Print Jargon

This glossary of printing terms was created by people working in today's printing industry. It has been revised and edited to help the desktop publisher understand the printing trade. We have rewritten some technical descriptions in everyday language to help the non technical person.

 

Against the grain: At right angles to direction of paper grain. 

 

Alteration: Change in copy of specifications after production has begun. 

 

Author's corrections: Also know as "ACs". Changes and additions in copy after it has been typeset. 

 

Back up: Printing the second side of a sheet already printed on one side. 

 

Banding: Method of packaging printed pieces of paper using rubber or paper bands. 

  

Bind: To fasten sheets or signatures with wire, thread, glue. or by other means. 

 

Bindery: The finishing department of a print shop or firm specializing in finishing printed products. 

  

Bleed: Printing that goes to the edge of the sheet after trimming. 

 

Blind embossing: An image pressed into a sheet without ink or foil. 

 

Bulk pack: Boxing printed product without wrapping or banding. 

 

Carbonless: Pressure sensitive writing paper that does not use carbon. 

 

Collate: A finishing term for gathering paper in a precise order. 

 

Color bar: A quality control term regarding the spots of ink color on the tail of a sheet. 

 

Color correction: Methods of improving color separations. 

 

Comb bind: To plastic comb bind by inserting the comb into punched holes. 

 

Copy: All furnished material or disc used in the production of a printed product. 

 

Cover paper: A heavy printing paper used to cover books, make presentation folders, etc. 

 

Crop: To cut off parts of a picture or image. 

 

Crop marks: Printed lines showing where to trim a printed sheet. 

 

Crossover: Printing across the gutter or from one page to the facing page of a publication. 

 

Cyan: One of four standard process colors. The blue color. 

 

Densitometer: A quality control devise to measure the density of printing ink. 

 

Density: The degree of color or darkness of an image or photograph. 

 

Die: Metal rule or imaged block used to cut or place an image on paper in the finishing process. 

 

Die cutting: Curing images in or out of paper. 

 

Dot: An element of halftones. Using a loupe you will see that printed pictures are made many dots. 

 

Dot gain or spread: A term used to explain the difference in size between the dot on film v paper. 

 

Dummy: A rough layout of a printed piece showing position and finished size. 

 

Duotone: A halftone picture made up of two printed colors. 

 

Emboss: Pressing an image into paper so that it will create a raised relief. 

 

Foil: A metallic or pigmented coating on plastic sheets or rolls used in foil stamping and foil embossing. 

 

Foil emboss: Foil stamping and embossing a image on paper with a die. 

 

Foil stamping: Using a die to place a metallic or pigmented image on paper. 

 

4-colour-process: The process of combining four basic colors to create a printed color picture or colors composed from the basic four colours. 

 

Gang: Getting the most out of a printing press by using the maximum sheet size to print multiple images or jobs on the same sheet. A way to save money. 

 

Ghosting: A faint printed image that appears on a printed sheet where it was not intended. More often than not this problem is a function of graphical design. It is hard to tell when or where ghosting will occur. Sometimes you can see the problem developing immediately after printing the sheet, other times the problem occurs while drying. However the problem occurs it is costly to fix, if it can be fixed. Occasionally it can be eliminated by changing the color sequence, the inks, the paper, changing to a press with a drier, printing the problem area in a separate pass through the press or changing the racking (reducing the number of sheets on the drying racks). Since it is a function of graphical design, the buyer pays for the increased cost. 

 

Gloss: A shiny look reflecting light. 

 

Grain: The direction in which the paper fiber lie. 

 

Grippers: The metal fingers on a printing press that hold the paper as it passes through the press. 

 

Hairline: A very thin line or gap about the width of a hair or 1/100 inch. 

 

Halftone: Converting a continuous tone to dots for printing. 

 

Hickey: Reoccurring unplanned spots that appear in the printed image from dust, lint, dried ink. 

 

Highlight: The lightest areas in a picture or halftone. 

 

Image area: Portion of paper on which ink can appear. 

 

Imposition: Positioning printed pages so they will fold in the proper order. 

 

Ink fountain: The reservoir on a printing press that hold the ink. 

 

Laminate: To cover with film, to bond or glue one surface to another. 

 

Lines per inch: The number of rows of dots per inch in a halftone. 

 

Loupe: A magnifying glass used to review a printed image, plate and position film. 

 

Magenta: Process red, one of the basic colors in process color. 

 

Makeready: All the activities required to prepare a press for printing. 

