Until recently, the debate on originality in print-making was confined to the broadening of the concept of a print to include the results of collaboration with master-printers, of photography and of the rejection of reproductions. The rapid technical advances of printing, including computer-generated images and DTP have meant further re-evaluations. The Printmakers Council of Great Britain suggested that: 'The artist printmaker has the inalienable right to decide himself on the methods he uses to make a print ... His work can be executed by himself in his home alone, or with the help of assistants, or he can work elsewhere in a workshop, or with technicians or in a printing works. His work can be entirely executed by a third person ... and he must show approval by signing the print.' On the role of master printers and artists, Pat Gilmour remarked: 'Despite this interdependence (artist and printer) ... the fact that without such a partnership some of the most successful prints in the world would never have come into being, history has a way of recording and remembering only the name of the artist.

Today the key to the originality of the finished work is the artist's intention. When the artist's intention is to reproduce an existing image, and not to vary it or adapt it in any way and, secondly, do so by photo-mechanical means then this is a reproduction. Such prints are usually editioned in large numbers and remain unsigned.

The image choice will usually but not necessarily determine the technique of graphic expression. The artist might adapt a subject matter from a previous work or create an entirely new image - the subject matter usually determines the medium that the artist would like to use. In all cases the artist will alter the image as it progresses, adding or removing parts or changing colours. Once satisfied with a final proof of the edition, the artist will then complete the edition and sign and number each image, sometimes titling and dating them (as with water colours or oils). The plates or blocks which were used to create the image are cancelled (usually with two parallel lines in the top left and bottom right hand corner). Where a master printer is the printer and not the artist, the artist and the printer will work in consultation. The degree of involvement of the artist varies from artist to artist and from printer to printer. However, once the artist is satisfied with the final proof he marks it 'BAT' and signs it, thereby indicating that the edition may now be completed and the same system as with the artist as printer of signing and numbering and cancelling is followed.