Glossary

A

Accordion Fold - Folded two or more times in parallel directions.

Additive primary colours - Red, Green and Blue. Primary colours since they correspond to the red, green and blue cones in the eye. Additive colours since light is added together to create different colours.

Additive secondary colours - Yellow, Cyan and Magenta, the colours composed of two of the primaries.

AM Amplitude Modulation - Halftone screening, as opposed to FM screening, has dots of variable size with equal spacing between dot centers.

Antique finish - A term describing the surface, usually on book and cover papers, that has a natural rough finish.

Ascender - The part of the lowercase letter stroke that rises above the x-height. The letters b, d, f, h, k, l, and t have ascenders.

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange - A standard means of representing text as numerical data.

B

Backing up - Printing the reverse side of a sheet already printed on one side.

Baseline - The invisible line on which a line of type rests.

Basis weight - The weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a given standard size for that grade; e.g., 500 sheets of 25 x 38 in. of 50 lb. book paper weighs fifty pounds.

Back Printing - The printing on the reverse side of a sheet; often produced with a screen or light coloured. ink so that the print will not show through to the front.

Barrel Fold - Folded two or more times in the same direction (wrap around).

Bézier curve - Named after Pierre Bézier, a mathematically defined line of shape that uses two handles and two curve handles for each of it's segments.

Bitmap pictures .bmp; also call paint-type or raster image - Pictures made from a series of small dots, much like a piece of graph paper with certain squares filled in to form shapes and lines. Bitmaps are made with paint programs. All scanned graphics, including photographs, are bitmaps.

Blanket - A rubber surface fabric, which is clamped around a cylinder, to which the image is transferred from the printing plate, and from which it is transferred to the paper on the press.

Bleed - The area that runs off the edge of a printed sheet. Applies mostly to photographs or areas of spot or process colour.

Bleed marks - Printers marks to show the edge of where images, objects, or text in a layout extend beyond the trim boundaries of the page.

Blockout - A printed pattern that obscures image transfers or selected areas of a form or other printed piece.

.bmp - bitmap file extension. See bitmap pictures

Bond papers - A grade of writing or printing paper where strength, durability and performance are essential requirements. Commonly used for letterheads other business publications.

Book paper - A general term used for coated and uncoated papers.

Brightness - The reflectance or brilliance of the paper.

C

Caliper - The thickness of paper, usually expresses thousandths of an inch (mils).

Camera ready - Material ready to be photographed to create a printing plate.

Carbonless paper - Any stock coated, manufactured, or treated to provide part to part imaging under pressure with out the use of carbon intervals.

Cast coated - A coated stock characterized by a high gloss, mirror like finish. Very smooth.

CB coated back - The top sheet in a carbonless form.

CF coated front - The last sheet in a corbonless form.

CFB coated front and back - The middle sheets in a corbonless form.

Clipping path - A Bézier outline that tells an application which areas of a picture are considered transparent.

CMYK cyan, magenta, yellow and black - A colour model that defines colour as it is absorbed and reflected on a printed page. You use the CMYK colour model to create a publication for a commercial process-colour printing.

CMYK printing also called process colour or four colour printing - A printing method that uses four semitransparent process inks– cyan, magenta, yellow and black (abbreviated as K)– to reproduce a full range of colours on a printed page. Process colour printing is typically used when your publication includes full colour photographs or multi colour graphics, and when you want the high resolution and quality that printing on offset press would allow.

Coated paper - A type of paper that has pigments applied to one or both sides. The coating increases the smoothness of the paper and improves the sharpness of most printing, especially halftones and colour photographs. Surfaces can vary from eggshell to glossy.

Coating - In plate making, the light-sensitive polymer or mixture applied to a metal plate. In printing, an emulsion, varnish or lacer applied over a printed surface to protect it.

Collate - The gathering of sheets or signatures in a predetermined order.

Colour model - The method of defining or modifying colours. Examples of colour models are: CMYK, RGB, HSB, and PANTONE among others.

