| Glossary Of Printing Terms
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3 ^^Top
3-Ring Binders Ring binders are large folders that contain file folders or hole punched papers. The binders themselves are typically made from plastic with metal rings. |
| 3D printing 3-D printing is a manufacturing process that builds layers to create a three-dimensional solid object from a digital model. The creation of a 3-D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object. |
A
A4 Paper Almost identical in size to the North American "letter" paper, A4 paper is part of the A-series if paper sizes dictated by the International Organization for Standardization.
A4 paper is 210 x 297 mm, or 8.27 × 11.7 inches
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| Abrasion A gradual loss of surface material due to rubbing, scraping, or wear. An abrasion may look like a roughened surface, a matte area, or a group of scratches. It may be done intentionally to smooth or clean a surface or it may be unintentional, resulting in damage. |
Acetate paper Transparent paper which may be placed in layers over the hard copy of a print or original. The acetate paper allows the designer or artist to indicate changes or instructions, such as different colors.
This type of paper is also used to create overhead projector transparencies.
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| Acid-free Paper Paper that if infused in water yields a neutral or basic pH (7 or slightly greater). It can be made from any cellulose fiber as long as the active acid pulp is eliminated during processing. Acid-free paper addresses the problem of preserving documents and artwork for long periods. |
Acid-resist Related to the art practice of etching, acid-resist is a protective coating which is applied to the metal surface prior to the etching process. When the plate is placed in the acid bath, the areas on which the coating have not been scratched away will remain undamaged by the acid.
Different types of acid-resist include specialized products, beeswax, and grease pencil.
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| Acrylic resin A group of related thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic substances |
| Against the Grain This term relates to cutting or tearing paper or other materials across the length-wise strands of its construction, instead of alongside it. In general, it is more difficult to tear against the grain than with it. |
| AI (Adobe Illustrator) Adobe Illustrator (AI) is a vector-based graphic design software widely used in laser engraving for creating and editing intricate designs, logos, and graphics. Its powerful tools and features enable users to produce high-quality vector artwork that can be easily imported into laser engraving software for precise engraving onto various materials. |
| Airbrush A kind of miniature spray paint applicator that consists of a pen-like tool attached to liquid paint. When the trigger is depressed, the airbrush sprays out a thin line of paint which is used in various types of painting and other artwork. |
| Alteration Any change made by the customer after copy or artwork has been given to the printing company. The change could be in copy, specifications or both. Also called AA, author alteration and customer alteration. |
| Angles In offset printing, the screen angle is the angle at which the halftones of a separated color is outputted to a lithographic film, hence, printed on final product media. |
| Anodized plate A type of offset printing press plate that is treated for protection against regular wear and tear. Anodization is a complex process that involves "electrolytic passivation," and increases the layer of natural oxide on the surface of metal. |
| ANSI The American National Standards Institute. This national group determines the guidelines governing a wide variety of commercially produced goods. |
| Anti-Offset Spray Powder Sprayed onto the printed paper as it leaves the press, this powder creates a minuscule gap between the sheets which allow them to be stacked, while still allowing them to air dry naturally, and avoiding ink transfer from one sheet to another. |
| Anti-set-off spray powder In printing, anti-set-off spray powder is used to make an air gap between printed sheets of paper. This enables the ink to dry naturally and therefore avoid the unwanted transfer of ink from one printed sheet to another. The problem can occur with most types of printing. |
| Antique Paper Antique paper is a paper style offered for printing with an offset press. It has a roughened edge intended to simulate the "deckle edge" of old printed and handwritten papers. |
| Aqueous Coating This clear coating is applied to the paper by the printing press after the colored inks have been added. The aqueous coating protects against fingerprints and scuffs, adds a high gloss or matte finish, and may guard against fading due to UV light. |
B ^^Top
Baltic Birch Baltic Birch Plywood is the leading plywood that is light in color with fine grain patterns. Its high durability and resistance is its strength, preventing warpage and blending.
A Baltic Birch Plywood is made of a strong material due to the usage of high-quality MR for veneer gluing. It is one of the most sold products for its long durability, low weight, surface hardness, quality, and high performance.
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| Banners Banners can be a flags or other pieces of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Also, banner can be a bar shape piece of non-cloth advertising material sporting a name, slogan, or other marketing message. |
| Basis Weight Basis weight refers to the mass of paper or other substrates per unit area, typically expressed in grams per square meter (g/m²). |
| Billboard A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers. Typically showing large, ostensibly witty slogans, and distinctive visuals, billboards are highly visible in the top designated market areas. |
Bind A term often used in the printing and building of books, though sometimes in other styles of art as well.
The bind refers to the act of joining the separate sheets together using wire, glue, twine, or other materials.
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| Binders A detachable cover, resembling the cover of a notebook or book, with clasps or rings for holding loose papers together. |
| Bindery Bindery refers to a studio, workshop or factory where sheets of (usually) paper are fastened together to make books, but also where gold and other decorative elements are added to the exterior of books, where boxes or slipcases for books are made and where the restoration of books is carried out. |
Blanket The rubber surface in a printing press onto which the ink is transferred from the metal plate before it is pressed to the paper or other printing material.
This is a necessary step between the metal plate and the paper because the rubber allows the blanket to conform to the subtle textures of different papers, adhering the ink more completely.
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| Blind Folio This term refers to a page in a numbered book or document, such as a completely blank page, that is counted in the numbering sequence, but is not printed with a page number. (ie: 1, 2, 3, blank, 5...) |
| Blind Image This term refers to an image on printed paper that is stamped, embossed, or otherwise imprinted into the paper, but not delineated by any color of ink or foil. |
| Block books Block books, also called xylographica, are short books of up to 50 leaves, block printed in Europe in the second half of the 15th century as woodcuts with blocks carved to include both text and illustrations. The content of the books was nearly always religious, aimed at a popular audience, and a few titles were often reprinted in several editions using new woodcuts. Block books are very rare, some editions surviving only in fragments, and many probably not surviving at all. |
| Block Printing Block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD, and woodblock printing remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the 15th century. |
| Blocking In offset printing, the unfortunate occurrence of printed sheets sticking together due to tacky ink, humidity, or other factors, which is problematic when separating the pages at a later date. |
| Blow up Another word for enlargement; the act of increasing the print size of an image, photograph, or block of text. |
| Blow-Up An image, or part of an image, that has been made larger. |
Blueline An inexpensive photographic proof created prior to printing the full run of the image on a printing press. A blueline is created from a negative on which all the colors are blue (or possibly a different color) and shades of blue. Printing plate negatives are exposed to photosensitive paper to create the proof.
Blueline proofs are "contact proofs," so called because the creation process requires they come into contact with a specific kind of paper.
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| Blueprints A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design, using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets. Introduced in the 19th century, the process allowed rapid and accurate reproduction of documents used in construction and industry. The blue-print process was characterized by light-colored lines on a blue background, a negative of the original. The process was unable to reproduce color or shades of grey. |
| Blurb A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust-jacket of a book, and are now found on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites. A blurb may introduce a newspaper or magazine feature story. |
| Board paper Also called paperboard, the designation given to papers greater than 110 lb, or 80lb cover stock - 200 gsm. Paper of this thickness is often used for file folders or post cards. |
Boiler Plate In offset printing, a block of text (or type) that can be used over and over again in various jobs and situations, without being altered to any great degree.
Originally, boiler plates were made from steel instead of the softer lead alloys commonly used, which allowed them to stand up to hundreds of copies. Boiler plates (of a syndicated newspaper column, an advertisement, or an entire edition, for instance) would be created at a central location and shipped to other cities for use by those local presses.
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| Book Binding Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from an ordered stack of paper sheets that are folded together into sections or sometimes left as a stack of individual sheets. |
| Booklets Small, thin books with paper covers, typically giving information on a particular subject. |
| Bristol Paper Bristol board (also referred to as Bristol paper or Super white paper) is an uncoated, machine-finished paperboard. It is named after the city of Bristol in the southwest of England. Common sizes include 22.5″ × 28.5″ (572 × 724 mm) and its bulk thickness is .006 inches (0.15 mm) or higher and A4, A3, A2 and A1. Bristol board may be rated by the number of plies it contains or, in Europe, by its grammage of 220 to 250. It is normally white, but is also made in different colours. |
| Bristol paper/board Bristol refers to papers with a 90lb to 200lb weight (200-500 gsm). This style of paper is often used for index cards and display signage. |
| Broadside A large sheet of paper printed on one side only. Historically, broadsides were posters, announcing events or proclamations, or simply advertisements. Today, broadside printing is done by many smaller printers and publishers as a fine art variant, with poems often being available as broadsides, intended to be framed and hung on the wall. |
| Brochure An informative paper document (often also used for advertising), that can be folded into a template, pamphlet or leaflet. Brochures are promotional documents, primarily used to introduce a company, organization, products or services and inform prospective customers or members of the public of the benefits. |
| Bronzing In printmaking, an effect created when the print is dusted with metallic powder before the ink has dried. |
| Building Wraps Large-format prints used to cover buildings during renovations. They usually have an advertising function too. |
| Bullet In typography, a bullet ( • ) is a typographical symbol or glyph used to introduce items in a list. |
| Bumper Sticker An adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles—although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers are about 30 cm by 8 cm (12 in by 3 in) and are often made of PVC. |
Buy Out To buy out or farm out work is to subcontract certain services to a different company. The secondary company generally works on a white label basis, whereby the customer is unaware of the outsourcing.
