Glossary of Common Printing Terms

Accordion Fold	Folding paper by bending each fold in the opposite direction of the previous fold creating a pleated or accordion effect.
Against the Grain	Running a sheet of paper through a printing press at right angles to the grain direction of the paper, as opposed to with the grain. This is usually suboptimal for both press operation and registration of the 4 color process inks. Sometimes called cross grain.
Aqueous Coating	This clear coating is used to protect printed pieces. It provides a high-gloss or matte surface that deters dirt and fingerprints. Aqueous coating improves the durability of postcards as they go through the mail, and protects business cards as they ride around in people’s pockets. It also looks beautiful on brochures, catalog covers, and stand-alone flyers.
Artwork	The original physical materials, including photos, graphic images, text and other components needed to produce a printed piece. Can also now refer to the electronic or digital components needed for preparing a printed piece for production on a press or copier.
Ascender	Any part of a lower case letter which rises above the main body of the letter such as in “d,” “b” and “h.”

Backslant	Any type that tilts to the left or backward direction; opposite of italic type.
Back Up	How an image on one side of a printed sheet aligns with the image on the other side.
Base Line	The imaginary horizontal line upon which stand capitals, lower case letters, punctuation points, etc.
Basis Weight	Basis or basic weight refers to the weight, in pounds, of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a given standard size for that particular paper grade.
Bindery	A business or department within a printing company that does the cutting, folding, collating, drilling and other finishing operations used on printing projects.
Black	The K in CMYK refers to “key.” In 4-color printing the black “key plate” is used to carefully align the other three color plates, so that all the elements are in perfect registration. A popular notion is that if B was used to denote black it might be misconstrued as blue (cyan).
Blanket	The rubberized surfaced material secured onto a cylinder onto which the ink is transferred from the plate and then to the paper.
Bleed	Any element that extends up to or past the edge of a printed page.
Blind Emboss	A design or bas relief impression that is made without using inks or metal foils.
Blocking	When ink or coating causes printed sheets of paper in a pile to stick together, causing damage when they are separated. This is normally caused by not enough anti-offset powder or too much ink, and usually ruins the printed job.
Body	In typography, the main shank or portion of a letter character other than the ascenders and descenders.
Bounce	Inconsistent positioning of the printed image on the sheets of paper as they travel through a printing press.
Bristol	A board paper of various thicknesses having a smooth finish and used for printing or drawing.
Bulk	A term given to paper to describe its thickness relative to its weight.
Bullet	A square, dot or other symbol used before a sentence to emphasize its importance.

C1S and C2S	Acronyms for Coated One Side and Coated Two Sides paper stock. A cover stock with a glossy finish on one side and uncoated on the other (C1S) or coated both sides (C2S), usually between 8pt (.008”) and 18pt (.018”) in thickness.
Caliper	The measurement of the thickness of paper measured in thousandths of an inch or mils.
Case Binding	Books bound using hard board (case) covers.
Cast Coated	A paper that is coated and then pressure dried using a polished roller that imparts an enamel like hard gloss finish.
Center Spread	The two pages that face each other in the center of a book or publication.
Clip Art	Graphic images, designs, and artwork in digital form that can be used in a digital document.
Coated Stock	Any paper that has a mineral coating applied after the paper is made, giving the paper a smoother finish.
Coil Binding	Where a metal or plastic wire is spiraled through holes punched along the side of a stack of paper. Commonly used for reports, proposals and manuals. Documents bound with coil have the ability to lay flat and can rotate 360 degrees. Also called spiral binding.
Collate	To gather sheets or printed signatures together in their correct order.
Color Balance	The 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 on the waste portion of a press sheet. It helps a press operator to monitor and control the quality of the printed material relative to ink density, registration and dot gain. It can also include a Star Target, which is designed to detect inking and press problems.
Color Correction	Using a computer to adjust, change or manipulate a color image, such as retouching, adjusting color balance, color saturation, contrast, etc.
Color Gamut	The entire range of hues possible to reproduce on a specific system, such as a computer screen, or four-color printing press.
Color Separating	The processes of separating the primary color components (CMYK) for printing.
Color Sequence	The order in which process inks are printed on a printing press. Also called the color rotation or laydown sequence.
Color Shift	Change in the perceived color of elements on a printed piece caused by changes or irregularities in ink densities, dot gain, or color register during a four-color printing press run.
Condensed Type	A narrower version of the normal width of a typeface.
Contrast	The degree of tonal separation or gradation in the range from black to white.
Cover	A term describing a general type of paper used for the covers of books, pamphlets, etc., also used for business cards and postcards
Coverage	The extent to which printing ink covers the surface of a printed sheet. Ink coverage is frequently expressed as light, medium or heavy.
Crop	To reduce the size of an image.
Crop Marks	Small printed lines around the edges of a printed piece indicating where it is to be cut out of the sheet. Sometimes referred to as cut marks or trim marks.
Crossover	An image, rule or line art on one printed page that carries over to an adjacent page of a bound or folded work.
Cyan	A shade of blue used in four-color process printing. The C in CMYK.

