More or less successful attempts have been made in the direction of moulding the type in a dry and spongy millboard, and casting at once - these methods being called instantaneous stereotyping processes; but nothing of this sort has come into general use. The pressure required for a newspaper page would be enormous, and the results hitherto have not been quite satisfactory.

The paper process of stereotyping lends itself very well to the production of plates for printing in several colours, whether for typographic or block work. A series of plates cast in immediate succession, in the same well-dried mould, corresponding very exactly; and it is better to cut away from each plate those parts not wanted, than to attempt to block them out in the mould, as this latter course may easily lead to distortion. In cutting away the waste metal from the plates, care must be taken not to strain or distort them, and for such a purpose the routing-out tool alluded to is very useful.

The mention of cutting away plates for printing in several colours recalls a use made of stereotypes early in this century by Charles Babbage. He would obtain a number of casts of a block showing a complex machine, and by cutting them away he would produce a separate block showing each important organ of the machine, and these would be printed alongside the complete sketch.