Also known as "out of house" or "outwork." |
C ^^Top
C1S and C2S In printing industry, C1S is shorthand for “coated one side.†Likewise, C2S means “coated two sides.†|
| Calender A series of hard pressure rollers used to form or smooth a sheet of material such as paper or plastic film. In a principal paper application, the calender is located at the end of a papermaking process. Those that are used separately from the process are also called supercalenders. The purpose of a calender is to make the paper smooth and glossy for printing and writing, as well as of a consistent thickness for capacitors that use paper as their dielectric membrane. |
Caliper Caliper refers to the thickness of the paper, which is generally measured in mils. One mil (or point) is equal to 1/1000th of an inch. It may also be measured in pages per inch (ppi) or microns (1/1000th of a millimeter).
It may also refer to a device on some presses that is capable of identifying double sheet feeds. |
| Camera-ready Copy Any digital or digitized artwork that is ready for print as per the specifics of the process being used for reproduction. These files may also be called "finished art" or "reproduction copy". |
Canvas A heavy-duty, tightly woven fabric; rolls of specialty canvas are used in inkjet prints to produce Giclée canvas prints. After they are printed, the canvas is treated with a protective coating that guards against scratching, and dust and water damage.
Order online:
Mounted Artist Canvas
Rolled Artist Canvas |
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| Car Wrap Also known as vehicle wrap, it is a form of wrap advertising. It is the marketing practice of completely or partially covering (wrapping) a vehicle in an advertisement. The result of this process is essentially a mobile billboard. While vehicles with large, flat surfaces (such as buses and light-rail carriages) are often used, automobiles can also serve as hosts for wrap advertising, despite consisting of more curved surfaces. |
| Carbonless Paper Carbonless copy paper (CCP), non-carbon copy paper, or NCR paper is a type of coated paper designed to transfer information written on the front onto sheets beneath. It was developed by chemists Lowell Schleicher and Barry Green. Instead of inserting a special sheet in between the original and the intended copy, carbonless copy paper has micro-encapsulated dye or ink on the back side of the top sheet, and a clay coating on the front side of the bottom sheet. When pressure is applied (from writing or impact printing), the dye capsules rupture and react with the clay to form a permanent mark duplicating the markings made to the top sheet. |
| Carload A carload is a paper weight unit that refers to stacks or pallets of paper that weigh between 20,000 and 100,000 lbs, depending on the mill in which the paper was created. |
| Carton A unit of paper noted for sale, which weighs about 150 lbs. Depending on the thickness (mils) and weight of the paper, a carton contains between 500 and 5000 sheets. |
| Case Binding Also known as hardcover binding, so named because the books are constructed using a hard outside “case†in contrast to the paper used for the covers of perfect bound (softcover) books. |
| Cast-coated paper A type of very glossy paper that was coated and pressed along a hot metal drum while the coating was wet, creating a high sheen finish. |
| Catalog Paper A lightweight paper of good printing quality suitable for use in mail-order catalogs or telephone directories. |
| Chain dot These dots of ink, otherwise called elliptical dots, which meet at the outer edges, creating a chain effect. The term may be used for any midtone ink dots that meet. |
Chain lines This term may mean one of two things:
1) lines spaced widely apart in laid paper;
2) blemishes visible on a finished print, caused by tracking. |
| Chalking This deterioration occurs in printed images when the ink has been absorbed by the paper too quickly, or has been exposed to the sun or wind for long periods of time. The result is a "dusty", faded appearance. |
| Choke The act of reducing an image's size in print just slightly, to leave a thin outline or "trap" around the image. May also be referred to as to "shrink" or "skinny". |
| Chrome Chrome refers to the strength of a color when compared to neutral gray. Another word for "saturation". |
Chromolithography An unique method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrome is frequently used. Lithographers sought to find a way to print on flat surfaces with the use of chemicals instead of relief or intaglio printing.
Chromolithography became the most successful of several methods of colour printing developed by the 19th century, and it was initially mostly used in advertising. Nowadays it is used as fine art instead of advertisements, and they are hard to find because of poor preservation and cheaper forms of printing replaced it. |
| Close Up A tightly framed image of a person or an object. |
Coated paper Refers to any paper that has been treated on the surface to achieve a specific quality: a shine or gloss finish, extra stiffness, texture or altered ink absorbency.
Commonly used for photographic printing, these papers have a coating of clay or another thin compound, and will be classed as "dull, matte, gloss, or cast. |
| Collating marks These marks on the back side of printed pages are used to ensure an exact line up when papers are collated and bound. Most commonly used in book binding. |
| Collation Ordering pages when several copies of a document are bound after printing or copying. |
| Color balance In printing, the term "color balance" relates to the amount of primary colors (Red, Green, Blue, or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) required to mix and recreate the colors of the image |
| Color blanks When printing text on images, color blanks may be created as proofs, which reproduce the images but not the type or lettering. Also referred to as "shells". |
| Color break When a print is created using multiple colors, the color break is the point at which one color stops and another begins. May also be called a "break for color". |
| Color cast An undesired tint or tone covering part or all of an image. |
| Color Curves In image editing, a curve is a remapping of image tonality, specified as a function from input level to output level, used as a way to emphasize colours or other elements in a picture. Curves can usually be applied to all channels together in an image, or to each channel individually |
Color gamut In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut (pronounced /ˈɡæmət/), is a certain complete subset of colors. Most commonly, this phrase refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented by a certain output device.
Another meaning, less frequently used but no less correct, refers to the complete set of colors found within an image at a given time. In this context, digitizing a photograph, converting a digitized image to a different color space, or outputting it to a medium using a certain output device will most likely alter its gamut, losing some of the colors, tints, or shades in the process.
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| Color Model An abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components. When this model is associated with a precise description of how the components are to be interpreted (viewing conditions, etc.), the resulting set of colors is called color space. |
| Color Proof Also called prepress proof, it is a full-color test print that shows exactly how the colors will look in actual (final) printing. Color proofs are submitted before the press proof, and provide the penultimate chance to make alterations or to correct mistakes. |
| Color Separation The act of decomposing a color graphic or photo into single-color layers. For example, to print full-color photos with an offset printing press, one must first separate the photo into the four basic ink colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). Each single-color layer is then printed separately, one on top of the other, to give the impression of infinite colors. |
| Color Sequence In process color printing, the order in which the colors are printed. In offset lithography, for example, the common printing sequence is black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Also called printing sequence and laydown sequence. |
| Color shift Refers to changes in the color of an image across a single print, due to density of the ink or the grain of the applied color dots. |
| Colour wheel An abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc. |
| Comb Binding One of many ways to bind pages together into a book. This method uses round plastic spines with 19 rings (for US Letter size) or 21 rings (for A4 size) and a hole puncher that makes rectangular holes. Comb binding is sometimes referred to as plastic comb binding or spiral comb binding. |
| Commercial Printer The term used to describe a machine that produces a wide variety of products, from postcards and brochures, to posters, to magazines, and more. Also called a job printer. |
| Complementary Flat(s) One of two separate flats which will be imaged on the same printing plate. Complementary flats are one means of handling disparate page elements which need to be imaged on the same plate, but which yield better results when imaged separately on the same plate. |
| Composite Proof A color proof showing all of the final copy, graphics, type and color separations. |
| Comprehensive Dummy In printing, a proof that is fully assembled, with all typography, images, and colors. May also be called a color comprehensive. |
| Condition The act of storing the paper on which the image or text will be printed in the pressroom for days or hours before printing. This allows the paper to acclimatize to the humidity and temperature in the room. Also to "cure", "season", or "mature". |
| Continuous Form Paper A type of printing paper which consists of a single sheet or roll of paper, normally perforated at regular intervals so that sheets can be easily separated. Most continuous-form paper has holes punched along each side so that the paper can be pulled through the printer by a tractor-feed mechanism. |
| Continuous-tone A continuous tone image is one where each color at any point in the image is reproduced as a single tone, and not as discrete halftones, such as one single color for monochromatic prints, or a combination of halftones for color prints. The most common continuous tone images are digital photographs every single pixel of which can take a continuous range of colors depending on the quantity of captured radiance |
Cotton A soft fiber made from the cotton plant. It is highly versatile, and in picture framing is used in mat boards, fine art papers and canvas.
This white vegetable fiber grown in warmer climates in many parts of the world, has been used to produce many types of fabric for hundreds of years. Cotton fabric feels good against the skin regardless of the temperature or the humidity. |
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Crop marks Crop marks are small dashes, usually in black or gray ink, which appear at each corner of a printed image to indicate where the paper should be cut.
They are most commonly used when a white border - the same color as the paper - will be included around the cropped image. |
| Crossover Printing across the gutter or from one page to the facing page of a publication. |
| Cure The process of using heat to completely fuse plastisol ink. Technically incorrect term for “drying†ink. |
| Cutout A shape of a person or thing cut out of cardboard or another material. |
| Cutting Machine A sharp-bladed machine used for cutting stacks of paper to a required size. The machine may be automated, or controlled by a foot or hand lever. Some cutting machines also include options for creasing or scoring. |
Cyan A greenish-blue color. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of between 490–520 nm, between the wavelengths of blue and green.