Colour separations - Proofs that show how each colour in your publication will separate into colour printing plates for final printing on a commercial printer. Separations are printed in black and white even when you print them on a desktop printer. The separations are not intended to show colours, only how the colours will separate onto individual plates for printing on the press.

Commercial printer - A printer capable of printing a large variety of products for a varied market.

Composite - A proof that combines all the colour in your publication and prints them on one page. Used for commercial printing.

Compression utility - A software program that reduces a files size for storage on a disk. If a compressed file is too large to file on a single disk, the compression utility copies it onto multiple disks.

Consecutive numbering - On forms, numbers printed in a series to allow for control by the user.

Continuous form - A form manufactured from a continuous web and cut into units prior to execution. A continuous form may be carbonless or carbon-interleaved. It may be either fan folded (flat pack) or non-folded (roll).

Cover paper - A type of paper that is heavier than bond or book papers and is used for brochures, presentation folders, business cards, and so forth.

Crash Sequence - Carbonless sets arranged in proper functional order.

Crop - To remove parts of an illustration or photograph.

Crop marks - Printed lines on the edge of a page that show the printer where to cut the paper after the sheet is printed.

CTP Computer To Plate - Computer to Plate systems, or platesetters, eliminates the need for having a separate film to plate exposure system.

Curl - The distortion of a sheet due to differences in structure or coating from one side to the other, or to the absorption of moisture on an offset press.

D

Descenders - The stroke that extends below the base line. The g, j, p, q and y have descenders.

Densitometer -An instrument used to measure and control the density of ink. Used in photography to measure the density of photographic images or colours.

Density -The weight per unit volume.

Designations -Words printed at the bottom or top of a form instructing the user about what to do with the parts of the form. These words are often printed in red ink.

Die-cutting - The process of using sharp steel rules to cut special shapes for labels, boxes, and containers, from printed sheets. Die-cutting can be done on either flatbed or rotary presses. Rotary die-cutting is usually done in line with the printing.

Die-stamping - An intaglio process for the production of letterheads, business cards, etc., printing from lettering or other designs engraved into copper or steel.

Digital proofing -Electronic colour proofing, for example, using a pdf to proof a file instead of a hard copy.

Dingbat - A small character ornament, such as a star or bullet.

Docutech -Xerographic equipment used for high-speed production of short run items, like manuals, books, etc.

Dot -The single component of a printed halftone image.

Dot gain - A defect in which dots print larger than they should, causing darker tones or stronger colours.

Dpi dots per inch - The most common measure of the resolution (or clarity) of printed output. The higher the dpi, the smaller the dots, and thus the greater the clarity of words, pictures, and other objects on the page. Therefore, a measure of resolution, or the density of dotes, for a given output device, denoting how precisely an image can be printed by a printer or rendered by a display.

Drilling - In production, punching through an entire lift of forms as a final bindery operation.

Drop cap - An enlarged, often decorative capital letter at the beginning of a paragraph, chapter or publication.

Dummy - A preliminary layout showing the position of illustrations and text as they are to appear in the final reproduction. A set of blank pages made up in advance to show the size, shape, from and general style of a piece of printing.

Duotone - A term for a two-colour halftone reproduction from a one-colour photograph.

Duplex - Stock that consites of two sheets of paper laminated together.

Duplexing - Two sided copying.

E

Embossed finish - Paper with a raised or depressed surface resembling wood, cloth, leather or other pattern.

Embossing - Impressing an image in relief to achieve a raised, three dimensional surface; either overprinting or on blank paper (called blind embossing).

Emulsion - The light sensitive coating on film or paper.

Encoding - In the banking industry, encoding is the imprinting of MICR characters on cheques, deposits, or other bank documents. It also refers to the magnetized recording on the magnetic strip on the bankcard.

Engraving - A printing process where the image areas have been etched in to the surface of the printing plate.

.eps Encapsulated Postscript - A file format that turns ASCII Postscript code into binary code for easy transportation between applications. Unlike a Postscript file, an eps file can not be printed on most printers, including Postscript printers, unless it has been placed in another program.

