Backslant – Type that tilts to the left rather than right, opposite of italic type.

Back up – Printing on the second side of a sheet that already has printing on one side.

Banding – A visible step in shades of a gradient or blend, rather than a smooth transition from one color or tonal range to another.

Base line – The imaginary horizontal line below type that is used to align text.

Basis weight – The weight, in pounds, of 500 sheets of paper (one ream) in its standard uncut size. This standard size varies depending on paper type, explaining why 80 lb. text is much lighter than 80 lb. cover stock.

Bible paper – A very thin, lightweight paper ideal for books with many pages, such as bibles, dictionaries, or encyclopedias.

Bindery – A business or department within a printing company that does the cutting, folding, collating, drilling and other finishing operations used on printing projects.

Bind-in – Includes any insert that is bound into a publication.

Binding ear – A narrow (usually 3” to 4”) extension of a saddle stitch insert necessary for the actual stitching process. It allows the insert to straddle the gathering mechanism for stitching.

Binding lip – An extension (usually 1/4” to 1/2”) on a 4-page saddle stitched insert that allows it to be mechanically opened during binding. There are two kinds of lips, see high folio lip and low folio lip.

Binding stub – Portion of an insert card (usually 1/4” or 1/2”) that fastens into a perfect bound publication. It is the distance from the spine to a vertical perforation on the bind-in.

Bitmap – An image made up of pixels. When an image’s resolution, or pixels per inch (PPI), is not high enough, the result is a jagged appearance on paper or film. Generally, digital images require a resolution of 300 PPI for high quality reproduction on press.

Black plate change – Changes made to the black plate only (usually codes and text) and thus do not affect the printed document’s color appearance.

Blanket – In offset printing, the thick, rubber material that transfers ink from the plate to the paper.

Bleed – Any element that extends up to or past the edge of a printed page. A document with a bleed must be printed on a larger sheet and trimmed down to avoid any white margin between the design or image and the edge of the page.

Blind embossing – The method of creating an impression of a design, pattern, lettering, etc. without using inks or foils. (Opposite: registered embossing)

Blocking – When printed sheetsin a pile to adhere together, causing damage when they are separated. This is typically caused by insufficient anti-offset powder or too much ink.

Body – In typography, the main shank or portion of a letter character other than the ascenders and descenders. Also: a term used to describe the thickness or viscosity of printer’s ink.

Bond – A grade of durable writing, printing and typing paper that was historically designed for letterhead, corporate identity, and home and office printers. Bond paper’s standard size is 17″ x 22″.

Book paper – Category of text-weight paper usually used for printing books, magazines, catalogs, etc. Book paper is divided into uncoated and coated paper types.

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

Bristol board – A stiff, heavy paper with a smooth finish, often used for index cards, file folders, greeting cards, etc.

Business Reply Mail (BRM) – A pre-addressed card or envelope that can be returned to the sender with no charge to the recipient. The original sender only pays postage for the pieces that are returned.

Bulk – The thickness of paper relative to its weight.

C1S and C2S – Industry shorthand for “Coated One Side” and “Coated Two Sides.” These refer to coatings applied to the paper by the manufacturer.

Calibration – The process of adjusting a device—whether it be a monitor, scanner or printer—to perform at an agreed standard. It is mainly concerned with establishing correct white and black points and creating true neutrals in order to avoid an unintentional color cast. Periodic calibration ensures results consistent to the color and tonal values as defined in the device’s profile.

Caliper – The thickness of a single sheet of paper measured in thousandths of an inch.

Card stock – A thick, durable paper often used for postcards, menus, catalog covers, and other items that require rigidity. Also called cover stock.

Case binding –   The standard binding for hardcover books, in which the case is made separately from the the textblock and later adhered to it.

Carbonless paper – Paper that is chemically treated to transfer information written on the first page onto each subsequent page. See Carbonless NCR Form Printing.

Cast coated stock– A high-gloss paper that is coated and then pressed against a polished roller while the coating is still wet, imparting an enamel-like, hard, gloss finish when dried.

Center spread – The two pages that face each other in the center of a book or publication.

Clip art – Pre-made graphic illustrations and designs meant for clipping and pasting into digital documents.

Coarse screen – Halftone screens commonly used in newsprint; up to 85 lines per inch.