Dampening	An essential part of the offset printing process whereby rollers distribute a solution to the plate that covers the non-printing area of the plate, repelling ink in those areas. Some newer presses use a waterless ink technology that does not use dampening.
Deboss	To press an image into paper with a die so it extends below the surface. The opposite of emboss where the image is raised above the paper surface.
Deckle Edge	The rough or feathered edge of paper when left untrimmed.
Densitometer	An optical device used by printers and photographers to measure and control the density of ink or color.
Density	The degree of tone, weight of darkness or color within a photo or reproduction measured by a densitometer.
Descender	A term that describes that portion of lower case letters that extends below the main body of the letter, as in “p.”
Die Cutting	The process of cutting paper in a shape or design by the use of a wooden die or block in which are positioned steel rules in the shape of the desired pattern.
Digital Printing	Digital printing is the process of printing digital-based images directly onto a variety of media substrates. There is no need for a printing plate, unlike with offset printing. Digital files such as PDFs or desktop publishing files can be sent directly to the digital printing press to print on paper, photo paper, canvas, fabric, synthetics, cardstock and other substrates.
Digital Offset Printing	Digital offset printing is a print technology that involves the electrostatic charging of an imaging plate. The discharged areas receive liquid ink which is then transferred to a heated blanket, then to the photo drum and lastly to the substrate.
Dot	The smallest individual element of a halftone.
Dot Gain	A term used to describe when dots are printing larger than they should.
Double Bump	To print a single area on the sheet twice so it has two layers of ink. Usually done on solid ink areas to increase the smoothness and/or density.
Drill	The drilling of holes into paper for ring or comb binding.
Drop Shadow	A shadow image placed offset behind an image to create the affect of the image lifting off the page.
Dull Finish	A semi-gloss finish on paper that is less glossy than gloss and more than matte paper.
Dummy	The preliminary assemblage of copy and art elements to be reproduced in the desired finished product, also called a comp.
Duotone	A two-color halftone reproduction generated from a one color photo.

Electronic Proof	A modern electronic proof is a PDF or JPEG representation of the final printed piece.
Embossing	The molding and reshaping of paper by the use of special metal dies and heat, counter dies and pressure, to produce a raised image on the paper surface.
Enamel	Another term for gloss coated paper.
EPS	Encapsulated Post Script. A standard file format used to transfer postscript formatting information between applications.

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 Color	An ink color added to a printed piece in addition to the standard cyan, magenta, yellow and black used in 4 color process printing. Usually a Pantone spot color or custom formulated ink. Requires an extra run through the press on a four color press adding to the cost. Some presses have five units to accommodate fifth colors or clear coatings.
Foil	Thin metal sheet that is applied to paper using the foil stamping process. Frequently gold colored, but available in many colors.
Foil Embossing	Stamping 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.
Foil Stamping	Impressing metallic foil onto paper with a heated die.
Font	The characters which make up a complete typeface and size.
For Position Only (FPO)	Low resolution or mockup images used to indicate placement and size in a design, but not intended for final production.
Free Sheet	Any paper that is free from wood pulp impurities.