F

Flat - The assembled negatives positioned for platemakeing

Flat bed scanner - A scanner that works in a similar manner to a photocopier; the original art is places face down on a glass plate.

Flexographic - A relief printing process that employes soft rubber or polymer plates. Typically used for printing on non-flat surfaces like pop cans and plastic bags.

FM screening frequency modulation screening - A means of digital screening. See also stochastic screening.

Foil Stamping - An impression of a design made by fusing foil to paper with the heat and pressure of an embossing letterpress. Foil Stamping is available in a wide range of colours with both high gloss and dull finishes.

Fold marks - Dashed lines indicating where a page should be folded.

Font also called type or typeface - A complete set of characters in one design, size and style. In traditional typography usage, the term "Font" may be restricted to a particular size and style or may comprise multiple sizes, or multiple sizes and styles of a typeface design.

Forms bond - Bond paper made for the specific requirements of manufacturing continuous forms.

Four colour process - Printing using CMYK. (See also CMYK and CMYK printing).

French fold - A folding method where paper is folded twice to make a page folder.

G

Gamma - A measure of contrast in photographic images.

Gate fold - A folding method where the outside page of a book is folded so as not to extend beyond the edges.

Ghosting - A latent image of a previously printed form appearing in a subsequent image. Also a image that has been intensionally lightened and placed in the background of a form.

.gif - Acronym for Graphic Interchange Format. A popular graphics format for online clip art and drawn graphics. Graphics in this format look good at low resolution.

.gif, Animated - A series of gif graphics that function like film loop, giving the appearance of animation.

Gradient - Tints or shades of one colour used to create a special pattern of increasing colour.

Grain - The direction in which most fibers lie which corresponds with the direction in which the paper is made on the paper machine.

Grammage - A term in the metric system for expressing the basis weight of paper. It is the weight in grams of a square meter of the paper expressed in g/m2.

Grayscale - Black and white printing, also referred to as black and white and shades of gray. When you print a black and white publication, the toner, wax, or ink (depending on the printer used) provides the black and gray colours, and paper provides the white.

Gravure - A printing process which employs a cylinder with tiny ink reservoirs etched on its surface.

Gripper edge - The leading edge of a sheet of paper as the paper passes through the press.

Gripper space - The amount of unprintable space needed for grippers to grasp the leading edge (gripper edge) of the paper.

Grippers - Metal fingers that clamp on paper and control its flow through the press.

H

Halftone - A reproduction of continuous-tone art (a photograph) converted into dots of various sizes so that it can be reprinted.

Hickeys - Spots or imperfections in the printing due to dirt on the press, dried ink skin, paper particles, etc.

Holdout - A property of coated paper with low ink absorption which allows ink to set on the surface with high gloss. Paper with too much holdout cause problems with set-off.

HSV an abbreviation for hue, saturation and value - A colour model used in some graphics programs. HSV must be translated to another model for colour printing or for forming screen colours.

Hue - The main attribute of a colour which distinguishes it from other colours.

I

Imagesetter - A high resolution (aprox. 1,200 dpi) imaging device that creates colour separations of a publication on film, photographic paper or plates.

Imposition - The positioning of pages on a signature so that after printing, folding, and cutting, all pages will appear in the proper sequence.

Impression - In production, one revolution of the printing cylinder. The term impression refers to the pressure created by the type, plate, or blanket as it contacts the paper and produces printed copy.

Impression cylinder - The cylinder on a printing press against which the paper picks up the impression from the inked plate in direct printing; or the blanket in offset printing.

Interpolation - In image manipulation, the increase of and image resolution by the addition of new pixels throughout the image, the colours of which are based on the neighboring pixels.

J

Jog - To align sheets of paper into a compact pile.

.jpeg acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group - A graphics format suited for photographs with a continuous range of colours. JPEG graphics produce higher resolution for colour photographs then a gif format. Also a form of compression. (Not suitable for most print applications.)

