AA's: Short for Author's Alterations. It means copy that's been changed after it's already been typeset, at the request of the author or client.

Adobe Acrobat: Suite of applications to create and view PDF files.

Acid-free Paper: Paper made from pulp containing little or no acid so it resists deterioration from age. Also called alkaline paper, archival paper, neutral pH paper, permanent paper and thesis paper.

Acid Resist: An acid-proof protective coating applied to metal plates prior to etching.

Additive Color: color produced by light falling onto a surface,as compared to subtractive color. The additive primary colors are red, green and blue.

A4 Paper: ISO paper size 210 x 297mm used for Letterhead.

Acetate: A transparent sheet placed over originals or artwork, allowing the designer to write instructions and\or indicate a second color for placement.

Against the Grain: At right angles to the grain direction of the paper being used, as compared to with the grain Also called across the grain and cross grain. See also
Grain Direction.

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

Alteration: Any change made by the customer after copy or artwork has bee given to the service bureau, separator or printer. The change could be in copy, specifications or both. Also called AA, author alteration and customer alteration.

Anodized Plate: An offset printing plate having a treated surface in order to reduce wear for extended use.

Anti-Aliasing: The process of removing or reducing the jagged distortions in curves and diagonal lines so that lines appear smooth or smoother.

Anti-offset Powder: Fine powder lightly sprayed over the printed surface of coated paper as sheets leave a press. Also called dust, offset powder, powder and spray powder.

Antique Paper: Roughest finish offered on offset paper.

ASCII: Acronym for "American Standard Code For Information Interchange". This is a standard for assigning numerical codes to characters and control codes. Specifically, an 8-bit code is used with seven-bits representing characters, letters, numbers, punctuation and symbols, with the eighth bit used for parity checks.

Aqueous Coating: Coating in a water bas and applied like ink by a printing press to protect
and enhance the printing underneath.

Artwork: All original copy, including type, photos and illustrations, intended for
printing. Also called at.

Author's Alterations (AA's): At the proofing stage, changes that the client requests to be made
concerning original art provided. AA's are considered an additional cost to
the client usually.

B

Back Up: (1) To print on the second side of a sheet already printed on one side. (2)
To adjust an image on one side of a sheet so tat it aligns back-to-back
with an image on the other side.

Base Art: Copy pasted up on the mounting board of a mechanical, as compared to overlay
art. Also called base mechanical.

Base Negative: Negative made by photographing base art.

Basic Size: The standard size of sheets of paper used to calculate basis weight in the United States and Canada.

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, f one square meter of paper. Also called grammage and
ream weight.

Bid: Usually in the book arena, but not exclusively, the joining of leafs or signatures together with ether wire, glue or other means.

Bindery: Usually a department within a printing company responsible for collating, folding and trimming various printing projects.

Blank: Category of paperboard ranging in thickness from 15 to 48 points.

Blanket: ubber-coated pad, mounted on a cylinder of an offset press, that receives the inked image from the plate nd transfers it to the surface to be printed.

Bleed:Printing that extends to the edge of a sheet or page after trimming.

Blind Folio: A page number not printed on the page. (In the book arena, a blank page traditionally does not print a age number.)

Blind Image: Image debossed, embossed or stamped, but not printed with ink or foil.

Blocking: ticking together of printed sheets causing damage when the surfaces are separated.

Blow-Up: An enlargement, usually used with graphic images or photographs

Blueline: Preress photographic proof made from stripped negatives where all colors show as blue images on white paper. Because 'blueline' is a generic term for proofs made from a variety of materials having identical purposes and similar appearances, it may also be called a backprint, blue, blueprint, brown line, brown print, diazo, dyeline, ozalid, position proof, silverprint, Dylux and VanDyke.

Blurb: A description or commentary of an author or book content positioned on the book jacket.

Board Paper: General term for paper over 110# index, 80# cover or 200 gsm that is commonly used for products such as file folders, displays and post cards. Also called paperboard.

Body: The main text of work not including the headlines.

Boiler Plate: Blocks of repetitive type used and copied over and over again.

Bond paper: Category of paper commonly used for writing, printing and photocopying. Also called business paper, communication paper, correspondence paper and writing paper.