In the subtractive color system, or CMYK (subtractive), which can be overlaid to produce all colors in paint and color printing, cyan is one of the primary colors, along with magenta, yellow, and black. |
D ^^Top
Deboss The act of pressing and image or seal into paper so it is indented and visible below the paper's surface. This is also referred to as tooling. |
| Decal A decal or transfer is a plastic, cloth, paper or ceramic substrate that has printed on it a pattern or image that can be moved to another surface upon contact, usually with the aid of heat or water. |
| Densitometer A device that measures the degree of darkness (the optical density) of a photographic or semitransparent material or of a reflecting surface. The densitometer is basically a light source aimed at a photoelectric cell. It determines the density of a sample placed between the light source and the photoelectric cell from differences in the readings. Modern densitometers have the same components, but also have electronic integrated circuitry for better reading |
Density In printing, density may refer to one of three things:
1) Ink - the thickness of the ink on the paper
2) Color - a color's ability to absorb reflected light, or prevent its emission
3) Paper - how loosely or tightly the fibers of the paper are woven together. |
| Density Range In printing, any non-uniformity in the density of a printed image, resulting from fading, discoloration, incomplete ink coverage, or other causes. |
| Die Cutting The cutting by machine of paper or card into shapes with sharp steel knives, such as in the manufacture of cardboard boxes |
| Diffusion Transfer Process Any of several document-copying photographic processes in which a facsimile of the original document is produced by development of a photographic image, by transfer by diffusion of the silver salts in the undeveloped areas to a receiving paper, and by development of the transferred image. |
| Digital Printing Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers. Digital printing has a higher cost per page than more traditional offset printing methods, but this price is usually offset by avoiding the cost of all the technical steps required to make printing plates. It also allows for on-demand printing, short turnaround time, and even a modification of the image used for each impression. |
| Direct Digital Computerized commercial printing process in which electronic source files of the publication are processed directly by the printing machine without passing it through image setting and plate making steps. Used mainly in on demand printing. |
| Discharge Printing Also called extract printing, it is a method of applying a design to dyed fabric by printing a colour-destroying agent to bleach out a white or light pattern on the darker coloured ground. |
| Dog Ear A folded down corner of a book page. The name arises from the fact that wolves' ears stand erect while the ears of many breeds of dog flop over. A dog ear can serve as a bookmark. |
| Dot Gain Also known as tonal value increase, is a phenomenon in offset lithography and some other forms of printing which causes printed material to look darker than intended. It is caused by halftone dots growing in area between the original printing film and the final printed result. In practice, this means that an image that has not been adjusted to account for dot gain will appear too dark when it is printed. |
| Dot Matrix A dot matrix is a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Every type of modern technology uses dot matrices for display of information, including cell phones, televisions, and printers. They are also used in textiles with sewing, knitting, and weaving. |
| Dot matrix printing Also impact matrix printing, it is a type of computer printing which uses a print head that moves back-and-forth, or in an up-and-down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like the print mechanism on a typewriter. However, unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced. |
| Dots-per-inch A measure of spatial printing or video dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch (2.54 cm). |
| Double Black Duotone Alternate term for double-black halftone printing. |
| Double Bump his term means that a press sheet is sent through the press two times so that the same color prints twice. Sometimes it is a percentage of the color on the first hit and 100% of the same color on the 2nd hit. This may be needed when extremely dense solid areas are required. |
Double Burn Combining the images on two or more films onto a single film to create a single image.
Artwork in which overlays are shot as separate negatives rather than as part of the mechanical. Requires at least two press negatives, which are burned together to make the printing plate. |
| Double Halftone In prepress, a lithograophic printing plate imaged from two separate halftone negatives, one providing the shadow and highlight regions (or, in other words, the two extremes of the tonal range of the image) the other providing the middle tone regions. A double halftone—not to be confused with a duotone or double-black halftone printing—reproduces with much greater tonal range than a conventional halftone. Also called a double-dot halftone. |
| Doubling A printing defect of offset lithography characterized by a faint duplicate of a printed impression out of register with the solid image, caused by prekissing, or the premature contact of the paper and the printing blanket before the true impression is made. |
| Drawdown Also known as pullout, it is one of three basic tests used to determine the accuracy of color matching and mixing processes, the compatibility of the various inks combined, the performance of the ink on the substrate, and the drying characteristics of the ink. |
| Drill A drill is a tool fitted with a cutting tool attachment or driving tool attachment, usually a drill bit or driver bit, used for boring holes in various materials or fastening various materials together with the use of fasteners. |
| Dropout Halftone dots or fine lines eliminated from highlights by overexposure during camera work. |
| Dropout Halftone A halftone containing specular highlight, or highlights which print with no dot. The term drop-out halftone also refers to any halftone photographed as line art; i.e., solely as black and white with no shades of gray. |
| Dry Back Phenomenon of printed ink colors becoming less dense as the ink dries. |
| Dry Offset Using metal plates in the printing process, which are etched to 0.15mm (.0006 in) creating a right reading plate, printed on the offset blanket transferring to paper without the use of water. |
| Dry Trapping In process color printing, the ability to successfully lay down a wet ink film on top of a previously-printed, dry ink film. |
| Dual-purpose Bond Paper Bond paper suitable for printing by either lithography (offset) or xerography (photocopy). |
Duotone A halftone reproduction of an image using the superimposition of one contrasting colour halftone (traditionally black) over another color halftone. This is most often used to bring out middle tones and highlights of an image. The most commonly implemented colours are blue, yellow, brown, and red.
Due to recent advances in technology, duotones, tritones, and quadtones can be easily created using image manipulation programs. |
| Duplex Printing feature of some computer printers and multifunction printers (MFPs) that allows the printing of a sheet of paper on both sides automatically. Print devices without this capability can only print on a single side of paper, sometimes called single-sided printing or simplex printing. |
Dye Sublimation Sublimation is a process where an image can be printed onto transfer paper using dye-based inks and then with heat and pressure become transferred into the substrate.
Dye sublimation on hard surface surfaces is possible if the surfaces have been coated. Instead of printing images directly on a surface, which may scratch easily, the image is infused into the coating to provide permanent protection and durability.
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| Dylux Alternate term for blueline, specifically when using Dylux paper. |
E ^^Top
Emboss To create either raised or recessed relief images and designs in paper and other materials. An embossed pattern is raised against the background, while a debossed pattern is sunken into the surface of the material (but might protrude somewhat on the reverse, back side). |
| Emulsion In the process of screen printing, a light sensitive liquid chemical that is applied to the screen whicht becomes most light sensitive when dry. |
| End Sheet Also endpaper, a blank or decorated leaf of paper at the beginning or end of a book, especially one fixed to the inside of the cover. |
| EP Electrophotography, or EP, is the oldest of the non-impact printing technologies, having been invented in the mid 1930's by Chester Carlson. Electrophotographic printing is also often referred to as Xerography (meaning dry writing) and/or laser printing. |
Etch Etching, a method of making prints from a metal plate, usually copper, into which the design has been incised by acid. The copperplate is first coated with an acid-resistant substance, called the etching ground, through which the design is drawn with a sharp tool.
The ground is usually a compound of beeswax, bitumen, and resin. The plate is then exposed to nitric acid or dutch mordant, which eats away those areas of the plate unprotected by the ground, forming a pattern of recessed lines. These lines hold the ink, and, when the plate is applied to moist paper, the design transfers to the paper, making a finished print. |
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Fake Duotone A fake duotone, or duograph, is done by printing a single color with a one-color halftone over it. This process is generally not preferred over a regular duotone, as it loses much of the contrast of the image. |
Fast Color Ink This term refers to inks that are "color fast", meaning they retain the density of their color and do not fade despite washing and excessive handling.
Depending on the ink, color fast may imply UV fade-resistant |
| Film Gauge A physical property of photographic or motion picture film stock which defines its width. Traditionally the major film gauges in usage are 8 mm, 16 mm, 35 mm, and 65/70 mm. |
| Fine Papers Printing and writing paper grades based mainly on chemical pulps. Normally the content of mechanical pulps are below 10% and the amount of fillers in the range 5–25%.[1] |
| Flat Color Any color created by printing only one ink, as compared to a color created by printing four-color process. Also called block color and spot color. |
| Flat Size Size of product after printing and trimming, but before folding, as compared to finished size. |
Flexography A form of printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate. It is essentially a modern version of letterpress which can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate. The first such patented press was built in Liverpool, England by Bibby, Baron and Sons in 1890.
Flexography is good at printing on a variety of different materials like plastic, foil, acetate film, brown paper, and other materials used in packaging. Typical products printed using flexography include brown corrugated boxes, flexible packaging including retail and shopping bags, food and hygiene bags and sacks, milk and beverage cartons, flexible plastics, self-adhesive labels, disposable cups and containers, envelopes and wallpaper. |
| Flock Printing A printing process in which short fibers of rayon, cotton, wool or another natural or synthetic material are applied to an adhesive-coated surface. This adds a velvet or suede-like texture to the surface. Since the fibers can be dyed, flocking can also add a color to a printed area. |
| Flood In printing, this term refers to filling an entire page with ink, so that no blank paper or canvas remains. This is also known as "painting the sheet". |
| Flyleaf In book design, a blank leaf in the front or back cover. |
| Fogging In photography is the deterioration in the quality of the image caused either by extraneous light or the effects of a processing chemical. |
Foil Stamping Also known as foil application, it is typically a commercial printing process, the application of metallic or pigmented foil on to a solid surface by application of a heated die onto foil, making it permanently adhere to the surface below leaving the design of the dye.