Ganging	The combining of two or more different printing projects on the same sheet of paper.
Gate Fold	A three or four panel fold where the two outside panels fold inward to meet in the center. In an open gate fold, there are three panels, the bottom of which is twice the size of the folded panels. In a closed gatefold, there are four panels of roughly equal size where the outer panels are folded inward together.
Ghosting	Also known as gas ghosting. A condition occurring during the printing process when vapors from drying ink on one side of a press sheet interact chemically with dry ink or blank paper on sheets in contact with or on the reverse side of the same sheet creating unintended faint images.
Grain	Paper fibers lie in a similar direction in a sheet of paper. This direction is called the grain. Printing is usually done so that if folding is required, the fold is done parallel to the grain.
Gripper	A series of metal fingers that hold each sheet of paper as it passes through a printing press.
Gripper Edge	The side of a piece of paper held by the gripper fingers as it passes through a printing press. Nothing can be printed in this area.
Gutter	A blank space or margin between components on a printed piece or press sheet.

Halftone	Using small dots to produce the impression of a continuous-tone image. The effect is achieved by varying the dot size and the number of dots per square inch.
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.
Hickey	The effect that occurs when a spec of dust or debris (frequently dried ink) adheres to the printing plate and creates a spot or imperfection in the printing.
Highlights	The lightest tones of a photo, printed halftone or illustration. In the finished halftone, these highlights are represented by the finest dots.
Hot Melt	An adhesive used in some binding processes, which requires heat for application.
House Sheet	This is a term that refers to a paper that a printer keeps on hand in their shop.

Illustrator	Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program. Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh (now cross-platform), development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985.
Image Area	That portion of a printing plate that carries ink and prints on paper.
Imposition	The correct sequential arrangement of pages that are to be printed, along with all the margins in proper alignment, before producing the plates for printing.
InDesign	Adobe InDesign is the industry-standard publishing app for designing and publishing high-quality documents across a full spectrum of digital and print media.
Indicia	An image and/or text pre-printed on mailing envelopes in place of a stamp.
Ink Dry Back	When printed ink colors become lighter or less dense after they have dried on the paper.
Insert	A piece of printed material that is inserted into another piece of printed material, such as a magazine or catalog.
Italic	Text that is used to denote emphasis by slanting the type body forward.

Jacket	Or dust jacket. The paper cover sometimes called the “dust cover” of a hardbound book.
Jog	To vibrate a stack of finished pages so that they are tightly aligned for final trimming or binding.
Justification	Adjusting 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 and character spacing.

Laid Finish	A parallel lined paper that has a handmade look.
Lamination	Applying thin transparent plastic sheets to one or both sides of a sheet of paper, providing scuff resistance, waterproofing and extended use.
Landscape	A document layout where the width is greater than the height (the opposite of Portrait).
Layout	A rendition that shows the placement of all the elements, images, thumbnails etc., of a final printed piece.
Leading	Space between lines of type. The distance in points between one baseline and the next.
Letterpress	Printing that utilizes inked raised surfaces, usually type, to create the image.
Letterspacing	The addition of space between typeset letters.
Line Copy	Any copy that can be reproduced without the use of a halftone screen.
Linen	A paper that emulates the look and texture of linen cloth.
Loupe	A small magnifier used to observe the details on a printed sheet.

M Weight	The actual weight of 1000 sheets of any given size of paper.
Magenta	One of the four process colors, or CMYK, the M is for magenta. Magenta is a predominately red color with some blue. Magenta, cyan and yellow are also the three subtractive primary colors.
Magnetic Black	Black ink containing iron oxides, used for magnetic ink character recognition used for check printing.
Make-Ready	Paper that is used in the press set-up process before the printing run actually starts. Or the process of setting up press or bindery equipment to produce a specific product, including setting paper size, ink density, image alignment, fold sizes, etc., in preparation for the actual production run.
Matte Finish	A coated paper finish that goes through minimal calendaring.
Metallic Ink	Ink that looks metallic when printed. Made with powdered metal or pigments that look metallic. The most common colors used are gold and silver.
Mottle	A term used to describe spotty or uneven ink absorption.

