Printing Glossary
A B C D E F G H J K L O P R S T W

Anti-aliasing [top]
The rendering of hard-edged objects so they blend smoothly into the background. A technique for merging object-oriented art into bitmaps.

Binding [top]
The various methods used to secure loose leaves or sections in a book; eg saddle-stitch, perfect bound.

Bitmapped
An image formed (or appearing to be formed) by a rectangular grid of pixels. The computer assigns a value to each pixel, from one bit of information (black or white), to as much as 24 or 30 bits per pixel for full color images. Also used to refer to an image that has too low of a resolution or linescreen for the output resolution ("That image looks bitmapped."; line art scanned at 72dpi when it is to be printed at 2540dpi will be very coarsely bitmapped).

Bleed
Layout, type or pictures that extend 1/8" beyond the trim marks on a page. Illustrations that spread to the edge of the paper without margins are referred to as 'bled off'.

Blueline Proof
A proof made from the actual printing plates, so-called because of its blue color. A chance to get one more look at a printing job before it goes to the press.

CMYK [top]
Cyan, yellow, magenta, black. The subtractive primaries, or process colors, used in color printing. Black (K) is usually added to enhance color and to print a true black. See subtractive primaries, four color process.

Collate
To gather separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding.

Color Proof
Representation of what the final printed composition will look like. The resolution and quality of different types of color can vary greatly.

Color Separations
The division of an image into its component colors for printing. Each color separation is a piece of negative or positive film. Four color or process separations result in 4 pieces of film (CMYK); Spot color separations result in 1 piece of film for each spot color.

Colorfill
Screen printing an image and then debossing it onto the vinyl's surface.

Crop Marks
Lines printed showing the dimensions of the final printed page. These marks are used for final trimming.

Cropping
The elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.

Debossing [top]
Depressing an image into a material’s surface so that the image sits below the product surface.

Die
A hardened steel engraving stamp used to print an inked image. Used in the production of good quality letter headings.

Die-casting
Injecting molten metal into the cavity of a carved die (a mold).

Die Cutting
The process of using sharp steel rules to cut special shapes into printed sheets.

Die-striking
Producing emblems and other flat promotional products by striking a blank metal sheet with a hammer that holds the die .

Digital
Files for printing that are produced on the computer.

DPI
Dots per inch. A measure of output resolution produced by printers, imagesetters, or monitors. Monitors are viewed at 72DPI. All artwork should be designed at 300DPI or greater for best print output quality.

Embossing [top]
Impressing an image in relief to achieve a raised surface .

Embroidery
Stitching a design into fabric through the use of high-speed, computer-controlled sewing machines. Artwork must first be "digitized," which is the specialized process of converting two-dimensional artwork into stitches or thread. A particular format of art such as a jpeg, tif, eps, or bmp, cannot be converted into an embroidery tape. The digitizer must actually recreate the artwork using stitches. Then it programs the sewing machine to sew a specific design, in a specific color, with a specific type of stitch. This is the process known as digitizing.

Engraving
Cutting an image into metal, wood or glass by one of three methods--computerized engraving, hand tracing, or hand engraving.

Etching
Using a process in which an image is first covered with a protective coating that resists acid, then exposed, leaving bare metal and protected metal. The acid attacks only the exposed metal, leaving the image etched onto the surface.

Foil Stamping [top]
The process of applying a thin film of colored foil to paper for decorative purposes.

Font
Or typeface. A complete set of characters in a typeface.

Four Color Process
The four basic colors of ink (CMYK‹yellow, magenta, cyan, and black) which reproduce full-color photographs or art.

Grayscale [top]
A range of luminance values for evaluating shading through white to black. Also, a term used when referring to a black and white photograph.

Hot Stamp [top]
Setting a design on a relief die, which is then heated and pressed onto the printing surface.

Justify [top]
The alignment of text along a margin or both margins. This is achieved by adjusting the spacing between the words and characters as necessary so that each line of text finishes at the same point.

Kerning [top]
The adjustment of spacing between certain letter pairs, A and V for example, to obtain a more pleasing appearance.

Laminate [top]
A thin transparent plastic coating applied to paper or board to provide protection and give it a glossy finish.

Landscape
Work in which the width used is greater than the height. Also used to indicate the orientation of tables or illustrations which are printed 'sideways'.

Laser or Foil Stamp
Applying metallic or colored foil imprints to vinyl, leather or paper surfaces.

Lead or Leading
Space added between lines of type to space out text and provide visual separation of the lines. Measured in points or fractions therof. Named after the strips of lead which used to be inserted between lines of metal type.

Opacity [top]
Term used to describe the degree to which paper will show print through.

Outline
A typeface in which the characters are formed with only the outline defined rather than from solid strokes.

Pantone Matching System (PMS): [top]
A book of standardized color in a fan format used to identify, match and communicate colors in order to produce accurate color matches in printing. Each color has a coded number indicating instructions for mixing inks to achieve that color.

Perfect Binding
An inexpensive bookbinding technique in which the pages are glued rather than sewn to the cover and used primarily for paperbacks, small manuals, phone books, etc.

Personalization
Imprinting an item with a person's name using one of several methods such as mechanical engraving, laser engraving, hot stamping, debossing, sublimation, or screen printing, to name a few.

Pixel
The smallest distinct unit of a bitmapped image displayed on a screen.

Portrait
An upright image or page where the height is greater than the width.

PostScript
A page description language developed by Adobe Systems. Widely supported by both hardware and software vendors it represents the current 'standard' in the market.

Rasterization [top]
The process of converting mathematical and digital information (vector commands) into a series of dots by an output device.

Resolution
The measurement used in typesetting to express quality of output. Measured in dots per inch, the greater the number of dots, the more smoother and cleaner appearance the character/image will have. Currently laser printers print at 300-1,200dpi. Imagsetters usually print at 1,270-5,080 dpi.

RGB
Red, green, blue. The additive primary colors used for computer monitor displays; also a color model. Cannot be used for printing. All RGB files must be changed to CMYK to be printed.

Saddle Stitching [top]
A method of binding where the folded pages are stitched through the spine from the outside, using wire staples. Usually limited to 64 pages size.

Scale
The means within a program to reduce or enlarge the amount of space an image will occupy. Some programs maintain the aspect ratio between width and height whilst scaling, thereby avoiding distortion.

Trapping [top]
A prepress technique which allows for variation in registration during the press run. This is done primarily by allowing an overlap between abutting colors.

Watermark [top]
An impression incorporated in the paper making process showing the name of the paper and/or the company logo.