Coated stock – Any paper that has an outer layer of coating applied prior to printing, either during the paper-making process or after the paper is made. Coated paper comes in a variety of finishes, including glossy, dull, and matte.

Coil binding – Pages held together by a metal or durable plastic coil that is spiraled through holes punched along the side of a stack of paper. Commonly used for reports, proposals and manuals. Coil binding allows document pages to lay flat and rotate 360 degrees. Also called spiral binding.

Cold color – The range of colors on the color wheel from blue-green to blue-violet, also including most grays.

Collate – To gather individual sheets or printed signatures together and arrange them into sets in a specific order or sequence.

Colophon – A printer or publisher’s symbol or emblem, often at the front or end of a book, used for identification.

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 typically printed on the trim area of a press sheet. It helps proofers and  press operators monitor and control the quality of the printed material relative to ink density, print contrast, and dot gain.

Color cast – An unwanted tint or discoloration affecting the normal color balance of an image.

Color correction – The adjustments made to a photographic image to achieve realistic results or a desired mood. This can include adjusting color balance, saturation, or adding and subtracting tonal values.

Color gamut – The entire range of colors and tones possible for a particular system to reproduce. For example, the gamut of a printing device is determined by the hue, saturation, lightness of inks, etc. that it is able to acheive.

Color separation – In offset printing, the processes of isolating the four basic ink color components–cyan, magenta, yellow, and black–for printing. Each color is printed separately in layers, giving the impression of a much wider range of colors.

Color sequence – The order in which 4-color process inks are printed on a printing press.

Comb binding – To bind a stack of loose paper together by inserting the teeth of a flexible plastic comb into holes punched along one side of the stack.

Condensed type – An elongated typeface in which the width is narrower than the standard typeface.

Contrast – The degree of tonal separation in an image from black to white.

Cover – A general term describing thick paper that is often used for books covers, business cards, postcards, etc.

Coverage – The amount of ink covering the surface of a printed sheet, often expressed as light, medium or heavy.

Crop – To reduce the size of an image by removing unwanted outer areas.

Crop marks – Small lines at the corners of an image of page indicating where it should be trimmed after printing.

Crossover – A page spread in which an image, text, or line art on one printed page carries over to an adjacent page.

Cyan – One of the primary colors used four-color process printing, also referred to as “process blue.” The C in CMYK.

Dampening – In offset printing, the process in which rollers distribute a solution to the non-printing areas of the plate, repelling ink in those areas.

Deboss – A design imprinted downward into a page, resulting in a depressed surface.

Deckle edge – The ragged or feathered edge of paper when left untrimmed. It was originally a result of 19th century printing processes but is now created artificially as a design feature.

Densitometer – A device used to measure and control the darkness of ink (or “optical density”).

Density – The measurement of the percentage of reflected light, or how dark the print appears on the page.

Descender – The part of a lower case letter that extends below its main body, as in “p” or “g.”

Desktop publishing – Creating printable materials using a computer and graphic design software.

Die cutting – The process of cutting paper into various shapes or designs through the use of razor-sharp cutting blades formed into a pattern or “die.”

Digital proof – A high-end, color-accurate representation of what the printed piece will look like coming off the press, typically created using an inkjet or color laser printer.

Dithering – In an image with a limited color palette, dithering creates the illusion of new colors and tones by varying the pattern of available colors.

Dot – The smallest individual element of a halftone.

Dot gain – The increasing size of halftone dots printed on a press, resulting in a darker appearance than intended.

Drill – To use a rotating bit to create holes in paper.

Drop shadow –A shadow image strategically placed offset behind an image to create a 3-dimensional effect.

Dull finish – A flat finish on paper that is less shiny than gloss but smoother than matte paper.

Dummy –A simulation mock-up of the final printed product. This can be complex, including all copy and art elements, or be a simple representation of the size and general layout of the piece.

Duotone – A two-color halftone reproduction generated from a one color photo.

Electronic proof – A digital image that represents the finished product. Also known as a “soft” proof.

Embossing – A raised image on the surface of paper caused by the molding and reshaping of paper by the use of special metal dies and heat, counter dies and pressure.

Enamel – A term for coated paper, or a gloss coating material on paper.

Felt side – The smoother side of a sheet in the paper. During the paper-making process, the side that was not in contact with the machine’s forming wire. The felt side contains more filler and is typically not the preferred side for printing.

