stereography

Stereography, in the context of printing, refers to methods developed in the late 18th century to create duplicate printing plates. The primary technique, stereotypy, involved making a mold, or "mat," from a composed page of type. This mat was then used to cast a lead plate, known as a stereotype. These plates were more durable than individual type pieces, allowing for faster printing on multiple presses simultaneously and enabling the original type to be reused quickly.12

A related concept, stereography, aimed to bypass the typesetting process altogether when creating molds. While early attempts were not highly successful, one method involved assembling individual letter matrices to form the text before casting the lead plate. These processes were driven by an increasing demand for printed materials and the need for greater speed and volume in production.1