There’s still a place for print and often the terminology is confusing. Pro Print has provided a list of common printing terms that we have shared below. The next time your printer asks for marks and bleeds, or CMYK or singles you’ll know what they are on about and what we need to do to make the file print ready.
- Against the grain:
- At right angles to the grain direction to the paper.
- Art paper:
- A common term used to describe a range of smooth papers with a filled surface.
- Artwork:
- A process which follows the initial design stage which makes rough ideas into a print-ready form.
- Backing up:
- Process of printing on the second side of a printed sheet.
- Binding:
- Process of fastening papers together.
- Blanket:
- Thick rubber sheet that transfers ink from plate to paper on the press.
- Blind emboss:
- Impression of an un-inked image onto the back of a sheet which produces a raised ’embossed’ image on the front of the sheet.
- Bleed:
- The printed image extends beyond the trim edge of a sheet or page. A bleed may occur at the head, front, foot and/or gutter of a page.
- Blend:
- A smooth transition between two colours, also known as a graduated tint.
- Carbonless paper (NCR):
- Paper coated with chemicals that enable transfer of images from one sheet to another with pressure from writing or typing.
- CMYK:
- Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), the 4 process colours, which combined together in varying proportions can be made to produce the full colour spectrum.
- Collating:
- Gathering together sheets of paper from a book, magazine or brochure and placing them into the correct order.
- Colour separation:
- Process by which a continuous tone colour image is separated into the four process colours (CMYK} for print production.
- Concertina fold:
- A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect.
- Crease:
- To mechanically press a rule into heavy paper or board to enable it to be folded without cracking.
- Creep:
- Phenomenon when middle pages of a folded section extend slightly beyond the outside pages.
- Crop marks:
- Lines near the margins of artwork or photos indicating where to trim, perforate or fold.
- CTP:
- Abbreviation of computer-to-plate; a process of printing directly from a computer onto the plate used by a printing press.
- Crop:
- To trim the edges of a picture or page to make it fit or remove unwanted portions.
- Ceboss:
- Image pressed into paper so it lies below the surface.
- Die-cutting:
- Process of using sharp metal rules on a wooden block to cut out specialised shapes such as pocket folders or unusual shaped flyers etc – A BISHOPS SPECIALITY!
- Dot gain:
- A printing defect in which dots print larger than intended, causing darker colours or tones; due to the spreading of ink on stock. the more absorbent the stock, the more dot gain. It can vary by type of ink also.
- DPI:
- A measure of the quality of an image from a scanner or output resolution of a printer. The more dots per inch, the higher the quality will be but the larger the file size the slower it will process.
- Drilling:
- Drilling of holes in product which will allow insertion over rings or posts in a binder of some sort.
- Dummy:
- A mock-up made to resemble the final printed product which uses the proposed grade, weight, finish and colour of paper.
- Embed:
- Implies the inclusion of elements and data into a computer file necessary to maintain or change the elements when used remotely.
- Embossing:
- A process performed after printing to stamp a raised (or depressed} image into the surface of paper, using engraved metal embossing dies, extreme pressure, and heat. embossing styles include blind, deboss and foil- embossed.
- Foil stamping:
- A metallic finish, or other embossed finishes applied by specialist equipment.
- Font:
- One of a range of styles/typefaces in which lettering can be produced during the type setting stage, e.g. Times New Roman, lOpt.
- Format
- Size, shape and overall style of layout or printed project.
- FTP site:
- A simple internet-based method of uploading your artwork files so they can be transferred easily by our Repro department.
- Full colour:
- Or ‘four colour process’ using the four basic printing colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
- GSM:
- Paper weight is measured in grams per square metre.
- Greyscale:
- Shades of grey ranging from black to white; in printing, greyscale uses only a black halftone plate.
- Gusset:
- Expandable portion of a pocketed folder or envelope.
- Halftone:
- Picture with varying shades of tone created by varying size dots.
- Hickey:
- Spot or imperfection in printing.
- Imposition:
- Positioning pages in a press-ready form so that they will be in the correct numerical sequence after folding.
- Imagesetter:
- A device that plots high-resolution bitmaps which have been processed by a RIP. may include type, graphics and photographic images.
