A glossary of design terms

Designers may sometimes lapse into a language of their own, or more often than not designers and clients will use words incorrectly or use words that have no meaning. Here is a guide to what is and what isn’t a word. 🙂

A

Acrobat A product developed by Adobe systems to create PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Acrobat is an independent means of creating, viewing, and printing documents.

Airbrush A propellant using compressed air that to spray a liquid, such as paint, and ink. Often used in used in illustration and photo retouching.

Alignment The adjustment of arrangement or position in lines of a text or an image — left, right, centered, etc.

Alpha Channel The process of incorporating an image with a background to create the appearance of partial transparency. Alpha channels are used to create masks that allow you to confine or protect parts of an image you want to apply color, opacity, or make other changes.

Analog Proof (Prepress Proof) A proof that uses ink jet, toner, dyes, overlays, photographic, film, or other methods to give a an idea of what the finished product should look like.

Anchor Point Anchor points allow the user to manipulate a path’s shape or direction by clicking the point and moving it in a direction. They appear along the beginning of a path, at every curve, and at the end of a path. You can also add or subtract anchor points on a path.

Animated GIF A small animation based on continuous GIF images, giving the impression of movement or action.

Animation Generating movement by displaying a series of images using frames.

Art Director The individual responsible for the selection, execution, production, so on, of graphic art.

Asymmetrical This is when graphics and/or text are not identical on both sides of a central line.

B

Bad Break Refers to widows or orphans in text copy; any break that causes awkward reading.

Bar The horizontal or vertical line drawn through a grapheme (unit of writing, such as a letter). Sometimes added to distinguish one grapheme from another.

Baseline An imaginary line upon which letters sit and descenders extend below the baseline.

Bevel A tool in design software for drawing angles or modifying the surface of your work to a certain inclination.

Bezier Curve A parametric curve that represents a vector path in computer graphics. They are frequently drawn using a pen tool and by placing anchor points which can be controlled to form shapes or lines.

Bitmap A series of bits that forms a structure representing a graphic image. The color of each pixel is individually defined.

Bleed When a graphic object extends through another in an unwanted manner. It is then trimmed so there is no chance for a white line on the edges.

Body Type The typeface used in the main text of a printed matter.

Border The decorative design or edge of a surface, line, or area that forms it’s outer boundary.

Branding The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers‘ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.

C

Canvas Size Allows you to change the complete size of the document without adjusting the contents of the document

Clipping Path A tool or shape that’s used to cut out an image.

Cloning Pixels A function that allows you to replicate pixels from one place to another.

CMYK Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key color (aka — black);  this color model (also called process color, four color) is a subtractive color model  used in color printing.

Color Palette A set of colors that make up the total range of colors used in graphic computers.

Comp (Comprehensive) Comps are made to see what the initial design project will look like before it’s printed, showing the layout of the text and illustrations.

Complementary Colors The colors that are opposite of each other when viewed on the color wheel.

Contrast The difference in color found between the light and dark parts of an image.

Copy Copy refers to editorial text supplied for incorporation into a design or website.

Crop A tool that removes portions of an image. It is usually used in digital photography.

D

Descender The part of a lowercase letter that stretches below the body.

Die Cut A die that cut shapes or holes in different materials to make the design stand out.

Dingbat An ornament used in typesetting to add space around an image or a symbol.

Dodge This is when you lighten or reduce part of an image by shading.

Dot Gain When the ink hits the paper, it is absorbered and it somewhat spreads out.

Double Page Spread A double page spread is a layout that extends across two pages.

DPI (Dots Per Inch) A term to describe the measure of sharpness within an image.

Drop Shadow Is a visual effect added to an image to give the impression the image is raised above the background by duplicating the shadow.

Dummy A prototype or mock-up of a book, page, or any project designed to resemble and serve as a substitute for the real thing.

Duotone A method of printing an image using two colors, usually black and a spot color.

E

Ear The rounded part of the lowercase letters such as ‘g’ and ‘q’.

Element Any distinct part of a layout such as the logo, headline, images, or borders.

Embedding Process of transferring all the data of a font or image into the file itself.

Emboss To give a three-dimensional effect to a text or an image by using highlights and shadows on the sides of the illustration.

Engraving To print designs by cutting the surface of a metal plate.

EPS Stands for Encapsulated Post Script. This is a graphics file format used to transfer PostScript documents that contain an image, within another PostScript document.

Etch To imprint a design onto the surface of a plate by using a chemical such as acid.