In the process known as hot foil stamping, foil stamping machines uses heat to transfer metallic foil to a solid surface. Examples of items that are foil stamped include annual reports, pocket folders, product packaging, note cards/thank you cards, business cards, envelopes and letterhead. The foil stamp is a permanent process. |
| Foldout A folded insert or section, as of a cover, whose full size exceeds that of the regular page. |
| Folio The term "folio", from the Latin "folium" (leaf), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing. It is firstly a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book made in this way. Secondly, it is a general term for a sheet, leaf or page in (especially) manuscripts and old books, and thirdly, an approximate term for the size of a book, and for a book of this size. |
| Form An object, usually in the shape of a block or a plate, used in printing to apply ink on the printed surface. |
| Form Roller(s) One of several rollers found in the inking system and dampening system of a printing press used in offset lithography, which are in direct contact with, and transfer ink or dampening solution to, the printing plate. |
| Fountain Solution A mixture of water and other chemicals distributed by the dampening system on a printing press used in offset lithography. Lithographic printing operates on the principle that oil and water do not mix to any great extent; offset presses first treat metal printing plates with a fountain solution, which works to desensitize the non-image areas, rendering them ink-repellent. The fountain solution is applied to the plate through a series of rollers in a variety of configurations. |
| Four-color Process Printing The CMYK color model (process color, four color) is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer, and press run, ink is typically applied in the order of the abbreviation. |
| Free sheet Paper constructed from wood fibers that have been cooked with chemicals to clean them of impurities. Also known as "woodfree paper". |
| FRP Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. |
| Full-scale Black Black separation made to have dots throughout the entire tonal range of the image, as compared to half-scale black and skeleton black. Also called full-range black. |
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Galley Proof In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra-wide margins. Gallery proofs may be uncut and unbound, or in some cases electronically published. They are created for proofreading and copyediting purposes, but may be used for promotional and review purposes also |
| Gamut In color reproduction, the gamut, or color gamut, is a certain complete subset of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a certain output device. Another sense, less frequently used but not less correct, refers to the complete set of colors found within an image at a given time |
| Gang Run Printing A printing method in which multiple printing projects are placed on a common paper sheet in an effort to reduce printing costs and paper waste. Printers use the term "gang run" or "gang" to describe the practice of placing many print projects on the same sheet or piggybacking a project on a vacant, unused portion of a print sheet. |
| Gate fold A sheet that folds where both sides fold toward the gutter in overlapping layers. |
| Ghost Halftone Normal halftone with reduced density in order to produce a very faint image. |
| Ghosting An offset printing defect produced in one of two ways, in which faint replicas of printed images appear in undesirable places. |
| Gloss Reflectivity of light on aprinted surface. |
| Gloss Ink A variety of printing ink produced with an additional quantity of varnish that allows the ink to dry with a highly glossy finish, typically by oxidation and polymerization. |
| Grade The term used to differentiate between printing paper thicknesses, finish, class, category or rating. |
| Graduated Screen Tint Screen tint that changes densities gradually and smoothly, not in distinct steps. Also called degrade, gradient, ramped screen and vignette. |
| Grain Direction A predominant direction in which fibers in paper become aligned during manufacturing. Also called machine direction. |
| Grain Long Paper A sheet of paper having its grain direction parallel to the longer sheet dimension. (Paper with its grain direction parallel to the shorter dimension of the sheet is called short-grain.) Whether a paper is long-grain or short-grain is an important consideration in many printing processes, as the grain direction affects printability and runnability, especially in connection with sheet strength and dimensional stability. |
| Grammage A term used in the pulp and paper industry and also for fabric industry to denote a measure of mass of the product per unit of area. Grammage is expressed in grams per square meter (g/m2). |
| Graphic Arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional. The term usually refers to the arts that rely more on line or tone than on color, especially drawing and the various forms of engraving. It is sometimes understood to refer specifically to printmaking processes, such as line engraving, aquatint, drypoint, etching, mezzotint, monotype, lithography, and screen printing (silk-screen, serigraphy). Graphic art further includes calligraphy, photography, painting, typography, computer graphics, and bindery. It also encompasses drawn plans and layouts for interior and architectural designs. |
Graphics Visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage it includes: pictorial representation of data, as in computer-aided design and manufacture, in typesetting and the graphic arts, and in educational and recreational software. Images that are generated by a computer are called computer graphics.
Examples are photographs, drawings, Line art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings, or other images. Graphics often combine text, illustration, and color. |
| Gravure A type of intaglio printing process, which involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. In gravure printing, the image is engraved onto a cylinder because, like offset printing and flexography, it uses a rotary printing press. Once a staple of newspaper photo features, the rotogravure process is still used for commercial printing of magazines, postcards, and corrugated (cardboard) and other product packaging. |
| Gray Balance Another term for color balance. In photography and image processing, it is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors (typically red, green, and blue primary colors). An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colors – particularly neutral colors – correctly. Color balance changes the overall mixture of colors in an image and is used for color correction. Generalized versions of color balance are used to correct colors other than neutrals or to deliberately change them for effect. |
| Gray Component Replacement Computer-supported color separation process that replaces with black ink a colored ink that was initially used to create gray tones. With GCR, the use of black ink instead of a third color creates a sharper, less washed-out image. It is also easier to reach, through trial-and-error, the right amount of black ink needed, because a bit too little or too much of black ink won’t change the color of an image the way that a third primary color will. Black only changes the lightness or darkness of the image. |
| Grind Edge An alternate term for binding edge when referring to perfect bound products. |
| Grind-Off the area which runs along the spine of each section (signature) of a perfect bound book which is removed after being gathered to allow the glue to penetrate every leaf. |
| Gripper In printing, one of a number of fingerlike devices for gripping a sheet and transferring it to or from the printing surface. |
| Groundwood Wood that has been mechanically ground for pulp or direct use to produce certain kinds of paper or board. |
| Gutter In typography, the space between columns of printed text, including the gap between facing pages. |
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Hairline (Rule) In typography, a very thin rule line typically less than one-half point wide. On some output devices, the hairline rule is as thin as the smallest printer spot the device can image. On 600 ppi laser printers, the hairline rule is effective; however, on high-resolution (2400+ ppi) imagesetters, it can be essentially invisible. |
| Half-scale Black Black separation made to have dots only in the shadows and midtones, as compared to full-scale black and skeleton black. |
Halftone The reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size or in spacing, thus generating a gradient-like effect. "Halftone" can also be used to refer specifically to the image that is produced by this process.
Where continuous tone imagery contains an infinite range of colors or greys, the halftone process reduces visual reproductions to an image that is printed with only one color of ink, in dots of differing size or spacing. This reproduction relies on a basic optical illusion: the tiny halftone dots are blended into smooth tones by the human eye. |
| Hardcover Rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occasionally leather) of a book. |
| Head-to-tail Imposition with heads (tops) of pages facing tails (bottoms) of other pages. |
| Header A separate bit of text at the top of a printed page. |
| Heat-set Web printing A printing process in which ink is dried rapidly by forced-air heating. In the alternative method, coldset Web offset printing, the ink dries more slowly by ordinary evaporation and absorption. Web offset printing is a printing process in which a continuous roll of paper is fed through a printing press. |
Hectograph A printing process that involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame.
While the original use of the technology has diminished, it has recently been revived for use in the art world. The hectograph has been modernized and made practical for anyone to use. While the hectograph process is obsolete for printing on paper, it is still used for making temporary tattoos on human skin. It is also used to create unique acrylic paint prints. |
| Hickey Any printing defect caused by a particle either of paper or other source of debris attaching itself to the printing plate, blanket, gravure cylinder, or other image-carrying surface. |
| High-fidelity Color Color reproduced using six, eight or twelve separations, as compared to four-color process. |
| High-key Photograpy A modern lighting technique that is based on using mid-tone greys through to bright whites. The use of bright lights and lighting to eliminate shadow reduced the contrasts in the picture. |
| Highlight An area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated. |
| HLS HSL stands for hue, saturation, and lightness (or luminosity),and it is one of the two most common cylindrical-coordinate representations of points in an RGB color model. Developed in the 1970s for computer graphics applications, HSL is today used in color pickers, in image editing software, and less commonly in image analysis and computer vision. |
| Hot metal typesetting In printing and typography, it refers to technologies for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs. The resulting sorts and slugs are later used to press ink onto paper. |
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ICC International Colour Consortium |
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| Imagesetter An ultra-high resolution large-format computer output device which exposes rolls or sheets of either photographic film or bromide paper to a laser light source. Once the film or paper is developed, a very high quality black-and-white image is revealed. Development usually occurs in a unit separate to the imagesetter |
Imposition One of the fundamental steps in the prepress printing process. It consists of the arrangement of the printed product’s pages on the printer’s sheet, in order to obtain faster printing, simplify binding and reduce paper waste.
Correct imposition minimizes printing time by maximizing the number of pages per impression, reducing cost of press time and materials. To achieve this, the printed sheet must be filled as fully as possible. |
| Impression Cylinder The part of an offset lithographic printing press which carries the paper or other substrate through the printing unit and beneath the inked press blanket. The impression cylinder also provides a hard backing which allows the blanket to press a strong and solid impression on the paper. |
| Ink Balance Maintaining the ratio of cyan, magenta and yellow ink to produce a picture with the desired color and without an unwanted color cast or color bias. |
| Ink Holdout The ability of paper to prevent ink from penetrating into its surface (in contrast to ink absorbency). |
Ink Jet Printing The type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper, plastic, or other substrates. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines.
The technology was first extensively developed in the early 1950s. Starting in the late 1970s inkjet printers that could reproduce digital images generated by computers were developed, mainly by Epson, HP, and Canon. In the worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers account for the majority of inkjet printer sales: Canon, HP, Epson, and Brother. |
| Insert In print advertising, an insert or blow-in card is a separate advertisement put in a magazine, newspaper, or other publication. They are usually the main source of income for non-subscription local newspapers and other publications. |
Intaglio Printing The family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print.
Copper or zinc plates are usually used as a surface or matrix, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or mezzotint. Collagraphs may also be printed as intaglio plates. Intaglio printmaking emerged in Europe, the earliest known surviving examples originating from 15th Century. The technique was extensively used in art production. Albrecht Dürer, William Blake, Francisco Goya, Rembrandt and Max Klinger are, among other things, renowned for their intaglio artwork. |
| Integral Proof A proof made by exposing each of the four-color separations to an emulsion layer of primary colors. These emulsion sheets are stacked in register with a white sheet of paper in the background. Types of integral proofs are cromalin, matchprint, ektaflex, and spactraproof. |
| Interleaves Slip sheets between prints as they come off press. |
ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier.
