University of Virginia Library

'Cold Type'

"Cold type" involves no lead
plates, but is a photographic
process in which a "picture" is
taken of flat type set by a
computer into columns. From this
negative a plate is made which is
used on the press run. This process
is also known as photo-offset
printing.

The advantages of this process
are many, the foremost being that
actual production time is nearly
four times as fast as "hot type"
printing. Consequently, a majority
of relatively small papers in Virginia
and across the country have been
converting to "cold type".