Finish – Post-press operations, such as trimming, folding, or binding.

Flexography – A printing method using flexible plates where the image to be printed is higher than the non-printing areas. The inked areas then contact the material to be printed, transferring the ink from the raised areas to the material. Fast drying inks are usually used in this process. Common uses are the printing of cans and bottles and other non-flat items.

Foil – Thin metal sheet that is applied to paper using the foil stamping process. Frequently gold or silver colored, but available in many colors and patterns.

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.

FPO – For Position Only – 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 gate fold, there are four panels of roughly equal size where the outer panels are folded inward together.

Gathering – Assembling sheets of paper and signatures into their proper sequence. See also collate.

Ghosting – Also known as gloss 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.

Gravure – A printing process using recessed areas on a metal cylinder that holds the ink.

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.

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.

Indicia – An image and/or text 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.

J

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.

K

Kerning – The narrowing of space between two letters so that they become closer and take up less space on the page.

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.

Laid finish – A parallel lined paper that has a handmade look.

Lamination – Applying thin transparent plastic sheets to 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.

Lithography – The process of printing that utilizes flat or curved inked surfaces to create the printed images.

Logotype – A personalized type or design symbol for a company or product.

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.

Moiré – An undesirable halftone pattern produced by the incorrect angles of overprinting halftone screens.

Mottle – A term used to describe spotty or uneven ink absorption.

N

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

Newsprint – A light, low-cost unbleached paper made especially for newspaper printing.

O

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 for 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.

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.

P

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.

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.

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 trade name 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.

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.

Q

Quark – Short for QuarkXPress, one of the primary computer applications used in graphic design.

Quote or Quotation – A price estimate to produce a specific printed piece, frequently with custom attributes not priceable in standard online pricing tools.

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/Registration – 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.

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 angles – The placement of halftone screens to avoid unwanted moiré patterns. Frequently used angles are black 45º, magenta 75º, yellow 90º, and cyan 105º.

Screen ruling – A measurement equaling the number of lines or dots per inch on a halftone screen.

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 a uniform 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. Also called Coil Binding.

Stock – A term for unprinted paper. See paper type descriptions

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

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.

Tint – A halftone screen that contains all the same sized dots.

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.

U

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

V

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. For example, a set of personalized letters, each with the same basic layout, can be printed with a different name and address on each letter.

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.

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

VOCs – Abbreviation 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 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 paper making 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 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 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.

X

Xerographic paper – Papers made to reproduce well in copy machines.

Y

Yellow – One of the four process colors of ink, or CMYK. The Y is for yellow.

Z

Zip file – Zipping a file compresses one or more files into a smaller archive. It takes up less hard drive space and less time to transfer across a network or the internet.

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 – Uncoated (non-glossy) white stocks are guaranteed safe for desktop laser printing. 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.

Backslant – Type that tilts to the left rather than right, opposite of italic type.

Back up – Printing on the second side of a sheet that already has printing on one side.

Banding – A visible step in shades of a gradient or blend, rather than a smooth transition from one color or tonal range to another.

Base line – The imaginary horizontal line below type that is used to align text.

Basis weight – The weight, in pounds, of 500 sheets of paper (one ream) in its standard uncut size. This standard size varies depending on paper type, explaining why 80 lb. text is much lighter than 80 lb. cover stock.

Bible paper – A very thin, lightweight paper ideal for books with many pages, such as bibles, dictionaries, or encyclopedias.

Bindery – A business or department within a printing company that does the cutting, folding, collating, drilling and other finishing operations used on printing projects.

Bind-in – Includes any insert that is bound into a publication.

Binding ear – A narrow (usually 3” to 4”) extension of a saddle stitch insert necessary for the actual stitching process. It allows the insert to straddle the gathering mechanism for stitching.

Binding lip – An extension (usually 1/4” to 1/2”) on a 4-page saddle stitched insert that allows it to be mechanically opened during binding. There are two kinds of lips, see high folio lip and low folio lip.

Binding stub – Portion of an insert card (usually 1/4” or 1/2”) that fastens into a perfect bound publication. It is the distance from the spine to a vertical perforation on the bind-in.

