1. a photomechanical printing process in which an image is transferred to a printing plate using light-sensitive chemicals, without the need for hand engraving.
Usage: technical; printing industry; largely historical; superseded by modern digital printing methods

Examples

• The newspaper adopted autotypy in the early 20th century to speed up the production of illustrated pages.
• Autotypy allowed publishers to reproduce photographs directly without relying on skilled engravers.
• The development of autotypy revolutionized the printing industry by making mass production of images more efficient.
• Before digital printing, autotypy was the standard method for creating halftone plates from photographs.