So what is exactly is a Limited edition print?

Limited Edition Prints
The terms Limited edition print, original print and reproduction print are often confusing Artists have always sought to find a wider audience for their work and in the days before modern media made art accessible to almost anyone this meant prints.
Many artists developed various printmaking techniques to produce multiple images of their work, separate and often stylistically quite different from their unique art. The quantity of images produced was at the mercy of the practical constraints of the media used, and the price reflected that. The development of photography and the technology to reproduce images accurately and in almost unlimited quantities posed a dilemma. Printmaking as a means of expression for the artist became separate from printing - the much broader means of producing multiple images from a variety of sources in almost unlimited quantities.

Artists now had two choices:

1 Reproduction prints
Have an original piece of artwork photographed and reproduced in limitless quantities by printers, ensuring a much wider audience but lowering the perceived value, or produce limited edition re-production prints; Limit the amount printed to a specified amount and sign and number each print each print accordingly.

2 Original prints
Work directly in the traditional printmaking media as before, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of each printmaking medium separately from any other one-off medium and then limiting the edition as above.
Recent technology now means the boundaries have become blurred. Artists now have access to computers and can print their own giclée prints. The term printmaker generally refers to an artist producing prints by traditional “hand pulled” methods; is an artist producing digital work entirely on a PC and then printing it out on a giclee printer producing an original print and can he or she be called a printmaker? By the criteria above I would argue yes - but there are many etchers, lithographers and screen-printers that would disagree with me!

Numbering of prints and Artists Proofs
Limited edition prints are traditionally signed and numbered in pencil with the edition number on the bottom left, the title in the middle and signature on the right. It is generally accepted that the printmaker can mark A/P (Artists Proof) on up to ten per cent of the edition So an edition of 100 would have numbers 1/100 - 100/100 and an extra ten marked A/P.

For information on process and techniques please see the pages on Ryepress:
What is an Etching?
What is a Giclée print?