|
Glossary
of design and printing terms.
A
- D E
- L M
- R S
- Z
A
sizes: main series of finished printing trimmed sizes in the ISO
international paper size range.
A0
841mm x 1189mm
A1 594mm x 841mm
A2 420mm x 594mm
A3 297mm x 420mm
A4 210mm x 297mm
A5 148mm x 210mm
A6 105mm x 148mm
A7 74mm x 105mm
Accordion
fold: Two or more parallel folds which open like an
Accordion or Concertina. (See Folding).
Acetate:
a transparent sheet placed over artwork allowing the artist to write
instructions or indicate where colour is to be placed.
Addendum:
supplementary material additional to the main body of a book and printed
separately at the start or end of the text.
Adhesive
binding: style of threadless binding in which the leaves of a book are
held together at the binding edge by glue or synthetic adhesive and suitable
lining.
Adobe
Acrobat:
Suite of applications to create and view PDF files.
ADSL:
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A service offering a faster internet
connection than a standard dial-up or ISDN connection.
Against
the grain: Paper is made up of fibres aligned in one direction (the
grain). Against the grain means at right angles to the grain direction of
the paper.
Air:
the amount of white space in a layout.
Airbrush:
a mechanical painting tool producing an adjustable spray of paint driven by
compressed air. Also a digital painting tool in photo editing software. Used in illustration, design and
photo retouching.
Aliasing:
The term is commonly applied to spatial aliasing, which appears as visible
pixelation - a blocky or jagged effect - especially with near horizontal or
near vertical lines of high contrast.
Align:
quotient of the grammage of a paper and its thickness in micrometers.
Alley:
The
space between columns within a page. Not to be confused with the gutter,
which is the combination of the inside margins of two facing pages.
Alpha
channel:
A special 8-bit grayscale channel that is used for saving a selection.
Alphabet
(length or width): (typesetting) the measurement of a complete set of
lower case alphabet characters in a given type size expressed in points or
picas.
Anodised
plate: an offset printing plate with a specially treated surface to
reduce wear during printing.
Anti-alias:
The blending of pixel colours on the perimeter of hard-edged shapes, like
type, to smooth undesirable edges (jaggies).
Application:
A computer programme designed for a particular use, such as a word processor
or page layout programme.
Art
Paper: a smooth coated paper obtained by adding a coating of china clay
compound on one or both sides of the paper.
Artwork:
Originally the physical art (sometimes referred to as paste-up, camera-ready
artwork or Mechanical) prepared by the designer and including type, graphics
and other originals. This was used by the printer to produce the printing
plates.
Today the artwork exists almost wholly in electronic
form. Photographs and illustrations are input to the computer using a
scanner. All the elements are assembled using page layout software. Proofs
can be made using colour laser or inkjet printers. The computer then
separates the 'artwork' and either produces high-resolution films from which
the printing plates are made or is output directly to an automated
platemaker (see computer-to-plate or CTP).
Ascender:
In typography, the parts of lowercase letters that rise above the x-height
of the font, e.g. b, d, f, h, k, I, and t.
ASCII:
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. This is a standard
coding system within the computer industry to convert keyboard input into
digital information. It covers all of the printable characters in normal use
and control characters such as carriage return and line feed. The full table
contains 127 elements.
Variations and extensions of the basic code are to be
found in special applications.
Authors
corrections: Corrections made by the author on proofs, that alter the
original copy. The cost of making such alterations is charged for, in
contrast to printer's errors or house corrections.
Back
to top
B
sizes: ISO International sizes intended primarily for posters, wall
charts and similar items. Intermediate between the A series of sizes.
Back:
The back of a book is the binding edge. To back a book is to shape the back
of a previously rounded book, so as to make a shoulder on either side
against which the front and back covers fit closely.
Backing
up: to print the reverse side of a printed sheet.
Bank:
A lightweight paper, usually less than 60gsm.
Banner:
The title of a periodical, which appears on the cover of the magazine and on
the first page of the newsletter. It contains the name of the publication
and serial information, date, volume, number.
Base
artwork: artwork requiring additional components such as halftones or
line drawings to be added before the reproduction stage.
Baseline:
(typesetting) the line on which the bases of capital letters sit.
Bed:
the base on which the Form is held when printing by Letterpress.
Bevel:
Adding a bevelled effect to a graphic image gives the image a raised
appearance by applying highlight colours and shadow colours to the inside
and outside edges.
Binding:
Process of fastening papers together.
Bitmap:
A grid of pixels or printed dots generated by computer to depict photographs
and images. TIF, JPG, GIF are examples of bitmaps.
Bitmapped
(mode):
The Paint graphics mode describes an image made of pixels where the pixel is
either on (black) or off (white).
Black
(font):
A font that has more weight than the bold version of a typeface.
