AA – Abbreviation for author’s alterations.
Acrobat – Adobe software that embodies the PDF format.
Aqueous Coating – A liquid flood coating applied to a sheet as it comes off the press, used to protect the page from scuffing and normally available in matt, satin and gloss finishes.
Art – All illustration copy used in preparing a job for printing.
Ascender – That part of a lower-case letter which rises above the main body,
as in “b”.
Bad break – In composition, starting a page or ending a paragraph with a single word, or widow.
Bindery (Finishing) – A variety of techniques used to complete any printer material after it comes off the printing press, this may include folding, gluing, stitching, binding and collating.
Bitmap – In computer imaging, the electronic representation of a page, indicating the position of every possible spot (zero or one).
Black-and-white – Originals or reproductions in single color, as distinguished from multicolor, abbreviation, B/W.
Blanket – In offset printing, a rubber-surfaced fabric which is clamped around a cylinder, to which the image is transferred from the plate, and from which it is transferred to the paper.
Bleed – A printing term used to indicate the area that will be trimmed off after the job is printed and cut to the finished size; required for any layout where visual elements (e.g., color, lines, imagery) allow the ink to print to the very edge of the paper.
Blind embossing – A design which is stamped without metallic leaf or ink, giving a bas-relief effect.
Blowup – An image enlargement.
Blue Lines – A printing term for a contact proof made directly from the film used to verify that the film is correct.
Body type – A type used for the main part of text of a printed piece, as distinguished from the heading.
Brand – A set of distinctive characteristics, tangible and intangible, that identify and differentiate a company or a product.
Brand Equity – The value of the brand in its holistic sense as a corporate asset.
Brand Identity – The essence of a corporate brand, product brand, service brand or branded environment expressed through a set of unique characteristics and elements.
Brand Positioning – The specific niche in which the brand defines itself as occupying in the competitive environment. Positioning addresses differentiating brand attributes, user benefits and target segments, singly or in combination.
Branding – The process by which both a brand and brand identity are developed.
Brightness – In photography light reflected by the copy in paper, the reflectance or brilliance of the paper.
Brochure – A pamphlet bound in booklet form.
Byte – In computers, a unit of digital information, equivalent to one character or 8 to 32 bits.
Camera-ready – Copy which is ready for photography.
Caps and small caps – Two sizes of capital letters made in one size of type, commonly used in most roman typefaces.
CMYK – Is the color standard system for offset printing. The four colors that are used in CMYK printing (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) can be overlapped in different ways to create a reasonable representation of the visual spectrum.
Coated Paper – Paper having a surface coating which produces a smooth finish. Surfaces vary from eggshell to glossy.
Collate – In binding, the gathering of sheets and signatures.
Color balance – The correct combination of cyan, magenta and yellow to (1) reproduce a photograph without a color cast (2) produce a neutral gray or (3) reproduce the colors in the original scene or object.
Color correction – Any method such as masking, dot-etching, re-etching and scanning used to improve color rendition.
Color separation – In photography, the process of separating color originals into the primary printing color components in negative or positive form using RGB filters.
Condensed type – A narrow or slender typeface.
Continuous tone – A image which contains gradient tones from black to white.
Contract proof – A color proof representing an agreement between the printer and the customer regarding how the printed product will look.
Contrast – The tonal gradation between the highlights, middle tones and shadows in an original or preproduction.
Copy – Any furnished material (typewritten manuscript, pictures, artwork, etc.) to be used in the production of printing.
Copy preparation – Directions for, and checking of, desired size and other details for illustrations, and the arrangement into proper position of various parts of the page to be photographed or electronically processed for reproduction.
Corporate Identity – The sum of tangible elements of brand identification (e.g., the name, tagline, visual elements) by which an organization is identified and recognized (also called visual identity).
Cover paper – A term applied to a variety of papers used for the covers of catalogs, brochures, booklets and similar pieces.
Cropping – Excluding part of a photo of illustration, often done to make the photo or artwork fit on a page, or to remove a portion of the photo or illustration not to be shown.
