[f. chemi-, in CHEMIC etc. + TYPE.] A stereotype or plate for printing, obtained in relief from an engraved plate by a chemical process; hence chemitype process, Chemitypy.
(That of Piil consisted in filling with a metal the lines engraved or etched on a zinc plate, and then eating away the zinc surface so as to leave the other metal standing in relief.)
1851. Illust. Lond. News, 5 July, 26/3. The process of chemitypy, as practised by Piil, of Copenhagen.
1869. N. & Q., Ser. IV. IV. 182. For … obtaining casts in relief from an engraving, the process of chemitype is equally ingenious.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., 535. Chemitype, a somewhat general term which includes a number of relief processes by which a drawing or impression from an engraved plate is obtained in relief, so as to be printed on an ordinary printing-press.