Bitmap – An image made up of pixels. When an image’s resolution, or pixels per inch (PPI), is not high enough, the result is a jagged appearance on paper or film. Generally, digital images require a resolution of 300 PPI for high quality reproduction on press.

Black plate change – Changes made to the black plate only (usually codes and text) and thus do not affect the printed document’s color appearance.

Blanket – In offset printing, the thick, rubber material that transfers ink from the plate to the paper.

Bleed – Any element that extends up to or past the edge of a printed page. A document with a bleed must be printed on a larger sheet and trimmed down to avoid any white margin between the design or image and the edge of the page.

Blind embossing – The method of creating an impression of a design, pattern, lettering, etc. without using inks or foils. (Opposite: registered embossing)

Blocking – When printed sheetsin a pile to adhere together, causing damage when they are separated. This is typically caused by insufficient anti-offset powder or too much ink.

Body – In typography, the main shank or portion of a letter character other than the ascenders and descenders. Also: a term used to describe the thickness or viscosity of printer’s ink.

Bond – A grade of durable writing, printing and typing paper that was historically designed for letterhead, corporate identity, and home and office printers. Bond paper’s standard size is 17″ x 22″.

Book paper – Category of text-weight paper usually used for printing books, magazines, catalogs, etc. Book paper is divided into uncoated and coated paper types.

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

Bristol board – A stiff, heavy paper with a smooth finish, often used for index cards, file folders, greeting cards, etc.

Business Reply Mail (BRM) – A pre-addressed card or envelope that can be returned to the sender with no charge to the recipient. The original sender only pays postage for the pieces that are returned.

Bulk – The thickness of paper relative to its weight.

C1S and C2S – Industry shorthand for “Coated One Side” and “Coated Two Sides.” These refer to coatings applied to the paper by the manufacturer.

Calibration – The process of adjusting a device—whether it be a monitor, scanner or printer—to perform at an agreed standard. It is mainly concerned with establishing correct white and black points and creating true neutrals in order to avoid an unintentional color cast. Periodic calibration ensures results consistent to the color and tonal values as defined in the device’s profile.

Caliper – The thickness of a single sheet of paper measured in thousandths of an inch.

Card stock – A thick, durable paper often used for postcards, menus, catalog covers, and other items that require rigidity. Also called cover stock.

Case binding –   The standard binding for hardcover books, in which the case is made separately from the the textblock and later adhered to it.

Carbonless paper – Paper that is chemically treated to transfer information written on the first page onto each subsequent page. See Carbonless NCR Form Printing.

Cast coated stock– A high-gloss paper that is coated and then pressed against a polished roller while the coating is still wet, imparting an enamel-like, hard, gloss finish when dried.

Center spread – The two pages that face each other in the center of a book or publication.

Clip art – Pre-made graphic illustrations and designs meant for clipping and pasting into digital documents.

Coarse screen – Halftone screens commonly used in newsprint; up to 85 lines per inch.

Coated stock – Any paper that has an outer layer of coating applied prior to printing, either during the paper-making process or after the paper is made. Coated paper comes in a variety of finishes, including glossy, dull, and matte.

Coil binding – Pages held together by a metal or durable plastic coil that is spiraled through holes punched along the side of a stack of paper. Commonly used for reports, proposals and manuals. Coil binding allows document pages to lay flat and rotate 360 degrees. Also called spiral binding.

Cold color – The range of colors on the color wheel from blue-green to blue-violet, also including most grays.

Collate – To gather individual sheets or printed signatures together and arrange them into sets in a specific order or sequence.

Colophon – A printer or publisher’s symbol or emblem, often at the front or end of a book, used for identification.

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 typically printed on the trim area of a press sheet. It helps proofers and  press operators monitor and control the quality of the printed material relative to ink density, print contrast, and dot gain.

Color cast – An unwanted tint or discoloration affecting the normal color balance of an image.

Color correction – The adjustments made to a photographic image to achieve realistic results or a desired mood. This can include adjusting color balance, saturation, or adding and subtracting tonal values.

Color gamut – The entire range of colors and tones possible for a particular system to reproduce. For example, the gamut of a printing device is determined by the hue, saturation, lightness of inks, etc. that it is able to acheive.

Color separation – In offset printing, the processes of isolating the four basic ink color components–cyan, magenta, yellow, and black–for printing. Each color is printed separately in layers, giving the impression of a much wider range of colors.

