early plates, but by the eighteenth century pewter became the standard material due to its malleability and lower cost. At first, plates were engraved freely by hand. Eventually, music engravers developed a number of tools to aid in their process, including: Scorers for staves and bar lines, the use of which inspired the term musical score Flat gravers for ledger lines and crescendos and diminuendos Elliptical gravers for ties Punches for note heads, clefs, accidentals, and letters Plate engraving was the methodology of choice for music printing until the late nineteenth century, at which point its decline was hastened by the development of photographic technology. Nevertheless, the technique has survived to the present day, and is still occasionally used by select publishers such as G. Henle Verlag in Germany. Hand copying Historically, a musician was required to draw his own staff lines (staves) onto blank paper. Eventually, staff paper was manufactured pre-printed with staves as a labor-saving technique. The musician could then write music directly onto the lines in pencil or ink. In the twentieth century, music staff paper was sometimes printed on vellum or onionskin—a durable, semi-transparent material that made it easier for the musician to correct mistakes and revise the work, and also made it possible to reproduce the manuscript through the ozalid process. Also at this time, a music copyist was often employed to hand-copy individual parts (for each performer) from a composer's full score. Neatness, speed, and accuracy were desirable traits of a skilled copyist. Other techniques Lithography: Similar to metal plate engraving, the music was etched onto limestone and then burned onto the surface with acid to preserve the stone plates for future use. Stencils, stamps, and dry transfers, including the Notaset, a system inspired by the Letraset used in the twentieth century. Brushing ink through stencils was a high-quality technique used by Amersham-based company Halstan & Co. Music typewriters: Originally developed in the late nineteenth century, this technology did not become popular until the mid-1900s. The machines required the use of pre-printed manuscript paper. This technique produced low-quality results and was never widely used. Computer music engraving With the advent of the personal computer since the 1980s, traditional music engraving has been in decline, as it can now be accomplished by computer software designed for this purpose. There are various such programs, known as scorewriters, designed for writing, editing, printing and playing back music,