An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation (except reprintings) of a book. For example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, and 10 digits long if assigned before 2007. The method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. |
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Jacket Also book jacket, dust wrapper or dust cover, it is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book covers. |
| Job Lot Paper Paper that didn't meet specifications when produced, has been discontinued, or for other reasons is no longer considered first quality. |
| Jogger A machine that is designed to take disorganized and jumbled stacks of paper and vibrate them back into shape. |
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Keyline In graphic design, it is a boundary line that separates color and monochromatic areas or differently colored areas of printing on a given page or other printed piece. |
| Kiss Die Cut Cutting the top layer but not the backing of self-adhesive paper. Used when cutting stickers. |
| Kiss Impression Also called kiss pressure, it is the minimum pressure required to produce the proper ink transfer from the blanket to the paper or other substrate (in offset lithography) or from the plate to the substrate (in flexography). It can also refer to the minimum pressure required to transfer ink from the form roller or anilox roller to the plate. |
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Laid paper A type of paper having a ribbed texture imparted by the manufacturing process. In the pre-mechanical period of European papermaking (from the 12th century into the 19th century), laid paper was the predominant kind of paper produced. Its use, however, diminished in the 19th century, when it was largely supplanted by wove paper. Laid paper is still commonly used by artists as a support for charcoal drawings. |
| Lap Register Register where ink colors overlap slightly, as compared to butt register. |
Large Format Prints For digital document printers, prints beyond 14 x 20 inches are called “large format.†The largest toner printers are at about 16 x 26 inches, and anything over that is usually printed using inkjet on sheets 17 x 22 inches or so.
In the offset world, large format refers to presses that print sheets over 42 inches, with some at 60 and 72 inches, with 81 inches as the largest offset litho press.​ |
| Laser Bonding A marking technique that uses lasers to bond an additive marking substance to a substrate. It was first invented in the mid 1990s. Laser bonding produces permanent marks on metal, glass, ceramic and plastic parts for a diverse range of industrial and artistic applications, ranging from aerospace and medical to the awards and engraving industries. It differs from the more widely known techniques of laser engraving and laser ablation in that it is an additive process, adding material to the substrate surface instead of removing it. |
Laser printing An electrostatic digital printing process which produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively charged cylinder called a "drum" to define a differentially charged image. The drum then selectively collects electrically charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then heated in order to permanently fuse the text and/or imagery. As with digital photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process.
However, laser printing differs from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of the medium across the printer's photoreceptor. This enables laser printing to copy images more quickly than most photocopiers.
Invented at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, laser printers were introduced for the office and then home markets in subsequent years by IBM, Canon, Xerox, Apple, HP and many others. Over the decades, quality and speed have increased as price has fallen, and the once cutting-edge printing devices are now ubiquitous. |
| Lay Flat Bind Method of perfect binding that allows a publication to lie fully open. |
| Leading In typography, leading refers to the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type. The term originated in the days of hand-typesetting, when thin strips of lead were inserted into the forms to increase the vertical distance between lines of type. The term is still used in modern page layout software such as QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. |
| Leaf A single sheet of paper in books. |
| Ledger Paper A strong durable medium to heavy writing paper with good erasing quality used in business ledgers and record books. |
| Letter fold Also known as C-fold, it is a document folding method that uses two parallel folds to create six panels of roughly the same size – three panels on each side of the paper. The outer panels are folded toward each other so that they overlap. |
Letter Paper A paper size commonly used as home or office stationery in Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. It measures 8.5 by 11.0 inches (215.9 by 279.4 mm).
US Letter size paper is a standard defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), in contrast to the A4 paper used by all other nations, which is defined by the International Organization for Standardization. |
| Letterhead The heading at the top of a sheet of letter paper (stationery). That heading usually consists of a name and an address, and a logo or corporate design, and sometimes a background pattern. The term "letterhead" is often used to refer to the whole sheet imprinted with such a heading. |
| Letterpress A technique of relief printing using a printing press, a process by which many copies are produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. |
| Lightweight Paper Low grammage paper made from rags and bleached kraft pulp, used for advertising material (catalogues, leaflets, mailings etc.), commercial and/or jobbing work (magazines, brochures, instruction leaflets, forms etc.). |
| Line Copy A document or drawing consisting of two tones, as black and white, without intermediate gradations. |
| Line Negative High contrast negative usually made from line copy. |
Line Printer A line printer is a type of high-speed impact printer that prints text or graphics by striking a series of characters or dots against a continuous form or paper roll to create a line of text or image. Line printers are distinguished by their ability to print an entire line of characters or pixels simultaneously, making them significantly faster than serial printers that print one character at a time.
Line printers are commonly used in environments that require high-volume printing of documents, reports, invoices, labels, and forms, such as data centers, banks, manufacturing facilities, and distribution centers. While line printers are less common today due to the widespread adoption of laser and inkjet printers, they are still used in specialized applications where high-speed, high-volume printing is required. |
| Linen Finish A finish on paper resembling the texture of linen cloth, mostly used for business stationery elements, like letterhead, envelopes and business cards. |
Lithography The process of producing a picture, writing, or the like, on a flat, specially prepared stone, with some greasy or oily substance, and of taking ink impressions from this as in ordinary printing.
It was invented in 1796 by German author Alois Senefelder as a cheap method of publishing theatrical works. Lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or other suitable material. |
| Loose Proof Also known as first proof, random proof, scatter proof and show-color proof, it is the proof of a halftone or color separation that is not assembled with other elements from a page, as compared to composite proof. |
| Looseleaf A piece of paper that is not bound in place, but typically punched so as to be organized in a ring binder. Loose leaves may be sold as free sheets, or made up into notepads, where perforations allow them to be removed easily. |
| Low Key Photo A style of photography that utilizes predominantly dark tones to create a dramatic looking image. |
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Machine Glazed (MG) A high-gloss paper finish produced by allowing the wet paper web to dry against a highly-polished metal cylinder, also called a yankee dryer. Paper that has been machine-glazed is occasionally called MG paper. |
| Magenta Magenta is a primary color in the subtractive color model, along with cyan and yellow. Magenta is one of the three primary colors used in color printing and reproduction processes, such as CMYK printing, where it serves as one of the ink colors used to create a wide range of colors and hues. Magenta is a purplish-red color with a dominant hue that lies between red and blue on the color wheel. Magenta is commonly used in color printing to reproduce a variety of colors, including reds, purples, pinks, and blues, by mixing different combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks or toners. |
| Makeready In printing, the process of preparing a form for printing by overlays or underlays to equalize the impression. |
Manuscript (MS) Any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, it is understood to be an author's written, typed, or word-processed copy of a work, as distinguished from the print of the same.
Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts, regardless of their content. |
| Margin The area between the main content of a page and the page edges, which helps to define where a line of text begins and ends. |
| Master print An original copy of a cinema film that can be used to produce other copies. |
| Mechanical Camera-ready assembly of type, graphic and other copy complete with instructions to the printer. A hard mechanical consists of paper and/or acetate, is made using paste-up techniques, and may also be called an artboard, board or paste-up. A soft mechanical, also called an electronic mechanical, exists as a file of type and other images assembled using a computer. |
| Mechanical Bind Binding which uses a comb, coil, ring binder, post or any other technique not requiring gluing, sewing or stitching. |
| Mechanical Tint Lines or patterns formed with dots creating artwork for reproduction. |
| Metallic Ink Ink which contains powdered metal or pigments that simulate metal. |
| Metallic Paper Metallic paper is a type of printing paper with a metallic or pearlescent finish that imparts a subtle shimmer or metallic sheen to printed images. Metallic paper is coated with metallic pigments or reflective layers that enhance color saturation, contrast, and luminosity, giving images a unique, three-dimensional appearance with depth and vibrancy. Metallic paper is commonly used for high-end photography, fine art prints, luxury packaging, greeting cards, and marketing materials to create eye-catching, premium-quality reproductions. Metallic paper is available in various weights, surface textures, and finishes to suit different printing techniques and applications. |
| Microfiber A synthetic fiber that is thinner than the threads usually used for woven fabrics. The result is an extremely soft, absorbent cloth suitable for cleaning scratch-sensitive surfaces. Unless otherwise noted, microfiber cloths are the best choice for cleaning picture frame glass or plexiglass. |
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| Midtone An area of medium brightness, neither a very dark shadow not a very bright highlight. A medium gray tone in a print. |
| Mimeograph Also called stencil duplicator, it is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. |
| Misting A condition generated on high-speed presses by rapidly moving ink rollers that spray out filaments and threads of ink. Ink misting more commonly occurs when excessively long ink is used. |
| Mottle Mottle refers to an uneven distribution or irregular pattern of color, tone, or texture in a surface or material, resulting in blotchy or speckled appearance. Mottling can occur naturally in organic materials, such as wood, stone, or marble, due to variations in grain, density, or mineral content. In printing and reproduction processes, mottling can occur when ink or pigment is inconsistently applied or absorbed by the substrate, resulting in areas of uneven color or density. Mottling can also occur in digital imaging due to compression artifacts, noise, or interpolation errors. In some cases, mottling may be intentional and used for artistic effect, while in others, it may be undesirable and corrected through adjustments in printing or image processing. |
| Movable type The system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual letters or punctuation) usually on the medium of paper. |
| Mull The gauze used in bookbinding to adhere a text block to a book cover. |
| Mullen Bursting Strength A test performed to measure the bursting strength of paper or paperboard. In a Mullen test (also called a pop test), the paper sample is placed between two ring-like clamps in a device called a Mullen tester, and hydraulic pressure is used to inflate a rubber diaphragm, which expands against the sample stretching it. The measure of the total hydraulic pressure expanding the diaphram at the time the sample ruptures (usually expressed in either pounds per square inch or kilopascals) is its bursting strength. Mullen tests are typically performed on papers and boards designed for use in packaging, bags, and envelopes. It is rarely performed on printing or writing papers. |
| Multicolor Capable of printing in two or more colors simultaneously. |
| Mural Any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other permanent surface. A distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture. |
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Natural Color System A proprietary perceptual color model. The system is based on human perception and not on color mixing. It is illustrated by a color atlas, marketed by NCS Colour AB in Stockholm.