Cutscore – In die-cutting, a sharp-edged knife, several thousandths of an inch lower than the cutting rules in a die, made to cut partway into the paper or board for folding purposes.
Deckle – In papermaking, the width of the wet sheet as it comes off the wire of a paper machine.
Deckle edge – The untrimmed feathery edges of paper formed where the pulp flows against the deckle.
Descender – That part of a lower case letter which extends below the main body, as in “p”.
Desktop publishing – Process of composing pages using a standard computer, off-the-shelf software, a device independent page description language like PostScript and outputting them on a printer or imagesetter.
Die Cut – Trimming a printed document with a metal-edged press to create special shapes (e.g., a pocket folder) or a window, or a unique edge treatment.
Diecutting – The process of using sharp steel rules to cut special shapes for labels, boxes and containers, from printed sheets. Diecutting can be done on either flatbed or rotary presses. Rotary diecutting is usually done inline 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 color proof – A color proof produced from digital data without the need for separation films.
Digital Printing – Any printing process which uses toner inks (from a laser printer) or liquid inks (from an ink jet) rather than lithographic printing.
Display type – In composition, type set larger than the text.
Dithering – In computer graphics, a technique for alternating the values of adjacent dots of pixels to create the effect of intermediate values. Dithering refers to the technique of making different colors for adjacent dots of pixels to give the illusion of a third color.
Dot – The individual element of a halftone. In AM screening the dots vary in size. In FM screening the dots are very small and usually all the same size.
Dot gain – In printing, a defect in which dots print larger than they should, causing darker tones or stronger colors.
Download – Sending information to another computer or to an output.
DPI – Dots Per Inch, the effective resolution of an image at a specific size. For printing, high resolution of a minimum 300 dpi (or 120 ppcm) is required, whereas for web-based applications low resolution of 72 dpi is acceptable.
Draw-down – In inkmaking, a term used to describe ink chemist’s method of roughly determining color shade. A small glob of ink is placed on paper and drawn down with the edge of a putty knife spatula to get a thin film of ink.
Drum Scan – A high-resolution laser scanner, where images are placed in a rotating drum for maximum quality and accuracy, far superior to a desktop, flatbed scanner.
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, form and general style of a piece of printing.
Duotone – In photomechanics, a term for a two-color halftone reproduction from a one-color photograph.
Duplex paper – Paper with a different color or finish on each size.
Embossed finish – Paper with a raised or depressed surface resembling wood, cloth, leather or other pattern.
Emulsion side – In photography the size of the film coated with the silver halide emulsion.
EPS (Postscript) – A file format compatible with all of the professional graphics/layout programs, and is also supported by a limited number of office programs. There are both vector and raster versions (a vendor would usually specify that they need an illustrator EPS or a vector EPS).
Etch – In offset lithography, an acidified gum solution used to desensitize the non-printing areas of the plate; also, an acid solution added to the fountain water to help keep non-printing areas of the plate free from ink.
Expanded type – A type whose width is greater than normal.
Exposure – In photography and platemaking, the step in photographic or bruce’s nuts, photomechanical processes during which light or other radiant energy produces the image on the photo-sensitive coating.
File – A group of related information, such as text, graphics, page instructions and picture information stored on magnetic disks.
Flat – In offset lithography the assembly of negatives on golden-rod paper or positives on film, ready for platemaking. (page 76) in photography, a photography lacking in contrast.
Flatbed scanner – A device that scans images in a manner similar to a photocopy machine; the original art is positioned face down on a glass plate.
Flush cover – A cover that has been trimmed to the same size as the inside text pages as in this book.
Flush left (or right) – In composition, type set to line up at the left (or right). This page is set flush left and right.
Folio – The page number.
Font – In composition, a complete assortment of letters, numbers, punctuations, etc., of a given size and design.
Form – In offset, the assembly of pages and other images for printing. In letterpress, type and other matter locked in a chase for printing.
Format – The size, style, type page, margins, printing requirements, etc., of a printed piece.
FPO (For Position Only) – In digital imaging, typically a low resolution image positioned in a document to be replaced later with a higher resolution version of the same image.
