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Printing : material and folding

A

  • Accordion Fold: A type of fold where the paper is folded back and forth in a zigzag pattern.
  • Anodized Plate: A printing plate treated to resist oxidation and wear.
  • Aqueous Coating: A clear, fast-drying, water-based coating applied to printed pieces for protection and enhanced appearance.

B

  • Bindery: The department in a printing company where printed materials are assembled and bound.
  • Bitmapped Image: An image composed of pixels, each with a specific color or shade, also known as a raster image.
  • Blanket: A rubber-coated fabric that transfers ink from a plate to the printing surface in offset printing.
  • Bleed: Printing that extends beyond the edge of where the sheet will be trimmed.
  • Burnishing: Polishing a printed surface to enhance its gloss or sheen.

C

  • CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black; the four basic colors used in color printing.
  • Collate: To gather and arrange printed sheets into the correct order.
  • Coated Paper: Paper with a surface coating that improves reflectivity and ink holdout.
  • Color Proofing: The process of producing a sample print to check colors before the final print run.
  • Crop Marks: Lines printed in the corners of a sheet to indicate where to trim the page.

D

  • Digital Printing: Printing from a digital-based image directly to various media.
  • DPI (Dots Per Inch): A measure of image resolution or printing quality. Higher DPI means higher resolution.
  • Duotone: A printing technique using two colors to create a range of tones and enhance depth.
  • Duplex Paper: Paper with different finishes or colors on each side.

E

  • Embossing: Creating a raised image or design on paper or cardstock by pressing it with a die.

F

  • Foil Stamping: Applying metallic or pigmented foil to a surface using a heated die.

G

  • Giclée: A high-quality inkjet print used for fine art prints.
  • Gang Run: Printing multiple different jobs on the same sheet to reduce costs.
  • Gravure Printing: A printing process that uses engraved cylinders to transfer ink onto paper.
  • Gutter: The space between columns of text or the binding area in a book or magazine.

H

  • Halftone: A technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots.
  • Hickey: An imperfection in printing caused by particles of dust or debris.

I

  • Imposition: Arranging pages on a printer’s sheet to ensure they appear in the correct order after folding and trimming.
  • Intaglio Printing: A printing process where the image area is etched below the surface of the plate.

K

  • Kerning: Adjusting the spacing between characters in a word to improve appearance and readability.

L

  • Letterpress: A traditional printing method using raised type to transfer ink onto paper.
  • Lithography: A printing process based on the repulsion of oil and water.

M

  • Moire Pattern: An undesirable pattern in printed material caused by the alignment of screen angles in halftones.

O

  • Offset Printing: A printing technique where an inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface.
  • Overprint: Printing additional elements on a previously printed surface.

P

  • Pica: A unit of measure in typography, equal to 1/6 of an inch.
  • Perfect Binding: A type of bookbinding where the pages are glued together at the spine with a strong adhesive.
  • Plate Making: The process of preparing a printing plate from digital or film-based artwork.
  • PMS (Pantone Matching System): A standardized color reproduction system used in printing.
  • Proof: A preliminary version of a printed piece used to check for errors and make corrections.

R

  • Register Marks: Marks on a printed sheet used to align different colors or layers accurately.
  • Reverse Print: Printing where the background is printed and the image or text remains the color of the paper.
  • RGB: Red, Green, Blue; the primary colors used in digital screens and imaging.

S

  • Saddle Stitching: A method of binding where sheets are folded and stapled along the spine.
  • Screen Angles: The angles at which halftone screens are set to avoid moiré patterns.
  • Screen Printing: A printing technique where ink is pushed through a screen stencil onto the surface.
  • Serif: A small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font family.
  • Soft Proof: A digital proof viewed on a monitor, as opposed to a hard (printed) proof.
  • Spot Color: Printing using a single color of ink or a few colors not using CMYK.

T

  • Thermography: A printing process that uses heat to create raised images or text.
  • Trapping: Adjusting adjacent colors to prevent gaps or overlaps in printing.
  • Typography: The art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing.

U

  • UV Coating: A shiny, glossy coating applied to a printed piece and then cured with ultraviolet light.

V

  • Varnish: A transparent coating applied to printed material for protection or gloss.
  • Vector Image: An image made up of paths, rather than pixels, which can be scaled infinitely without losing quality.

W

  • Watermark: A recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light.
  • Workflow: The sequence of steps involved in prepress, press, and post-press operations.