The following is a list of terms common to the printing industry
compiled for your reference.
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A
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Absorbency: The ability of paper to take in or absorb fluids.
Accordion Fold: A type of fold where the paper is folded in one direction and then the other, like an accordion.
Acid-free paper: Paper manufactured to contain no acidity or acid producing chemicals. It degrades less over time than acidic paper. Generally an advertising scam.
Aqueous coating: A clear, water-based coating applied after printing that is the cheapest available method of protecting the finished printed piece.
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B
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Basis weight: The weight in pounds of a ream or 500 sheets of paper cut to a given standard size. Each major paper grade has its own standard size, and its own standard basis weight.
Binding: Putting together of papers with a variety of materials, like wire, thread, glue and plastic combs.
Bleed: Printing that extends beyond the trim edge of a page. To print a bleed, the piece is printing on oversized paper, which is trimmed after printing. It is very important that bleed is incorporated as needed. If you are unsure make a notation for us to take a look at your job before you send it to press.
Brightness: The way a paper reflects light compared to standard reference. This affects the legibility and contrast of printing.
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C
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CMYK: An acronym for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. These are the four primary colors used in four-color process printing.
Coated paper: Paper that has a surface coating. Aside from giving the paper a smooth finish, the coating gives the paper higher opacity and better ink holdout than uncoated papers.
Colorfastness: The ability of paper to stop colors from running when wet and fading in bright light. Nearly all ink and paper will fade in time. This definition is a matter of degree.
Contrast: The degree of tonal separation from black to white.
Cropping: The cutting out of extraneous or unwanted parts of an image.
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D
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Density: For paper this refers to the paper's weight per unit volume. Density of paper is directly related to the paper's absorbency, stiffness, opacity and resiliency. For ink this refers to the amount of ink applied to a sheet of paper which greatly affects the final printed piece.
Digital Proof: A computer generated proof, usually a PDF.
Duotone: A halftone image printed with two colors, one dark and the other lighter. This results in improved detail and contrast in the final printed image.
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E
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Embossing: A pressed image that lies on the paper surface.
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript): A vector graphic file format for high-resolution images. An EPS file is very versatile, making it a favored file format.
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F
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File Extensions: Three letters at the end of a file name that define that type of file or the program in which it was saved.
Finish: The surface quality of paper, defined in terms of smoothness, gloss, absorbency and print quality.
Foil-stamping: Thin, flexible metal or plastic applied to paper.
Font: The characters that make up a specific typeface, at a specific point size and in a specific style.
Four color process: A printing process that layers screens of the four primary ink colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) on top of each other to reproduce color images.
Four over one (4/1): Refers to the number of colors on the top or one side of the page over the number of colors on the bottom or other side of that same page. In this case it is four color process on one side and one color on the other side of the same printed page.
Four over zero (4/0): Refers to the number of colors on the top or one side of the page over the number of colors on the bottom or other side of that same page. In this case it is four color process on one side and blank pages or zero colors on the other side of the same printed page.
FTP: (File Transfer Protocol) It is a way of transferring files over the Internet directly into someone else's server.
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G
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GIF (Graphic Interchange Format): An imaging standard that uses pixels to recreate an image electronically, often used for animation.
Gloss: A paper's shine or luster or measurable reflectivity.
Grayscale: All shades of gray from black to white.
Gripper edge: The leading edge of paper held by the grippers as it passes through a printing press. No printing is allowed on the gripper edge. Usually the gripper is about a half-inch.
Grippers: The metal fingers in a sheet-fed press that holds each sheet of paper as it passes through the printing press.
Gutter: The margin separating components on a printed page.
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H
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Halftone: When an image is made up of small dots to give the impression of a continuous tone image. The number and size of the dots is varied to produce the effect.
Highlight: The lightest areas on a photograph.
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I
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Image Area: The ink holding area on a plate that prints on paper.
Imposition: The arrangement of parts on a page so they will appear in proper sequence. Also includes the set up of margins, gutters, bleeds etc.
Ink Holdout: How ink either rests on the top of a sheet of paper or is absorbed into it.
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J
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JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): A type of image file that looks good on a computer monitor, but does not translate well to printing.
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K
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"k": used as an indication of black ink. (i.e.: cmyK)
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L
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Light coverage: Refers to the amount of ink used on a printed piece. Light coverage generally does not include extensive areas of solid color.
Line Screen: The number of dot lines created per inch (lpi).
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M
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Match print proof: A high-resolution hard copy proof made from negatives. This proof is a good way to check color accuracy, but is usually expensive. It has generally been replaced by digital proofs.
Matte finish: A coating for paper with little or no gloss, dull.
Moir: An undesirable halftone pattern created by printing several repetitive designs on top of each other at incorrect angles.
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N
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Negative: Film produced for offset printing is output this way. It is a reversed image; i.e. light areas are dark and dark areas are light.
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O
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Offset printing: The most common printing method. Ink is spread on a plate and transferred to a blanket that then transfers it to the plate.
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P
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Pantone Matching System or PMS: The standard color matching and selection system used in the printing process.
PDF (Portable Document File): A digital proof made using Adobe Acrobat. It can contain high-resolution image data and all fonts used in the document.
Perfect binding: A binding technique in which sheets are bound together by a flexible adhesive.
Printer font: Printer fonts are high-resolution fonts needed for a quality, printed piece. (Screen fonts are needed to properly display the font digitally)
Proof: A representation of the printed piece created either electronically or in print. It demonstrates what will be produced in the film or plate procedures.
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Q
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Quark: A computer program standard to the printing professional.
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R
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Register marks: To assure the correct registration on a press sheet, crosshairs and other symbols are used. All of these marks and symbols are called register marks.
Resolution: The number of dots per inch or pixels in an image determines that image's resolution. The higher number of dots per inch or number of pixels, the higher the quality of the image.
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S
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Saddle-stitching: A binding process where sheets are "saddled" on top of each other and bound together where they fold at the spine.
Scaling: Reduction or enlargement of artwork, which can be proportional (most frequently used) or anamorphic.
Screen (tint): Color created by a uniform dotted fill pattern instead of solid ink coverage.
Screen font: Screen fonts are low-resolution bitmaps needed to properly display the font digitally.
Self-cover: A printed piece where the cover pages are made from the same paper stock as the internal sheets.
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T
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TIFF (Tagged Image File Format): a widely used bitmap graphic file format.
Trapping: The overlapping of two colors printing side by side to ensure no white space is visible between the two colors.
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U
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UV coating: A glossy coating applied to paper after it has been printed. After being applied, the coating is then bonded with ultraviolet light. The coating gives the paper a glossy finish and also prevents damage to the product.
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V
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Varnish: This thin protective coating may be gloss or dull. Varnish is applied like ink on printed material. May contain an image (spot varnish) or be used to highlight a particular part of a printed piece. It can be used on glossy or dull papers, but rarely on uncoated.
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