
1771–1834
Best known for inventing lithography, he changed the history of printing with a method first developed while trying to publish his own work more cheaply. He was also a playwright and actor, and his practical experiment became one of the most important graphic arts techniques of the modern era.
1 Audiobook
The Invention of Lithography
by Alois Senefelder
About the author
Born on November 6, 1771, in Prague, Alois Senefelder was the son of an actor and originally moved in theatrical and literary circles. Financial pressure pushed him to look for a less expensive way to print his writing, and that search led to his most famous breakthrough.
In 1798, while working in Munich, he developed lithography, a printing process based on the chemical difference between grease and water on limestone. The method opened up new possibilities for printing text, music, and images, and it later became hugely important in both commercial printing and art.
Senefelder continued to refine and promote the process, and in 1818 he published a major manual on lithography that helped spread the technique more widely. He died in Munich on February 26, 1834, but his invention had already secured his place in the history of publishing, printmaking, and visual culture.