Color sequence – The order in which 4-color process inks are printed on a printing press.

Comb binding – To bind a stack of loose paper together by inserting the teeth of a flexible plastic comb into holes punched along one side of the stack.

Condensed type – An elongated typeface in which the width is narrower than the standard typeface.

Contrast – The degree of tonal separation in an image from black to white.

Cover – A general term describing thick paper that is often used for books covers, business cards, postcards, etc.

Coverage – The amount of ink covering the surface of a printed sheet, often expressed as light, medium or heavy.

Crop – To reduce the size of an image by removing unwanted outer areas.

Crop marks – Small lines at the corners of an image of page indicating where it should be trimmed after printing.

Crossover – A page spread in which an image, text, or line art on one printed page carries over to an adjacent page.

Cyan – One of the primary colors used four-color process printing, also referred to as “process blue.” The C in CMYK.

Dampening – In offset printing, the process in which rollers distribute a solution to the non-printing areas of the plate, repelling ink in those areas.

Deboss – A design imprinted downward into a page, resulting in a depressed surface.

Deckle edge – The ragged or feathered edge of paper when left untrimmed. It was originally a result of 19th century printing processes but is now created artificially as a design feature.

Densitometer – A device used to measure and control the darkness of ink (or “optical density”).

Density – The measurement of the percentage of reflected light, or how dark the print appears on the page.

Descender – The part of a lower case letter that extends below its main body, as in “p” or “g.”

Desktop publishing – Creating printable materials using a computer and graphic design software.

Die cutting – The process of cutting paper into various shapes or designs through the use of razor-sharp cutting blades formed into a pattern or “die.”

Digital proof – A high-end, color-accurate representation of what the printed piece will look like coming off the press, typically created using an inkjet or color laser printer.

Dithering – In an image with a limited color palette, dithering creates the illusion of new colors and tones by varying the pattern of available colors.

Dot – The smallest individual element of a halftone.

Dot gain – The increasing size of halftone dots printed on a press, resulting in a darker appearance than intended.

Drill – To use a rotating bit to create holes in paper.

Drop shadow –A shadow image strategically placed offset behind an image to create a 3-dimensional effect.

Dull finish – A flat finish on paper that is less shiny than gloss but smoother than matte paper.

Dummy –A simulation mock-up of the final printed product. This can be complex, including all copy and art elements, or be a simple representation of the size and general layout of the piece.

Duotone – A two-color halftone reproduction generated from a one color photo.

Electronic proof – A digital image that represents the finished product. Also known as a “soft” proof.

Embossing – A raised image on the surface of paper caused by the molding and reshaping of paper by the use of special metal dies and heat, counter dies and pressure.

Enamel – A term for coated paper, or a gloss coating material on paper.

Felt side – The smoother side of a sheet in the paper. During the paper-making process, the side that was not in contact with the machine’s forming wire. The felt side contains more filler and is typically not the preferred side for printing.

Finish – Post-press operations, such as trimming, folding, or binding.

Flexography – A printing method using flexible plates where the image to be printed is higher than the non-printing areas. The inked areas then contact the material to be printed, transferring the ink from the raised areas to the material. Fast drying inks are usually used in this process. Common uses are the printing of cans and bottles and other non-flat items.

Foil – Thin metal sheet that is applied to paper using the foil stamping process. Frequently gold or silver colored, but available in many colors and patterns.

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.

FPO – For Position Only – 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 gate fold, there are four panels of roughly equal size where the outer panels are folded inward together.

Gathering – Assembling sheets of paper and signatures into their proper sequence. See also collate.

Ghosting – Also known as gloss 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.

Gravure – A printing process using recessed areas on a metal cylinder that holds the ink.

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.

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.

Indicia – An image and/or text 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.

J

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.

K

Kerning – The narrowing of space between two letters so that they become closer and take up less space on the page.

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.

Laid finish – A parallel lined paper that has a handmade look.

Lamination – Applying thin transparent plastic sheets to 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.

Lithography – The process of printing that utilizes flat or curved inked surfaces to create the printed images.

Logotype – A personalized type or design symbol for a company or product.

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.

Moiré – An undesirable halftone pattern produced by the incorrect angles of overprinting halftone screens.

Mottle – A term used to describe spotty or uneven ink absorption.