K

Knocking out - Removing the background colours underneath foreground objects or text so that the foreground colours print directly on the paper instead of on top of other colours. The opposite of knocking out is overprinting, which prints black text and objects directly overtop of colours underneath.

Kraft - A paper or board containing unbleached wood pulp (brown in colour) made by the sulfate process.

L

Lamination - A plastic film bonded by heat and pressure to a printed sheet for protection or appearance.

Laser thermography - A special heat resistant ink that will not distort or melt under temperatures and pressures of laser printers.

Leading pronounced LED-ing - The spaces between lines of text measured from the baseline to baseline. In early typesetting, strips of lead were placed between lines of type for spacing, hence the term.

Ledger paper - A grade of business paper generally used for keeping records where it is subjected to appreciable wear so it requires a high degree of durability and permanence.

Line art - An illustration suitable for reproduction without using a halftone, such as pen and ink drawing.

Line copy - Any copy suitable for reproduction without using a halftone screen.

Lithography - A printing process in which both the image and non-image areas are on the same plane. It is based on the principle that oil (ink) and water doesn't mix. The image is first transferred to a rubber blanket and then to paper.

Lossy - Image compression that functions by removing minor tonal and/or colour variations, causing visible loss of detail at high compression ratios. Can be found in jpegs.

Lpi Lines Per Inch - The resolution of a halftone screen. Should be distinguished from dpi which refers to the resultion of a device or picture.

LZW Lempel Ziv Welch - An image compression technique.

M

Make ready - In production, the complete process involved in getting presses ready to run.

Matte finish - Dull paper finish without gloss or luster.

MICR abbreviation for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition - It is an automatic data entry system using characters printed according to strict specifications and read by a device that responds to the magnetic flux imparted by each characters.

Midtone - The middle rang of tones in an image.

Moiré - An undesirable effect that results when halftone screen patterns becomes visible. This pattern is often caused by misaligned screens.

Monochrome - Single coloured. An image or medium displaying only black and white or greyscale information. Greyscale information displayed in one colour is also monochrome.

Mottling - A texture similar to orange peel sometimes caused by sharpening. It is most noticeable on flat areas like sky or skin.

N

Negative - A reverse photographic image on film or paper in which the dark areas appear light and the light areas appear dark. Film negatives are used to make printing plates.

Newsprint - Paper made mostly from groundwood pulp and small amounts of chemical pulp; used for printing newspapers.

Noise - Refers to random, incorrectly read pixel values.

Non-lossy - Image compression with out quality loss.

O

OCR acronym for Optical Character Recognition - a device or program that allows a computer to read printed information.

Offset lithography - Printing process in which an inked image is first transferred (offset) from a plate cylinder to a blanket cylinder, then from the blanket to the paper.

Opacity - That property of paper which minimizes the show-through of printing from the backside or the next sheet.

Output resolution - The dots per inch (dpi) of the output device. The higher the screen frequency, the higher is the output resolution required to maintain 256 shades of gray.

Overprinting - Printing objects and text on top of the background colour. Overprinting works best on small objects and text, and on objects and text that are black or a dark colour. The opposite of overprinting is knock out.

Over run - Copies printed in excess of the specified quantity.

P

Painting primary colours - Yellow, Red and Blue. Red and blue are substitutes for cyan and magenta which have not been historically available.

PANTONE - One of the most widely used colour matching systems in commercial printing.

Pdf Portable Document Format - A proprietary format for the transfer of designs across multiple computer platforms. Pdf is a universal electronic file format, modeled after the Postscript language and is device- and resolution - independent. Documents in the pdf format can be viewed, navigated, and printed from any computer regardless of the fonts or software used to create the original.

Perforation - A series of cuts or holes manufactured on a form to weaken it for tearing.

Per M - The standard reference for "per thousand," a common method of pricing. (M is the Roman numeral for 1,000).

Pica - Printers unit of measurement used principally in typesetting. One pica equals approximately 1/6 of an inch.

.pict - A standard data format in which most Macintosh illustrations are encoded.

