cliché

In letterpress and relief printing, a cliché is a metal printing plate, usually made of lead, zinc, or copper alloy, that reproduces a fixed image or text. Cast from an original typeset arrangement or engraving, the cliché allows that same image to be printed repeatedly without resetting type or re-engraving. The plate is locked into the press bed and inked like any other relief form, then struck against paper to transfer the image.

The manufacturing process requires an original pattern, called a matrix or mould. A mould can be made by pressing the original typeset material (metal type and blocks) into a heat-resistant material like plaster, clay, or papier-mâché. Molten metal is then poured into this mould and allowed to solidify. Once cooled, the resulting cliché is dressed (trimmed and bevelled to type-height, typically 0.918 inches or 23.3 millimetres) and mounted on a wooden base or metal block so it sits level with surrounding type in the chase.

Different materials suit different purposes. Stereotypes, made from lead alloy and cast on a curved surface, were essential for rotary presses in newspaper and magazine production; the curve allowed them to lock onto the printing cylinder. Electrotypes, made by electroplating copper or nickel onto an original pattern, are thinner, more durable, and suited to fine-screen work and longer press runs. Zincotypes, cast from zinc, occupy middle ground: harder than lead, cheaper than electrotype.

The term and its scope

The word cliché comes from the French printer's term for the clicking sound made when a mould was struck to settle the metal. In English it entered printing terminology in the 19th century and later became figurative slang for anything unoriginal or hackneyed, precisely because stereotype and cliché plates reproduced identical copies endlessly. In modern industrial printing, the term is rarely used outside heritage letterpress shops; offset and digital methods have rendered metal plates obsolete. However, metal clichés remain in use for security printing, numbering, embossing, and niche decorative trades where the durability and precision of a cast relief form justifies the setup cost.

Practical faults include flash (thin metal wings at the mould seam), shrinkage distortion if the cast cools unevenly, and edge lifting if the plate is overinked or pressed too hard. The mounting base must be dead flat and properly weighted or the plate will rock under impression, causing uneven ink transfer. For long runs, wear on the raised surface is inevitable; a well-made cliché may deliver 50,000 to 100,000 clean impressions before visible degradation occurs, depending on paper stock and impression pressure.