Most posters are still printed lithographically with a mechanised offset process, where the image is transferred from a metal plate onto a rubber roller before being printed. The waxy drawn areas repel the water and soak up the ink, before being transferred to the paper.

In lithographic printing, the design is drawn in waxy crayon onto a smooth surface, typically limestone blocks (later metal plates) which are then doused with water and covered with an oil-based ink. The pioneering French poster artist Jules Chéret (1836 – 1932) is credited with producing the first colour lithograph posters in 1866, having finessed the black and white process invented by Alois Senefelder in 1798. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Jack Sheppard, poster, woodcut and letterpress, printed by S. Left to right: The Siege of Troy or The Giant Horse of Sinon, poster, woodcut and letterpress, printed by Thomas Romney, England, 1833. By the 19th century, text-heavy posters printed from woodblocks were commonplace, but the rise of the colourful pictorial poster didn't come about until the middle of the century, following significant advances in printing techniques. The advert was printed by William Caxton, who introduced the printing press to Britain and was the first person in the country to make a living printing and selling books, having opened a shop near Westminster Abbey in 1476. One of the earliest known examples of printed advertising in Britain dates from 1477 – a small dark block of text advertising a handbook for priests in Salisbury, south-west England. The process of posting up hand-drawn public notices can be traced back to antiquity.

History of horology poster