PRINTING GUIDEBOOK - Influence Graphics

PRINTINGGUIDEBOOK

2 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 About Influence

4 Short Run versus Long Run Printing

5 CMYK versus RGB

6 Image Resolution

7 How to convert your design into a press ready PDF

9 Preflighting Your Document

10 Vector versus Bitmap

12 File Formats

14 What is bleed and why is it important?

15 Coated versus Uncoated paper

00 What color mode should be used for my files?

00 What is trapping and why is it important?

00 There’s black and then there’s rich black

00 Can I use pantone colors in my document?

00 Binding types explained

00 Die Cutting, Embossing, Foil Stamping

00 UV Coating

00 Paper size chart

00 Envelope size chart

00 Glossary of Printing Terms

© 2018 Influence Graphics

ABOUT US | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 3

ABOUT INFLUENCE

Who We Are

Influence Graphics is New York City’s leader in digital printing that includes both small format sheet feed printing as well as large format/grand format roll and board printing. Not only do we offer the highest quality digital printing in New York City but our real specialty is rush turnaround of short run printing projects. Our state-of-the-art digital printing equipment provides our customers with all the flexibility and convenience that digital technology has to offer. And being a local NYC printing company we are able to offer not just fast turnaround on the printing of your documents but we can deliver it in a New York minute!

Influence Graphics has been recognized for four years in a row as one of the Top 100 Printing Companies in the US. And three times we’ve been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in the US. No other printing company in New York City has that distinction! We must be

doing something right! All of that doesn’t happen unless we deliver on our promises.

We’re FastYes, this is New York City, the big apple and it’s also the city that never sleeps. Our production facilities run 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday. If you need small quantities of a brochure, flyer,

booklet, business card, pitch book, poster or banner, Influence Graphics is your rush printing resource in New York City. Because we employ state of the art digital printing we’re able to offer the highest quality printing and at the same time turn it around very quickly.

We’re QualityWhen it comes to offering quality printing in New York City, the equipment we have at our disposal is certainly a key ingredient (and we do have state of the art digital presses!), but that equipment in the hands of our team of experienced, highly trained production staff makes all the difference. Our cutting edge digital printing technology, combined with our experience and talent makes us confident that Influence Graphics has the right tools and the know-how to deliver the highest quality digital printing possible.

Printing Industry is ChangingThe printing industry is changing in dramatic ways. The days of large print runs and long leads times are a thing of the past. Today technology rules our industry. Digital printing has transformed the landscape and allows us to provide fast, high quality, short run printing at competitive prices. From our start, Influence Graphics has been an innovator in the use of cutting edge digital technology to offer products and services that allow our customers to remain competitive in today’s fast paced business environment. We not only accept change, we thrive on it! We talk to our customers and more importantly, we listen. Many of our customers have unique business requirements and we pride ourselves in being able to develop unique solutions to their specific needs. We never take a cookie cutter approach to problem solving, we love being innovators. Whenever possible we employ technology to create more productive workflows, however, we never lose sight of the value of plain old original thinking. We encourage our employees to “work smarter, not harder” because we know that working smarter always benefits our customers.


The HP Indigo AdvantageNot all digital printing presses are the same, not by a long shot. Many of our competitors use toner based color copiers and call it digital printing. We use HP Indigo digital presses that not only use liquid ink but they also provide the best color gamut and resolution available in the market. HP Indigo digital presses were designed and engineered to meet commercial printers needs for output that meets or exceeds traditional offset print quality.

Our presses are calibrated every day and the system constantly monitors color output and makes minor adjustments throughout the day so that we can consistently reproduce accurate colors. Check out our printed samples and see for yourself!

Short Run Versus Long RunIt is estimated that 31% of all printed material is thrown away because it has become outdated…

Before the introduction of today’s sophisticated digital printing equipment whenever you needed something printed your only choice was offset printing. And with offset printing there is a big up front cost to make the metal plates and all the time it takes to get the press ready to run your job. Once the plates are mounted and the press is ready to go the cost difference to run 1,000 sheets versus 20,000 sheets was only the cost of the paper and a little ink. So typically most print buyers would opt to print a years’ worth of materials and put them in a warehouse and draw the inventory down as needed. But in today’s fast place marketplace most businesses need to be able to update their marketing and sales materials on a more timely basis. That coupled with the cost of warehousing printed materials only to end up throwing them out when they become outdated in a waste of money.

Today print buyers have other options. You can print digitally only what you require for your immediate

needs and then order more when the time comes. And since there are no plates to be made, with digital printing you have the option of editing your documents between each print run to keep your message relevant and competitive. With short run printing if you only need 100 copies of a document, we only have to print 100 copies and there is no waste.

In addition many companies like short run printing because it allows them to “version” their marketing materials in order to target specific vertical markets. Rather than have one generic version of your brochure you can create many different versions that each speak to a different market segment.

Influence Graphics specializes in short run digital printing. Our HP Indigo Digital Presses employ the unique liquid HP ElectroInk, thereby producing true offset quality printing with all of the short run flexibility and the speed of digital technology. Files sent

to our presses can be printing within minutes of their arrival on press. Many printers are seeing the decline

of long runs on their presses as many of their customers have moved to shorter runs. Don’t allow old technology to dictate you how your needs are met. Influence Graphics is the short run print leader in New York City.

4 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | ABOUT US


CMYK VERSUS RGB | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 5

CMYK VERSUS RGB

With computer graphics there are two basic ways that color is described – RGB (emanated light) and CMYK (reflected light). Your computer monitor emits light based on the RGB model making the various colors by the combination of Red, Green or Blue light coming from your screen. Since the addition of intensity to these colors produces white it is also called an “additive” color model.In contrast, a printed piece gets its color by the light reflected from it which comes from the inks used and the ambient light. Most printers use an ink scheme called CMYK, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black is almost always the key color. Just think of the “k” at the end of black and you’ll remember CMYK). Since the subtraction of these colors produces “white” (or whatever the color of the paper underneath) it is also called a “subtractive” color model.The important thing to understand is that RGB color is very different than CMYK color and you need to make sure that the images and colors used for printing are correct. Most important is that not all RGB colors will print CMYK as you see them on your computer monitor. Bright blues, bright greens and pinks are notoriously difficult to convert from RGB to CMYK as you can see in the samples below.

However you supply files to be printed, the colors should be designed or converted to CMYK. This can be done through a photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, layout programs such as Adobe InDesign or when converting to Adobe Acrobat PDF format using the Press Quality settings. You’ll find more information on creating PDFs below.

For more information on CMYK printing check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK


R G B

R G B

R G B

C M YK

C M YK

C M YK

- 0- 0- 255

- 0- 255- 0

- 255- 0- 255

- 88- 77- 0- 0

- 63- 0- 100- 0

- 27- 82- 0- 0

6 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | IMAGE RESOLUTION CONVERTING YOUR DESIGN INTO A PRESS READY PDF | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 7

IMAGE RESOLUTION

Image resolution is the detail an image holds. Higher resolution means more image detail.

Image resolution is an idea that was born with desktop publishing. Prior to digital printing an image might be called “soft” or out of focus but the blurriness was a result of the photographic process. When it became possible to digitize images the issue of resolution became very important because printing required high resolution but it also made image files very large and difficult to work with. In trying to cope with those problems image programmers have come up with two basic solutions.Pixel art or “bitmap” is a digital image format that literally defines how many pixels are present and what color value each pixel has. For a brief overview of color models you can see the previous section but the big issue here is How Many Pixels Per Inch? or in a word – resolution.

Resolution is a factor of width and height and you can figure pixel resolution by multiplying the number of pixels in each for the total number of pixels – just like figuring area. The problem is that a pixel is an abstract idea and even though you can have a lot of pixels they need to ultimately translate to print units which are called dots. So for printing, resolution is described as dots per inch or dpi. Basically, however many pixels are in an image at the target resolution will give you the real printing resolution. For example, if you have an image that is 300 pixels x 300 pixels and you want to print at 300 dpi, you will have enough pixels to print an image 1 inch x 1 inch. 300 dpi is the recommended resolution for digital printing. To understand a practical application – if you have an image that you want to print 5” x 7” at 300 dpi you will need an image resolution of 1500 pixels x 2100 pixels. This results in a rather large file size of 12 MB if the image is CMYK. You can’t add resolution if it isn’t there to begin with. If your source image is 72 dpi, as many web images are, you can change its pixel depth but it won’t help its apparent resolution. If it started out at low resolution adding pixels just adds file size but can’t make up for its lack of definition. Web images will almost never have enough resolution to print well. Most current digital cameras (4 megapixels and up) have good enough resolution to print 8.5 x 11 at photo quality.

For more information on image resolution got tohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_resolution

For more information on graphic file formats go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_file_format


CONVERTING YOUR DESIGN INTO A PRESS READY PDF | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 7

HOW TO CONVERT YOUR DESIGN INTO A PRESS READY PDF

Creating a print-ready PDF/X-1a file from your graphic design software is the best way to ensure error-free printing from your digital files. Unless you want us to be able to alter or edit your documents (in which case we will need your original files, ie, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop), just follow the following easy steps to create a press ready PDF. These steps are specific to Adobe’s Creative Suite and InDesign. You can also create your pdf files directly out of PhotoShop and Illustrator as well. If you are using another non Adobe desktop application, such as QuarkXpress or even Microsoft Word or Excel, all these controls will be there in somewhat different location and you will still need to find where to select the PDF/X-1a preset and the accommodations for crop marks and bleed area.

1. Choose File – Export. At the bottom of the dialog box, for Format choose Adobe PDF (Print). In the Export Adobe PDF window, you should start on the General tab (see tabs on the left hand side). On this tab, at the top under Adobe PDF Preset, choose [Adobe PDF/X1-a: 2001]. This will adjust ALMOST all of the settings you need to create your print-ready file.


