For color printing, registration is used to correlate overlapping colors on one single image. There are many different styles and types of registration, many of which use the alignment of specific marks.
The traced silhouette of the original work is used to carve seven woodcuts.
Xiao is in charge of the first step of a months long process to duplicate a small-size masterpiece.
"We cannot do all the patterns with the same registration," says Xiao.
"When we have orders for such an art piece, we also need to create the layered feeling when printing them."
The number of registrations is based on the number of colors used in the original painting.
Complicated paintings need hundreds of registrations.
When Rongbaozhai printed the 10th-century masterpiece Night Revels of Han Xizai in 1979, as many as 1,667 registrations were needed.
Xiao has been working in Rongbaozhai's printing studio since 1978 and his daily work is almost the same.