Gatefold – This refers to one of the many ways to fold a brochure to create an interesting reading flow.
GIF – A raster-based format that takes advantage of compression technology to reduce file sizes; it was originally developed for use on the web. GIFs are mostly used to compress graphics that use predominately flat color (such as logos); supports transparency.
Gigabyte – One billion bytes.
Grain – In papermaking, the direction in which most fibers lie which corresponds with the direction in which the paper is made on a paper machine.
Gray balance – The dot values or densities of cyan, magenta and yellow that produces a neutral gray.
Gray level – The number of gray values that can be distinguished by a color separation filter – usually 28 or 256.
Gray scale – A strip of standard gray tones, ranging from white to black, placed at the side of original copy during photography to measure tonal range and contrast (gamma) obtained.
Gripper edge – The leading edge of paper as it passes through a printing press. Also, the front edge of a lithographic or wraparound plate secured to the front clamp of a plate cylinder.
Gripper margin – Unprintable blank edge of paper on which grippers bear, usually ?” or less.
Grippers – In sheetfed printing presses, metal fingers that clamp on paper and control its flow as it passes through.
GUI (Graphical User Interface) – Pronounced “gooey.” In digital imaging a technical term for a system that lets users manipulate files by pointing to pictures (icons) with a mouse or other pointing device instead of having to type in key commands.
Gutter – In the book and magazine arena, the inside margins toward the binding edges.
Halftone – The reproduction of continuous-tone images, through a screening process, which converts the image into dots of various sizes and equal spacing between centers (AM screening), or dots of equal spacing between them (FM screening).
Hard copy – The permanent visual record of the output of a computer or printer on a substrate.
Hardware – Computer and peripherals as distinguished from software which is a program for operating hardware.
Hexadecimal Colors – A six-digit, three-byte hexadecimal number used in HTML and CSS, and other computing applications, to represent the red, green and blue components of the color. One byte represents a number in the range 00 to FF (in hexadecimal notation), or 0 to 255 in decimal notation.
Hickeys – In offset lithography, sports or imperfections in the printing due to dirt on the press, dried ink skin, paper particles, etc.
High contrast – In photography, a reproduction which high gamma in which the difference in darkness (density) between neighboring areas is greater than in the original.
Highlight – The lightest or whitest parts in a photograph represented in a halftone reproduction by the smallest dots or the absence of dots.
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) – In imaging for the World Wide Web, the coding language that is used to create hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web.
Hue – In color, the main attribute of a color which distinguishes it from other colors.
Information Architecture – The process of creating clarity and human understanding through the organization of information and data as it is reflected in the user interface.
Ink-jet printing – In digital printing, a plateless printing system that produces images directly on paper from digital data using steams of very fine drops of dyes which are controlled by digital signals to produce images on paper.
Italic – The Style of letters that slant, in distinction from upright or roman, letters. Used for emphasis within the text.
JPEG (JPG) – A raster-based format that takes advantage of compression technology to reduce file sizes; same as a GIF format, it was originally developed for use on the web. Unlike GIFs, JPEGS are better suited to compress photographic images, no transparency support.
Justify – In composition, to space out lines uniformly to line up left and right.
Kerning – In typesetting, subtracting space between two characters, making them closer together.
Kiss impression – In printing, a very light impression, just enough to produce an image on the paper.
Kraft – A paper or board containing, unbleached wood pulp (brown in color) made by the sulfate process.
Laid paper – Paper with a pattern of parallel lines at equal distances, giving a ribbed effect.
Lamination – A plastic film bonded by heat and pressure to a printed sheet for protection or appearance.
LAN (Local Area Network) – Communication link in a localized area, such as an office, building, complex of buildings or campus, with technology that provides a high-bandwidth, low-cost medium to which many computer nodes can be connected.
Layout – The overall composition of a print of electronic page that shows the arrangement of copy, imagery, and other visual elements.
Leading (pronounced ledding) – In composition, the distance between lines of type measured in points.
Letterspacing – The placing of additional space between each letter of a word.