The most important difference between NCS and most other color systems resides in their starting points. The aim of NCS is to define colors from their visual appearance, as they are experienced by human consciousness. Other color models, such as CMYK and RGB, are based on an understanding of physical processes, how colors can be achieved or "made" in different media. |
| NCR paper Non-carbon copy paper, or NCR paper. The same as carbonless copy paper (CCP). |
| Negative A negative is an image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occurs because the extremely light-sensitive chemicals a camera film must use to capture an image quickly enough for ordinary picture-taking are darkened, rather than bleached, by exposure to light and subsequent photographic processing. |
| Nesting The process of laying out cutting patterns to minimize the raw material waste. |
Newsprint A low-cost non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an off white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of paper.
Newsprint is favored by publishers and printers as it is relatively low cost (compared with paper grades used for glossy magazines and sales brochures), strong (to run through modern high-speed web printing presses) and can accept four-color printing at qualities that meet the needs of typical newspape |
| Newton Ring An undesirable optical effect found on photographic films characterized by irregularly-shaped rings of color surrounding a transparent center. This phenomenon was first described by Sir Isaac Newton. |
| Non-photo Blue A common tool used in the graphic design and print industry. It is a particular shade of blue that cannot be detected by graphic arts camera film. This allows layout editors to write notes to the printer on the print flat (the image that is to be photographed and sent to print) which will not show in the final form. It also allows artists to lay down sketch lines without the need to erase after inking. |
| Nonheatset Web Presser Web presser that does not have ovens or chill rollers. Ink laid down by this press must be absorbed into the paper to dry (or the solvent must evaporate into the surrounding air). |
| Nonimpact Printing A printer that prints without banging a ribbon onto paper. Laser, LED, inkjet, solid ink, thermal wax transfer and dye sublimation printers are examples of non-impact printers. |
| Novelty Prints Also known as conversation prints, they are fabrics printed with a theme motif that could represent the holidays, sports, hobbies, nursery rhymes, etc. |
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Offset Printing Offset printing, also known as offset lithography, is a widely used printing technique in which ink is transferred from a printing plate to a rubber blanket cylinder and then onto the printing substrate, typically paper. Offset printing is based on the principle of oil and water repulsion, where the image areas on the printing plate attract ink, while the non-image areas repel ink.
Offset printing is capable of producing high-quality prints with sharp detail, vibrant colors, and consistent results, making it suitable for a wide range of applications, including newspapers, magazines, books, packaging, and marketing materials. Offset printing offers advantages such as fast printing speeds, cost-effectiveness for large print runs, and compatibility with a variety of paper stocks and finishes. |
| Outer form the printing surface containing the pages from which the outer side of a sheet is printed and including matter for the first page of the printed sheet. |
Overlay In printing, it can mean three different things.
1. A shaped piece of paper, or a sheet of paper reinforced at the proper places by shaped pieces, put on the tympan of a press to increase or equalize the impression.
2. A method of preparing copy for multicolor printing, in which matter for each color is prepared on a transparent sheet that is placed over a key plate, usually the one to be printed in black.
3. The sheet or sheets so prepared. |
| Overprint An additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp, banknote or postal stationery after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail. The most well-recognized varieties are commemorative overprints which are produced for their public appeal and command significant interest in the field of philately. |
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Page Proof A printer's proof of a page to be published. |
Paper Test A wide variety of paper tests are available, depending on the specific needs and on the governing contract or specification.
Some of those tests are: grammage or basis weight, paper shade, pick test, tensile and elongation, tear resistance, energy absorption, wet tensile, burst strength, smoothness, contact angle and surface energy. |
Paperboard A thick paper-based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker (usually over 0.25 mm, 0.010 in, or 10 points) than paper.
Paperboard can be easily cut and formed, is lightweight, and because it is strong, is used in packaging. Another end-use would be graphic printing, such as book and magazine covers or postcards. Sometimes it is referred to as cardboard, which is a generic, lay term used to refer to any heavy paper pulp–based board. Paperboard is also used in fine arts for creating sculptures. |
| Parent Sheet Any sheet larger than 11' x 17' or A3. Printing firms use bigger sheets of paper that will contain more copies or pages of a certain publication, flyer and so on. These big sheets, called parent sheets, are then folded and cut as needed to give us the printed product in the final size, which is what we see. |
| Paste-up A document prepared for copying or printing by combining and pasting various sections on a backing. In publishing and design industry, paste-up predates the usage of now standardized computer designing programs. |
| Pasteboard A type of thin board made by pasting together sheets of paper. |
| PE An acronym for "Printer's Error." |
| Perf Marks On a "dummy" marking where the perforation is to occur. |
| Perfect Binding Perfect Binding is a widely used soft cover book binding method. The pages and cover are glued together at the spine with a strong yet flexible thermal glue. The other three sides of the book are then trimmed to give them precisely cut “perfect†edges. |
| Perfecting Press A printing press that allows the simultaneous printing on both sides of a sheet of paper in one pass through the press. |
| PET Film PET film, also known as polyester film, is a type of plastic material made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymer. It is a versatile and widely used material due to its excellent properties and various applications. Some key characteristics of PET film include:
Transparency: PET film is highly transparent, making it suitable for applications where optical clarity is essential.
Strength and Durability: It is a strong and durable material, offering good resistance to tearing, punctures, and impact.
Flexibility: PET film is flexible and can be easily formed into different shapes.
Chemical Resistance: It has good resistance to chemicals, oils, and greases.
Heat Resistance: PET film can withstand moderate temperatures without deforming or melting.
Moisture Barrier: It provides a certain level of moisture resistance, which makes it suitable for packaging applications.
PET film finds a wide range of uses in various industries, including:
Packaging: It is commonly used for food and non-food packaging, such as trays, blister packs, and shrink-wrap.
Printing: PET film is used in printing applications, including labels, posters, and overhead transparencies.
Electrical and Electronics: It is utilized in electrical insulation, display screens, and other electronic components.
Industrial Applications: PET film is employed in industrial tapes, protective films, and release liners.
Lamination: It is used in laminating applications to enhance the strength and appearance of materials.
Due to its eco-friendly nature, recyclability, and extensive applications, PET film has become a popular choice in various industries as a versatile and reliable material. |
| Photo engraving Photoengraving is a process that uses a light-sensitive photoresist applied to the surface to be engraved to create a mask that shields some areas during a subsequent operation which etches, dissolves, or otherwise removes some or all of the material from the unshielded areas. Normally applied to metal, it can also be used on glass, plastic and other materials. |
| Photoengraving A process that uses a light-sensitive photoresist applied to the surface to be engraved to create a mask that shields some areas during a subsequent operation which etches, dissolves, or otherwise removes some or all of the material from the unshielded areas. Normally applied to metal, it can also be used on glass, plastic and other materials. |
| Photomechanical Effect The change in the shape of a material when it is exposed to light. The phenomenon was first documented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1880. |
| Photostat An early projection photocopier created in the decade of the 1900s by the Commercial Camera Company, which became the Photostat Corporation. The "Photostat" name, which was originally a trademark of the company, became genericized, and was often used to refer to similar machines. |
| Phototypesetting The preparation of manuscript for printing by the projection of images of type characters on photographic film, which is then used to make printing plates. Nowadays the method is considered obsolete due to the popularity of personal computers and desktop publishing softwares. |
| Pica A typographic unit of measure corresponding to approximately  1â„6 of an inch. |
| Picking Printing malfunction - a speck of dirt, hardened ink, or extra metal on set type or a plate. |
| Pickup Art Artwork which has been used in a previous job, and then incorporated in a current job. |
| Pigment Printing A method of printing textiles with water-insoluble pigments, using a resin or other bonding substance to bind the pigment to the cloth. |
| Pinholing A printing defect characterized by an incomplete ink film comprising small holes, caused by the failure of an ink to wet the entire surface of the substrate. |
| Planographic Printing Any printing process which incorporates printing from a flat surface, as opposed to a raised surface (as with relief printing) or incised surface (as with intaglio printing). Lithography and offset lithography are planographic processes. |
| Plate A thin paper or metal sheet that is sensitive to light. An image is burned on the plate using a light of high intensity. When exposed to light, an image is transferred to paper or fabric using ink and will only reflect the image on the plate. |
| Plate-ready Film Final photographic film or other artwork used to "burn" printing plate. |
| Platemaker A machine for making printing plates and especially offset printing plates. |
| Pleasing Color A printing industry standard which means that the color printing is done in a way that’s pleasing to the eye. |
| PMMA PMMA or acrylic is a widely used transparent plastic material known for its applications in various markets from picture framing, car windows, smartphone screens to aquariums. It is a tough plastic, easy to shape and a great alternative to the high cost and less resilient glass. |
| PMS In printing, it stands for Pantone Matching System. It is a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing, though sometimes in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric, and plastics. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another. |
| PMT It stands for Photomechanical Transfer. It is a process where original copy is exposed to a photosensitive paper, which is then matted with a receiver paper. The two are processed together, resulting in the transfer of the image to the receiver paper, producing a black and white print. No negative is needed in this process. |
| Pocket part A special document located inside the back cover of certain hardcover legal reference books. Legal researchers consult it to ensure that the most current law is examined. |
| Point In typography, the point is the smallest unit of measure. It is used for measuring font size, leading, and other items on a printed page. One point is equal to 1/72 in or 0.3528 mm. |
| Position Stat Photocopy or PMT of a photo or illustration made to size and affixed to a mechanical. |
| Positive Film A film or paper record of a scene that represents the color and luminance of objects in that scene with the same colors and luminances (as near as the medium will allow). |
Prepress The processes and procedures that occur between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. The prepress procedure includes the manufacture of a printing plate, image carrier or form, ready for mounting on a printing press, as well as the adjustment of images and texts or the creation of a high-quality print file.