8 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | CONVERTING YOUR DESIGN INTO A PRESS READY PDF

2. Click on the Marks and Bleeds tab. Under the Marks section, check the box for Crop Marks but leave the others unchecked. Notice that the Offset is set to 0.0833 in. by default. Under the Bleed and Slug area, enter 0.125 in. Bleed for all four sides and leave other boxes unchecked. Whether or not your document has a bleed, we prefer all PDF/X-1a files to be submitted with crop marks with a 1/8 inch bleed area around the outside edges.

The PDF/X-1a:2001 preset will flatten any transparencies you might have in your file. PDF/X-1a supports CMYK and spot colors (you MUST let us know if you plan to use spot colors) but doesn’t allow color management. RGB images are converted to CMYK; CMYK values are preserved.

Click “export” and navigate to where you want the PDF saved and you’re done!

NOTE: Even though Adobe has come out with more recent presets we still prefer our clients use the X-1a preset. It flattens transparencies (which can cause problems if not flattened) and it converts the file to CMYK.


PREFLIGHTING YOUR DOCUMENT | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 9

PREFLIGHTING YOUR DOCUMENT

Preflighting is the process that is used to check digital files for potential problems prior to output (exporting to PDF or printing). This process is best done on the original native or source file used to create the document such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator or QuarkXPress Preflighting helps to minimize the risk of wasting money and/or time by catching potential printing errors in your digital documents before they ruin a print job. Whether you use preflight software like Markzware FlightCheck or check the files using the software’s built in preflight function, the goal is to get great print results from source digital documents. Some page layout software applications automate portions of the preflight process. Typically files supplied to us undergo a preflight check as a first step in our production process. But if a client waits for us to discover file issues value time has already been lost. So it’s always a good idea for our clients to do their own preflighting before they send us a file to print.

THE PRE-FLIGHT PROCESS TYPICALLY CHECKS FOR:

❏ Images and graphics that have not been embedded by the client have been provided and are available to the application

❏ Fonts are accessible to the system and have not been corrupted

❏ Image files are of formats that the application can process

❏ Image files are of the correct color format (RGB versus CMYK, for example)

❏ Image files are of the correct resolution

❏ Required color profiles are included

❏ Image files are not corrupt

❏ Confirm that the page layout document size, margins, bleeds, crop marks and page information all fit within the constraints of the device the document will be printed on OTHER, MORE ADVANCED PREFLIGHT STEPS MIGHT ALSO INCLUDE:

❏ removing non-printing data, such as non-printing objects, hidden objects, objects outside the printable area and objects on layers below

❏ Flattening transparent objects into a single opaque object

❏ Converting fonts to paths where necessary

❏ Gathering embedded image and graphic files to one location accessible to the system

❏ Compressing files into an archive format (i.e. Zip file)


10 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | VECTOR VERSUS BITMAP

VECTOR VERSUS BITMAP

Printing presses create an image by laying down a combination of different colored dots (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). This is somewhat similar to the way the pixels in your computer monitor creates an image.

Some image file formats generate an image by creating a bitmap which is simply a map which describes what color to use for each bit dot that makes up the image. This may or may not work when you go to print an image depending on the size you want to print it. If you are starting with a bitmap has 72 pixels per inch (a common computer monitor resolution) your image is going to look fuzzy or “soft” when you try to print it at 300 or 600 dots per inch which is a common resolution most high quality printers use. And if you need to blow up the image to say fill half a page then the image quality will get even worse. Since you only have 72 pixels to fill a 300 dot space the computer has to stretch each pixel and make it much bigger giving you a stair step looking effect.

Vector

Bitmap


VECTOR VERSUS BITMAP | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 11

The solution is to use vector images instead of bitmapped images. Instead of describing where each pixel or dot goes, vector images use mathematical equations and geometry to create art that is clean and can be scaled to any size without any loss of quality or fidelity. Vector images also take up much less file space than bitmaps do. And a Postscript file is the file language that actually sends a description of the page you are printing to the printing device using vector art.

EXAMPLE OF A VECTOR IMAGE

EXAMPLE OF A BITMAP IMAGE


VECTOR FORMATS

EPSAn Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) File is a self-contained postscript program describing at most a single page in a form that can be imported by other applications and embedded within a larger document. It’s a standard graphics file format intended for placing images or drawings within a postscript document. Design elements saved as an EPS can be loaded into any design program that supports vector illustration and can be resized or altered without loss of image quality. EPS file also includes a low-resolution preview of the graphics inside which makes it accessible with programs not capable of editing the postscript code in the eps. The postscript coding within an .eps uses mathematical equations and geometry to create art that is clean and can be scaled to any size without any loss of quality or fidelity. And a postscript file is the file language that actually sends a description of the page you are printing to the printing device using vector art.

AIAI is a file format used by Adobe Illustrator for saving single page vector graphics. This file format is very similar to the eps format but whereas EPS is an open format (can be understood by many applications), AI is Illustrator’s proprietary file format. You can save .ai files as a .eps or PDF to then import into other postscript capable software programs. AI files are most commonly used for designing logos and single art elements.

RASTER FORMATS

JPEGA JPEG file is an image saved in a compressed graphic format standardized by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG). It is commonly used by digital cameras to store photos since it supports 16 million colors and uses a compression algorithm to keep the file size small. The JPEG compression algorithm may reduce the file size of a bitmap image by ten times with little degradation in quality. Still, there is some image quality loss during the compression process. Besides image data, JPEG files may also include metadata that describes the contents of the file. This includes the image dimensions, color space, and color profile information, as well as image capture data (aperture setting, shutter speed, etc). This is one of the most widely used formats online, typically for photos, email graphics and large web images like banner ads. GIFA GIF is basically an image file format that is animated by combining several other images or frames into a single file. This single file is encoded as graphics interchange format (better known as GIF). The multiple images within a single GIF file are displayed in succession to create an animated clip or a short movie. These animated GIF files are commonly used on social media platform as well as for web ad banners.

12 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | FILE FORMATS

VECTOR FILE FORMATS

NAME FILE EXTENSION

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) .eps

AI (Adobe Illustrator Artwork) .ai

CDR (CorelDRAW) .cdr

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) .svg

PDF (Portable Document Format) .pdf


PNGA file with the .PNG file extension is a Portable Network Graphics file. It contains a bitmap of indexed colors and uses lossless compression, similar to a .GIF file but without the copyright limitations. PNG files are commonly used to create graphics for web images. However, unlike a GIF image, PNG files do not support animations. PNG images do not provide CMYK color support because they are not intended for use with professional graphics.

TIFFA file with the TIF or TIFF file extension is a Tagged Image file and is used for storing high quality raster graphics. It is one of the most common graphic image formats and TIFF files are commonly used in desktop publishing, faxing, 3-D applications as well as in medical imaging applications. Because of its high quality, TIFF is a preferred format for those in the printing and publishing industry. TIFF is generally used as a lossless file format with no compression. Consequently, file sizes can be large, but do retain their data and subsequent high quality. However, the file size is huge when compared to the identical JPEG file. So TIFF file are not typically used for displaying images on the web, because of their file size. And most web browsers will not display a TIFF image.

PSDA .psd file is a layered image file used by Adobe PhotoShop. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most commonly-used image editing applications on the market and it is very popular among graphic designers, desktop publishers and photographers. Photoshop contains a variety of editing tools that let you manipulate images by controlling color levels, cloning parts of images, adding text and shapes as well as creating masks that allow you to alter specific areas of an image. Unlike ordinary image files (JPG, PNG, GIF), PSD files can be layered. For example, the first layer might contain a background image, the second layer might contain a mask and the third layer might contain some image editing (brightness, color, pixel cloning, etc.) and finally a fourth layer might contain some text. PSD is a proprietary file that allows the user to work with the images’ individual layers even after the file has been saved. When an image is completed, Photoshop allows you to flatten the layers and convert the flat image into a standard .JPG, .GIF, .TIFF or other non-proprietary file format so it can be shared or placed in other documents.

PDF.PDF stands for the Portable Document Format, used to display documents in an electronic form independent of the software, hardware or operating system they are viewed on. Originally developed by Adobe Systems as a universally compatible file format based on the PostScript format, it has become an international de-facto standard for exchanging documents and information. PDFs may contain either raster or vector images, or even a bit of both. PDF files are primarily meant for viewing, not editing. One reason they’re so popular is that PDFs can preserve document formatting, which makes them more shareable and makes them to look the same when viewed on any device.

FILE FORMATS | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 13

BITMAP FILE FORMATS

NAME FILE EXTENSION

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) .tif, .tiff

JPEG .jpg, .jpeg

PSD (Photoshop Document) .psd

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) .gif

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) .png


14 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | WHAT IS BLEED AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

BLEED

Bleed refers printing that goes beyond the edge of where a printed sheet will be trimmed. It is very difficult to print exactly to the edge of a sheet of paper/card, so to achieve this, it is necessary to print a slightly larger area than is needed and then trim the paper/card down to the required finished size. The bleed is the part on the side of a document that gives the printer a small amount of space to account for movement of the paper, and design inconsistencies. Artwork and background colors often extend into the bleed area. After trimming, the bleed ensures that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. Failing to provide bleed information and crop marks can result in finished pieces showing a thin area of white on the edge.

Bleeds are generally are 1/8 of an inch from where the cut is to be made. This can vary from one print company to another.


PRINT READY NOT PRINT READY

COATED VERSUS UNCOATED PAPER | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 15

WHAT COLOR MODE SHOULD BE USED FOR MY FILES?

COLOR MODE

A color model is a system for creating a full range of colors from a small set of primary colors. There are basically two types of color models: additive and subtractive. Additive color models use light to display color, while subtractive color uses printing inks. CMYK if the most common color model for printing and the RGB color model is most commonly used for computer displays.