Book Block: Folded signatures gathered, sewn and trimmed, but not yet covered.

Book Paper: Category of paper suitable for books, magazines, catalogs, advertising and general printing needs. Book paper is divided into uncoated paper (also called offset paper), coated paper (also called art paper enamel paper, gloss paper and slick paper) and text paper.

Border: The decorative design or rule surrounding matter on a page.

Bounce: (1) a repeating registration problem in the printing stage of production. (2) Customer unhappy with the results of a printing project and refuses to accept the project.

Bristol aper: General term referring to paper 6 points or thicker with basis weight between 90# and 200# (200-500 gsm). Used for products such as index cards, file folders and displays.

Broadside: The term used to indicate work printed on one f a large sheet of paper.

Bromide: A photographic print created on bromide paper.

Broken Carton: Carton of paper from which some of the sheets have been sold. Also called less carton.

Bronzing: The effect produced by dusting wet ink after printing and using a metallic powder.

Build a Color: To overlap two o more screen tints to create a new color. Such an overlap is called a build, color build, stacked screen build or tint build.

Bulk: Thickness of paper relative to its basic weight.

Bullet: A dot or similar marking t emphasize text.

Burst Perfect Bind: To bind by forcing glue into notches along the spines of gathered signatures before affixing a paper cover. also called burst bind, notch bind and slotted bind.

Butt Register: Register where ink colors meet precisely without overlapping or allowing space between, as compared to lap register. Also called butt fit and kiss register.

Buy Out: To subcontract for a service that is closely related to the business of the organization. Also called farm out. Work that is ought out or farmed out is sometimes called outwork or referred to as being out of house.

C

C1S and C2S: Abbreviations for coated one side and coated two sides.

Calendar: To make the surface of paper smooth by pressing it between rollers during manufacturing.

Caliper: (1) Thickness of paper or other substrate expressed in thousandths of an inch (mils or points), pages per inch (ppi), thousandths of a millimeter (microns) or pages per centimeter (ppc). 2) Device on a sheet fed press that detects double sheets or on a binding machine that detects missing signatures or inserts.

Camera-ready Copy: Mechanicals, photographs and art fully prepared for reproduction according to the technical requirements of the printing process being used. Also called fished art and reproduction copy.

Camera Service: Business using a process camera to make photostats, halftones, pates and other elements for printing. Also called prep service and trade camera service.

Carbonless Paper: Paper coated with chemicals that enable transfer of images from one sheet to another with pressure from writing or typing.

Carload: Selling unit of paper that may weigh anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 pounds (9,090 to 45, 454 kilos), depending on which mill or merchant uses the term Abbreviated CL.

Carton: Selling unit of paper weighing approximately 150 pounds (60 kilos) A carton can contain anywhere from 500 to 5,000 sheets, depending on the size of sheets and their basis weight.

Case: Covers and spine that, as a unit, enclose the pages of a case bound book.

Case Bind: To bind using glue to hold signatures to a case made of binder board covered with fabric plastic or leather. Also called cloth bind, edition bind, hard bind nd hard cover.

Cast-coated Paper: High gloss, coated paper made by pressing the paper against a polished, hot, metal drum while the coating is still wet.

Catalog Paper: Coated paper rated #4 or #5 with basis weight from 35# to 50# (50 to 75 gsm) commonly used for catalogs and magazine.

Chain Dot: (1) Alternate term for elliptical dot, so called because midtone dots touch at two points, so look like links in a chain. (2) Generic term for any midtone dots whose corners touch.

Chain Lines: (1) Widely spaced lines in laid paper. (2) Blemishes on printed images caused by tracking.

Chalking: Deterioration of a printed image caused by ink that absorbs into paper too fast or has long exposure to sun, and wind making printed.

Chokes: This printing technique lets darker coloured areas overlap very slightly into lighter colour areas to eliminate those ugly white gaps.

CMYK: The four colours from which all other printing colours are made: (C) Cyan, (M) Magenta, (Y) Yellow, and (K) Black.

Crop: To cut out portions of an illustration or photo so it fits into a certain area. You can also "crop out" any graphic elements that you don't want or need.