Pixel short for picture elements - A tiny square on an invisible grid that is used to display objects on the computer and the printed page. If the pixel is "turned on," it has colour or shading; if it is "turned off," it looks like a blank space. Pixels can vary in size from one type of monitor to another. A greater number of pixels per inch (ppi) results in higher resolution on screen or in print.

Plate - The surface from which a print is made that bears the image to be reproduced. A plate may be made of metal, rubber, synthetic rubber, photo polymer, or plastic, and is treated to carry an image to the printing surface on the press.

Plate gap - On the printed piece, the image free area resulting from the need to tack the ends of the plate to the cylinder.

Point - A precise unit of typographic measurement, used to specify leading. One Inch = 72 points. Note: Font sizes are measured completely differently from leading, even though they're both specified by points, and the only way you can verify font size on your hard copy is by measuring it against the designated sizes you'll find on a E-scale.

Postscript - A programming language created by Adobe Systems. Postscript allows a programmer to create complex pages using a series of commands. Text and graphics can be controlled with mathematical precision.

Postscript compatible - Any software program that translates statements written in the Postscript page description language. Sometimes called "Postscript clone."

Preflight check - The pre-press process in which the printing service verifies that fonts and linked graphics are available, traps your publication, makes colour corrections or separations, and sets final printing options.

Pressure-sensitive paper - Material with an adhesive coating protected by a backing sheet until used.

Printer description files - Files that allow applications to use printer specific features.

Profile - The colour characteristics of an input or output device, used by a CMS to ensure colour fidelity.

Proof - A sheet of printed copy that is a representation of a printed piece. Both appearance and composition accuracy are examined and corrections are marked on the proof itself.

R

Raster - A synonym for grid. Sometimes used to refer to the grid of addressable positions in an output device.

Ream - Five hundred sheets of paper.

Reflow - The repositioning of characters or line brakes caused by modifications to text.

Registration marks - Cross hair marks placed on a key line, overlays or spot and process colour separations to insure proper positioning on the press.

Res short for resolution - A term used to define image resolution instead of ppi. Res 12 indicates 12 pixels per millimeter.

Resampleing - An increase or reduction in the number of pixels in an image, required to change its resolution without altering its size.

Resolution - A measure of how precisely an image can be printed by a printer or rendered by a display. Printer resolution is specified in toner dotes per inch (dpi). The higher the value, the finer the detail of the image.

Reverse type - Light coloured type on a dark background.

RGB Red, Green, Blue - The colour model used to display colours on your computer screen. Also the colour model light uses.

Rich black - A black that incorporate colours such as, cyan, magenta and yellow, to gain visual impact by printing darker.

RIP Raster image processor - A device or program that translates the instructions for the page in the page description or graphics output language to the actual pattern of dots (bitmap) supplied to a printing or display system.

Rosette - The pattern created when all four CMYK colour halftone screens are printed at traditional angles, shown to produce the best results in printed colour output. The rosette pattern is noticeable only under magnification.

Runnability - Paper properties that affect the ability of the paper to run on the press.

S

Sans serif - A font without serifs (small finishing strokes): T (sans serif) verses T (serif).

Scanner - Converting an image to a digital file that can be stored, retrieved, displayed and printed by a computer.

Scattering - A process in which error-delusion techniques are applied to half-toning to eliminate banding on monochrome printers.

Score - To impress or indent a mark with a string or rule in the paper to make folding easier.

Screen - A pattern of dots used to create the illusion of a continuous tone photograph. Measured in lines per inch (lpi).

Screen angle - The angle at which a screen is rotated for printing. The angle affects the way the way the halftone dots are laid down on each separation film. If the dots do not align correctly, moiré patterns appear when the films are placed on top of one another.

Screen frequency - The number of halftone cells per unit of measurement in a screen; the higher the frequency, the finer the screen.

Serif - Small finishing strokes on a letter (like little "feet" on the bottom or top of the vertical stroke): T (sans serif) verses T (serif).

Service bureau - An organization that provides services, such as scanning and pre-press checks, that prepare your publication to be printed on a commercial printing press. Service bureaus do not, however, print your publication. To find out if you need a service bureau, talk to your printing professional.