- Kiss-cut:
- To die-cut but not all the way through the paper – commonly used for peel off stickers.
- Lamination:
- A thin film coating which is applied to the paper or board to give a more glossy or matt appearance.
- Lithographic printing:
- A printing process based on the principle of the natural aversion of water to grease. The areas to be printed receive and transfer ink to the paper, the non-printing areas are treated with water to repel the ink.
- LPI:
- Lines per inch – refers to the quality of a halftone screen. it is important to distinguish it from dpi which refers to the resolution of a device or image. commonly lpi is used at exactly half of the dpi of the device or image, i.e. 300dpi would equal lS0lpi.
- Make-ready:
- The work associated with the set-up of printing equipment before running a job.
- Micrometer:
- Instrument used for measuring the thickness of paper.
- Moire pattern:
- An undesirable grid-like pattern caused by the misalignment of dots on a printed document. this can occur when printing or sometimes when scanning from pre-printed material.
- Origination:
- A term used to describe all of the processes which prepare a job for the printing stage.
- Offset printing:
- A method in which the plate or cylinder transfers an ink image to an offset or transfer roller, which then transfers the image to stock.
- Pantone® colours:
- Premixed ink colours that are often specified for printing as a spot colour. can be matched using CMYK but will not be exactly the same colour as its Pantone colour counterpart.
- Perfecting:
- Process of printing both sides of one sheet during a single pass through the press.
- Perfect binding:
- A bookbinding method in which pages are glued rather than sewn to the cover. Used primarily for paperback books.
- Proof:
- A representation of the finished print produced for customer inspection for errors to be corrected prior to printing.
- Registration marks:
- Crosses or other marks placed on artwork which ensure perfect alignment (‘registration’).
- Reversed-out:
- Type appearing white on a black or colour background, either a solid or a tint.
- Resolution:
- The number of dots per inch (dpi) in a computer-processed document. The level of detail retained by a printed document increases with higher resolution. ppi (pixels per inch) for an image.
- Registration marks:
- Reference marks on the page used to align overlaying colours. Also known as trim marks or crop marks.
- RGB:
- An acronym for red, green and blue. RGB is a colour model used for computer monitors and colour video output systems. colour separations for litho printing cannot be made directly from RGB files and need to be converted to CMYK first.
- Saddle stitch:
- A binding process in which a pamphlet or booklet is stapled through the middle fold of its sheets using metal wires.
- Score:
- A pressed mark in a sheet of paper or card to make folding cleaner and easier.
- Self-cover:
- The paper used inside a booklet is the same as that used for the cover and is generally printed on the same press run.
- Step-up:
- A term used to describe the positioning of documents several times onto the same sheet of paper to avoid paper wastage. It’s also known as imposition.
- Spot colour:
- Spot colour is not made using the process colours. instead the colour is printed using an ink made exclusively. each spot colour therefore requires its own separate printing plate. spot colours do not apply to digital printing as the printing devices can only reproduce from the four process colours; cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
- Spread:
- Two or more adjoining pages that would appear in view on sheet.
- Solid:
- An area on the page which is completely covered by the ink.
- TIFF:
- Acronym for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF (.TIF} pictures can be black-and-white line art, greyscale or colour. this is a widely used format for image/photographic files but is unsuitable for text unless it is created at a very hi- resolution.
- Sint:
- An area of tone made by a pattern of dots, which lightens the apparent colour of the ink with which it is printed.
- Trapping:
- A slight overlapping between two touching colours that prevents gaps from appearing along the edges of an object because of misalignment or movement on the printing press.
- Turnaround time:
- Amount of time needed to complete a project.
- UV varnish:
- A liquid laminate that is bonded and cured with ultraviolet light.
- Varnishing/sealing:
- The application of a varnish/sealant to a surface to offer protection against marking and improve its overall appearance.
- Wire-o binding:
- A method of wire binding books along the binding edge that will allow the book to lay flat.
- Work and tumble:
- To print one side of a sheet of paper then turn the sheet over from gripper to back using the opposite gripper edge but the same side guide to print the second side.
- Work and turn:
- To print one side of a sheet of paper then turn the sheet over from left to right and print the second side using the same gripper edge to print the second side.