Crop Marks: Narrow lines at the corners of a proof that show you where the page will be cut.

D

Data Compression: Technique of reducing the amount of storage required to hold a digital file to reduce the disk space the file requires and allow it to be processed or transmitted more quickly.

Deboss: To press an image into paper so it lies below the surface. Also called tool.

Deckle Edge: Edge of paper left ragged as it comes from the papermaking machine instead of being cleanly cut. Also called feather edge.

Densitometer: Instrument used to measure density. Reflection densitometers measure light reflected from paper and other surfaces; transmission densitometers measure light transmitted through film and other materials.

Density: (1) Regarding ink, the relative thickness of a layer of printed ink. (2) Regarding color, the relative ability of a color to absorb light reflected from it or block light passing through it. (3) Regarding paper, the relative tightness or looseness of fibers.

Density Range: Difference between the darkest and lightest areas of copy. Also called contrast ratio, copy range and tonal range.

Desktop Publishing: Technique of using a personal computer to design images and pages, and assemble type and graphics, then using a laser printer or imagesetter to output the assembled pages onto paper, film or printing plate. Abbreviated DTP.

Device Independent Colors: Hules identified by wavelength or by their place in systems such as developed by CIE. 'Device independent' means a color can be described and specified without regard to whether it is reproduced using ink, projected light, photographic chemistry or any other method.

Die: Device for cutting, scoring, stamping, embossing and debossing.

Die Cut: To cut irregular shapes in paper or paperboard using a die.

Digital Proofing: Page proofs produced through electronic memory transferred onto paper via laser or ink-jet.

Diffusion Transfer: Chemical process of reproducing line copy and making halftone positives ready for paste-up.

Digital Dot: Dot created by a computer and printed out by a laser printer or imagesetter. Digital dots are uniform in size, as compared to halftone dots that vary in size.

Direct Digital Color Proof: Color proof made by a laser, ink jet printer or other computer-controlled device without needing to make separation films first. Abbreviated DDCP.

Dog Ear: A letter fold at the side of one of the creases, an indentation occurs.

Dot Gain: Phenomenon of halftone dots printing larger on paper than they are on films or plates, reducing detail and lowering contrast. Also called dot growth, dot spread and press gain.

Dot Size: 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: Measure of resolution of input devices such as scanners, display devices such as monitors, and output devices such as laser printers, imagesetters and monitors. Abbreviated DPI. Also called dot pitch.

Double Black Duotone: Duotone printed from two halftones, one shot for highlights and the other shot for midtones and shadows.

Double Bump: To print a single image twice so it has two layers of ink.

Double Burn: To expose film or a plate twice to different negatives and thus create a composite image.

Double Density: A method of recording electronically (disk, CD, floppy) using a modified frequency to allow more data storage.

Double Dot Halftone: Halftone double burned onto one plate from two halftones, one shot for shadows, the second shot for midtones and highlights.

Doubling: Printing defect appearing as blurring or shadowing of the image. Doubling may be caused by problems with paper, cylinder alignment, blanket pressures or dirty cylinders.

DPI: Considered as "dots per square inch," a measure of output resolution in relationship to printers, imagesetters and monitors.

Drawdown: Sample of inks specified for a job applied to the substrate specified for a job. Also called pulldown.

Drill: In the printing arena, to drill a whole in a printed matter.

Dropout: Halftone dots or fine lines eliminated from highlights by overexposure during camera work.

Dropout Halftone: Halftone in which contrast has been increased by eliminating dots from highlights.

Dry Back: Phenomenon of printed ink colors becoming less dense as the ink dries.

Dry Offset: Using metal plates in the printing process, which are etched to .15mm (.0006 in) creating a right reading plate, printed on the offset blanket transferring to paper without the use of water.

Dry Trap: To print over dry ink, as compared to wet trap.

Dual-purpose Bond Paper: Bond paper suitable for printing by either lithography (offset) or xerography (photocopy). Abbreviated DP bond paper.

Dull Finish: Flat (not glossy) finish on coated paper; slightly smoother than matte. Also called suede finish, velour finish and velvet finish.