Blanket
cylinder: the cylinder via which the inked litho plate transfers the
image to the paper. The cylinder is covered with a rubber sheet, which
prevents wear to the litho plate coming into contact with the paper.
Blanket:
Thick rubber sheet that transfers ink from plate to paper on an offset-litho
press.
Bleed:
layout, type or pictures that extend beyond the edge of a page and are
trimmed off. Illustrations that spread to the edge of the paper without
margins are referred to as 'bled off'.
Blend:
A smooth transition between two colours, also known as a graduated tint.
Blind
Embossing: A type of embossing where no ink is used. The design or text
is only visible as a raised area on the paper.
Blind:
term applied to a litho plate that has lost its image; also to book covers
that are blocked or stamped without the use of ink or metallic effect.
Blister
packaging: method of packaging in which an object is placed in a
pre-formed, clear plastic tray and backed by a printed card.
Block
in: to sketch in the main areas of an image prior to the design.
Block
quote: A
long quotation - four or more lines - within body text, that is set apart in
order to clearly distinguish the author’s words from the words that the
author is quoting.
Block:
in binding, to impress or stamp a design upon the cover. The design can be
blocked in coloured inks, gold leaf or metal foil (see blind). In printing,
a letterpress block is the etched copper or zinc plate, mounted on wood or
metal from which an illustration is printed.
Blow
up: see Enlarge or reduce.
Blurb:
a short description or commentary of a book or author on a book jacket.
Board:
paper of more than 200gsm.
Body
or body copy: (typesetting) the main text of the work but not including
headlines.
Body
size: (typesetting) the height of the type measured from the top of the
tallest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender. Normally given in
points, the standard unit of type size.
Body
type:
Roman, normal, plain, or book - type used for long passages of text, such as
stories in a newsletter, magazine, or chapters in a book. Generally sized
from 9 point to 14 point.
Bond:
A basic paper often used for copying or laser printers. The better quality
bond papers, with higher rag content, can be used for letterheads.
Bound
Book: a book in which the boards of the cover have first been attached
to it, the covering of leather, cloth, or other materials being then affixed
to the boards. Bound books are more expensive to produce and much stronger
than cased books.
Box:
a section of text marked off by rules or white space and presented
separately from the main text and illustrations. Longer boxed sections in
magazines are sometimes referred to as sidebars.
Bristol
board: a fine board made in various qualities for drawing.
Broadsheet:
any sheet in its basic size (not folded or cut); also denotes a newspaper
size.
Broadside:
an original term for work printed on one side of a large sheet of paper.
Bromide:
a photographic paper used in graphic reproduction, phototypesetting on which
a photographic image is created.
Bronzing:
an effect produced by dusting wet ink after printing with a metallic powder.
Bulk:
relative thickness of a sheet or sheets, for example, a bulky paper and
a thin paper both of the same weight display different "bulk".
Burst
binding: a type of adhesive binding in which the back of the book block
is not sawn off but is slit in place to allow glue to penetrate.
Byline:
In
newsletter/magazine layout, a credit line for the author of an article.
Back
to top
C
sizes: the C series within the ISO International paper sizes range which
is mainly used for envelopes or folders suitable for enclosing stationery in
the A series.
Calendered
Paper: Paper that has passed through hardened rollers during manufacture
to produce a smooth surface.
Calliper:
is the thickness of a single sheet. The results are expressed in microns,
1000 microns equals 1 millimetre. The instrument used is the Micrometer.
Callout:
An explanatory label for an illustration, often drawn with a leader line
pointing to a part of the illustration.
Camera
ready: artwork or pasted-up material that is ready for reproduction.
Cap
height:
In typography, the distance from the baseline to the top of the capital
letters.
Caption:
An
identification (title) for an illustration, usually a brief phrase. The
caption should also support the other content.
Carbonless:
Paper coated with chemicals that enable transfer of images from one
sheet to another with pressure from writing or typing. See NCR (No Carbon
Required).
Cartridge:
a thick general-purpose paper used for printing, drawing and wrapping.
Case
binding: the binding of printing books, which include leather, cloth and
other forms of covering.
Case
bound: A hardback book made with stiff outer covers. Cases are usually
covered with cloth, vinyl or leather.
Cast
coated: art paper with an exceptionally glossy coated finish usually on
one side only.
Cast
off: a calculation determining how much space copy will take up when
typeset.
Catchline:
(typesetting) a temporary headline for identification on the top of a galley
proof.
Chalking:
a powdering effect left on the surface of the paper after the ink has failed
to dry satisfactorily due to a fault in printing.
Character
count: (typesetting) the number of characters; i.e. letters, figures,
signs or spaces in a piece of copy, line or paragraph used as a first stage
in type calculations.