N

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

Newsprint – A light, low-cost unbleached paper made especially for newspaper printing.

O

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 for 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.

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.

P

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.

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.

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 trade name 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.

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.

Q

Quark – Short for QuarkXPress, one of the primary computer applications used in graphic design.

Quote or Quotation – A price estimate to produce a specific printed piece, frequently with custom attributes not priceable in standard online pricing tools.

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/Registration – 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.

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 angles – The placement of halftone screens to avoid unwanted moiré patterns. Frequently used angles are black 45º, magenta 75º, yellow 90º, and cyan 105º.

Screen ruling – A measurement equaling the number of lines or dots per inch on a halftone screen.

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 a uniform 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. Also called Coil Binding.

Stock – A term for unprinted paper. See paper type descriptions

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

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.

Tint – A halftone screen that contains all the same sized dots.

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.

U

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

V

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. For example, a set of personalized letters, each with the same basic layout, can be printed with a different name and address on each letter.

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.

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

VOCs – Abbreviation 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 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 paper making 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 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 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.

X

Xerographic paper – Papers made to reproduce well in copy machines.

Y

Yellow – One of the four process colors of ink, or CMYK. The Y is for yellow.

Z

Zip file – Zipping a file compresses one or more files into a smaller archive. It takes up less hard drive space and less time to transfer across a network or the internet.

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 – Uncoated (non-glossy) white stocks are guaranteed safe for desktop laser printing. 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.

Backslant – Type that tilts to the left rather than right, opposite of italic type.

Back up – Printing on the second side of a sheet that already has printing on one side.

Banding – A visible step in shades of a gradient or blend, rather than a smooth transition from one color or tonal range to another.

Base line – The imaginary horizontal line below type that is used to align text.

Basis weight – The weight, in pounds, of 500 sheets of paper (one ream) in its standard uncut size. This standard size varies depending on paper type, explaining why 80 lb. text is much lighter than 80 lb. cover stock.

Bible paper – A very thin, lightweight paper ideal for books with many pages, such as bibles, dictionaries, or encyclopedias.

Bindery – A business or department within a printing company that does the cutting, folding, collating, drilling and other finishing operations used on printing projects.

Bind-in – Includes any insert that is bound into a publication.

Binding ear – A narrow (usually 3” to 4”) extension of a saddle stitch insert necessary for the actual stitching process. It allows the insert to straddle the gathering mechanism for stitching.

Binding lip – An extension (usually 1/4” to 1/2”) on a 4-page saddle stitched insert that allows it to be mechanically opened during binding. There are two kinds of lips, see high folio lip and low folio lip.

Binding stub – Portion of an insert card (usually 1/4” or 1/2”) that fastens into a perfect bound publication. It is the distance from the spine to a vertical perforation on the bind-in.

Bitmap – An image made up of pixels. When an image’s resolution, or pixels per inch (PPI), is not high enough, the result is a jagged appearance on paper or film. Generally, digital images require a resolution of 300 PPI for high quality reproduction on press.

Black plate change – Changes made to the black plate only (usually codes and text) and thus do not affect the printed document’s color appearance.

Blanket – In offset printing, the thick, rubber material that transfers ink from the plate to the paper.

Bleed – Any element that extends up to or past the edge of a printed page. A document with a bleed must be printed on a larger sheet and trimmed down to avoid any white margin between the design or image and the edge of the page.

Blind embossing – The method of creating an impression of a design, pattern, lettering, etc. without using inks or foils. (Opposite: registered embossing)

Blocking – When printed sheetsin a pile to adhere together, causing damage when they are separated. This is typically caused by insufficient anti-offset powder or too much ink.

Body – In typography, the main shank or portion of a letter character other than the ascenders and descenders. Also: a term used to describe the thickness or viscosity of printer’s ink.

Bond – A grade of durable writing, printing and typing paper that was historically designed for letterhead, corporate identity, and home and office printers. Bond paper’s standard size is 17″ x 22″.

Book paper – Category of text-weight paper usually used for printing books, magazines, catalogs, etc. Book paper is divided into uncoated and coated paper types.

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

Bristol board – A stiff, heavy paper with a smooth finish, often used for index cards, file folders, greeting cards, etc.

Business Reply Mail (BRM) – A pre-addressed card or envelope that can be returned to the sender with no charge to the recipient. The original sender only pays postage for the pieces that are returned.

