Glossary

Printing and typesetting terms

General Marketing Terms | Technology terms

A - D | E - I | J - P | Q - Z

'A' series paper sizes

AO 841mm x 1189mm, A1 841mm x 594mm, A2 420mm x 594mm, A3 420mm x 297mm, A4 210mm x 297mm, A5 210mm x 148mm.

Art paper

A smooth coated paper obtained by adding a coating of china clay compound on one or both sides of the paper.

Artwork

A general term used to describe photographs, drawings, paintings, hand lettering, and the like prepared to illustrate printed matter. Usually refers to a designer’s finished product that is delivered to a printer for production.

Author’s corrections

Changes made to the copy by the author after typesetting but not including those made as a result of errors in keying in or designing the copy.

Bleed

Colour, type or pictures that extend beyond the trim marks on a page. Illustrations that spread to the edge of the paper without margins are referred to as 'bled off'. Necessary because of variations which can occur when trimming large stacks of printed material. The amount of bleed varies, depending on the form of printing being used.

Board

Paper of more than 200gsm.

Body copy

The main text of the work but not including headlines.

Bond

Finished writing paper of 50gsm or more. Can also be used for printing upon.

Broadsheet

Newspapers such as The Australian which are printed on the standard sheet size A paper, usually giving more in-depth reporting than tabloid papers. See Tabloid.

Bromide

A photographic print made on bromide paper.

Burn

To expose an image onto a plate.

Camera ready

Completely finished mechanical (or imagesetter output) ready to be burned onto a plate. In other words, no further pre-press work needed, so it is ready for reproduction.

Caps

An abbreviation for capital letters.

Caps and small caps

A style of type that shows capital letters used in the normal way while the body copy is set in capital letters which are of a slightly smaller size.

Caption

The line or lines of text that refer to information identifying a picture or illustration. The main headline used in a display ad is also called a caption.

Chalking

A powdering effect left on the surface of the paper after the ink has failed to dry satisfactorily due to a fault in printing.

CMYK

The four process colours used in printing: cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and black (black is labelled K to avoid confusion with blue). Four colour printing refers to these four colours.

Coated

Printing papers which after making have had a surface coating with clay etc., to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity.

Column centimetre

A measure of area used in newspapers and magazines to calculate the cost of display advertising. A single column centimetre is one column wide by one centimetre deep.

Concertina fold

A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect.

Copyright

Copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without express permission or acknowledgment of the originator. See Universal Copyright Convention.

Crop marks

Marks that indicate where an image of a page is to be trimmed.

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

A reverse (upwards) impression in the printed piece created by a special die attached to a letterpress.

Desktop publishing

A familiar term for Electronic publishing (or electronic pre-press) so called because of the low expense.

Die

A hardened steel engraved stamp used to print an inked image. Used in the production of good quality letter headings or business cards.

Display type

Larger type used for headings etc. Normally about 18 point or larger.

DL

One third A 4, fits a basic envelope, the finished size is 100mm wide x 210mm deep.

Double page spread.

Two facing pages of newspaper or magazine where the material on the left hand side continues across to the right hand side. Abbreviated to DPS.

DPI

Dots Per Inch - The measurement of resolution for page printers, phototypesetting machines and graphics screens. Currently graphics screens reproduce 60 to 100dpi, most page printers work at 3-600 dpi and typesetting systems operate at 1,200 dpi and above.

Dyeline

A proof produced directly from film, used most commonly for one, two and three spot colour printing. The light sensitive paper produces blue images - aka "bluey".

Duotone

A halftone (photograph) printed in two colours, often black and another colour.

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Electronic Publishing

A generic term for the distribution of information which is stored, transmitted and reproduced electronically. Teletext and Videotext are two examples of this technology in its purest form, i.e. no paper.

Embossing

A depression in the printed piece created by a special die attached to a letterpress.

Emulsion

The photo sensitive coating on photographic film.

Expanded type

A typeface with a slightly wider body giving a flatter appearance.

Film

To initiate the printing process film is usually needed to produce plates. It's supplied in negative or positive form, with an emulsion layer on one side. The film is camera-exposed on to a printing plate to retain dot and/or solid areas, enabling the plate to transfer this image to paper using ink.

Flush left

Copy aligned along the left margin.

Flush right

Copy aligned along the right margin.