Character:
Any letter, figure, punctuation, symbol or space
Chase:
a metal frame in which metal type and blocks (engravings) are locked into
position to make up a page.
Cheque
Paper: chemically treated in order to betray any tampering with the
writing on the cheques.
Clip
art:
Ready-made artwork sold or distributed for clipping and pasting into
publications. Available in hard-copy books, and in electronic form, as files
on disk.
Clipping
path: An outline, embedded into the file that tells an application which
areas of a picture should be considered transparent.
CMYK:
Shorthand for the colours used in 4-colour process printing. Cyan, Yellow,
Magenta and Black, which combined together in varying proportions, can be
made to produce the full colour spectrum.
Coated:
Paper that has received a coating to achieve a special finish. See Art
Paper.
Cold
type: (typesetting) type produced without the use of characters cast
from molten metal, such as on a VDU.
Collating:
The process of assembling the various sections or sheets of a document in
the correct order.
Colour
proofing: this term describes a wide range of techniques which have been
developed to reproduce full colour images from film or digital data
available, prior to the actual print run; thus allowing the client, colour
separation house and printer to view the "proofed" result, prior
to the actual print run.
Colour
separations: the division of a multi-coloured original or line copy into
the basic (or primary) process colours of yellow, magenta, cyan and black.
These should not be confused with the optical primaries, red, green and
blue.
Colour
spacing:
The addition of spaces to congested areas of words or word spacing to
achieve a more pleasing appearance after the line has been set normally.
Column
centimetre: a measure of area used in newspapers and magazines to
calculate the cost of display advertising. A column centimetre is one column
wide by one centimetre deep.
Column
gutter:
The space between columns of type.
See Alley.
Column
rule: a light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type.
Comprehensive
layout (comp): A
blueprint of the publication, showing exactly how the typesetting will be positioned, and the treatment, sizing, and placement of illustrations on the
page.
Concertina
fold: a method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite
direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect.
Condensed
font:
A font in which the set-widths of the characters is narrower than in the
standard typeface. (Note: not the inter-character space -- that is
accomplished through tracking).
Continuous
stationery: Forms that are produced from reels of paper and then fan
folded. These can be either single or multi-part forms.
Continuous
tone: an image in which the subject has continuous shades of colour or
grey without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced
in that form for printing but must be screened to translate the image into
dots.
Contract
proof: a coloured, hard copy representation of the printed image, made
from the films, or digital data, which will be used to make the final
printing plates.
The word 'contract' comes from the fact that, when signed
by the client, a contract is formed, which states that the final printed job
should be a close match to the contract proof.
Copy:
(typesetting) the written word, any written material intended to be
typeset.
Copyfitting:
The fitting of a variable amount of copy within a specific and fixed amount
of space.
Copyright:
the right of copyright gives protection to the originator of material to
prevent use without express permission or acknowledgement of the originator.
Corner
marks: marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim or register marks.
Counter:
In typography, an enclosed area within a letter, in uppercase, lowercase,
and numeric letterforms.
Crease:
A printed job can be creased mechanically to make folding easier. There are
times when you might want a printed piece delivered flat for ease of storage
and then do the folding yourself, manually.
Creep:
Phenomenon when middle pages of a folded section extend slightly beyond the
outside pages.
Cromalin:
The brand name of a colour proofing system produced by Du Pont.
Crop
marks: Lines near the margins of artwork or photos indicating where to
trim, perforate or fold.
Cropping:
the elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not
required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to
be enlarged to fill the space.
Cross
head: (typesetting) a heading set in the body of the text used to break
it into easily readable sections.
CTP:
(Computer to plate) - a process of printing directly from a computer
onto the plate used by a printing press. Overall a CTP plate is cleaner, of
better image quality and will provide faster run-up on press with better
quality printed copies.
Cursive:
used to describe typefaces that resemble written script.
Curves:
See Outlines.
Cut
flush: a method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to
the pages.
Cut-in
index: style of index in which the divisions are cut into the edge of
the book in steps: step index.
Cutlines:
Explanatory text, usually full sentences, that provides information about
illustrations. Cutlines are sometimes called captions or legends; not to be
confused with title-captions, which are headings for the illustration, or
key-legends, which are part of the artwork.
Cutter
guide: an outline drawn on artwork indicating size and position for
die-cutting. The cutter will be manufactured to fit this guide. May be
printing or non-printing.
Cyan:
The blue colour used in four-colour process printing.
Back
to top
Dagger
and double dagger: (typesetting) symbols used mainly as reference marks
for footnotes.
Deboss:
Image pressed into paper so it lies below the surface.
Densitometer:
a device for measuring the closeness of substance at a specific location on
film or printed product, either by reflected or transmitted light.
