When I learned about gravure, I was so intrigued. The process involves exposing a sensitized metal plate to light, which etches the image into the surface. The plate is then worked with ink and run through a press, transferring the image to paper. In its original form, gravure involves several chemical baths to sensitize copper plates. It's kinda finicky, expensive, and not very environmentally friendly. Buuuut... there are now aluminum plates that are pre-sensitized with an environmentally friendly coating that greatly simplifies the process. It’s interesting because while technically it is a gravure process, there’s a bit of a back-and-forth about what the “new” version is called. Photopolymer gravure? Solar plate etching? Polymer plate etching?
At Renaissance, we learned some pretty technical stuff to get a good plate (including photoshopping, dedicated black & white transparency printing, step tablet tests, etc.).