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.