Flier

An inexpensively produced circular used for promotional distribution.

Font

A complete set of characters in a typeface at a particular size. Often used synonymously with typeface.

Form letter

Used in word processing to describe a repetitive letter in which the names and addresses of individuals are automatically generated from a database or typed individually.

Forme

Type and blocks assembled in pages and imposed in a metal chase ready for printing.

Four colour process

Full colour printing using colour separations - an image is separated into the four process colours, cyan, magenta, yellow and black and placed on four different plates, each representing one of the colours. See CMYK.

French fold

A sheet which has been printed on one side only and then folded with two right angle folds to form a four page uncut section.

Galley proof

Proofs taken from the galleys before being made up into pages. The phrase is still sometimes used to refer to early proofs, although most print no longer uses hot metal setting.

Galleys

The printing term for long metal trays used to hold type after it had been set and before the press run. Rarely used.

Gloss ink

For use in litho and letterpress printing on coated papers where the ink will dry without penetration.

Gloss stock

See Supercalendered paper.

Grid

A systematic division of a page into areas to enable designers to ensure consistency of the layout. The grid acts as a measuring guide and shows text, illustrations and trim sizes.

GSM

Grams per square metre. The unit of measurement for paper weight.

Gutter

The central blank area between left and right pages. See Binding.

Halftone

A photographic process that converts a continuous tone photograph (the kind you get from your camera) into a series of different sized dots that when viewed appear to replicate the original photo. This is the process of printing photographs.

Halftone screen

A glass plate or film placed between the original photograph and the film to be exposed. The screen carries a network of parallel lines. The number of lines to the inch controls the coarseness of the final dot formation. The screen used depends on the printing process and the paper to be used, the higher the quality the more lines can be used. See LPI.

Halftone cell

An arrangement of dots used to simulate a traditional halftone on a digital printer. Because an imagesetter can only produce black dots, it must simulate shades of grey by turning some of the dots in the cell on or off. If half the dots are on, it appears to be 50% grey.

Head

The margin at the top of a page.

Header

See Running head.

Hickies

A dust particle sticking to the printing plate or blanket which appears on the printed sheet as a dark spot surrounded by an halo.

Highlight

The lightest area in a photograph or illustration.

Imposition

Refers to the arrangement of pages on a printed sheet; this arrangement ensures that when the sheet is finally printed on both sides, folded and trimmed, the pages are in their correct order. Printers, for efficiency's sake, print projects on paper much larger than the finished size of the piece so a design might be printed several times on the same sheet, making the print run much shorter.

Imagesetting

Imagesetting is the new word for phototypesetting. Today's imagesetters do more than just set type: they set images and graphics, as well, through PostScript, the standard for controlling laser printers. Most imagesetters were designed to be used in digital pre-press and are capable of reproducing colour photographs and graphics in great detail. The main advantage of an imagesetter over a laser printer is that they print at between 1200 and 5000 dots per inch (versus 300-600 for laser printers). Imagesetters also output directly to film, which is more stable than paper, and at much larger sizes: some imagesetters can output 20"x24" or larger.

Imprint

The name and place of the publisher and printer required by law if a publication is to be published. Sometimes accompanied by codes indicating the quantity printed, month/year of printing and an internal control number.

InDesign

A publishing software program used by graphic designers.

Insert

An instruction to the printer or designer for the inclusion of additional copy.

International paper sizes

The International Standards Organisation (ISO) system of paper sizes is based on a series of three sizes A, B and C. Series A is used for general printing and stationery, Series B for posters and Series C for envelopes. Paper sizes are included in the back of The Macquarie Dictionary.

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Justify

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

To adjust the spacing between letters so they look more balanced, e.g. putting a capital "T" and small "a" together so the upper part of the "T" hangs slightly over the "a".

Laminate

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'. See Portrait.

Laser printer

(see also Page printer). A high quality image printing system using a laser beam to produce an image on a photosensitive drum. The image is transferred on to paper by a conventional xerographic printing process. Currently, most laser printers set at 300dpi with newer models operating at up to 600dpi.

Lateral reversal

A positive or negative image transposed from left to right as in a mirror reflection of the original. Sometimes called ‘flipping’ an image.

Layout

A sketch of a page for printing showing the position of text and illustrations and giving general instructions.

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 thereof. Named after the strips of lead which used to be inserted between lines of metal type.

