Flong

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A flexible piece of material used in printing as a temporary negative or mold for producing printed images or text ; an impression made from a matrix to transfer design details in lithography or letterpress processes ; a thin, often papier-mâché-based form used in the creation of printing plates or blocks
2. A temporary mold created from a matrix to replicate designs during printing ; a pliable material sheet employed to carry reversed images for letterpress or lithographic printing ; a form made of fiber or paper used to facilitate the transfer of printing patterns onto plates or blocks
3. A reusable impression tool fashioned from paper or similar fibers utilized to reproduce textual or graphic elements in printing ; a flexible intermediate negative that captures fine detail for duplication in mechanical printing ; an aid in crafting printing surfaces by providing a raised or recessed image transfer point for presses

Etymology: "Flong" is a printers' term for a sheet of papier-mâché-like material pressed onto type or an engraved plate to make a mould, which is then cast into a metal printing plate. The word comes from French "flan," a word for a flat cake or custard, which is also the source of the English "flan." The sense is apt: the wet paper pulp is spread flat and pressed into a shape much as a flan is poured into a dish. The mould is the key to the trade. A flong could be dried, stored, and carried, so a printer could take an impression of a finished page in one place and cast copies of it elsewhere, which made it a practical tool for newspapers that needed duplicate plates for several presses at once. The word stayed in the working vocabulary of the hot-metal printing trade, and its name still marks a step that was once central to making a page.

Synonyms: mold, impression, stencil, casting, template