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 when printed.
Offset Printing	The most 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 sometimes used for uncoated book paper.
Onionskin	A light bond paper used for typing and used with carbon paper because of its thinness.
Opacity	Quality 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.
Orphan	A single line of type at the end of a paragraph, which loops over to the next column or page and stands alone.
Overlay Proof	A process of proof-making whereby the color separations are individually exposed to light sensitive film. This film is then set in registration with a piece of white paper in the background.
Overprinting	Any printing that is done on an area that has already been printed.
Overrun	Quantities of sheets printed over the requested number of copies.

Page Count	The total number of pages in a book, magazine or publication. Sometimes referred to as the extent.
Pagination	The numbering of individual pages in a multi-page document
Parchment	A hard finished paper that emulates animal skin used for documents, such as awards, that require writing by hand.
PDF	Portable Document Format is a file format developed by Adobe in 1993 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems.
Parent Sheet	A sheet that is larger than the cut stock of the same paper.
Perfect Binding	A binding process where the signatures of a book are held together by a flexible adhesive.
Perfecting Press	A printing press that prints on both sides of a sheet in a single pass through the press.
Photoshop	Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster graphics editing, but in digital art as a whole.
Pica	A typesetting unit of measurement equaling 1/6th of an inch.
Picking	An occurrence in printing whereby the tack of ink pulls fibers or coating off the paper surface, leaving spots on the printed surface.
Plastic Comb	A method of binding books whereby holes are drilled on the spine, and a plastic grasping device is inserted to hold the pages together.
PMS	The abbreviation of the Pantone Color Matching System.
Point	A measurement unit equal to 1/72 of an inch. 12 points to a pica, 72 points to an inch.
Portrait	A document layout in which the height is greater than the width (the opposite of Landscape).
Postscript	A tradename of Adobe Systems, Inc. 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.
Premium	Any paper that is considered better than grade #1 by its manufacturer.
Press Check	When a client visits a printing company to view actual printed sheets of their project before a full production press run is started.
Press Proof	Printed sample made on the press that a project will be printed on to show exactly how it will actually print using the paper, ink and plates to be used for the final press run.
Pressure-Sensitive	Self-adhesive paper covered by a backing sheet.
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.
Progressive Proofs	Any proofs made from the separate colors of a multi-color printing project.

Rag Paper	Papers with a complete or partial content of cotton fibers.
Ragged Left	The term given to right-justified type that is uneven on the left.
Ragged Right	The term given to left-justified type that is uneven on the right.
Ream	500 sheets of paper.
Register	The arrangement of two or more printed images in exact alignment with each other.
Register Marks	Any crossmarks or other symbols used on a press sheet to assure proper registration.
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.
Rich Black	Using multiple ink colors in addition to black to produce a deep, dark black color. Common CMYK values used are 40% Cyan, 40% Magenta, 20% Yellow and 100% Black.
Right Angle Fold	A term that denotes folds that are 90 degrees to each other.
Running Head	A title at the top of a page that appears on all pages of a book or chapter of a book.

Saddle Stitch	The binding of booklets or other printed materials by stapling the pages on the folded spine.
Safety Paper	A paper that shows sign of erasure so that it cannot be altered or tampered with easily.
Scoring	To crease paper with a metal rule for the purpose of making folding easier.
Screen Tint	A printed area of color created by dots of a certain screen percentage instead of using a layer of solid ink. Frequently used to create a colored area on the sheet, or tint the entire sheet instead of using colored paper.
Scum	Unwanted deposits of ink in the non-image area of a printed piece.
Self Cover	A cover that is the same paper stock as the internal sheets.
Sharpen	To decrease the dot size of a halftone, which in turn decreases the color strength.
Sheetwise	The printing of two different images on two different sides of a sheet of paper by turning the sheet over after the first side is printed and using the same gripper and side guides.
Show Through	When the printing on one side of a sheet is seen from the other side, a frequent problem with thin papers.
Side Guide	The guides on the sides of a printing press that consistently positions the sheet sideways as it is fed through the press.
Side Stitch	The stapling of sheets or signatures on the side closest to the spine.
Signature	A printed sheet with multiple pages on it that is folded so that the pages are in their proper numbered sequence, as in a book.
Smoothness	That quality of paper defined by its levelness that allows for pressure consistency in printing, assuring uniformity of print.
Soy Inks	Inks made with soy oils instead of petroleum as the base. They are considered to be more environmentally friendly, a standard component of green printing.
Spiral Bind	A type of binding where a metal or plastic wire is spiraled through holes drilled along the binding side of a document.
Stock	A term for unprinted paper.
Synthetic Papers	Any non-wood or cloth paper, usually petroleum (plastic) based.

