What does electrotyping mean?
Electrotyping is a nineteenth-century process for creating exact metal duplicates of printing surfaces. A mould—typically of wax or plaster—is taken from a page of set type, an engraving, or even a coin, and placed in an electrolytic bath where an electric current causes copper to build up on its face. The resulting shell, often backed with lead or type metal, becomes a durable printing plate that can be stored or shipped while the original type is redistributed. Introduced in the late 1830s independently by inventors including Moritz von Jacobi and Thomas Spencer, electrotyping quickly became essential to publishing, allowing publishers to reprint books and newspapers at will and to reproduce illustrations with unprecedented fidelity. The term survives today chiefly in printing history, numismatics, where it denotes high-quality facsimile coins, and conservation science.
The technique of making printing plates or replicas by electrodepositing a metal, typically copper, onto a mould of a composed page or other object.
"The printer sent the manuscript's electrotyping to the bindery before distributing the original type."
Often used attributively, as in 'an electrotyping workshop' or 'the electrotyping department'.
The collective body of electrotype plates so produced.
"Much of the firm's surviving electrotyping was auctioned off when the press closed."
To make an electrotype of; to reproduce by the electrotyping process.
"The publisher elected to electrotype the woodcuts so they would survive repeated printings."
Less common than the noun; usually found in technical or historical writing.
Before phototypesetting, every bestseller you read may have been printed from a thin skin of copper 'grown' molecule by molecule in an electrified bath — a technique so faithful it could reproduce a fingerprint.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of electrotyping
The word combines 'electro-', from Greek 'ēlektron' meaning amber (the classical source of words about electricity), with 'type', ultimately from Greek 'typos' meaning a blow or impression. It was formed in the 1830s alongside related coinages such as 'electroplate' and 'electrode' as scientists harnessed newly discovered electrolysis. Related cognates sharing the electric root include electricity, electronic, and electrolysis.
Related word forms
How electrotyping is actually used
A technical term from printing history and graphic arts; largely historical now that letterpress and hot-metal typesetting have been superseded. It appears mainly in histories of printing, numismatics (where it describes facsimile copies of coins), and conservation literature. The verb is 'to electrotype'.
Easily confused with electrotyping
Electroplating deposits a thin layer of metal onto an object for decoration or protection, whereas electrotyping uses electrodeposition to build up a solid, freestanding metal copy of a moulded surface for printing.
Stereotyping casts a solid metal printing plate from moulded papier-mâché or plaster, while electrotyping builds the plate by electro-deposition; both were competing methods for duplicating pages of set type.