COATED VERSUS UNCOATED PAPER

Coated PaperWhen it comes to paper manufacturing, all paper starts out uncoated. But a coated sheet goes through an additional step during the papermaking process where a clay coating is added to the surface. Once the clay coating is applied smooth steel rollers help to “polish” the paper. The clay coating fills the pits between the fibers in the base paper giving it a smooth, slick appearance. This can improve the opacity, luster and color absorption ability. Coated paper is a popular choice for glossy artwork in brochures, magazines and postcards.

Uncoated PaperAs stated the name says, an uncoated sheet of paper does not have a coating. Its surface has a more natural appearance and a higher porosity, meaning it will absorb more ink than a coated. Since uncoated paper does not have a coating to fill in between the fibers, it is generally rougher than coated paper. Images printed on uncoated paper will be softer and less crisp. Uncoated papers are generally used for letterhead, business cards, envelopes, and other printed materials that require a more prestigious look. Additionally, uncoated stocks are easier to write on as the surface accepts the ink more readily than a coated stock, making it perfect for items such as note cards.


Additive Color (RGB) Subtractive Color (CMYK)

16 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | WHAT COLOR MODE SHOULD BE USED FOR MY FILES?

DIFFERENT COLOR MODES:

1. RGB (Red-Green-Blue) The RGB color model is an additive color model. In this mode red, green and blue light are added together in various combinations to reproduce a wide spectrum of colors. The main use of the RGB color model is for the display of images on electronic devices such as on TV’s and computer monitors. In order to create a color with RGB, three colored light beams (red, green, and blue) are superimposed over each other. With no intensity, each of the three colors is perceived as black, while full intensity leads to a perception of seeing white. These 3 colors can be blended to create up to 16 million color variations.

2. CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black) The CMYK color model (sometimes called four-color process) is a subtractive color model. Primarily used in printing, CMYK works by partially or completely masking colors on a white background. The printed ink reduces the light that would otherwise be reflected. That’s why this model is called subtractive; because inks ‘subtract’ brightness from a white background from four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

3. Index mode (256 colors) Index mode is a method of compressing an image that enables 8 bits per pixel to look almost as good as 24 bits per pixel. The technique determines the 256 most frequently used colors in the image and creates a color lookup table that is stored with the image. Each pixel in the image contains one 8-bit number that indexes into the 256-color lookup table, which contains the RGB values for displaying the image. If a color in the original image does not appear in the table, the program chooses the closest one.

4. Grayscale mode (256 grays) Grayscale mode is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample representing only an amount of light, that is, it carries only intensity information. Images of this sort, are composed exclusively of shades of gray, varying from black at the weakest intensity to white at the strongest.

5. Bitmap mode (2 colors) Bitmap color mode, or line art, is one that is made up of either black or white pixels. There are no colors in bitmap mode and there are no grey tones.

How do you know which color mode to use?In short, if you’re going to be printing something, such as business cards, brochure, or a booklet you’ll want to use CMYK. The CMYK color mode does not include a white color because it is assumed that it will be printed on a white paper and depending on the percentage of each color that is used, the white from the paper will be used to fill the space, therefore making the shades appear lighter.If you are producing something that will only be seen digitally, you’re better off using RGB. Digital screen devices work exclusively with RGB colors. A digital monitor is made up of pixels and these pixels are comprised of three light units, one for red, one for green, and one for blue. The RGB values are applied to these pixels, thereby setting the luminosity for each of the light units in each pixel.It should be noted that when you convert from one color mode to another there is rarely a perfect correlation between the two types of colors. A specific color viewed on a computer screen may look slightly different when printed using a CMYK color mode.


16 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | WHAT COLOR MODE SHOULD BE USED FOR MY FILES? TOPIC | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 17

TRAPPING

Trapping is a method of adjusting areas where two distinct, adjacent colors meet so that press mis-registration won’t cause unexpected white spaces. To compen-sate for potential gaps between adjacent colors in artwork, printers use a technique called trapping to create a small area of overlap (called a trap) between two ad-joining colors. Most traps employ spreading or expanding a light object into a dark object. Because the darker of two adjacent colors defines the visible edge of the object or text, expanding the lighter color slightly into the darker color maintains the visual edge.


RICH BLACK

Rich black, in printing, is an ink mixture of solid black over one or more of the other CMYK colors, resulting in a darker tone than black ink alone generates in a printing process. The colored ink printed under the black ink creates a “richer” result with the additional inks absorbing more light which results in a closer approximation of a true black. Rich black is often regarded as a color that is “blacker than black”.

Using just the black ink in the printing process doesn’t always produce a really dense or deep black. If larger surfaces are printed using just 100% black, they can look a bit grayish. Printers will often add a percentage of the other printing colors to the black ink to create what is called rich black. This is often also done to avoid the appearance that there are two shades of black because text or rectangles which partially overprint other objects appear ‘more black’. The black bar in the example to the right shows the problem.

There are many formulas for rich black. A pretty popular choice consists of 50% cyan, 40% magenta, 40% yellow and of course 100% black.

18 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | TOPIC

PRINTING WITH PANTONE COLORS

Pantone is a standardized color matching system, utilizing the Pantone numbering system for identifying colors. By standardizing the colors, different printers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another.

One such use is standardizing colors in the CMYK process. The CMYK process is a method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A majority of the world's printed material is produced using the CMYK process, and there is a special subset of Pantone colors that can be reproduced using CMYK. Those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company's guides. The Pantone guides will specify what percentage of each of the CMYK inks need to be used in order to match the specific Pantone color. In addition to Pantone Guides that tell printers how to achieve a certain color, Pantone also sells “chip sheets” which are small preprinted chips that you can tear out of the book to give to either your graphic designer or your printer so they have a visual reference of the color you’re expecting after your project has been designed and printed.

UV COATING

UV Coating is applied to a sheet of paper as a liquid and then it’s exposed to a high intensity Ultra-Violet light which bonds and dries it instantly. A UV coating is applied to the surface of the paper to create a glossy or matte protective coating. It’s typically used on printed documents where there is a concern about the material getting scratched such as direct mail pieces or brochure covers. And unlike many other finishes or varnishes, UV coatings are free of solvents and do not release VOC’s into the atmosphere during curing. UV Coatings are tougher than Aqueous Coating though not quite as durable as lamination.


BINDING TYPES | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 19

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF BINDING AVAILABLE TO ME?

Perfect BindingPerfect Binding is a widely used soft cover bookbinding method. With perfect binding there is no stitch in the binding and is solely held together by adhesive glue. With this binding method, the interior pages and the cover are glued together along the spine with a strong yet flexible thermal glue. The other three sides of the book are then trimmed as needed to give them clean “perfect” edges. Perfect bound books have a square, printable spine and the cover is usually made from a heavier paper stock than what the interior pages are printed on.

Perfect bound books look professional and are visually appealing. They are cheaper to produce than a hard cover book and are generally less expensive than other binding methods. This makes them ideal for self-publishing or small print runs. Perfect bound books stack well because they lay flat. They have a square spine where you can print a book title or other information. Having the title printed on the spine makes your book stand out on a bookshelf for quick identification and easy retrieval.

Saddle Stitch BindingSaddle Stitching is a very popular book binding method in which folded sheets are gathered together one inside the other and then stapled through the fold line with wire staples. The staples pass through the folded crease from the outside and are clinched between the centermost pages. Often the cover can be a heavier paper weight then what is used for the inside pages (typically a text weight). If the same paper is used for both the cover and the interior pages the book is referred to as a self cover.

To help illustrate this bindery process, let’s look at a typical saddle stitched booklet with a finished page size of 8.5” x 11”. The pages and cover of this booklet would be printed on 11” x 17” sheets that are folded in half to create a 8.5” x 11 booklet”. The folded sheets would be nested one inside the other and then stapled together along the folded crease or spine. Each 11” x 17” sheet folded in half creates four pages of the book. By its nature, Saddle Stitching requires that the book’s page count to be in multiples of four.

There are two important things to consider when asking for saddle stitching. First is the number of pages in your document. Since a staple has to be sent through all the printed sheets there is a limit to how thick your book is. Part of how thick your book is depends on the weight of the paper you are printing on. As a general rule a booklet can be saddle stitched up to 68 pages (or 17 spreads) depending on the thickness of the paper. You will also want to be concerned about “creep” with your saddle stitched book. When the interior pages of your document nestled inside of each other the inner pages can start to “creep” out (especially when using thicker paper stocks). If the inner most pages creep out too much then when the book is


20 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | BINDING TYPES

face trimmed it has the potential to cut off more of the live area of your page than was intended. Many desktop publishing software have the ability to adjust for creep by having the software move the margin of each page slightly so all the margins toward the outside of the book remain the same.

Wire-O BindingWire-O Binding, which is also known as Twin Loop, Double-Loop, Double-O, or simply Wire Binding, is a popular method for binding the cover and interior pages of a document.

Many people like Wire-O binding because it is more sophisticated in appearance. As such, it produces a very impressive document. Also, it can accommodate pages and inserts of varying thicknesses, including dividers or index tabs made from heavy cardstock.

Wire-O binding uses pre-formed wire loops that are inserted through holes that have been punched in the book’s cover and pages. The loops are then crimped closed to secure the book.

The pages of a Wire-O book can be opened a full 360 degrees and will lay flat when opened. Unlike a perfect bound or saddle-stitched book, the pages of a Wire-O bound book have no spinal tension in them that prevents it from lying flat. Wire-O binding can accommodate any page counts and the Wiro-O loops come in many colors and size to accommodate books of varying thicknesses. Because the Wire-O binding method allows pages to turn freely and stay put without the need to manually hold them open, it is often the best choice for books that require page tab dividers.