Text Paper	A high quality light weight printing paper.
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.
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. Or the process of printing wet ink over wet or dry previously printed ink.
Trim Marks	Marks placed on the printed sheet to indicate where cuts should be made.
Trim Size	The final size of a printed piece after being cut from the sheet of paper that it was printed on.
Typo	A spelling mistake in printed material resulting from a mistake in typing or setting type. See common printing term misspellings.

Undercolor Removal	The removing of cyan, magenta, or yellow from a heavily colored image to limit the total amount of ink being applied to that image to avoid potential production problems.
Up	A term used to describe how many similar pieces can be printed on a larger sheet; two up, four up, etc.
UV Coating	A durable coating applied to printed material (can be a very shiny high gloss, matte or dull finish). It is applied as a liquid then cured with ultraviolet light.

Variable Data Printing	A form of on-demand printing in which elements such as photographs, text, graphics, etc. can be changed from one piece to the next, without stopping the press, using information from a database. Example: a set of personalized letters, each printed with a different name and address.
Varnish	A 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.

Warm Color	A color with a reddish tone rather than a blue tone. Browns, oranges, reds, and yellows are generally considered to be “warm” colors.
Washup	The procedure of cleaning a particular ink from the unit of a printing press.
Watermark	A 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 Press	A printing press that prints on rolls of paper passed through the press in one continuous piece, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.
Widow	A single word on its own line at the end of a paragraph.
Work and Turn	A 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.

Papers

80# Gloss Text	Standard glossy paper stock, about as thick as a light magazine cover. The shiny finish provides an excellent opaque base for rich process color printing. This is our most popular stock for: Brochures, Catalog Inserts, Flyers, Posters, etc.
100# Gloss Text	Similar to the 80# gloss text, but 25% thicker and heavier, for a piece that feels more substantial. Standard Uses: Brochures, Information Sheets, Self-mailers, etc.
80# Dull/Matte Text	This stock is finely coated with a non-gloss finish. It provides an excellent opaque base for easy to read, crisp typography. Standard Uses: Brochures, Catalog Inserts, and Flyers, etc.
80# Gloss Cover	As a “cover” stock, this paper is stiff, about like a postcard or baseball card. This stock is coated with a glossy finish, making photographs and other images look beautiful. Standard uses: durable, heavy-weight Brochures, Catalog Covers, Product Spec Sheets.
100# Uncoated Cover	An option for business cards, rack cards and bookmarks. This bright white smooth #1 grade cover stock is 14pt in thickness and matches the 70# text-weight stock we use for letterhead and envelopes.
120# Gloss Cover	We offer this high-quality, thick 14pt stock on all of our card products. The glossy, coated finish makes photographs and other images look beautiful. Consider adding aqueous coating to your four color sides for added protection and shine.
70# Uncoated Text	We use 70# Lustre for stationery and envelopes and 70# Cougar Opaque Offset on calendars and newsletters. These uncoated (non-glossy) white stocks are guaranteed safe for desktop laser printing. Many common stationery stocks are not appropriate for 4-color printing, so we have selected these for best results. Feels thick and substantial in your hands.
24# Uncoated and 28# Uncoated	This is a standard stock commonly used for envelopes, also called White Wove. The 28# is thicker and heavier than the 24#.
10-Point C1S	A bristol stock, gloss coated on the outside and uncoated on the inside. Used for Greeting Cards.

Kerning	The narrowing of space between two letters so that they become closer and take up less space on the page and are more visually pleasing.
Keyline	Lines that are drawn on artwork that indicate the exact placement, shape and size of elements including halftones, illustrations, etc.
Kraft	A coarse unbleached paper used for printing and industrial products.

HOT Graphics Printing

Since 1965

Glossary of Common Printing Terms

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