Letterpress

A press that uses a raised type or die to press the image or cut onto a piece of paper.

Literals

Errors made in typesetting, e.g. incorrect characters.

Lithography

See Offset lithography.

Logo

Short for logotype. A word or combination of letters set as a single unit. Also used to denote a specially-styled company name designed as part of a corporate image.

Loupe

A small free-standing magnifier used to see fine detail on a page or view photographs.

Lower case

The small letters in a font of type.

LPI

Lines per inch. A measure of the halftone screen. In general, the LPI of the halftone is determined by the DPI of the output device and the number of shades of grey needed (due to the need to combine printer dots into a halftone cell). A common imagesetter outputting at 1270dpi x 1270dpi can produce 256 shades of grey at 133 LPI, while a 300 dpi laser printer can only produce 14 shades of grey at 53 LPI.

Machine check

Proofing a print job while it is running. The client signs off a sheet in the pre-press run to say the job is fine. Usually checked for colour and imposition.

MG

Machine glazed - Paper with a high gloss finish on one side only.

Margins

The non-printing areas of page.

Mark up

Copy prepared for a compositor setting out in detail all the typesetting instructions. Rarely used today.

Matt art

A coated printing paper with a dull surface.

Mechanical binding

A method of binding which secures pre-trimmed leaves by the insertion of wire or plastic spirals through holes drilled in the binding edge.

Mechanical specifications

The specific requirements of a print medium - particularly important to get these if you are providing colour film for an advertisement.

Metallic ink

Printing inks which produce an effect of gold, silver, bronze or metallic colours.

Mock-up

The rough visual of a publication or design.

Montage

A single image formed from the assembling of several images.

Negative

A piece of high contrast lithographic film that is used to burn the printing plate.

Newsprint

Unsized, low quality, absorbent paper used for printing newspapers.

Oblique stroke

(/) A forward slash. See Solidus.

Offset lithography

A printing method whereby the image is transferred from a plate onto a rubber covered cylinder from which the printing takes place.

Offset Printing

The process of printing where an image from a metal, plastic or paper plate attached to a cylinder, is offset to a blanket cylinder, which in turn is offset to a piece of paper.

Opacity

Term used to describe the degree to which printed ink will show print through on the other side. Especially important when printing both sides of paper.

Orphan

Line of type which is separated by its position from the rest of the paragraph - it is on its own at the top or bottom of a page or column.

Outline

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

Overlay

A transparent sheet used in the preparation of multi-colour artwork showing the colour breakdown. Used in the printing process as a proof and as a set of instructions to the printer. These are now usually defined electronically.

Overprinting

Printing over an area already printed. Used to emphasise changes or alterations or to insert different dates and venues on posters.

Overs

Additional paper required to compensate for spoilage in printing. Also used to refer to a quantity produced above the number of copies ordered.

Page proofs

The stage following galley proofs, in which pages are made up and paginated.

PageMaker

The publishing software program used by graphic designers.

Pagination

The numbering of pages in a book.

Pantone Matching System

See PMS.

Paper plate

A short run offset printing plate on which matter can be typed directly.

Parallel fold

A method of folding; e.g. two parallel folds will produce a six page sheet.

Perfect binding

A common method of binding paperback books. After the printed sections have been collated, the spines will be ground off and the cover glued on.

Photogravure

A printing process where the image is etched into the plate cylinder. The main advantage of this method of printing is the high speed, long run capability. Used mainly for mail order, magazine work and postage stamps.

Photoshop

A software program used for scanning and manipulating photographs and images.

Pica

A printing industry unit of measurement. There are 12 points to a pica, one pica is approximately 0.166in. Printers commonly use this measurement because it can be easily divided when laying out a printed page.

Picking

The effect of ink being too tacky and lifting fibres out of the paper. Shows up as small white dots on areas of solid colour.

Plate

In offset printing, a metal, plastic or paper sheet attached to a rotating cylinder on the press and carrying the image to be printed. The image areas of the plate attract ink and the image is offset to the blanket, which in turn is offset to the paper.

PMS

PMS stands for the Pantone Matching System, a system for identifying ink colours. Each colour is identified by a number (for instance, PMS 485 is a bright red) and letter (usually U or C for uncoated and coated) representing the kind of paper. When you request a particular PMS colour from a swatch book, the printer can use a colour that should match precisely. There are thousands of colours available in the Pantone Matching System, including specialty inks such as pastels and metallics.

