Stereotyping
Estereotipia (placas de impresión fundidas)
- Date
- 1725 · confidence medium
- Place
- Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- William Ged, refined by Firmin Didot
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A process that casts a solid metal plate from a mould of the composed type, preserving the form for reprinting. It avoids storing set type between print runs.
Ged's date (1725) is the most cited, but there were earlier trials in the Netherlands and the technique only became practical with Didot and Stanhope around 1800.
What it led to
- cheap reprinting of backlist books
- curved plates for the rotary press
- mass production of newspapers