Lithography was invented by Johann Alois Senefelder just before the turn of the 19th century. The process was refined by Godefroy Engelmann in Paris a couple decades later, in time for French artists such as Delacroix to embrace the new printmaking technique.
Artists who have used the technique include Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, Degas and Odilon Redon.
To accomplish color lithography, the artist must create a separate drawing for each color, and the paper pressed on each color separately to overprint it.
When a paper is laid atop the inked lithographic plate, a mirror image of the drawing is transferred. Offset printing transfers the image to another surface first, then to the paper, making a mirror of the mirror. In other words, a reproduction of the original.
Lithograph comes from the Greek roots "lithos"--stone--and "graph"--write. The lithos part arises from limestone, which was the original material used in the process.
Lithographic prints are typically issued in limited editions by artists, usually 1,000 prints or less. Each is usually numbered with a notation that lists the number of the print followed by the total of prints created, for example, 546 out of 750, or 546/750.