In today's prepress shop, the form of delivery from the customer is usually electronic. |
| Preprint In academic publishing, a preprint is a version of a scholarly or scientific paper that precedes publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly or scientific journal. |
| Press Check A step in the printing process which takes place after a printing press is set up but before the print run is underway. The main purpose of a press check is to make sure that the color on press comes as close as possible to the color proof. |
| Press Time The time at which a publication, especially a newspaper, is submitted for printing. |
Print Printing in photography refers to the process of producing physical copies of digital images on paper or other printable substrates using a variety of printing methods and technologies. Printed photographs serve as tangible, archival records of visual memories, artistic expressions, and moments captured by photographers. Printing allows photographers to showcase their work, share their vision with others, and preserve their images for posterity. Common printing methods used in photography include inkjet printing, laser printing, and traditional photographic printing processes such as silver halide printing (e.g., darkroom printing) and digital C-type printing (e.g., digital chromogenic printing).
The choice of printing method depends on factors such as image quality, color accuracy, durability, cost, and intended use. Photographers may print their images for personal enjoyment, portfolio presentation, exhibition, commercial sale, or publication in books, magazines, and fine art prints. Printing technology continues to evolve, offering photographers and artists a wide range of options and opportunities to produce high-quality, archival prints that faithfully reproduce the beauty and impact of their digital images. |
Print Resolution Print resolution refers to the level of detail and clarity of an image when it is printed onto a physical medium, such as paper or canvas. It is typically measured in dots per inch (DPI) or pixels per inch (PPI), indicating the number of individual dots or pixels that can be printed within a one-inch square area. The higher the print resolution, the finer the detail and smoother the appearance of the printed image.
Print resolution is determined by factors such as the quality of the printer, the type of printing technology used, the characteristics of the paper or substrate, and the resolution of the digital image file being printed. For high-quality prints with sharp detail and vibrant colors, it is generally recommended to use a print resolution of 300 DPI or higher, although the optimal resolution may vary depending on factors such as viewing distance, print size, and intended use. When preparing images for printing, photographers and designers often resize and optimize the digital files to ensure they meet the desired print resolution requirements and achieve the best possible results when reproduced in physical form. |
Print Size Print size refers to the dimensions of a printed image when reproduced on a physical medium, such as paper, canvas, or other printable substrates. Print size is typically measured in inches or centimeters and represents the width and height of the printed image. The print size is determined by factors such as the resolution of the digital image file, the aspect ratio of the image, and the dimensions of the physical print medium.
When printing digital images, photographers and designers often consider factors such as viewing distance, intended use, and display environment to determine the optimal print size for achieving the desired visual impact and readability. Large print sizes are suitable for wall art, gallery exhibitions, and poster displays, while smaller print sizes may be more appropriate for photo albums, greeting cards, or promotional materials. The choice of print size also affects the level of detail and clarity of the printed image, with larger prints requiring higher resolution digital files to maintain sharpness and image quality. |
Print-On-Demand A printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents) do not print until the company receives an order, allowing prints of singular or small quantities.
While other industries established the build to order business model, "print on demand" could only develop after the beginning of digital printing, because it was not economical to print single copies using traditional printing technology such as letterpress and offset printing. |
| Printer Spreads The general description for a pair of facing pages, typically the left- and right-hand pages in a publication, such as a book, magazine or newspaper. |
| Printing Plate A thin paper or metal sheet that is sensitive to light. An image is burned on the plate using a light of high intensity. When exposed to light, an image is transferred to paper or fabric using ink and will only reflect the image on the plate. |
| Printing press A machine that transfers inked images onto a medium such as paper or cloth |
| Printing Unit Assembly of fountain, rollers and cylinders that will print one ink color. Also called color station, deck, ink station, printer, station and tower. |
| Process Camera A large camera used in the photographic processes involved in the printing industry. |
| Process Color (Inks) A color printed from four separate printing plates. Four-color process printing uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) inks to produce full color reproduction. |
| Proofreader Marks Marks used to indicate and correct problems in a text. They come in two varieties, abbreviations and abstract symbols. |
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Quarto A book or pamphlet produced from full 'blanksheets', each of which is printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves (that is, eight book pages). Each printed page presents as one-fourth size of the full blanksheet. |
| Quick Printer A quick printer is a small commercial printer that provides quick turnaround and short-run work for its customers. For this reason, quick printers are sometimes referred to as instant printers. |
| Quilling Quilling or paper filigree is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. The paper is rolled, looped, curled, twisted and otherwise manipulated to create shapes which make up designs to decorate greetings cards, pictures, boxes, eggs, and to make models, jewelry, mobiles etc. Quilling starts with rolling a strip of paper into a coil and then pinching the coil into shapes that can be glued together. There are advanced techniques and different sized paper that are used to create 3D miniatures, abstract art, and quilled flowers among many things. |
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Rack Cards A document used for commercial advertising, typically 4 by 9 inches in size. It is frequently used in locations that enjoy significant foot traffic, such as convenience stores, hotels, landmarks, restaurants,and rest areas. |
| Rag Paper A paper made wholly or partly from rags, mostly cotton ones. |
| Reader Spread The order in which a book or newsletter is meant to be read - Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, etc. However that is not necessarily the order that pages are printed (print spread). |
| Ream A quantity of sheets of the same size and quality. International standards organizations define the ream as 500 identical sheets. |
| Reflective Copy Products, such as fabrics, illustrations and photographic prints, viewed by light reflected from them, as compared to transparent copy. |
| Register A horizontal level in a work that consists of several levels, especially where the levels are clearly separated by lines; modern comic books typically use similar conventions. It is thus comparable to a row, or a line in modern texts. |
| Reprographics The reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means, such as photography or xerography. Reprography is commonly used in catalogs and archives, as well as in the architectural, engineering, and construction industries. |
| RGB A color mode or system representing the primary colors that are combined to display all the colors seen on a traditional computer monitor. It stands for Red, Green, Blue. |
| Right Reading In printing, a photographic image that looks the same as the original. |
| Rotary press A printing press in which the images to be printed are curved around a cylinder. Printing can be done on a large number of substrates, including paper, cardboard, and plastic. Substrates can be sheet feed or unwound on a continuous roll through the press to be printed and further modified if required (e.g. die cut, overprint varnished, embossed). Printing presses that use continuous rolls are sometimes referred to as "web presses". |
| Round Back Bind To casebind with a rounded (convex) spine, as compared to flat back bind. |
| Rule Line used as a graphic element to separate or organize copy. |
| Ruleup Also called press layout, printer's layout and ruleout., it is a map or drawing given by a printer to a stripper showing how a printing job must be imposed using a specific press and sheet size. |
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Saddle Stitch A stitch of thread or a wire staple passed through the fold of a magazine or booklet. |
| Screen Printing Screen printing is a printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. |
| Screen Ruling A measure of the fineness of a halftone screen – the higher the number, the finer the screen. A 150 line per inch halftone means that in each inch there are 150 lines of halftone dots. |
| Screen Tint Color created by dots instead of solid ink coverage. Also called Benday, fill pattern, screen tone, shading, tint and tone. |
| Screen-Printing Printing technique also known as serigraphy. It is a method of creating an image on paper, fabric or some other object by pressing ink through a screen with areas blocked off by a stencil. It first appeared in a recognizable form in China during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), later to be adapted by other Asian countries and eventually introduced in Europe in the late 18th Ct. |
| Secondary Colours A color formed by mixing two primary colors in equal or equivalent quantities. |
| SEG SEG, stands for Silicone Edge Graphics. It is a printed fabric signage with a thin silicone beading sewn around the edges that fits into edgeless Aluminum framing. The silicone beading fits into a recessed groove around the perimeter of the frame to stretch the fabric completely smooth. The result is an upscale modern frameless appearance. |
| Selective Binding Placing signatures or inserts in magazines or catalogs according to demographic or geographic guidelines. |
| Self Cover Self Cover means that the paper used for the cover of a book or other bound document is the same as the paper used for the interior pages. |
| Sell Sheet In print advertising, it is one-page sheet used in sales to attract attention to a new product. |
| Setoff Unwanted transfer of ink from one printed sheet to another. The problem can occur with most types of printing, and is avoided by the use of slipsheets between copies or anti-set-off spray powder. |
| Sheetfed Press A method in which individual pages of paper are fed into the machine. This printing method is popular for small and medium-sized fixed jobs such as limited-edition books. In another method, Web offset printing , a continuous roll of paper is fed through the printing press. |
| Sheetwise Printing both sides of a sheet of paper in which one side is printed, then the printed sheets are turned over and printed with another plate. |
| Sizing Any one of numerous substances that is applied to, or incorporated into, other materials — especially papers and textiles — to act as a protective filler or glaze. Sizing is used in papermaking and textile manufacturing to change the absorption and wear characteristics of those materials. |
| Slip Sheets Thin pallet-sized sheets made of plastic, heavy laminated kraft paperboard, or corrugated fiberboard used in commercial shipping. |
| Slug A piece of lead or other type metal, in any of several specific word senses. In one sense, a slug is a piece of spacing material used to space paragraphs. In the era of commercial typesetting in metal type, they were usually manufactured in strips of 6-point lead. In another sense, a slug is one line of Linotype typeset matter, where each line corresponds to one piece of lead. |
| Snap pictures Snap Frames, also known as click frames or snap-open frames, are aluminum frames for posters equipped with spring-loaded sides. These springs allow the snap frame's sides to be easily opened and closed. |
| Snap-out Forms Also referred to as "Unit Set", "perfed " and "stubbed " type forms. Snap-out refers to holding the stub of the form and tearing out the copies or parts along a perforation. |
| Soft Cover Another term for paperback - a book bound in stiff paper or flexible cardboard. |
Soy-based Inks Inks made from soybeans, unlike traditional ones which are petroleum-based. Soy-based inks are more environmentally friendly, might provide more accurate colors, and make it easier to recycle paper. However, they are slower to dry than other inks.