Point

The smallest unit of typographic measurement. There are 72 points in an inch and 12 points in a pica.

Portrait

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

PostScript

A page description language (PDL) developed by Adobe Systems.

PPI

Pixels per Inch. A more precise term for DPI; usually used in discussion about image editing, such as in Photoshop.

Pre-Press

All work done between writing and printing, such as typesetting, layout, and imposition. Usually done electronically today.

Progressives

Colour proofs taken at each stage of printing showing each colour printed singly and then superimposed on the preceding colour.

Proof

A copy obtained from inked type, plate, block or screen for checking purposes.

Proof correction marks

A standard set of signs and symbols used to indicate corrections on copy or proofs. Marks are placed both in the text and in the margin. Proofreaders’ marks are shown at the back of The Macquarie Dictionary.

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QuarkXPress

A publishing software program used by graphic designers.

Ream

500 sheets of paper.

Recycled

Reused, as in old paper fibres made into new paper. The recycled content is the percentage of reused fibres. 100% recycled means it was all reused at one point. However, this could mean that the paper manufacturer had simply thrown mill waste (pre-consumer content) back into the vat. The real indicator is post-consumer content, which tells you what percentage of the recycled content was paper diverted from the waste stream and reused instead of buried in a landfill. Paper with 100% post-consumer content is sometimes called 'tree-free' because no trees had to be used to produce the paper; however, tree-free could also refer to paper produced from kenaf, hemp or other non-wood fibres.

Registration

Correct alignment of the different colour plates.

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 Page (laser) Printers print at 300, 406 and 600dpi. Imagesetting machines print at 1,200 dpi or more.

RIP

Rest in proportion - An instruction when giving sizes to artwork or photographs that other parts of the artwork are to be enlarged or reduced in proportion.

Retouching

A means of altering artwork or colour separations to correct faults, enhance or change the image.

Reverse out

To reproduce as an image out of a solid background.

Revise

Indicates the stages at which corrections have been incorporated from earlier proofs and new proofs submitted: e.g. first revise, second revise.

RGB

Red, Green, Blue. The colour space used by most computer monitors and a few imagesetters.

Roman

Type which has vertical stems as distinct from italics or oblique which are set at angles.

Rotary press

A web or reel-fed printing press which uses a curved printing plate mounted on the plate cylinder.

Running head

A line of type at the top of a page which repeats a heading. Also called header.

S/S

Same size An instruction to reproduce at the same size as the original.

Saddle stitching

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.

Sans serif

A typeface that has no serifs (small finishing strokes at the end of main stroke of the character).

Scale

To reduce or enlarge the amount of space an image will occupy. Some software programs maintain the ratio between width and height whilst scaling, thereby avoiding distortion.

Scaling

A means of calculating the amount of enlargement or reduction necessary to accommodate a photograph within the area of a design.

Scanner

A digitising device using light sensitivity to translate a picture or typed text into a pattern of dots which can be understood and stored by a computer. Scanners come in various types: drum scanners are the best quality, but are very expensive, usually requiring a skilled operator at a service bureau; film scanners (or slide scanners), used for scanning transparencies; and flatbed scanners, used to scan reflective material, such as printed photos.

Screen printing

A process of printing from stencils, which may be created photographically or cut by hand, through a fine mesh of silk, metal or other material. Used for short poster runs, particularly street posters.

Section

A printed sheet folded to make a multiple of pages.

Security paper

Paper incorporating special features (dyes, watermarks etc.) for use on cheques.

Self cover

In a booklet, the procedure of using the same type of paper stock for the cover as the pages inside.

Separations

The result of extracting the four process colours (CMYK) in a photograph onto four separate plates for reproduction on a printing press.

Serif

A small finishing stroke at the end of the main stroke of the letter.

Set size

The width of the type body of a given point size.

Set solid

Type set without leading (line spacing) between the lines. Type is often set with extra space; e.g. 9 point set on 10 point.

Sheet

A single piece of paper. In poster work refers to the number of Double Crown sets in a full size poster.

Sheet fed offset printing

Offset printing where individual pieces of paper are fed into the press.

Sheetwise

A method of printing a section. Half the pages from a section are imposed and printed. The remaining half of the pages are then printed on the other side of the sheet.