 

Middle tones: The tones in a photograph that are approximately half as dark as the shadow area. 

 

Moire: Occurs when screen angles are wrong causing odd patterns in photographs. 

 

Negative: The image on film that makes the white areas of originals black and black areas white. 

 

Non-reproducing blue: A blue color the camera cannot see. Used in marking up artwork. 

 

Offsetting: Using an intermediate surface used to transfer ink. Also, an unpleasant happening when the images of freshly printed sheets transfer images to each other. 

 

Ok sheet: Final approved color inking sheet before production begins. 

 

Opacity: The amount of show-through on a printed sheet. The more opacity or the thicker the paper the less show-through. (The thicker/heavier the paper the higher the cost.) 

 

Overrun or overs: Copies printed in excess of the specified quantity. (Printing trade terms allow for + - 10 % to represent a completed order.) 

   

Page count: Total number of pages in a book including blanks. 

 

Perfect bind: A type of binding that glues the edge of sheets to a cover like a telephone book, Microsoft software manual, or Country Living Magazine. 

 

Perfecting press: A sheet fed printing press that prints both sides of a sheet in one pass. 

 

Picking: Printers nightmare that occurs as the surface of a sheet lifts off during printing. Generally a paper manufactures quality control problem. 

 

PMS: The abbreviated name of the Pantone Colour Matching System. 

 

PostScript: The computer language most recognized by printing devices. 

 

Press number: A method of numbering manufacturing business forms or tickets. 

 

Pressure-sensitive paper: Paper material with self sticking adhesive covered by a backing sheet. 

 

Process blue: The blue or cyan color in process printing. 

 

Process colours: Cyan (blue), magenta (process red), yellow (process yellow), black (process black). 

 

Ream: Five hundred sheets of paper. 

 

Recto: Right-hand page of an open book. 

 

Register: To position print in the proper position in relation to the edge of the sheet and to other printing on the same sheet. 

 

Register marks: Cross-hair lines or marks on film, plates, and paper that guide strippers, platemakers, pressmen, and bindery personnel in processing a print order from start to finish. 

 

Reverse: The opposite of what you see. Printing the background of an image. For example; type your name on a piece of paper. The reverse of this would be a black piece of paper with a white name. 

 

Saddle stitch: Binding a booklet or magazine with staples in the seam where it folds. 

 

Score: A crease put on paper to help it fold better. 

 

Screen angles: Frequently a desktop publishers nightmare. The angles at which halftone, duo tones, tri tones, and colour separation printing films are placed to make them look right. 

 

Self-cover: Using the same paper as the text for the cover. 

 

Show-through: Printing on one side of a sheet that can be seen on the other side of the sheet. 

 

Side guide: The mechanical register unit on a printing press that positions a sheet from the side. 

 

Side stitch: Binding by stapling along one side of a sheet. 

 

Signature: A sheet of printed pages which when folded become a part of a book or publication. 

 

Specifications: A precise description of a print order. 

 

Spine: The binding edge of a book or publication. 

 

Spot varnish: Varnish used to highlight a specific part of the printed sheet. 

 

Stamping:  Term for foil stamping.

 

Stock: The material to be printed. 

 

Substrate: Any surface on which printing is done. 

 

Tints: A shade of a single color or combined colours. 

 

Transfer tape: A peel and stick tape used in business forms. 

  

Transparent ink: A printing ink that does not conceal the colour under it. 

 

Trapping: The ability to print one ink over the other, usually used to overlap edges of different colours to eliminate the possibility of a white gap.

 

Trim marks: Similar to crop or register marks. These marks show where to trim the printed sheet. 

 

Trim size: The final size of one printed image after the last trim is made. 

 

Up: Printing two or three up means printing multiple copies of the same image on the same sheet. 

 

UV coating: Liquid laminate bonded and cured with ultraviolet light. Environmentally  friendly. 

 

Varnish: A clear liquid applied to printed surfaces for looks and protection. (UV coating looks better.) 

 

Verso: The left hand page of an open book. 

 

Vignette halftone: A halftone whose background gradually fades to white. 

 

Waste: A term for planned spoilage. 

 

Watermark: A distinctive design created in paper at the time of manufacture that can be easily seen by holding the paper up to a light. 

 

Web: A roll of printing paper. 

 

Web press: The name of a type of presses that print from rolls of paper. 

 

Wire-O binding: A method of wire binding books along the binding edge that will allow the book to lay flat using double loops.

 

With the grain: Folding or feeding paper into the press or folder parallel to the grain of the paper.