Line copy – Any copy suitable for reproduction without using a halftone screen.
Liquid Design – A term used in web design to identify a method used in building web pages that will resize to fit each user’s (within reason) browser window size.
Logo – The terms “mark,” “logo” and “identifier” are general terms for a symbol or wordmark (or logotype).
Lower case – The small letters in type, as distinguished from the capital letters.
LPI – Acronym for lines per inch.
Makeready – In printing, all work done to set up a press for printing.
Mask – In color separation photography, an intermediate photographic negative or positive used in color correction. In offset lithography, opaque material used to protect open or selected areas of a printing plate during exposure.
Matte finish – Dull paper finish without gloss or luster.
Mechanical – A term for a camera-ready pasteup of artwork. It includes type, photos, line art, etc., all on one piece of artboard.
Megabyte (Mbyte, MB, Meg or M) – One million character codes on the computer. One million bytes or characters, often written MB or Mbyte. A unit of measurement equal to 1,024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes.
Menu – In electronic publishing, a method for selecting alternative functions displayed as a list on a workstation screen. Selection via mouse, key or sequence of keys.
Middletones – Tone tonal range between highlights and shadows of a photograph or reproduction.
Moiré – In color process printing, the undesirable screen pattern caused by incorrect screen angles of overprinting halftones.
Montage – In artwork, several photographs combined to form a composite illustration.
Negative – In photography, film containing an image in which the values of the original are reversed so that the dark areas in the subject appear light on the film and vice versa.
Newsprint – Paper made mostly from groundwood pulp and small amounts of chemical pulp; used for printing newspapers.
Offset – In Printing, the process of using an intermediate blanket cylinder to transfer an image from the image carrier to the substrate. Short for offset lithography.
Opacity – That property of paper which minimizes the show through of printing from the back side or the next sheet.
Opaque – In photoengraving and offset lithography to paint out areas on a negative not wanted on the plate. In paper, the property which makes it less transparent.
Opaque ink – An ink that conceals all color beneath it.
Overlay – In artwork, a transparent covering over the copy where color break, instructions or corrections are marked. Also transparent or translucent prints which, when placed on eon the other, form a composite picture.
Overlay proof – A color proof produced with four dyed or pigmented overlay films.
Overprinting – Double printing, printing over an area that already has been printed.
Overrun – In printing, copies printed in excess of the specified quantity.
Page makeup – In stripping, assembly of all elements to make up a page. In digital imaging, the electronic assembly of page elements to compose a complete page with all elements in place on a video display terminal and on film or plate.
Pagination – In computerized typesetting, the process of performing page makeup automatically.
Palette – The collection of colors or shades available to a graphic system or program.
Pantone (PMS) Colors – A universal color matching system used to achieve accurate color. The colors are specified by numbers, not mixed by using process inks. It is preferable to reproduce your logo using PMS colors to achieve consistency across all printed materials.
Paper master – A paper printing plate used on an offset duplicator. The image is made by hand drawing, typewriter or electrophotography.
PC – Acronym for personal computer.
PDF (Portable Document File) – 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 of software programs used to create the original.
Perfect Binding – A binding method that uses plastic glue to bind the loose leaves to the book cover.
Pica – Printers unit of measurement used principally in typesetting. One pica equals approximately 1/6 of an inch.
Pigment – In printing inks, the fine solid particles used to give inches color, transparency or opacity.
Pixel – Short for “picture element.” A pixel is the smallest resolvable point of a raster image. It is the basic unit of a digital imaging.
Plate cylinder – The cylinder of a press on which the plate is mounted.
Point – Printer’s unite of measurement, used principally for designating type sizes. There are 12 points to a pica, approximately 72 points to an inch.
Portrait – In photography, vertical orientation of a format as opposed to landscape horizontal orientation.
Positive – In photography, film containing an image in which the dark and light values are the same as the original. The reverse of negative.
PostScript – A page description language developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. to describe an image for printing. It handles both text and graphics. A PostScript file is a purely text-based description of a page.