Set off - The unintentional transfer of ink from one printed sheet to another. Also called offset.

Slide scanner - A scanner that can utilize transmission or transparent images, as opposed to reflective or opaque images.

Show through - The undesirable condition in which the printing on the reverse side of a sheet can be seen through the sheet under normal lighting conditions.

Signature - The name given to a printed sheet after it has been folded.

Snap set - A form set with glued stub construction designed for rapid form separation and removal of carbon (if any) in one operation. A snap set is normally non-continuous, and it may use carbonless paper rather then carbon interleaved.

Speckling - Isolated light pixels in predominantly dark image areas, sometimes caused by incorrect readings or noise in a scanning device.

Spiral binding - A book bound with wires or plastic in a spiral form inserted through holes punched along the binding side.

Spot colour printing - The printing method in which one or two colours (or tints of colours) are produced using premixed inks, typically chosen from a standard colour matching guilds. Unlike process colours that reproduce colour photographs and art, spot colours are typically used to emphasize headings, boarders, and graphics, to match colours in graphics, such as logos, and to specify special inks, such as, varnish or metallics.

Spread - In page layout, two or more adjoining pages. In trapping, an option where a colour object is slightly enlarged when printed to overlap the edge of the knockout area.

Stochastic screening - A digital screening process that converts images into very small dots (14-40 microns) of equal size and variable spacing. Second order screened images have variable size dots and variable spacing. Also called Frequency Modulated (FM) screening.

Stock - Paper or other material to be printed.

Stripping - The positioning of negatives (or positives) on a flat to compose a page or layout for plate making.

Subtractive primary colours - Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. The primary colours that work by blocking out spectrums of light reaching the eye.

T

.tiff Tagged Image File Format - A file format for graphics developed by Aldus, Adobe, and Apple that is particularly suited for scanned images and other large bitmaps. Tiff is a neutral format designed for compatibility with both Macintosh and MS-DOS applications.

Tone - Also known as gamma curves, these are used to smoothly adjust the overall tonal ranges of each colour channel.

Tooth - A characteristic of paper, a slightly rough finish, which permits it to take ink readily.

Trapping - Extending the lighter colours of an object into the darker colours of an adjoining object. This colour overlaps just enough to fill in the areas where gaps could appear due to misregistraion.

True type - Scalable outline font files that can contain bitmapped representations for displaying on the screen within one file.

Type 1 - An industry standard format for outlined fonts.

U

USM UnSharp Masking - A process used to sharpen images.

UV inks - Solventless inks that are cured by UV radiation. They are used extensively in screen printing, narrow web letterpress and flexographic printing.

V

Varnish - A thin, protective coating applied to a printed sheet for protection or appearance.

Vellum finish - A toothy paper finish which is relatively absorbent for fast ink penetration.

W

Wash up - The process of cleaning the rollers, form or plate, and sometimes the ink fountains of a printing press.

Watermark - A lightly shaded object appearing behind everything else on the page. For example, you can place a graphic, or a word such as "Confidential," on the background of a publication, so that it appears behind text on the foreground.

Web - (not the internet.) - A continuous ribbon of paper that unwinds from a roll and threads through the press.

Web press - A press that prints on roll- or web-fed paper.

White point - A movable reference point that defines the lightest area in an image, causing all other areas to be adjusted accordingly.

Wire-o binding - The continuous double series of wire loops that run through punched slots along the binding side of a booklet.

Work and tumble - To print one side of a sheet of paper, then turn it over from gripper to back using the same side guide and plate to print the second side.

Work and turn - To print one side of the sheet of paper, the turn it over from left to right and print the second side using the same gripper and plate but opposite side guide.

Wove paper - Paper having a uniform unlined surface and a soft smooth finish.

WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get, Pronounced wizzy-wig - An expression characterizing page processing and typesetting programs or systems which show on screen the final output from a printer or imagesetter, complete with correct line breaks, pagination, and other formatting, as well as graphics, images, and colour.