surface-printing

Definitions

noun Printing from a raised surface, as from ordinary types and woodcuts: so called to distinguish it from copper- or steel-plate printing, in which the impression is made from lines incised or sunk below the surface.
noun In calico-printing, the process of printing from wooden rollers on which the design is cut in relief, or formed by inserting pieces of copperplate edgewise.

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In the former, adapted to the process called plate-printing, the ink is delivered from the lines in the plate to the paper pressed upon it; in the latter, adapted to surface-printing, the ink is spread upon the face of the lines and printed as in typography.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
But surface-printing being much less sharp and distinct than plate-printing, imperfect copies of notes for which that process is used are the more likely to escape detection.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
Having sourced textiles elsewhere, in 1919 the company began printing fabrics in its own factory on - unusually - the surface-printing machines, their heavy deposits of colour perfectly suiting the jazzy schemes associated with post-impressionist and art deco influences.

Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010