Ace the 2026 Besavilla Cartography Challenge – Map Your Success Journey!

Photolithography uses light to transfer an image from a map’s negative onto a metal printing plate that has been coated with a light-sensitive layer, such as albumen-sensitized metal. The negative is placed in contact with the plate and exposed to light, so the image is printed onto the plate in a contact print. After development, the plate can be inked to produce multiple copies. This method is specifically about creating a printable metal surface from a photographic negative, which is why it fits the description. The other processes don’t involve transferring a map image to a metal plate in this way: photogrammetry is about measuring from photographs, Photostat is a copying method, and a planimetric map is a type of map rather than a printing process.