Bulk – The thickness of paper relative to its weight.

C1S and C2S – Industry shorthand for “Coated One Side” and “Coated Two Sides.” These refer to coatings applied to the paper by the manufacturer.

Calibration – The process of adjusting a device—whether it be a monitor, scanner or printer—to perform at an agreed standard. It is mainly concerned with establishing correct white and black points and creating true neutrals in order to avoid an unintentional color cast. Periodic calibration ensures results consistent to the color and tonal values as defined in the device’s profile.

Caliper – The thickness of a single sheet of paper measured in thousandths of an inch.

Card stock – A thick, durable paper often used for postcards, menus, catalog covers, and other items that require rigidity. Also called cover stock.

Case binding –   The standard binding for hardcover books, in which the case is made separately from the the textblock and later adhered to it.

Carbonless paper – Paper that is chemically treated to transfer information written on the first page onto each subsequent page. See Carbonless NCR Form Printing.

Cast coated stock– A high-gloss paper that is coated and then pressed against a polished roller while the coating is still wet, imparting an enamel-like, hard, gloss finish when dried.

Center spread – The two pages that face each other in the center of a book or publication.

Clip art – Pre-made graphic illustrations and designs meant for clipping and pasting into digital documents.

Coarse screen – Halftone screens commonly used in newsprint; up to 85 lines per inch.

Coated stock – Any paper that has an outer layer of coating applied prior to printing, either during the paper-making process or after the paper is made. Coated paper comes in a variety of finishes, including glossy, dull, and matte.

Coil binding – Pages held together by a metal or durable plastic coil that is spiraled through holes punched along the side of a stack of paper. Commonly used for reports, proposals and manuals. Coil binding allows document pages to lay flat and rotate 360 degrees. Also called spiral binding.

Cold color – The range of colors on the color wheel from blue-green to blue-violet, also including most grays.

Collate – To gather individual sheets or printed signatures together and arrange them into sets in a specific order or sequence.

Colophon – A printer or publisher’s symbol or emblem, often at the front or end of a book, used for identification.

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 typically printed on the trim area of a press sheet. It helps proofers and  press operators monitor and control the quality of the printed material relative to ink density, print contrast, and dot gain.

Color cast – An unwanted tint or discoloration affecting the normal color balance of an image.

Color correction – The adjustments made to a photographic image to achieve realistic results or a desired mood. This can include adjusting color balance, saturation, or adding and subtracting tonal values.

Color gamut – The entire range of colors and tones possible for a particular system to reproduce. For example, the gamut of a printing device is determined by the hue, saturation, lightness of inks, etc. that it is able to acheive.

Color separation – In offset printing, the processes of isolating the four basic ink color components–cyan, magenta, yellow, and black–for printing. Each color is printed separately in layers, giving the impression of a much wider range of colors.

Color sequence – The order in which 4-color process inks are printed on a printing press.

Comb binding – To bind a stack of loose paper together by inserting the teeth of a flexible plastic comb into holes punched along one side of the stack.

Condensed type – An elongated typeface in which the width is narrower than the standard typeface.

Contrast – The degree of tonal separation in an image from black to white.

Cover – A general term describing thick paper that is often used for books covers, business cards, postcards, etc.

Coverage – The amount of ink covering the surface of a printed sheet, often expressed as light, medium or heavy.

Crop – To reduce the size of an image by removing unwanted outer areas.

Crop marks – Small lines at the corners of an image of page indicating where it should be trimmed after printing.

Crossover – A page spread in which an image, text, or line art on one printed page carries over to an adjacent page.

Cyan – One of the primary colors used four-color process printing, also referred to as “process blue.” The C in CMYK.

Dampening – In offset printing, the process in which rollers distribute a solution to the non-printing areas of the plate, repelling ink in those areas.

Deboss – A design imprinted downward into a page, resulting in a depressed surface.

Deckle edge – The ragged or feathered edge of paper when left untrimmed. It was originally a result of 19th century printing processes but is now created artificially as a design feature.

Densitometer – A device used to measure and control the darkness of ink (or “optical density”).

Density – The measurement of the percentage of reflected light, or how dark the print appears on the page.

Descender – The part of a lower case letter that extends below its main body, as in “p” or “g.”