Spiral BindingSpiral binding, also known as coil binding uses a plastic coil that is inserted into holes that have been punched along the edge of pages. There are also a wide variety of coil colors and sizes up to a size that will hold up to around 300 pages.Booklets that are bound with plastic coil open flat on a desk or table and fold back 360 degrees for easy note taking. While some people don’t think spiral binding looks as professional or clean as wire-o binding, it is a lot more durable and tends to be used on large size books or books that will be referenced over a long period of time.


GBC GBC binding, also sometimes known as Comb binding uses a plastic strip with fingers (like a comb) that get inserted into rectangular holes that have been punched in the paper. While GBC binding has gone mostly out of favor in recent years it’s biggest advantage is that after the book is bound it can easily be opened back up to remove or add pages. The second advantage is that the combs come in all sizes including one that can hold up to 450 sheets.

DIE CUTTING, EMBOSSING, FOIL STAMPING

Embossing and Debossing These are the processes of creating either raised or recessed images on a sheet of paper. Embossing requires that 2 metal dies are made (male and female) representing the image to be embossed. The paper stock is pressed between the two dies creating a raised image. The same process is used to indent or deboss the paper.

Foil stamping This is a process where a color foil is applied to paper under pressure. The foil comes in a wide variety of colors and finishes. As with Embossing a metal die must be made of the shape of the image or text that you want to stamp on the paper. The dies are heated and then stamped with enough pressure to seal a thin layer of foil to the paper.

Die-Cutting This refers to the act of using a sharp die to cut paper or other substrates into various shapes. Die-cutting works in a similar way to a cookie cutter. A die refers to a thin, razor-sharp steel blade that has been formed into a specific shape or pattern. The die can be used to shape the entire perimeter of a printed piece, or it can be used to just shape one corner or an edge. A die can also cut out a shape or shapes from within the center of a piece. The die with it’s steel blade is pressed into the paper under pressure to cut out the desired shape.

TOPIC | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 21


22 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | PAPER SIZES

PAPER SIZE INCHES MILLIMETERS

Junior Legal 8 x 5 203 x 127

Government Letter 8 x 10.5 203 x 267

Letter 8.5 x 11 216 x 279

Legal 8.5 x 14 216 x 356

Tabloid 11 x 17 279 x 432

Ledger 17 x 11 432 x 279

NORTH AMERICAN PAPER SIZES

PAPER SIZE INCHES MILLIMETERS

A0 33.110 x 46.811 841 x 1189

A1 23.386 x 33.110 594 x 841

A2 16.535 x 23.386 420 x 594

A3 11.693 x 16.535 297 x 420

A4 8.268 x 11.693 210 x 297

A5 5.827 x 8.268 148 x 210

A6 4.134 x 5.827 105 x 148

A7 2.913 x 4.134 74 x 105

A8 2.047 x 2.913 52 x 74

INTERNATIONAL PAPER SIZES


ENVELOPE SIZE CHART | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 23

COMMERCIAL NAME ENVELOPE SIZE INSERT SIZE

6-1/4 2.5 x 6 3.25 x 5.75

6-3/4 3.625 x 6.5 3.5 x 6.25

8-5/8 3.625 x 8.625 3.5 x 8.375

7 3.75 x 6.75 3.5 x 6.5

Monarch 3.875 x 7.5 3.75 x 7.25

9 3.875 x 8.875 3.75 x 8.625

9 (Policy) 4 x 9 3.75 x 8.5

10 4.125 x 9.5 4 x 9.25

DL 4.3125 x 8.625 4.125 x 8.375

11 4.5 x 10.375 4.25 x 10.125

12 4.75 x 11 4.5 x 10.75

14 5 x 11.5 4.75 x 11.25

16 6 x 12 5.75 x 11.75

CATALOG NAME ENVELOPE SIZE INSERT SIZE

1 6 x 9 5.75 x 8.75

1-3/4 6.5 x 9.5 6.25 x 9.25

3 7 x 10 6.75 x 9.5

6 7.5 x 10.5 6.75 x 9.5

8 8.25 x 11.25 8 x 10.75

9-3/4 8.75 x 11.25 8.5 x 10.75

10-1/2 9 x 12 8.75 x 11.5

14-1/4 10 x 15 9.75 x 14.5

CATALOG NAME ENVELOPE SIZE INSERT SIZE

3 4.75 x 6.5 4.5 x 6

4-1/2 5.5 x 7.5 5.25 x 7

5 5.5 x 8.125 5.25 x 7.625

6 5.75 x 8.875 5.5 x 8.375

6-1/2 6 x 9 5.75 x 8.75

6-5/8 6 x 9.5 5.75 x 9

6-3/4 6.5 x 9.5 6.25 x 9

7-1/4 7 x 10 6.75 x 9.5

7-1/2 7.5 x 10.5 7.25 x 10

9 8.75 x 11.5 8.5 x 11

9-1/2 9 x 12 8.75 x 11.5

10 9.5 x 12.625 9.25 x 12.125

13 10 x 13 9.75 x 12.5

ENVELOPE SIZE CHART


ANNOUNCEMENT NAME ENVELOPE SIZE INSERT SIZE

A1 3.625 X 5.125 3.475 X 4.875

A2 4.375 X 5.75 4.25 X 5.5

A6 4.75 X 6.25 4.625 X 6.25

A7 5.25 X 7.25 5 X 7

A8 5.5 X 8.125 5.25 X 7.75

A9 5.75 X 8.875 5.5 X 8.625

A10 6 X 9.5 5.875 X 9.25

BARONIAL NAME ENVELOPE SIZE INSERT SIZE

1 Bar 3.625 x 5.125 3.475 x 4.875

5 Bar 4.125 x 5.5 4 x 5.25

5-1/2 Bar 4.375 x 5.75 4.25 x 5.5

6 Bar 4.75 x 6.5 4.625 x 6.25

7 Bar 5.25 x 7.25 5.125 x 7

8 Bar 5.5 x 8.125 5.375 x 7.875

9 Bar 5.75 x 8.75 5.625 x 8.625

10 Bar 6 x 9.5 5.875 x 9.25

SQUARE NAME ENVELOPE SIZE INSERT SIZE

5 5 x 5 4.75 x 4.75

5-1/2 5.5 x 5.5 5.25 x 5.25

6 6 x 6 5.75 x 5.75

6-1/2 6.5 x 6.5 6.25 x 6.25

7 7 x 7 6.75 x 6.75

7-1/2 7.5 x 7.5 7.25 x 7.25

8 8 x 8 7.75 x 7.75

8-1/2 8.5 x 8.5 8.25 x 8.25

9 9 x 9 8.75 x 8.75

9-1/2 9.5 x 9.5 9.25 x 9.25

10 10 x 10 9.75 x 9.75

13-1/2 13.5 x 13.5 13.25 x 13.25

REMITTANCE NAME ENVELOPE SIZE INSERT SIZE

6-1/4 3.5 x 6 3.25 x 5.75

6-1/2 3.5 x 6.25 3.25 x 6

6-3/4 3.625 x 6.5 3.375 x 6.25

9 3.875 x 8.875 3.625 x 8.625

24 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | ENVELOPE SIZE CHART

ENVELOPE SIZE CHART


ACETATE

A transparent plastic sheet placed over originals or artwork, allowing the designer to i instructions and\or indicate a second color for placement. Also used as a cover protector on bound books.

A4 PAPERThe common paper size used outside the US in place of 8.5 x 11. ISO standard paper size 210 x 297mm or 8.3 x 11.7”.

ACCORDION FOLDFolding paper by bending each fold in the opposite direction of the previous fold creating a pleated or accordion effect.

ACID-FREE PAPERPaper made from pulp containing little or no acid so it resists deterioration from age. Also called alkaline paper, archival paper, neutral pH paper,and permanent paper.

AGAINST THE GRAIN

The grain is the direction in which the paper fibers run. Feeding paper into a printing press against the grain of the paper or folding paper at right angles against the grain. Folds made against the grain are more bulky than folds made with the grain and may cause cracking along the fold.

AIRBRUSHPen-shaped tool that sprays a fine mist of ink or paint to retouch photos and create continuous-tone illustrations.

ANTI-ALIASING

In computer graphics, anti-aliasing improves the appearance of polygon edges, so they are not “jagged” but are smoothed out on the screen. The process of averaging between pixels of different colors. The result is a smoother, more blended transition between the edge of two areas rather than a distinctly jagged appearance.

AQUEOUS COATING

A water based coating that is applied like ink by a printing press to protect and enhance the printing underneath.

ASCENDERAny part of a lower case letter which rises above the main body of the letter such as in “d”, “b” and “h”.

AUTHOR’S ALTERATIONS

(AA’S)

Changes that a client requests to be made to the document they provided for printing. AA’s are usually considered an additional cost to the client.

BACKSLANTAny type that tilts backward or forward in direction; opposite of italic type.

BACK UPHow an image on one side of a printed sheet aligns with the image on the reverse side.

BALLOON In an illustration, any line that encircles copy or dialogue.

BARREL FOLD Folding a sheet two or more times in same direction

BASE LINEThe imaginary horizontal line upon which stand capitals, lower case letters, punctuation points, etc.

BASIS WEIGHT

In the United States and Canada, the weight, in pounds, of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to the basic size. Also called ream weight and substance weight (sub weight). In countries using ISO paper sizes, the weight, in grams, of one square meter of paper. Also called grammage and ream weight.

BIBLE PAPERA thin but strong opaque paper, used for bibles and similar books.

BINDERYUsually a department within a printing company that is re-

sponsible for collating, folding, binding and trimming various printing projects.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 25


BINDINGBinding is the process that starts after ink has been laid on the paper. This process includes cutting, trimming, folding, collating, stitching, pasting, and inserting.