Densitometers vary in their sophistication and the number of features
provided, such colour, black-and-white, read-out memory, computer printout
etc.
Descender:
In typography, the part of the letterform that dips below the baseline;
usually refers to lowercase letters and some punctuation, but some typefaces
have uppercase letters with descenders.
Desktop
publishing: a generic title given to the introduction of computers to
typesetting, page composition and image handling. The combination of all
these gives electronic control within a single system of what was
traditionally a specialist and segmented operation.
DIC:
The brand name of a colour matching system produced by Dainippon Ink &
Chemicals, Inc. A range of inks are specified and identified by number to
produce standard results across the industry.
Die:
a hardened steel engraving stamp used to print an inked image. Used in the
production of good quality letter headings.
Die-cutting:
Process of using sharp metal rules on a wooden block to cut out specialised
shapes such as pocket folders or unusual shaped flyers etc.
Digital
page composition: DPC, also known as EPCS (electronic page composition
system) or CEPS (colour electronic page system). A system designed to take a
range of page elements (text, line-work and images) and integrate them into
a user-specified format. Image and text input to the system arrive on
magnetic tape, by direct system interconnection or directly from an input
scanning system.
Digital
Printing: These systems work directly from electronic data and avoid the
intermediate stage of films. Because these systems use an inherently
four-colour process there is no cost saving to be made from using one- or
two-colour designs.
Benefits are for very short runs or for personalised
print. Some feel that the quality is not yet to the standard of offset
litho, however, some feel that it is.
Digital:
describes the use of digital pulses, signals or values to represent data in
computer graphics, telecommunications systems and word processing.
Dingbat
typeface:
A typeface made up of nonalphabetic marker characters, such as arrows,
asterisks, encircled numbers.
Discretionary
hyphen:
A hyphen that will occur only if the word appears at the end of a line, not
if the word appears in the middle of a line.
Display
type: (typesetting) larger type used for headings etc. Normally about 18
point or larger.
Dither:
For digital halftones, the creation of a flat bitmap by simply running dots
off or on. All dots are the same size there are simply more of them in dark
areas and fewer of them in light areas - as opposed to deep bitmaps used in
grayscale images.
Document
sizes: As confusing as it may seem, paper size do follow a
straightforward system. Try this, take a piece of A4 paper and fold it in
half and cut along the fold, you now have two pieces of A5.
Dot
gain: A printing defect in which dots print larger than intended,
causing darker colours or tones; due to the spreading of ink on stock. The
more absorbent the stock, the more dot gain.
Dot
matrix printer: a printer in which each character is formed from a
matrix of dots. They are normally impact systems, i.e. a wire is fired at a
ribbon in order to leave an inked dot on the page, but thermal and
electro-erosion systems are also used.
Double
density: a method of recording on floppy disks using a modified
frequency modulation process that allows more data to be stored on a disk.
Double
page spread: two facing pages of newspaper or magazine where the textual
material on the left hand side continues across to the right hand side.
Abbreviated to DPS.
Downloadable
fonts: (typesetting) type faces that can be stored on a disk and then
downloaded to the printer when required for printing.
DPI:
(dots per inch) - the measurement of resolution for page printers,
phototypesetting machines, scanners and graphics screens. The greater the
DPI, the finer the print but also the larger the file size.
Drawn
on: a method of binding a paper cover to a book by drawing the cover on
and gluing to the back of the book.
Drawn-on
cover: A paper book cover that is attached to the sewn book by gluing
the spine.
Drilling:
Making the holes in paper for use in a ring binder. Drills can neatly
perforate a much greater thickness of paper than can the kind of hole punch
you have in the office.
Drop
cap: (typesetting) a large initial letter at the start of the text that
drops into the line or lines of text below.
Drop
shadow:
Drop shadows are those shadows dropping below text or images which gives the
illusion of shadows from lighting and gives a 3D effect to the object.
Dry
transfer lettering: Characters, drawings, etc, that can be transferred
to the artwork by rubbing them off the back of the transfer sheet. Best
known make is Letraset.
Dummy
(1): A plain white mock-up of a booklet or brochure - not printed but
made up using the intended stock. Most printers will make up a dummy if you
ask nicely. This is the best way to get a feel for the finished product.
Dummy
(2): A mock-up produced by the designer to show how the finished job
will look. This will usually involve colour prints from various sources and
will therefore not be on the intended stock.
Duotone:
A two-colour halftone sometimes used in two-colour printing. Produces a
tinted effect using a black and white original.
Duplex
Cutting: operation of converting a web paper into sheets on a cutting
machine equipped with two cross-cut knives so that two different lengths of
sheet can be cut simultaneously.
Duplex
Printing: printing both sides of the sheet. Usually associated with
laser printers and photocopiers.
A
- D E
- L M
- R S
- Z
Back
to top
|