Show-through

The degree to which you can see type or images from the other side of the paper - particularly important if you are printing on lighter weight paper or using solid colour. See Opacity.

Slurring

A smearing of the image, caused by paper slipping during the impression stage.

Small caps

A set of capital letters which are smaller than standard and are equal in size to the lower case letters for that typesize.

Solidus

A slash character. The regular slash is the virgule; one designed for typing fractions is called a solidus (produced on the Mac with Option-Shift-1). It has a different angle allowing better kerning of numbers over and under it.

Specials

Colours that cannot be produced out of the four colour printing process; they include metallic and fluorescent inks, specially mixed colours or a PMS if you require an exact colour match. See PMS

SRA

Paper size in the series of ISO international paper sizes slightly larger than the A series allowing the printer extra space to bleed.

Standoff

The distance between a graphic and the text that wraps around it.

Stet

Used in proof correction work to cancel a previous correction. From the Latin; 'let it stand'.

Stock

Unprinted paper.

Strap

A subheading used above the main headline in a newspaper article.

Subscript

The small characters set below the normal letters or figures.

Supercalendered paper

A smooth finished paper with a polished appearance, produced by rolling the paper between calenders. Examples of this are high gloss and art papers.

Superscript

The small characters set above the normal letters or figures.

Swatch

A sample of a set of papers, inks, etc. A PMS swatch book has samples of PMS inks printed on card so you can choose the exact colour you want. Many paper manufacturers provide books with paper samples.

Tabloid

Usually mass circulation newspapers such as The Herald Sun or Daily Telegraph, with a page size which is half that of a broadsheet newspaper such as The Australian or The Sydney Morning Herald, which use the standard paper sheet size.

Tabular setting

Text set in columns such as timetables.

Text type

Typefaces used for the main text of written material. Generally no larger than 14 point in size.

Transparency

A full colour image photographically produced on transparent film.

Trim

The cutting of the finished product to the correct size. Marks are incorporated on the printed sheet to show where the trimming is to be made.

Type area

The area of the page that an advertisement is allowed to occupy.

Typeface

Originally, the raised surface carrying the image of a type character cast in metal. Now used to refer to a complete set of characters forming a family in a particular design or style. See Font.

Typo

An abbreviation for typographical error. An error in the typeset copy.

Typography

The design and planning of printed matter using type.

U&lc

An abbreviation for UPPER and lower case type.

Universal Copyright Convention (UCC)

Gives protection to authors or originators of text, photographs or illustrations etc., to prevent use without permission or acknowledgment. The publication should carry the copyright mark ©, the name of the originator and the year of publication.

Varnishing

A finishing process whereby a transparent varnish is applied over the printed sheet to produce a glossy finish. A wet trap varnish is applied during the run. A dry trap varnish is the final run, done after the ink is dry.

Watermark

A translucent impression incorporated in the paper making process showing the name of the paper and/or the company logo.

Web

A continuous roll of printing paper used on web-fed presses.

Web offset printing

An offset printing process where the paper is fed into the press on a continuous roll, as in newspaper printing. Useful for long run brochures.

Wf

An abbreviation for "wrong font." Used when correcting proofs to indicate where a character is in the wrong typeface.

Widow

A single word left on the last line of a paragraph which falls at the top of a page.

Word wrap

In word processing, the automatic adjustment of the number of words on a line of text to match the margin settings. The carriage returns set up by this method are termed 'soft', as against 'hard' carriage returns that are the result of the return key being pressed.

Work and turn

A method of printing where pages are imposed in one forme or assembled on one film. One side is then printed and the sheet is then turned over and printed from the other edge using the same forme. The finished sheet is then cut to produce two complete copies. This method has the advantage of only requiring one plate, reducing setup costs and press work.

Work and tumble

A method of printing where pages are imposed together as in work and turn. The sheet is then printed on one side with the sheet being turned or tumbled from front to rear to print the opposite side.

WYSIWYG

'What you see is what you get' (pronounced "wizzywig"). Used to describe systems that preview full pages on the screen with text and graphics. The term can be a little misleading, however, due to difference in the resolution of the computer screen and that of the page printer.

Xerography

A photocopying/printing process in which the image is formed using the electrostatic charge principle. The toner replaces ink and can be dry or liquid. Once formed, the image is sealed by heat. Most page printers currently use this method of printing.

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