BLANKETThe rubberized surfaced material secured onto a metal cylinder onto which the ink is transferred from the plate and then to the paper.

BLEEDAny graphic element that extends past the trimmed edge of a printed page.

BLIND EMBOSS A raised impression made without using ink of foil

BLOCKINGWhen ink or coating causes printed sheets of paper in a pile to stick together, causing damage when they are separated. Can be caused by not enough anti-offset powder or too much ink.

BLUELINE

Prepress photographic proof made from stripped negatives where all colors show as blue images on white paper. May also be called a blackprint, blue, blueprint, brownline, brownprint, diazo, dyeline, ozalid, position proof, silverprint, Dylux and VanDyke.

BODYIn typography, the main shank or portion of a letter character other than the ascenders and descenders.

BOILER PLATE Blocks of repetitive type used and copied over and over again.

BONDA grade of durable writing, printing and typing paper that is erasable and somewhat rigid. Typically used in office copiers and desktop printers.

BOOK PAPER

A paper that is designed specifically for the publication of printed books. Book paper text weight and is divided into uncoated or offset paper, and coated paper, which includes matte or gloss coating.

BOUNCEInconsistent positioning of the printed image on the sheets of paper as they travel through a printing press.

BRIGHTNESSIn paper, brightness is the reflectance or brilliance of the paper.

BRISTOLA type of board paper used for post cards, business cards and other heavy use products

BULKA term given to paper to describe its thickness relative to its weight.

BULLETA dot or square used before a sentence to emphasize its importance.

C C is short for cyan in the four-color printing process.

C1S AND C2SAcronyms used to indicate paper stock that is Coated One Side or Coated Two Sides. A cover stock with a glossy finish on one side and uncoated on the other.

CALENDERTo make the surface of paper smooth by pressing it between rollers during the manufacturing process.

CALIPERHow paper thickness is measured expressed in thousandths of an inch (mils or points), pages per inch (ppi), thousandths of a millimeter (microns) or pages per centimeter (ppc).

26 • PRINTING GUIDEBOOK | GLOSSARY OF TERMS


CAMERA READYMechanicals, photographs and art files properly prepared for reproduction according to the technical requirements of the printing process being used.

CASE BINDING Books bound using hard board case covers.

CARBONLESS PAPER

Paper that is chemically treated so that it transfer the impression from the first page to the subsequent pages.

CAST COATEDHigh gloss, coated paper made by pressing the paper against a polished, hot, metal drum while the coating is still wet.

CENTER SPREADThe two pages that face each other in the center of a book or publication.

CF Coated front

CB Coated Back

CFB Coated Front & Back

CHAIN LINESLines that appear on laid paper as a result of the wires of the papermaking machine.

CLIP ARTGraphic images, designs, and artwork in digital form that can be used in a digital document.

CMYKCMYK is short for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). CMYK is the standard color model used in four-color printing process in both offset and digital printing.

COARSE SCREENHalftone screens commonly used in newsprint; typically up to 85 lines per inch.

COATED STOCKA paper which has been coated by a compound to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness or reduced ink absorbency.

COIL BINDING

A commonly used book binding style for creating documents, reports, presentations and proposals. Documents bound with helical coil (usually called spiral coil) can open flat on a desk or table and offer 360 degree rotation for easy note taking. This binding style is durable and is often used for documents that need to be mailed. Spiral coil binding spines are also available in more colors and sizes than other binding styles.

COLD COLOR Any color that is toward the blue side of the color spectrum.

COLLATETo gather sheets or printed signatures together in their correct order.

COLOPHON A printers’ or publishers’ identifying logo or emblem.

COLOR BALANCEThe relative amounts of process colors used to reproduce an image, either digitally or when printed on a press.

COLOR BARS

A color test strip that is printed along the unused portion of a press sheet. It assists the press operator in monitoring and controlling the quality of the printed material relative to ink density, registration and dot gain.

COLOR CASTA tint of a particular color, usually unwanted, which affects the whole of a printed image evenly.



COLOR CORRECTION

Using a computer to adjust, change or manipulate a color image, such as retouching, adjusting color balance, color saturation, contrast, etc.

COLOR CURVES

A graphic mechanism for displaying color measurements and for making color changes to an image. User adjustments to the angle and slope of the curve implement color changes to one or all of an image’s color channels.

COLOR GAMUT

In color reproduction, including computer graphics, photography and printing, the color gamut is a certain complete subset of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a certain output device.

COLOR SEPARATIONS

Color separations are the four-color negatives or plates which are the result of changing full color artwork into the four process colors (yellow, magenta, cyan, and black) by the use of filters. Color separation is done for offset printing jobs so that each color layer can be printed separately - one layer on top of the next layer - to give the final printed piece a consistent, full color look.

COLOR SEQUENCEThe order in which process inks are laid down on the paper during the printing process. Also called the laydown sequence.

COLOR TRANSPARENCY

Transparent film containing a positive photographic color image.

COMB BINDING

A method of securing loose printed pages using a piece of plastic with “teeth” (the comb) that fit into rectangular holes in the paper. The combs come in different colors and widths to accommodate small and large numbers of pages. Documents can be bound with or without covers. The binding allows books to lay flat when opened.

CONDENSED TYPE A narrow, elongated typeface.

COMPUTER-TO-PLATE (CTP)

Describes a system in which allows the imaging of metal plates for any format of press without the use of film, stripping or traditional platemaking. This process results in lower costs while shortening the amount of time needed to get a job on the press.

CONTRASTThe degree of tonal separation or gradation in the range from black to white.

COVERA term describing a general type of paper used for the covers of books, brochures and also used for business cards and postcards.

COVERAGEThe extent to which printing ink covers the surface of a printed sheet. Ink coverage is frequently expressed as light, medium or heavy.

CREEPCreep is the shifting position of the page in a saddle-stitched bind. Creep moves the inside pages away from the spine.

CROPTo reduce the size of an image by cutting out part of the image.

CROP MARKSSmall printed lines in the corners of a printed sheet indicating where it is to be cut out of the sheet. Sometimes referred to as cut marks.



CROSSOVERAn image, rule or line art on one printed page that carries over to the adjacent page of a bound or folded work.

CYANShort for Cyan. A shade of blue used in four-color CMYK process printing.

DAMPENINGIn offset lithographic printing, the system that transfers a water-based fountain solution to the printing plate as a means of making non-image areas ink repellent.

DEBOSSDeboss means to press an image into paper so it lies below the surface.

DECKLE EDGE

A type of paper with an irregular, untrimmed edge which decreases in thickness towards the edge of the paper. Deckle edge paper is commonly used for high-quality books, booklets, announcements, or fine art prints.

DENSITOMETER

A densitometer is an instrument having a light-sensitive photoelectric eye for measuring the density of colored ink to measure and control the optical density of color inks on the substrate.

DENSITYThe degree of tone, weight of darkness or color within a photo or reproduction measured by a densitometer.

DESCENDERA term that describes that portion of lower case letters that extends below the main body of the letter, as in “p”.

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

A general, popular term referring to the process of assembling pages on a desktop computer, commonly accomplished using commercially-available software, an input device such as a scanner, and an output device, such as a laser printer or other devices of increasing image quality and resolution.

DIE CUTTINGA finishing operation involving the use of sharp steel rules or knives to cut a specific pattern into a substrate or to cut the substrate itself into a specific pattern.

DIGITAL PROOF

A proof, either a color or black-and-white reproduction, produced directly from digital data, without any intermediate production of film. There are two types of digital proofs: a digital hard proof (a proof made directly on a substrate by an output device connected to the computer) or a digital soft proof (a display of the page or image on a computer monitor, typically a PDF).

DIRECT IMAGING PRESS (DI)

A direct imaging press or DI for short is an offset press on which plates are imaged while on press directly from files prepared on a dedicated electronic prepress workstation.

DITHERING

In digital imaging, to use the values (colors) of two pixels to determine the color of a pixel lying between them. This new pixel thus has a value that is the average of the two pixels on either side of it. Dithering is often used to eliminate unwanted jaggies (i.e., to give an image a smoother edge)

DOTDot is the basic halftone printing unit. A series of dots are combined to create a printed image.

DOT PATTERN Dot pattern is a series of dots that make up a printed image.

DOT GAIN

Relative size of halftone dots as compared to dots of the screen ruling being used. There is no unit of measurement to express dot size. Dots are too large, too small or correct only in comparison to what the viewer finds attractive.



DOTS PER INCH (DPI)

Dots per inch or DPI for short is a measurement of resolution of a printed image as determined by the number of dots that fit into one inch. The higher the concentration of dots per inch, the sharper the image will be.

DRILL Drilling of holes into paper to fit into a 3 ring binder

DROP SHADOWA shadow image placed offset behind an image to create the effect of the image being lifted off the page.

DULL FINISHA semi-gloss finish on paper that is less glossy than gloss but more glossy than matte paper.

DUMMYThe preliminary mock up of copy and art elements to be reproduced in the desired finished product, also called a comp.

DUOTONEBlack-and-white photograph reproduced using two halftone negatives, each shot to emphasize different tonal values in the original.

DUPLEXINGDuplexing is the ability of a printing press to print on both sides of a sheet without having to manually turn the sheet over.

DYE SUBLIMATIONA photographic looking color print created by heating dyes on a substrate instead of using inks. Also used in fabric printing.

ELECTRONIC PROOF

A representation of the page or image that is to be printed that is viewed on a computer monitor, (typically a PDF).

EMBOSSINGA process in which images, patterns, or text are stamped or pressed into a substrate.

ENAMEL A term used for gloss coated paper.

ENGRAVINGPrinting method using a metal plate, also called a die, with an image cut into its surface.

