Print Lingo

Basis Weight : The weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of a specific paper grade that has been cut to its basic size.

Bleed: A printed color or image that extends past the trimmed edges of a page.

Blueline: Prepress photographic proof made from stripped negatives where all colors show as blue images on white paper. Color digital proofs are starting to replace bluelines.

Clipping Path: A vector-based outline used to “clip” or silhouette an image from its surroundings so only the desired part will print. Similar to masking an object.

Color Separation: Separating full-color artwork into the four primary printing inks of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

Creep: The phenomenon of the middle pages of a folded signature extending slightly beyond the outside pages.

Crop: The blocking out of unwanted parts of an image to fit a layout space or deleting portions that are not relevant.

Crossover: Image or type that continues across a page spread of a brochure, book or magazine to another page.

CMYK: An acronym for the ink colors used in four-color process printing. The letters stand for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Also called four color process color.

Dot Gain: The expansion of the dots printed on the paper due to the absorbency of the paper. This occurs most heavily on uncoated and newsprint paper. Dot gain causes images to print muddy.

DPI: In offset printing, the number of dots that fit horizontally and vertically into a one-inch measure. Generally, the higher the dpi, the sharper the printed image.

Drawdown: A test of the ink color on the actual paper stock that will be used to evalute how it looks.

EPS: (Encapsulated Postscript) A file format used for images and graphics. Typical uses for this format are vector based art, logos and multi-tone images.

Finishing: Post-press operations, including trimming, scoring, folding and binding.

Flat Size: The size of a brochure, or other design piece, when unfolded to expose all panels at the same time.

Form: Pages of a book or large brochure that are printed on the same large sheet of paper as it passes through the press. Once the sheet is printed, it is folded and trimmed to become individual pages. The form is then called a signature.

Four-Color Process: Method of printing using cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) inks to simulate full color images. Also called full-color process. All colors can be achievedd with this process. However, not all values of each color are attainable.

FPO: For position only. Usually a low-resolution image (72 or 100 dpi) file used only to indicate placement and size. It is meant to be replaced by a high-resolution image before printing.

Hi-res: High resolution image are usually 300 to 350 dpi. A hi-res images are crucial to the quality of the printed piece.

Knockout: An area of background color that has been masked out (knocked out) by a foreground object and therefore does not print.

Lo-res: Low-resolution images, such as 72 or 100 dpi, used for FPO or web graphics.

Make Ready: The procedures needed to be completed to the press, before beginning the printing process. This includes, setting up the press, changing inks, etc.

Mark-up: Instructions written on the hard-copy printout.

Match Color: A custom-blended ink color that matches a specified color in a color system such as Pantone®. It is not built from a combination of CMYK.

Moire Pattern: A checkerboard pattern that appears on the printed image. This occurs when the screens of the inks are printed at the incorrect angles and when scanning an already printed image.

Overprint: Printing one ink over another, such as printing type over a screen tint.

Page Spread: Two pages that can be be viewed at the same time.

Pantone: An industry standard color matching system. Pantone colors can be matched exactly on each print run. These colors do not use the cmyk color method.

PDF: Portable Document Format. Adobe® Systems file format used to facilitate cross-platform viewing of documents. PDF files can be saved lo-res (for viewing purposes only) or hi-res (used in printing).

Prepress: RIPing files, platemaking, and other work performed by the printer in preparation for printing.

Raster graphics: Computer image made up of pixels. Photoshop® is the most common raster program. These graphics can display much more detail (such as photographs) unlike vector graphics.

RGB: Red, green and blue – the additive primaries used in monitors. They are not printing colors.

RIP: Raster Image Processor. This device is designed to interpret PostScript files and create a document suitable for printing.

Source File: The original graphic file.

Spot color or varnish: Specific color or varnish that is applied only to portions of a sheet. Sometimes called a fifth color.

TIF or TIFF: (Tagged Image File Format) Raster file format used for image placement in page layout programs. TIFs can sometimes be tinted and modified in a page layout program where EPS images cannot.

Trim Size: The size of the printed piece in its finished form. Also called finish size.

UV Coating: Liquid applied to a coated sheet, then bonded and cured with ultraviolet light. This coating protects against fingerprints on heavy ink coverages and ink rub-off.

Vector Graphics: Graphics that using lines and curves. Illustrator® is the most common vector program. Most commonly used for logos and illustrations. These graphics are made of solid colors, or simple gradients. Far less detail than rasterized graphics.