Soy-based inks were developed in the late seventies and early eighties as an alternative to petroleum based ones due to the increasing prices of oil. Nowadays about one quarter of commercial printers in the United States use soy ink. |
| Specular Highlight The bright spot of light that appears on shiny objects when illuminated (for example, see image at right). Specular highlights are important in 3D computer graphics, as they provide a strong visual cue for the shape of an object and its location with respect to light sources in the scene. |
| Spine Back or binding edge of a publication. |
| Spiral Bind A spiral of continuous wire or plastic looped through holes used to bind paper sheets. |
Spirit duplicator A printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld and commonly used for much of the rest of the 20th century. The term "spirit duplicator" refers to the alcohols which were a major component of the solvents used as "inks" in these machines.
Spirit duplicators were used mainly by schools, churches, clubs, and other small organizations, such as in the production of fanzines, because of the limited number of copies one could make from an original, along with the low cost and correspondingly low quality of copying. |
| Spoilage Planned paper waste for all printing operations. |
| Spot Color or Varnish In offset printing, a spot color is any color generated by an ink (pure or mixed) that is printed using a single run. |
| Spread In printing and prepress a spread is the general description for a pair of facing pages, typically the left- and right-hand pages in a publication, such as a book, magazine or newspaper. |
| Static Cling The tendency for light objects to stick (cling) to other objects owing to static electricity. It is common in clothing, but occurs with other items, such as the tendency of dust to be attracted to, and stick to, plastic items. |
| Stationary Commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous stationery and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) or by equipment such as computer printers. |
| Stencil Printing A method of transferring a pattern by brushing, spraying, or squeeging ink or paint through the open areas of a stencil cut from thin metal or cardboard. |
| Step and Repeat A step and repeat banner (sometimes a step and repeat wall or press wall) is a publicity backdrop used primarily for event photography, printed with a repeating pattern such that brand logos or emblems are visible in photographs of the individuals standing in front of it. |
| Stripping Within the commercial printing industry, the job of stripping involves arranging and joining film negatives as part of the process of preparing printing plates. Because the industry has largely moved to digital processes, the job of stripping has become rare. |
| Stumping (Blocking) Impressing book covers, etc., by means of hot die, brass types or blocks. |
| Substance Weight A term of basis weight when referring to bond papers. |
| Subtractive Color A subtractive color model explains the mixing of a limited set of dyes, inks, paint pigments or natural colorants to create a wider range of colors, each the result of partially or completely subtracting (that is, absorbing) some wavelengths of light and not others. The color that a surface displays depends on which parts of the visible spectrum are not absorbed and therefore remain visible. |
| Supercalendered Paper A paper characterized by high-gloss finish which is the result of an additional degree of calendering performed on a special machine not connected to the main papermaking machine. |
| Surprint Also known as overprint, it means to print over with additional marks over something already printed. Often used by post offices. |
| Swash A typographical flourish, such as an exaggerated serif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc., on a glyph. |
| SWOP The Specifications for Web Offset Publications. It was formed in 1974 in the US as an industry specification to define color data and its exchange for publication printing. |
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Table Tents Self-standing promotional units created from printed and folded cardstock. As the name implies, table tents are designed to be placed on tables and other horizontal surfaces such as desks and counters. |
| Target Ink Densities Densities of the four process inks as recommended for various printing processes and grades of paper. |
Thermal printing A digital printing process which produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head.
Thermal printers are more quiet, smaller and faster than impact dot matrix printers. Thanks to these properties, they are ideal for commercial applications such as filling station pumps, information kiosks, point of sale systems, voucher printers in slot machines, and so on. |
| Thermography A process of writing or printing involving the use of heat. In printing, it especially refers to a raised-printing process in which matter printed by letterpress is dusted with powder and heated to make the lettering rise. |
| Thermoprinting A digital printing process which produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermochromic paper, or thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head. The coating turns black in the areas where it is heated, producing an image. Two-colour direct thermal printers can print both black and an additional colour (often red) by applying heat at two different temperatures. Commercial applications of thermal printers include filling station pumps, information kiosks, point of sale systems, voucher printers in slot machines, print on demand labels for shipping and products, and for recording live rhythm strips on hospital cardiac monitors. |
| Thumbnails Reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. |
| Tip In A page that is printed separately from the main text of the book, but attached to the book. |
| Tone Compression Reduction in the tonal range from original scene to printed reproduction. |
| Touch Plate A means of adding extra-trinary colors to process color printing. A touch plate consists of a plate of a special color beyond the traditional cyan, magenta, or yellow. Touch plates are used to reproduce a color which is out of the gamut of CMY mixing, used especially to reproduce a unique color in the original artwork. |
| Trade Shop A company that specializes in scanning images and delivering color separated films. |
| Transfer Printing A method of decorating enamels or ceramics using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. |
| Trap The ability of a printed ink to accept the next printed ink compared to how well paper accepts that ink. |
| Trim Size The final size of a printed page after excess edges have been cut off. |
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Uncoated Paper Paper which is not coated with an agent which improves brightness or printing properties. Uncoated paper is typically used for letterheads, copy paper, or printing paper. |
| Undercolor Removal (UCR) Method of making color separations such that the amount of cyan, magenta and yellow ink is reduced in midtone and shadow areas while the amount of black is increased. |
| Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) Alongside with Berne convention, one of the two principal international conventions protecting copyright. It was adopted in Geneva, Switzerland in 1952. Today it has lost its significance since almost all countries are either members or aspiring members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and are thus conforming to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS). |
| Unsharp Masking An image sharpening technique, often available in digital image processing software. The "unsharp" of the name derives from the fact that the technique uses a blurred, or "unsharp" negative image to create a mask of the original image. The unsharped mask is then combined with the positive (original) image, creating an image that is less blurry than the original. The resulting image, although clearer, may be a less accurate representation of the image's subject. |
| UV Coating UV coating, or ultraviolet coating, is a very glossy, shiny liquid coating applied to a printed paper surface and cured on a printing press or special machine using ultraviolet light. The coating hardens, or cures when it is exposed to ultra violet radiation. |
| UV DTF UV DTF stands for UV Direct-to-Film, which is a printing method used for transferring designs onto various surfaces, particularly textiles. It involves printing the design onto a special film using UV-curable inks, which are then transferred onto the desired material using heat and pressure. This technique offers vibrant and durable prints with excellent color accuracy and detail. UV DTF is commonly used in the garment and textile industry for creating custom prints on fabrics. |
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Vellum Finish Vellum finish describes paper treated with a fine-toothed texture. While the paper may appear smooth when looking at it, a tilt in the light reveals a fine and evenly applied rough finish. |
| Velox Graphic image, reproduced on light-sensitive paper, that can be photographically copied, scaled, and manipulated before being transferred to the printing plate. Also called Photomechanical Transfer (PMT). |
| Viewing An occasion on which people are invited to go and look at something, especially a work of art. |
| Vignette A small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border. |
| Vignette Halftone A halftone whose background gradually fades to white. |
| Virgin Paper Paper manufactured without the use of any recycled or alternative fibers. It is made directly from the pulp of trees or, alternatively, cotton. |
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Wallpaper A kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, cafes, government buildings, museums, post offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration. It is usually sold in rolls and is put onto a wall using wallpaper paste.
Wallpaper printing techniques include surface printing, gravure printing, silk screen-printing, rotary printing, and digital printing. |
| Wash Up The process of removing printing ink from a press by washing the rollers and blanket. Certain ink colors require multiple washups to avoid ink and chemical contamination. |
| Web Break Split of the paper as it travels through a web press, causing operators to rethread the press. |
| Wet Trapping In wet process color printing, the ability to successfully lay down a wet ink film on top of a previously printed, still-wet ink film. |
| Window Envelopes A conventional envelope with a transparent plastic window to allow the recipient's address to be printed on the paper contained within. |
| Wire Side The side of a sheet next to the wire in manufacturing; opposite from the felt or top side; usually not as smooth as the felt or top side. |
Woodblock printing A technique for printing text, images or patterns originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper.
In this method, a block of wood is engraved in relief, covered with dye and pressed against paper, leather, textiles, etc. |
Woodfree Paper Paper created exclusively from chemical pulp rather than mechanical pulp.
Chemical pulp is normally made from pulpwood, but is not considered wood as most of the lignin is removed and separated from the cellulose fibers during processing, whereas mechanical pulp retains most of its wood components and can therefore still be described as wood. Wood-free paper is not as susceptible to yellowing as paper containing mechanical pulp. |
| Workprint A rough version of a motion picture, used by the film editor(s) during the editing process. |
| Wove paper A writing paper with a uniform surface, not ribbed or watermarked. The papermaking mould's wires run parallel to each other to produce laid paper, but they are woven together into a fine wire mesh for wove paper. |
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Xerography A dry copying process in which black or colored powder adheres to parts of a surface remaining electrically charged after being exposed to light from an image of the document to be copied.
The technique was originally called electrophotography, but it was later renamed xerography — from the Greek roots "xeros" (dry) and "graphia" (writing). Its fundamental principle was invented by Hungarian physicist Pál Selényi, and based on his publications Chester Carlson applied for and was awarded U.S. Patent 2,297,691 in 1942. |
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