EPS

A graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems, Inc.; a device-independent PostScript representation of a graphic or other object (or page). It stores files not only as a series of Bézier curves (or vectors), but also includes a low-resolution bit map representation of the file for quick on-screen viewing.

FACEEdge of a bound publication opposite the spine. Also, an abbreviation for a font typeface.

FELT SIDE

The smoother side of a sheet in the paper. The wire side is the rougher side of the paper. The difference happens in the papermaking process. The differences are eliminated when papers are gloss or matte coated.

FIFTH COLORInk color used in addition to the CMYK four-color process. Typically a spot color that can’t be achieved by using just the CMYK process.

FILM LAMINATEThin sheet of plastic bonded to a printed product for protection or increased gloss.

FINE SCREENScreen with ruling of more than 150 lines per inch (80 lines per centimeter).

FINISHSurface characteristics of paper. Also a general term for trimming, folding, binding and all other post press operations.



FINISHED SIZESize of product after production is completed, as compared to flat size. Also called trimmed size.

FLAT SIZESize of product after printing and trimming, but before folding, as compared to finished size.

FLEXOGRAPHYA form of printing that uses flexible rubber relief plates and highly volatile, fast-drying inks to print on a variety of substrates, commonly used in package printing.

FLOODTo print a sheet completely with an ink or varnish. Flooding with ink is also called painting the sheet.

FOIL STAMPING

In foil stamping, a heated die containing a raised image presses down on a roll of foil passing above the substrate to be decorated. As the die hits the foil, it is transferred to the substrate.

FOIL EMBOSSINGStamping a thin sheet of metallic foil onto a sheet of paper and then embossing a pattern under it, creating a three dimensional raised area, usually text or an image.

FOLD MARKS Markings that indicate where a fold is to occur.

FOLIO (PAGE NUMBER)

The actual page number in a publication.

FORM Refers to each side of a sheet of paper.

FOR POSITION ONLY

Refers to inexpensive copies of photos or art used on mechanical to indicate placement and scaling, but not intended for reproduction. Abbreviated FPO.

FONT The characters which make up a complete typeface and size.

FOUR COLOR PRINTING

Technique of printing that uses black, magenta, cyan and yellow to simulate full-color images. Also called color process printing, full color printing and process printing.

FREE SHEET Any paper substrate that is free from wood pulp impurities.

FRENCH FOLDA printed sheet, printed one side only, folded with two right angle folds to form a four page uncut section.

FRONTSIDE Frontside is the side that is opposite the back.

GANGINGThe combining of two or more different printing jobs on the same sheet of paper.

GATE FOLDA four-page insert or configuration of foldout. A large page is folded with two parallel folds to produce a center spread revealed by opening two folded flaps.

GATHERINGAssembling sheets of paper and signatures into their proper sequence. See collate.



GBC BINDING Plastic comb binding.

GHOSTING

An offset printing defect characterized by the appearance of faint replicas of printed images in undesirable places. Mechanical ghosting appears during printing and is easily detectable in the delivery tray. It can be caused by such things as ink starvation, as heavily-inked areas on the plate aren’t always adequately reinked by the form roller. Chemical ghosting, also called gloss ghosting or fuming ghosting, is characterized by a “phantom” image on the reverse side of a sheet originating from the sheet below it (not caused by ink setoff), and typically results from an ink reacting with and altering the drying of the ink on the sheet on top of it.

GIF

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, and describes a data format for space-saving storage of images and graphics. It works using lossy compression, and allows 256 colors to be displayed from any pallet.

GLASSINEGlassine is a highly greaseproof, but not wet-resistant paper grade made of finely ground pulp. It is highly supercalendered and therefore relatively transparent.

GLOSS

Gloss is a surface property responsible for luster and shininess of the sheet. The calendaring process in the paper production and finishing stage determine the overall glossiness of the sheet. Gloss is determined by examining the ratio of reflected light to incident light.

GLYPH

Any pictogram used to convey information. A glyph is also a coding system used in computing which utilizes printed symbols. After scanning, these symbols are converted into data by the computer. A bar code is a type of glyph.

GRADE

General term used to distinguish between or among printing papers, but whose specific meaning depends on context. Grade can refer to the category, class, rating, finish or brand of paper.

GRAIN

The direction of fibers in a sheet of paper, generated during paper formation. This direction is called the grain. Printing is usually done so that if folding is required, the fold is done parallel to the grain.

GRAIN LONG PAPER (LONG

GRAIN)

Paper whose fibers run parallel to the long dimension of the sheet. Also called long grain paper.

GRAIN SHORT PAPER (SHORT

GRAIN)

Paper whose fibers run parallel to the short dimension of the sheet. Also called short grain paper.

GRAMMAGE Basis weight of paper in grams per square meter (gsm).




GRAPHIC DESIGNArrangement of type and visual elements along with specifications for paper, ink colors and printing processes that, when combined, convey a visual message.

GRAVUREMethod of printing using metal cylinders etched with millions of tiny wells that hold ink.

GRAY LEVELSNumber of distinct gray tones that can be reproduced by a computer.

GRAY SCALEStrip of gray values ranging from white to black. Used to calibrate a press. Also called step wedge.

GRIPPERA set of metal fingers that hold each sheet of paper as it passes through a printing press.

GRIPPER EDGEThe side of a piece of paper that will be held by the gripper fingers as it passes through a printing press.

GSMThe unit of measurement for paper weight (grams per square meter).

GUTTER

A blank space or margin between components on a printed piece or press sheet. In a two-page spread, the gutter is the space between the two pages where the pages are attached to the spine or other binding.

HAIRLINE (RULE) A very thin rule line typically less than one-half point wide.

HALFTONEAny image such as a photograph that exists as a series of small dots of varying size and color density that serve to simulate the appearance of continuous gradations of tone.

HALFTONE SCREEN

A sheet of film or glass containing ruled right-angled lines, used to translate the full tone of a photo to the halftone dot image required for printing.

HALO EFFECTFaint shadow sometimes surrounding halftone dots printed. Also called halation. The halo itself is also called a fringe.

HARD COPY A printed paper copy of output in readable form

HARD PROOFA color proof produced on a substrate (commonly one similar to the ultimate printing substrate).

HEADER At the top of a page, the margin.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

A form of back printing such that the top of the copy on the back side of the sheet is the same as the top of the copy on the front side of the sheet, read simply by turning the page over, as the pages of a book.

HEAD-TO-TAIL

A form of back printing such that the top of the copy on the back side of the sheet is “next” to the bottom of the copy on the front side of the sheet, read by turning the page over from top to bottom.

HICKEYThe effect that occurs when a spec of dust or debris adheres to the printing plate and creates a spot or imperfection in the printing.

HIGHLIGHTSThe lightest tones of a photo, printed halftone or illustration. In the finished halftone, these highlights are represented by the finest dots.

HINGED COVERPerfect bound cover scored 1/8 inch (3mm) from the spine so it folds at the hinge instead of, along the edge of the spine.


HOT MELTAn adhesive used in some binding processes, which requires heat to melt the adhesive.

HOUSE SHEET This is a term that refers the paper stock that a printer keeps on hand in their shop.

HSBThe HSB color model describes colors in the same way as the human eye perceives them, using hue, saturation and brightness.

HUE

The primary and most basic attribute of a color that makes it distinct from another color, determined by its dominant wavelength of light on the visible spectrum. In ink manufacturing and color matching, hue is more commonly known as shade.

ICC

The International Color Consortium (ICC) brings together manufacturers of prepress products in order to promote color management, in other words device-independent processing of color.

IMAGE AREAThat portion of a printing plate that carries ink and prints on paper.

IMAGESETTER

A high-resolution output device that takes bitmapped data generated by a raster image processor, such as a digital text or image file, and writes it to film or paper by means of a laser which exposes the film or paper line by line.

IMPOSITION

The positioning of pages on a press sheet in such a manner that when the sheet is folded into a signature and cut, the pages will be in the correct sequence. Imposition involves not just the correct positioning of pages on the same side of the sheet, but also the back printing, or the pages printed on the back of the sheet.

IMPRESSION

Referring to an ink color, one impression equals one press sheet passing once through a printing unit. Also refers to speed of a press, one impression equals one press sheet passing once through the press.

IMPRESSION CYLINDER

Cylinder, on a press, that pushes paper against the plate or blanket, thus forming the image. Also called impression roller.

INDESIGNA software package from Adobe used for graphic design and page layout.

INDICIAAn image and/or text pre-printed on mailing envelopes in place of a postage stamp.

INK DRY BACKWhen printed ink colors become lighter or less dense after it has dried on the paper.

INK JET PRINTINGA printing process where minute drops of ink are applied to the surface to be printed by means of a piezoelectric or thermal jet.

INSERTA piece of printed material that is inserted into another piece of printed material, such as a magazine or catalog.

ITALICText that is used to denote emphasis by slanting the type body forward.



JACKETOr dust jacket. The paper cover sometimes called the “dust cover” of a hardbound book.

JPEG

JPEG is a common method, developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, for compressing image files in RGB mode. It can reduce the file size by up to 95 percent. It involves a loss of image information, although the degree of compression can be selected such that these losses remain within acceptable limits.

JOB DEFINITION FORMAT (JDF)

The Job Definition Format (JDF) is an industry specification for exchanging product specifications using an Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based file format.

JOB TICKETForm used by printers to specify production schedule of a job and the materials it needs. Also called docket, production order and work order.

JOGTo vibrate a stack of paper so that they are tightly aligned for final trimming or binding.

JUSTIFICATIONAdjusting the spacing or hyphenation of words and characters to fill a given line of text from end to end. Sometimes referred to as word spacing.

K K is short for black in four-color process printing.

KERNINGIn typography, the reduction of letterspacing between certain character combinations in order to reduce the space between them, performed for aesthetic reasons.

