1667-1741

German printer and engraver credited with being the first to print in four colors. A native of Frankfurt, LeBlon invented a color mezzotint process using three metal plates inked in red, blue, and yellow (1710). A few years later, he was the first to add a fourth plate for black, creating the four-color print process. In 1725 LeBlon published Il Coloretto or The Harmony of Colouring in Painting, containing nine full-page mezzotints in color, reproductions of paintings by the masters. This book was incorporated into his posthumously published L'Art d'Imprimer les Tableaux (1756).