What is Photopolymer Gravure? For a while now, artists who produce etchings have been looking for a less toxic way of making plates that don’t required acids or dichromates. Some of these are thin polymer films that can be put onto plastic or different types of metals. There are also readymade plates coated with polymer films. Toyobo KM73 plates and the Jet LSL-73-SP are two of the most popular ones for photogravure. The main advantage to the photopolymer process is that you only need room temperature water to process them instead of Ferric Chloride. This doesn’t mean they are entirely non-toxic, but with a pair of latex gloves you can mitigate any toxicity from them. These plates are then inked and run through an etching press the same way as traditional copperplate photogravures are. The results have even better tonality than traditional Photogravure.