Preflighting – In digital prepress, the test used to evaluate or analyze every component needed to produce a printing job. Pre-flight confirms the type of disk being submitted, the color gamut, color breaks, and any art required (illustrations, transparencies, reflective photos, etc.) plus layout files, screen fonts, printer fonts, EPS or TIFF files, laser proofs, page sizes, print driver, crop marks, etc.
Pre-press – Refers to any print related service up until the time the project goes on the printing press, includes checking the digital files for accuracy and problems, pagination, and preparing the plates and proofs.
Press proofs – In color reproduction, a proof of a color subject made on a printing press, in advance of the production run.
Print on Demand – A workflow system that allow users to select digital documents (normally Adobe Acrobat PDF files) and print them in small quantities as needed with quick turnaround time, unlike the traditional print model that requires larger quantities to make it cost-effective and longer turnaround time.
Print quality – A term describing the visual impression of a printed piece. In paper, the properties of the paper that affect it’s appearance and the quality of reproduction.
Process colors – In printing, the subtractive primaries, yellow, magenta and cyan, plus black in four-color process printing.
Process printing – The printing from a series of two or more halftone plates to produce intermediate colors and shades.
Quality control – Is a program of activities including customer service, process control and sampling with the objective of eliminating causes of process variability now called Statistical Process Control.
Ragged left – In typesetting, type that is justified on the right margin and ragged on the left.
Ragged right – In typesetting, type that is justified on the left margin and ragged on the right.
Raster (or bitmap) – Graphic files that are comprised of rows of tiny colored dots (pixels) that create a larger image. Raster files are literally a digital “picture” of the original subject matter. Raster artwork is rather restrictive: it cannot be resized without loss of quality and is usually quite large in file size.
Raster image processor (RIP) – In digital imaging, a combination of software and hardware that controls the printing process by calculating the bitmaps of images and instructing a printing device to create the images. Most PostScript systems use a hardware RIP built into the printer.
Ream – Five hundred sheets of paper.
Register – In printing, fitting of two or more printing images in exact alignment with each other.
Register marks – Crosses or other targets applied to original copy prior to photography. Used for positioning films in register, or for register of two or more colors in process printing.
Resolution – In electronic imaging, the quantification of printout quality using the number of spots per inch.
RGB (Red, Green and Blue) – The primary additive colors used in display devices and scanners. Commonly used to refer to the color space, mixing system or monitor in color computer graphics.
Run-around – In composition, the term describing type set to fit around a picture or other element of the design.
Saddle Stitch – To bind by stapling sheets together where they fold at the spine, as compared to side stitch, also called saddle wire and stitch bind. This is the most common method of binding brochures from 8 pages up to 48 pages.
Scaling – Determining the proper size of an image to be reduced or enlarged to fit an area.
Scanner – An electronic device used in the making of color and tone-corrected separations of images.
Score – To impress or indent a mark in the paper to make folding easier.
Self cover – A cover of the same paper as inside text pages.
Serif – The short cross-lines at the ends of the main strokes of many letters in some typefaces.
Shadow – The darkest parts in a photography, represented in a halftone by the largest dots.
Sharpen – To decrease in color strength, as when halftone dots become smaller; opposite of dot spread or dot gain.
Shingling – In image assembly and layouts, for large signatures the center or gutter margin is varied according to the position of the page in the signature and the bulk of the paper.
Signature – In printing and binding, the name given to a printed sheet after it has been folded.
Silhouette halftone – A halftone of a subject with all of the background removed.
Sizing – The treatment of paper which gives it resistance to the penetration of liquids (particularly corn juice) or vapors.
Small caps – An alphabet of small capital letters available in most roman typefaces approximately the size of the lower-case letters. Used in combination with larger capital letters.
Spectrum – The complete range of colors in the rainbow, from short wavelengths (blue) to long wavelengths (red).
Spiral binding – A book bound with wires in spiral form inserted through holes punched along the binding side.
Spot Color – Using any color beyond the four process colors on press. This usually means a special Pantone color for accurate logo reproduction, or metallic inks.
Spread – A two page, side-by-side magazine or brochure page design.
