resources > Printing Glossary
Aqueous Coating
Coating in a water base and applied like ink by a printing press to protect and enhance the printing underneath.
Artwork
All original copy, including type, photos and illustrations, intended for printing. Also called art.
Bindery
Usually a department within a printing company responsible for collating, folding and trimming various printing projects.
Bleed
Printing that extends to the edge of a sheet or page after trimming.
Blow-Up
An enlargement, usually used with graphic images or photographs.
Body
The main text of the design, not including the headlines.
Bulk Mail
Also called Standard Mail.
The Postal Service offers discounts for bulk mailings because you do some of the work that otherwise would have to be done by the Postal Service (for example, sorting the mail by ZIP Code or transporting the mail to a different postal facility).
Lower non-profit rates are available for Standard Mail but require specific authorization. All Standard Mail rates are bulk rates, and each mailing must meet a minimum quantity of 200 pieces or 50 pounds of mail. There are no single-piece Standard Mail rates. Standard Mail is for domestic mail only. You cannot send Standard Mail to international addresses.
C1S and C2S
Abbreviations for paper coated on one side and coated on two sides. See also Coated Paper.
Camera-ready
Mechanicals, photographs and art fully prepared for reproduction according to the technical requirements of the printing process being used. Also called finished art and reproduction copy.
Cap
A capitalized letter.
Cast
Unwanted color affecting an entire image or portion of an image.
Carbonless Paper
Also called Carbonless Forms. Paper coated with chemicals that enable transfer of images from one sheet to another with pressure from writing or typing.
Carton
Also known as a Case. Selling unit of paper weighing approximately 150 pounds (60 kilos). A carton can contain anywhere from 500 to 5,000 sheets, depending on the size of sheets and their basis weight.
CMYK
Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), the four process colors. See also Separations.
Coated Paper
Paper with a coating that improves reflectivity and ink holdout. Mills produce coated paper in the four major categories cast, gloss, dull and matte.
Coil Bind
A binding whereby a wire or plastic coil is spiraled through holes punched along the binding side. Also called Spiral Bind.
Collate
To organize printed matter in a specific order as requested.
Composition
In graphic design, the arrangement of type, graphics and other elements on the page.
Condensed Type
A narrow, elongated typeface.
Contrast
The degree of tones in an image ranging from highlight to shadow.
Copy
Any typewritten material to be used in the Composition.
Coverage
Extent to which ink or toner covers the surface of paper. Coverage is usually expressed as light, medium or heavy.
Creep
Result of added thickness of folded sheets being behind one another in a folded signature. Outer edges of sheets creep away from back most fold as more folded sheets are inserted inside the middle.
Crop
To cut or trim a portion of the art or copy as indicated by Crop Marks.
Crop Marks
Markings at edges on guide sheet to indicate the image area desired in reproduction.
Cutter
A machine that cuts through stacks of paper to their desired sizes.
Die
Device for cutting, scoring, stamping, embossing and debossing. See also Die Cut.
Die Cut
To cut irregular shapes in paper using a die. See also Die.
Display Type
Any type that stands out from the rest of the type on a page which attracts attention of the reader.
DPI
Abbreviation of dots-per-inch. Measure of resolution of input devices such as scanners, display devices such as monitors, and output devices such as laser printers, imagesetters and monitors. See also Pixel, High Resolution and Low Resolution.
Drop Shadow
A shadow image placed strategically behind an image to create the affect of the image lifting off the page.
Embossing
To raise in relief a design or letters on the paper surface.
Fifth Color
Color used in addition to the four needed by Four-color Process.
Finish
The surface quality of paper. See also Coated Paper and Linen.
Finished Size
Size of product after production is completed. Also called trimmed size. See also Bleed, Crop Marks.
Folder
A bindery machine used to fold printed materials.
Four-color Process
Printing technique of printing that uses black, magenta, cyan and yellow to simulate full-color images. Also called full color printing. See also CMYK, Pantone, Separations and Spot Color.
Grain
Direction of fibers in a sheet of paper that govern paper properties such as increased size changes with relative humidity, across the grain, and better folding properties along the grain.
Grain Long Paper
Paper whose fibers run parallel to the long dimension of the sheet. Also called long grain paper.
Grain Short Paper
Paper whose fibers run parallel to the short dimension of the sheet. Also called short grain paper.
Graphic Design
Also called Graphic Arts.
(1) The crafts, industries and professions related to designing and publishing on paper or the Web. (2) Arrangement of type and visual elements along with specifications for paper, ink colors and printing processes that, when combined, convey a visual message.
Gray Scale
Gray values ranging from white to black.
GSM
The unit of measurement for paper weight (grams per square meter).
Gutter
Space between pages in the printing frame of a book, or inside margin towards the back or binding edge. The blank space or margin between the type page and the binding of a book.