KEYLINELines that are drawn on artwork that indicate the exact placement, shape and size of elements including halftones, illustrations, etc.

KISS CUTTo die cut the top layer, but not the backing layer, of self-adhesive paper. Also called face cut.

KRAFT PAPERA coarse unbleached paper used for printing and industrial products.

LAID FINISHA type of bond paper or book paper finish imprinted with evenly-spaced parallel lines that are visible when the sheet is held up to the light.

LAMINATIONApplying thin transparent plastic sheets to both sides of a sheet of paper, providing scuff resistance, waterproofing and extended use.

LANDSCAPEA document layout where the width is greater than the height. (the opposite of Portrait)

LAYOUTA rendition that shows the placement of all the elements, images, thumbnails etc., of a final printed piece.

LEADINGSpace between lines of type. The distance in points between one baseline and the next.

LEAFOne sheet of paper in a publication. Each side of a leaf is one page.

LETTER FOLDTwo folds creating three panels that allow a sheet of letterhead to fit a business envelope. Also called barrel fold and wrap around fold.



LETTERPRESSThe oldest of the major printing processes distinguished by its use of raised metal type.

LETTER SPACING The addition of space between typeset letters.

LINE COPYAny copy that can be reproduced without the use of a halftone screen.

LINE SCREEN

Line screen measures the number of dot lines per inch, which provides an indication of image sharpness. The finer the “screen” used to create printing plates, the more detail can be portrayed in the final printed piece.

LINES PER INCH (LPI)

Lines per inch or LPI refers to the number of dot lines created per inch, which provides an indication of image sharpness. The finer the “screen” used to create printing plates, the more detail can be portrayed in the final printed piece.

LINEN A paper that emulates the look and texture of linen cloth.

LITHOGRAPHY

Lithographic printing is based on the principle that oil and water do not mix readily; the image area of a lithographic printing plate will attract a greasy, oil-based ink, while the non-image areas will attract water, mutual chemical repulsion keeping the two regions separate.

LIVE AREAArea on a mechanical within which images will print. Also called safe area.

LOGOTYPEA personalized type or design symbol for a company or product.

LOOSE PROOFProof of a halftone or color separation that is not assembled with other elements from a page, as compared to composite proof.

LOUPEA small magnifier used to observe the details on a printed sheet.

M M is short for magenta in the four-color printing process.

M WEIGHT The actual weight of 1000 sheets of any given size of paper.

MAGENTAOne of the four process colors. Magenta is a predominately red color with some blue.

MAGNETIC BLACKBlack ink containing iron oxides, used for magnetic ink character recognition used for check printing.

MAKE-READY

Collective term for all of the operations necessary to set up a printing press for printing, including inking and ink adjustment, dampening solution adjustment, ink and dampening roller adjustment, plate and blanket cylinder adjustment, and other procedures performed to preclude the need for wasted time and paper once the job itself has started. Also includes the paper that is used in the press set-up process before the printing run actually starts.

MATTE FINISH A coated paper finish that goes through minimal calendaring.

MARGIN Imprinted space around the edge of the printed material.

MARK-UP Printing instructions written usually on a “dummy.”

MATCH PRINT A form of a four-color-process proofing system.



MECHANICAL

A hard mechanical consists of paper and/or acetate, is made using paste-up techniques, and may also be called an artboard, board or paste-up. A soft mechanical, also called an electronic mechanical, exists as a file of type and other images assembled using a computer.

METALLIC INKInk that looks metallic when printed. Made with powdered metal or pigments that look metallic.

MIDTONESIn a photograph or illustration, tones created by dots between 30 percent and 70 percent of coverage, as compared to highlights and shadows.

MOCK UPA reproduction of the original printed matter and possibly containing instructions or direction.

MOIRÉ

Moire is an undesirable pattern that appears when two or more screen patterns are placed over one another. Moire may be caused by misalignment, incorrect screen angles, slipping or slurring.

MOTTLE A term used to describe spotty or uneven ink absorption.

NATURALA term to describe papers that have a color similar to that of wood, also called cream, off-white or ivory.

NESTEDSignatures assembled inside one another in the proper sequence for binding, as compared to gathered.

NEWSPRINTA light, low-cost unbleached paper made especially for newspaper printing.

OFFSET

An erroneous variation of the word “setoff”. Ink that is unintentionally transferred from a printed sheet to the back of the sheet above it as the pieces are stacked in a pile after printing.

OFFSET LITHOGRAPHY

Offset lithography is a printing process where the image prints by transferring ink from a plate to a rubber blanket that deposits the ink onto the substrate instead of directly from plate to paper.

OFFSET PRINTING

A commonly used printing method, where the printed material does not receive ink directly from a printing plate but from an intermediary blanket that receives the ink from the plate and then transfers it to the paper.

OFFSET PAPER A term used for uncoated book paper.

ONE-TO-ONE MARKETING

One-to-one marketing is a term describing activities in the areas of market research, advertising and sales which are directed at individual customers and take account of their individual wishes and preferences. Digital printing has made one-to-one marketing possible by using variable data printing.

ONIONSKINA light bond paper used for typing and used with carbon paper because of its thinness.

OPACITYQuality of papers that defines its opaqueness or ability to prevent two-sided printing from showing through.

OPAQUE INK Ink that completely covers any ink under itself.



OVERLAY PROOF

A type of color proof, comprising a set of thin, transparent sheets of plastic or film, each of which contains one of the four process colors - cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—overlayed on top of each other to simulate the appearance of the final, full-color reproduction.

OVERPRINTINGAny printing that is done on an area that has already been printed.

OVERRUN Additional printed matter beyond what was ordered.

PAGE One side of a leaf in a publication.

PAGE COUNTTotal number of pages that a publication has. Also called extent.

PAGINATION The numbering of individual pages in a multi-page document

PANELOne page of a brochure, such as one panel of a rack brochure. One panel is on one side of the paper. A letter-folded sheet has six panels, not three.

PANTONE COLORS

Pantone colors are based on a system of standard colors used worldwide The system is based on 512 reference color tones which are mixed from eight basic colors, black and white and are printed on coated and uncoated paper. Today, there are over 1,100 Pantone colors available on a broad range of papers.

PARALLEL FOLDMethod of folding. Two parallel folds to a sheet will produce 6 panels.

PARCHMENTA hard finished paper that emulates animal skin used for documents, such as awards, that require writing by hand.

PARENT SHEET A sheet that is larger than the cut stock of the same paper.

PDF

PDF is the abbreviation for what is known as the Portable Document Format. Developed by Adobe Systems this data format is used for exchanging and processing electronically stored, formatted documents with text and images, independently of the hardware and software used.

PERFECT BINDING

Perfect binding is a bindery method where all pages are trimmed to a single sheet. They are clamped together and a cover is wrapped around the spine. The pages are attached to the cover using and adhesive.

PERFECTING PRESS

A printing press that prints on both sides of a sheet in a single pass through the press.

PERFORATIONPerforation takes place on a binder machine, creating a line of small dotted wholes for the purpose of tearing-off a part of a printed matter.

PERSONALIZE OR PERSONALIZATION

Personalized printing refers to processes where to a certain degree the individual copies in a print run have distinctive imprints. The digital printing process allows the printing data to vary from copy to copy. One common application of this process is the inclusion of the name and/or address of the recipient on the printed product.

PHOTOSHOPPhotoshop, from Adobe Systems is the leading software package for digital image manipulation in DTP applications.

PICAA unit of measure in the printing industry. A pica is approximately 0.166 in. There are 12 points to a pica.



PICKINGAn occurrence in printing whereby the tack of ink pulls fibers or coating off the paper surface, leaving spots on the printed surface.

PIN REGISTERTechnique of registering separations, flats and printing plates by using small holes, all of equal diameter, at the edges of both flats and plates.

PIXEL

A pixel – an abbreviation for picture element – is the computer term for an image dot, i.e. the smallest unit of a digitally displayed image. The memory required by an image consisting of pixels is determined by the size of the image, its resolution, i.e. the number of pixels per unit of area, and the number of colors to be displayed.

PLASTIC COMBA method of binding books whereby holes are punched on the spine, and a plastic grasping device is inserted to hold the pages together.

PLATEPlate is a metal sheet carrying an image to be reproduced using a printing press.

PLEASING COLORColor that the customer considers satisfactory even though it may not precisely match original samples, scenes or objects.

PMS The abbreviation of the Pantone Color Matching System.

POINT(1) Regarding paper, a unit of thickness equating 1/1000 inch. (2) Regarding type, a unit of measure equaling 1/12 pica and .013875 inch (.351mm).

PORTRAITA document layout in which the height is greater than the width. (the opposite of Landscape)

POSTPRESSUmbrella term for all processing operations performed on the printed product after the actual printing process, e.g. folding, binding, trimming, packaging.

POSTSCRIPT

A tradename of Adobe Systems for its page description language. This language translates a digital file from an application into a language a compatible printer or other device can use to create its output.

PPI Pages per inch or pixels per inch.

PREMIUMAny paper that is considered better than grade #1 by its manufacturer.

PREPRESSCamera work, color separations, stripping, platemaking and other prepress functions performed by the printer, separator or a service bureau prior to printing.

PRESS CHECKWhen a customer visits a printing company to view actual printed sheets of their project before a full production press run is started.

PRESSURE-SENSITIVE

Self-adhesive paper covered by a backing sheet.

PRINTER SPREADSMechanicals made so they are imposed for printing, as compared to reader spreads.



PRINT ON DEMAND

This term denotes a work process where instead of producing a large print run of a specific product, smaller partial print runs are printed on demand, sometimes only a few copies. Printing on demand has been made possible thanks to digital printing, which allows you to print directly from the prepress data, without having to produce printing forms or set up printing presses.