Step-and-repeat – In photomechanics , the procedure of multiple exposure using the same image by stepping It in position according to a predetermined layout or program.
Stock – Paper or other material to be printed.
SWOP – Specifications for Web Offset Publications.
Tagged image file format (TIFF) – A file format for graphics suited for representing scanned images and other large bitmaps. TIFF is a neutral format designed for compatibility with all applications. TIFF was created specifically for storing grayscale images, and it is the standard format for scanned images such as photographs – now called TIFF/IT.
Terabyte (TB) – One trillion bytes.
Text – The body matter of a page or book, as distinguished from the headings.
TIFF (TIF) – A raster-based format mostly used for high-end printing, uses lossless compression method (unlike JPEG that creates lossy file compression).
Tone reproduction – The tonal relationship between all the elements of a reproduction.
Tooth – A characteristic of paper, a slightly rough finish, which permits it to take ink readily.
Transparency – Color positive film.
Transparent ink – A printing ink which does not conceal the color beneath. Process inks are transparent so that they will blend to form other colors.
Trapping – In printing, the ability to print a wet ink film over previously printed ink. Dry trapping is printing wet ink over dry ink. Wet trapping is printing wet ink over previously printed wet ink. In prepress, refers to how much overprinting colors overlap to eliminate white lines between colors in printing.
Trim marks – In printing, marks placed on the copy to indicate the edge of the page.
Trim Size – The actual physical size of the printed and trimmed magazine, always smaller than the bleed.
Type gauge – In composition, a printer’s tool calibrated in picas and points used for type measurement.
Typography – The typestyle specified for brand communications other than the basic brand signature. Typography is often an existing font of fonts, but may be a modified font or custom-designed font.
Upper case – Capitals in type.
UV inks – In printing, solventless inks that are cured by UV radiation. They are used extensively in screen printing, narrow web letterpress and flexographic printing.
Varnish – A liquid coating applied to a sheet, either in-line or off-line. Varnishes can be gloss of matte, they can also be tinted with printing inks for interesting effects, and they can be applied to a parts of the page or used in floods.
Vector – Graphic files that contain mathematical instructions to draw the outlines that create the artwork. If the artwork is resized, the computer can recreate it at this new size just as precisely as the original, with no degradation of quality (also referred to as “resolution-independent”).
Vellum finish – In papermaking, a toothy finish which is relatively absorbent for fast ink penetration.
Warm color – In printing, a color with a yellowish or reddish cast.
Web – A roll of paper used in web or rotary printing.
Web press – A press which prints on a roll of paper.
Web tension – The amount of pull or tension applied in the direction of travel of a web of paper by the action of a web press.
Web-Safe Colors – A small subset of the millions of available RGB colors specifically targeted to the web. This “web-safe” color palette contains only 216 colors, but these are guaranteed to display well on low-end computers and across both Mac and PC platforms.
Wire-o binding – A continuous double series of wire loops run through punched slots along the binding side of a booklet.
With the grain – Folding or feeding paper into a press with the grain of paper parallel to the blade of the folder of the axis of the impression cylinder.
Woodcut – An illustration in lines of varying thickness, cut in relief on a plank-grain wood, for the purpose of making prints by a relief printing method like letterpress.
Word processor – A typewriter connected to a computerized recording medium to input, edit and output digital text data.
Wordmark – A “wordmark” (or logotype) is the stylized treatment of the brand name and serves the same functional purpose as a symbol.
WORKtoDATE – Is the multi-disciplinary graphic design portfolio of award-winning, internationally recognized Design Director and Designer Gregory Bennett a.k.a. Visual Soldier.
Wove paper – Paper having a uniform unlined surface and a soft smooth finish.
Wrong font – In proofreading, the mark “WF” indicates a letter or figure of the wrong size or face.
WYSIWYG (What You See If What You Get) – Means that what you see on a computer monitor is generally the same as what appears on the hard copy or film. Pronounced wizzywig.
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Sources: Pocket Pal's Graphic Arts Terms by International Paper; A Glossary of Design Related Terms, Substance 151, August 30, 2005
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