Dummy: Simulation of the final product. Also called mockup.

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

Duplex Paper: Thick paper made by pasting highlights together two thinner sheets, usually of different colors. Also called double-faced paper and two-tone paper.

Duplicator: Offset press made for quick printing.

Dylux: Brand name for photographic paper used to make blue line proofs. Often used as alternate term for blueline.

E

Electronic Front End (Electronic Composition): General term referring to a prepress system based on computers.

Electronic Image Assembly: Assembly of a composite image from portions of other images and/or other page elements using a computer.

Electronic Mechanical: Mechanical exclusively in electronic files.

Electronic Publishing: (1) Publishing by printing with device, such as a photocopy machine or ink jet printer, driven by a computer that can change the image instantly from one copy to the next. (2) Publishing via output on fax, computer bulletin board or other electronic medium, as compared to output on paper.

Emboss: To press an image into paper so it lies above the surface. Also called cameo and tool.

Emulsion: Casting of light-sensitive chemicals on papers, films, printing plates and stencils.

Emulsion Down/Emulsion Up: Film whose emulsion side faces down (away from the viewer) or up (toward the viewer) when ready to make a plate or stencil. Abbreviated ED, EU. Also called E up/down and face down/face up.

Encapsulated PostScript file: Computer file containing both images and PostScript commands. Abbreviated EPS file.

End Sheet: Sheet that attaches the inside pages of a case bound book to its cover. Also called pastedown or end papers.

English Finish: Smooth finish on uncoated book paper; smoother than eggshell, rougher than smooth.

Engraving: Printing method using a plate, also called a die, with an image cut into its surface.

EP: Abbreviation for envelope.

EPS: Encapsulated Post Script, a known file format usually used to transfer post script information from one program to another.

Equivalent Paper: Paper that is not the brand specified, but looks, prints and may cost the same. . Also called comparable stock.

Estimate: Price that states what a job will probably cost. Also called bid, quotation and tender.

Estimator: The individual performing or creating the "estimate."

Etch: To use chemicals to carve an image into metal, glass or film.

F

FPO: It means "For Position Only", and it's when you put low quality illustrations or photos where they'll be in final. That shows your printer the position of the real images, but tells him not to use the ones that are there.

Finishing: Any of a variety of processes performed to document or publication after printing. Finishing can include cutting, trimming, folding and binding, as well as decorative operations as embossing, foil stamping, and laminating.

Foil Embossing: A finishing operation combining embossing (the stamping or pressing of images or pattern onto a substrate) with foil stamping (the application of a layer of foil in a particular design or pattern to a substrate).

Foil Stamping: The application of a layer of foil in a particular design or pattern to a substrate

Folding: An operation performed - commonly after printing and cutting - to fold a press sheet into a signature.

Fugitive Glue: Glue produced that lacks permanence; temporary removable glue.

G

GIF: (Graphic Interchange format) GIF images display up to 256 colors. GIF images generally have very small file sizes and are the most widely used graphic format on the web. The low quality resulting from compression makes them unsuitable for professional printing.

Grayscale Mode: A file format containing up to 256 shades of gray but no color. Grayscale can be used for on-screen and commercial printing applications.

H

Halftone: A continuous tone of photograph that has been screened into patterns of very small dots of different sizes and shapes.

I

Imposition: Imposition is the positioning of the pages on the press sheet so that when the sheet is printed, the pages fall in the desired order, in the correct orientation. (i.e. right-side up) and with the correct margins.

Inkjetting: A type of nonimpact printing process, used most frequently in computer output devices, that utilizes tiny droplets of highly fluid ink that are given an electric charge. During printing, these droplets are sprayed in a continuous fashion towards the substrate.

Insert: In bindery and finishing, an insert is one printed signature that has another signature wrapped around it. Insert also refers to any preprinted page or set of pages that are placed into separately printed publication. Examples of inserts are advertising supplements, maps or foldouts.

J

JPEG: A standard format developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, allowing the transfer of files between a wide variety of platforms, using superior compression techniques. JPEG supports 8-bit grayscale and color depths up to 32-bit CMYK. A type of image file that is best used for displaying photographic images on websites.


» K-Z