PROCESS PRINTING

A system where a color image is separated into different color values (cyan, magenta, yellow and black or CMYK) by the use of filters and screens or digitally with a software program and then transferred to printing plates and printed on a printing press, reproducing the original color image.

PROOFA proof is a single print of an original which serves as a definitive means of verifying the layout and color for subsequent printing.

PROGRESSIVE PROOFS

Any proofs made from the separate colors of a multi-color printing project.

QUARKShort for QuarkXPress, one of the primary computer applications used in graphic design.

RAG PAPER Papers with a complete or partial content of cotton fibers.

RAGGED LEFTThe term given to right-justified type that is uneven on the left.

RAGGED RIGHTThe term given to left-justified type that is uneven on the right.

RASTERRaster means to convert mathematical and digital information into a series of dots by an imagesetter as digital data that will be used for output.

RASTER IMAGE PROCESSOR (RIP)

Rastor image processor or RIP for short is a device that translates page description commands into bitmapped information for an output device such as an imagesetter. A raster image processor is used to convert the output of a pre-press computer system into a format usable by an imagesetter.

READER SPREADMechanicals made in two page spreads as readers would see the pages, as compared to printer spread.

REAM 500 sheets of paper.

RECYCLED PAPER New paper made entirely or in part from old paper.

REGISTERThe arrangement of two or more printed images in exact alignment with each other.

REGISTER MARKSCross-hair lines on mechanicals and film that help keep flats, plates, and printing in register. Also called crossmarks and position marks.

RESOLUTIONSharpness of an image on film, paper, computer screen, disc, tape or other medium.

RGB

The color space of Red, Green and Blue. These are the primary colors of light, which computers use to display images on your screen. An RGB computer file must be translated into the CMYK (the primary colors of pigment) color space in order to be printed on a printing press.



RIGHT ANGLE FOLD

A term that denotes folds that are 90 degrees to each other.

RIP

The abbreviation RIP stands for Raster Image Processor, which prepares data from the prepress stage for the production of the printing plates. Its most important function is to create screens for printing images and other graphic elements.

RULE Line used as a graphic element to separate or organize copy.

RUNNING HEADA title at the top of a page that appears on all pages of a book or chapter of a book.

SADDLE STITCHThe binding of booklets or other printed materials by stapling the pages along the folded spine.

SAFETY PAPERA paper that shows sign of erasure so that it cannot be altered or tampered with easily.

SCORINGScore is a shallow crease where a sheet of paper will be folded. A score is important because it prevents the ink (and paper) from cracking at the edge of the fold.

SCREEN ANGLESThe placement of halftone screens to avoid unwanted moiré patterns.

SCREEN RULINGNumber of rows or lines of dots per inch or centimeter in a screen for making a screen tint or halftone. Also called line count, ruling, screen frequency, screen size and screen value.

SCREEN PRINTINGMethod of printing by using a squeegee to force ink through an assembly of mesh fabric and a stencil.

SCUMUnwanted deposits of ink in the non-image area of a printed piece.

SEPARATIONSUsually in the four-color process printing, separate film holding images of one specific color per piece of film. Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.

SELF COVER A cover that is the same paper stock as the internal sheets.

SERIF

A serif is a small stroke on the end of the strokes of letters. This design feature is typical of so-called Roman faces, which can be traced back to ancient Rome. Serifs cater to the perception mechanism of the human eye and thus make type faces easier to read.

SERVICE BUREAU

A company—also known sometimes as a prepress house—that provides imagesetter output of digital files. Service bureaus typically form a link between desktop publishers—who compose a document or publication using page makeup software —and printers, who require madeup pages on film for platemaking.

SHARPENTo decrease the dot size of a halftone, which in turn decreases the color strength.

SHEETFED PRESSPress that prints sheets of paper, as compared to a web press that print on rolls of paper.

SHEETWISETechnique of printing one side of a sheet with one set of plates, then the other side of the sheet with a set of different plates. Also called work and back.

SHOW THROUGHWhen the printing on one side of a sheet is seen from the other side, a frequent problem with thin papers.



SIDE GUIDEThe guides on the sides of a printing press that positions the sheet sideways as it is fed through the press.

SIDE STITCHThe stapling of sheets or signatures on the side closest to the spine.

SIGNATUREPrinted sheet folded at least once, possibly many times, to become part of a book, magazine or other publication.

SLIP SHEETSSeparate sheets (stock) independent from the original run positioned between the “printed run” usually to prevent damage or offsetting.

SMALL CAPS

“Small caps” is the term used for upper-case letters with a size equal to the basic height of lower-case letters of the type size currently being used. Small caps are used to emphasize individual words in the text.

SMOOTHNESSThat quality of paper defined by its levelness that allows for pressure consistency in printing, assuring uniformity of print.

SOY INKSInks using vegetable oils instead of petroleum based products as pigment, thus better for the environment.

SPINE Back or binding edge of a publication

SPIRAL BINDTo bind using a spiral of continuous wire or plastic looped through holes. Also called coil bind.

SPOT COLOR OR VARNISH

One ink or varnish applied to portions of a sheet, as compared to flood or painted sheet.

SPREAD

Two pages that face each other and are designed as one visual or production unit. Also the technique of slightly enlarging the size of an image to accomplish a hairline trap with another image.

STEP AND REPEATPrepress technique of exposing an image in a precise, multiple pattern to create a flat or plate. Images are said to be stepped across the film or plate.

STOCK A term for unprinted paper.

SUPER CALENDARING

A machine procedure that produces a very smooth paper surface that is exceptional for printing.

SUBSTRATE Any surface or material on which printing is done.

SWOPAbbreviation for specifications for web offset publications, specifications recommended for web printing of publications.

SYNTHETIC PAPERS

Any non-wood or cloth paper, usually petroleum (plastic) based.

TABLOIDA page size corresponding to 11 inches wide by 17 inches long, or roughly half the size of a standard size newspaper.

TAGGED IMAGE FILE FORMAT

(TIFF)

Computer file format used to store images from scanners and video devices. Abbreviated TIFF.

TEXT PAPER

Designation for printing papers with textured surfaces such as laid or linen. Some mills also use ‘text’ to refer to any paper they consider top-of-the-line, whether or not its surface has a texture.



THERMOGRAPHY

A printing process whereby slow drying ink is applied to paper and, while the ink is still wet, is lightly dusted with a resinous powder. The paper then passes through a heat chamber where the powder melts and fuses with the ink to produce a raised surface.

TINTScreening or adding white to a solid color for results of lightening that specific color.

TRAPPING

The overlapping of one color over a different, adjacent color to ensure that no white space is visible where the two colors meet, especially when there are slight variations in the registration of the two colors during the printing process.

TRIM MARKSMarks placed on the printed sheet to indicate where cuts should be made.

TRIM SIZEThe final size of a printed piece after being cut from the sheet of paper that it was printed on.

TWO-UPPrinting two up or three up means printing the same image twice or three times on the same sheet of paper in one impression

TYPOA spelling mistake in printed material resulting from a mistake in typing or setting type.

UNCOATED PAPERPaper without an additional protective coating; “untreated” paper.

UPA term used to describe how many similar pieces can be printed on a larger sheet; two up, four up, etc.

UV COATINGA very shiny and durable high gloss coating applied to printed material. Applied as a liquid then cured with ultraviolet light.

UV INKSUV inks are printing inks that are cured with ultraviolet (UV) light.

VARIABLE DATA PRINTING

Is a form of on-demand printing in which elements (such as text, graphics, photographs, etc) can be changed from one printed piece to the next, without stopping or slowing down the press, using information from a database.

VARNISHA clear coating added to printed material as a protective layer for improved scuff resistance and usually higher gloss.

VELLUM A finish of paper that is somewhat bulky and is slightly rough.

VIGNETTEA photo or illustration, in which the tones fade gradually away until they blend with the background they are printed on.

VOCSAbbreviation of volatile organic compounds. Petroleum based chemicals used in some printing inks and coatings who’s high vapor pressure allows easy evaporation into the air.

WARM COLORA color with a reddish tone rather than a blue tone. Browns, oranges, reds, and yellows are generally considered to be “warm” colors.

WASTE

Waste consists first and foremost of pages that are incorrectly printed. But it also applies to all waste paper generated in print shops. For example, damaged paper, trial runs when setting up presses, packaging materials and innumerable print products and book returns.



WASHUPTo clean ink and fountain solutions from rollers, fountains, screens, and other press components.

WATERMARKA translucent mark or image that is embossed during the papermaking process, or printed onto paper, which is visible when the paper is held up to the light.

WEB PRESSPress that prints from rolls of paper, usually cutting it into sheets after printing.

WIDOW

A single word or two left at the end of a paragraph, or a part of a sentence ending a paragraph, which loops over to the next page and stands alone. Also, the last sentence of a paragraph, which contains only one or two short words.

WORK AND TURNA printing production format that has the front and back of a printed piece on one side of the paper that is then printed the same on the back side, producing two copies of the piece.

WOVE A smooth paper with a gentle patterned finish.

WRITING PAPER Another name for bond paper.

XEROGRAPHIC PAPER

Papers made to reproduce well in copy machines.

YELLOWY is short for yellow. One of the four process colors of ink, or CMYK.

ZIP FILEZipping a file compresses one or more files into a smaller archive. It takes up less hard drive space and less time to be transmitted across a network or the internet.

4/04/0 is a trade designation for a printed piece with four colors (full color) printing on the front side and no printing on the back side.

4/14/1 is a trade designation for a printed piece with four colors (full color) printing on the front side and one color printing on the back side.

4/4

4/4 is a trade designation for a printed piece with four colors (full color) on the front side and four colors (full color) printing on the back side.



TOPIC | PRINTING GUIDEBOOK • 45


Date post:	01-Feb-2023
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