Hard Copy Proof
A pre-production test print on paper of the publication to be reproduced. The customer reviews the proof to
correct typos, positional errors, layout problems, and color aspects, or approve before final printing. See also Soft Copy Proof.
High Resolution or Hi-Res
Any sharp, good quality image that is displayed on a computer screen or output on printed material with a high number of dots-per-inch or DPI. See also Low Resolution.
Indicia
Imprinted designation on mail that denotes postage payment.
Also called a permit imprint. Permit imprint is the most popular and convenient way to pay for postage, especially for Bulk Mail. Instead of using precanceled stamps or a postage meter, the mailer is assigned a permit number and prints this information in the upper right corner of the mailpiece. This postage block with the permit number. is the indicia.
Inserts
Within a publication, an additional item positioned into the publication loose (not bound in).
Italics
Text with the type body slanted forward.
Kerning
The narrowing of space between two letters so that they become closer.
Laminate
A thin transparent plastic sheet applied to a sheet of paper that provides protection against liquid and heavy use.
Landscape
Paper orientation in which width is greater than height.
Legal Size
Stanard paper size measuring 8 1/2" x 14".
Letter Size
Standard paper size measuring 8 1/2" x 11".
Linen
Embossed finish on text paper that simulates the pattern of linen cloth.
Live Area
Set measured area on a sheet of paper within which an image will print.
Logo
A visual design that is used as the symbol of an entity, organization, company, or person, usually a combination of lettering and art.
Low Resolution or Lo-Res
Describes an image that lacks fine detail either on a computer screen or printed material, due to
a lower number of dots per inch. Typical resolution for images on the Web is 72 dpi; typical resolution for printed images is 300 dpi. The use of low-resolution images is often a cause of poor quality (fuzzy, blurry) print output. See also DPI, High Resolution and Pixelation.
Margin
Blank space around the edge of the printed material.
Matte Finish
Flat (not glossy) paper finish. See also Coated Paper and Finish.
Page
One side of a sheet of paper.
Page Count
Total number of pages that a publication has.
Pantone or PMS Colors
Pantone, Inc. is known throughout the world as a provider of color systems and leading technology for the selection and accurate communication of color across a variety of industries. Pantone colors allow designers to color match specific colors when a design enters production stage. This system has been widely adopted by graphic designers and printers.
PMS stands for Pantone Matching System.
Pantone colors are described by their allocated number: Pantone 130 may also be referred to as PMS 130. See also Spot Color.
PDF
Abbreviation for Portable Document Format. PDF files are generated by the Adobe software program Acrobat.
Perfect Bind
To bind sheets that have been ground at the spine and are held to the cover by glue.
Perforating
Punching small holes or slits in a sheet of paper or cardboard to facilitate tearing along a desired line.
Pixel
Short for picture element
(using the common abbreviation "pix" for "picture"),
is a single point in a graphic image.
The measures dots-per-inch (dpi) and pixels-per-inch (ppi) are sometimes used interchangeably.
The more pixels used to represent an image, the closer the result can resemble the original. See also DPI and Pixelation.
Pixelation
In computer graphics, pixelation is an effect caused by displaying an image at such a size that individual pixels are visible to the eye. Pixelation can be all but invisible on a computer screen, but pixelation is still visible if a low-resolution image is printed on paper.
Printed documents have about 9 times as many pixels per area as a screen. See also DPI, High Resolution and Low Resolution.
Ragged Left
The term given to right-justified type that is uneven on the left.
Ragged Right
The term given to left-justified type that is uneven on the right.
Ream
500 sheets of paper.
Registration
The arrangement of two or more images in exact alignment with each other.
RGB
Abbreviation for red, green, blue, the additive color primaries.
Saddle Stitch
To bind by stapling sheets together where they fold at the spine.
Separations
The separate primary color components for printing. See also CMYK, Pantone and Spot Color.
Signature
Printed sheet folded at least once, possibly many times, to become part of a publication.
Slip Sheets
Separate sheets of paper different from the original print job inserted between the reproduced copies.
Soft Copy Proof
A trial draft in electronic form of the publication to be printed, sent to the customer for review. The customer
then reviews it to correct typos, positional errors, layout problems, and color aspects, or approve the document for final printing. It is usually emailed as a PDF. See also Hard Copy Proof and PDF.
Spot Color
Small area printed in a second color separate from the rest of the separations. See also Pantone Color.
Spread
Two pages that face each other and are designed as one visual or production unit.
Step And Repeat
The process of taking an image and repeating it for printing and/or bindery purposes according to a predetermined layout or paper size.
Stock
A term for unprinted paper.
Tabloid Size
Standard paper size measuring 11" x 17".
Template
A standard layout applied to several pages in a document.
Vignette
A photo or illustration, in which the tones fade gradually away until they blend with the surface they are printed on.
Watermark
A translucent logo that is embossed during the papermaking process. |
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