Desktop publishing – Creating printable materials using a computer and graphic design software.

Die cutting – The process of cutting paper into various shapes or designs through the use of razor-sharp cutting blades formed into a pattern or “die.”

Digital proof – A high-end, color-accurate representation of what the printed piece will look like coming off the press, typically created using an inkjet or color laser printer.

Dithering – In an image with a limited color palette, dithering creates the illusion of new colors and tones by varying the pattern of available colors.

Dot – The smallest individual element of a halftone.

Dot gain – The increasing size of halftone dots printed on a press, resulting in a darker appearance than intended.

Drill – To use a rotating bit to create holes in paper.

Drop shadow –A shadow image strategically placed offset behind an image to create a 3-dimensional effect.

Dull finish – A flat finish on paper that is less shiny than gloss but smoother than matte paper.

Dummy –A simulation mock-up of the final printed product. This can be complex, including all copy and art elements, or be a simple representation of the size and general layout of the piece.

Duotone – A two-color halftone reproduction generated from a one color photo.

Electronic proof – A digital image that represents the finished product. Also known as a “soft” proof.

Embossing – A raised image on the surface of paper caused by the molding and reshaping of paper by the use of special metal dies and heat, counter dies and pressure.

Enamel – A term for coated paper, or a gloss coating material on paper.

Felt side – The smoother side of a sheet in the paper. During the paper-making process, the side that was not in contact with the machine’s forming wire. The felt side contains more filler and is typically not the preferred side for printing.

Finish – Post-press operations, such as trimming, folding, or binding.

Flexography – A printing method using flexible plates where the image to be printed is higher than the non-printing areas. The inked areas then contact the material to be printed, transferring the ink from the raised areas to the material. Fast drying inks are usually used in this process. Common uses are the printing of cans and bottles and other non-flat items.

Foil – Thin metal sheet that is applied to paper using the foil stamping process. Frequently gold or silver colored, but available in many colors and patterns.

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.

FPO – For Position Only – 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 gate fold, there are four panels of roughly equal size where the outer panels are folded inward together.

Gathering – Assembling sheets of paper and signatures into their proper sequence. See also collate.

Ghosting – Also known as gloss 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.

Gravure – A printing process using recessed areas on a metal cylinder that holds the ink.

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.

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.

Indicia – An image and/or text 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.

J

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.

K

Kerning – The narrowing of space between two letters so that they become closer and take up less space on the page.

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.

Laid finish – A parallel lined paper that has a handmade look.

Lamination – Applying thin transparent plastic sheets to 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.

Lithography – The process of printing that utilizes flat or curved inked surfaces to create the printed images.

Logotype – A personalized type or design symbol for a company or product.

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.

Moiré – An undesirable halftone pattern produced by the incorrect angles of overprinting halftone screens.

Mottle – A term used to describe spotty or uneven ink absorption.

N

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

Newsprint – A light, low-cost unbleached paper made especially for newspaper printing.

O

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 for 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.

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.

P

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.

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.

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 trade name 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.

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.

Q

Quark – Short for QuarkXPress, one of the primary computer applications used in graphic design.

Quote or Quotation – A price estimate to produce a specific printed piece, frequently with custom attributes not priceable in standard online pricing tools.

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/Registration – 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.

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 angles – The placement of halftone screens to avoid unwanted moiré patterns. Frequently used angles are black 45º, magenta 75º, yellow 90º, and cyan 105º.

Screen ruling – A measurement equaling the number of lines or dots per inch on a halftone screen.

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 a uniform 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. Also called Coil Binding.

Stock – A term for unprinted paper. See paper type descriptions

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

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.

Tint – A halftone screen that contains all the same sized dots.

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.

U

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

V

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. For example, a set of personalized letters, each with the same basic layout, can be printed with a different name and address on each letter.

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.

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

VOCs – Abbreviation 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 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 paper making 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 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 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.

X

Xerographic paper – Papers made to reproduce well in copy machines.

Y

Yellow – One of the four process colors of ink, or CMYK. The Y is for yellow.

Z

Zip file – Zipping a file compresses one or more files into a smaller archive. It takes up less hard drive space and less time to transfer across a network or the internet.

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 – Uncoated (non-glossy) white stocks are guaranteed safe for desktop laser printing. 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.