Export To save a file in a format supported by other programs.

Extenders The part of a letter which extends above the mid line, such as ‘b’ or ‘d’.

E-Zine Stands for electronic magazine. Refers to the name of a website that is represented by a print magazine; an web-based magazine that you can subscribe to.

F

Feathering A tool used in graphic design software that makes the edges of an image appear softer.

Fill A tool used to fill selected parts of an image with a selected color.

Filter A filter is a pre-created effect that can be applied to images to acquire a certain look.

Flexography A printing technique where printing plates are made of rubber or soft plastic material and then stretched around a drum on the press that rotates.

Flyer A single sheet of paper handed out or posted on a wall to advertise or announce something.

Focal Point In graphic design terms, the focal point is where you want to draw the reader’s or viewer’s eye.

Font A complete combination of characters created in a specific type, style, and size. The set of characters in a font entails the letter set, the number set, and all of the special characters and marks you get when pressing the shift key or other command keys on your keyboard.

Four-Color Process A printing technique that creates colors by combining, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

Frames Refers to animation. A frame is a single graphic in a distribution of graphic images. The speed of an animation is judged by frames per second.

G

Gang To combine multiple jobs on one print plate in order to reduce costs and setup charges.

Gamut The range of colors available to a particular output device or a given color space, such as a laser printer or an image setter. If the color range is too wide for that specific device, it is indicated as ‘out of gamut’.

Gatefold A type of fold in which the paper is folded inward to form four or more panels.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) GIF images display up to 256 colors. It supports animation and allows an individual palette of 256 color for each frame. The color limitation makes the GIF format inappropriate for reproducing color photographs and other images with consistent color. GIF images are compressed using the LZW lossless data compression method to decrease the size of the file without corrupting the visual quality.

Gradient A function in graphic software that permits the user to fill an object or image with a smooth transition of colors.

Graphic Design Visual communication using text or images to represent an idea or concept. It is also a term used for all activities relating to visual design, including web design, logo design, etc.

Graphics Visual presentations that feature printed messages that are clear and appealing.

Grayscale Grayscale images consist of black, white, no color, and up to 256 shades of gray.

Grid Is a two-dimensional format made up of a set of horizontal and vertical axes used to structure content.

Gutter In book production, the white space formed by the inner margins of a spread near the books spine.

Halftone (1) A photograph or scan of a consistent tone image to alter the image into halftone dots. (2) A photograph or continuous-tone illustration that has been halftoned and that is displayed on film, paper, printing plate, or the final printed product.

H

Halo Effect A vague shadow sometimes surrounding halftone dots printed. Also called halation. The halo itself is called a fringe.

Hard Copy The permanent reproduction of the output of a computer or printer. For example: teleprinter pages, continuous printed tapes, computer printouts, etc.

Header The text which appears at the top of a printed page

Headline A large text illustrating the opening statement used in a layout.

Highlights Lightest part of a photograph or halftone, as opposed to mid-tones and shadows.

High-Resolution Image An image with an extreme level of sharpness/clarity.

HLS A color space that stands for hue, lightness, and saturation.

HSB A color space stands for hue, saturation, and brightness.

Hue One of the three primary attributes of color. A hue is a variety of color such as red, blue, green, or yellow.

I

I-beam The form the pointer assumes when the text tool is chosen.

Ideograph (also ideogram) A character or symbol representing an idea without expressing the punctuation of a specific word or words for it.

Image Map An image map is an HTML document containing multiple clickable hyperlinks.

Imagesetter Laser output device for producing professional-quality text with extremely high resolution.

Imposition A layout of pages on mechanicals or flats so they will appear in proper order after press sheets are folded and bound.

Indents A set in or back from the margin.

Initial Cap Big, capital letters which are found at the beginning of paragraphs or chapters.

Inkjet Printer A printer that electrostatically sprays tiny ink droplets onto paper.

Invert Inversion of the tonal values or colors of an image. On an inverted image, black becomes white, blue becomes orange, etc.

Italic The style of letters that usually slope to the right. Used for emphasis within text.

J

Jog To arrange sheets of paper into a compact pile.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Electronic Group) A common process for compressing digital images.

Justify To make a line of type a certain length by spacing out the words and numbers.

K

Kerning Modifying the horizontal space between letters.

Keyframe Any frame in which a specific aspect of an item (its size, location, color, etc.) is specifically defined.

Keyline A keyline is another name for a rule, line, or even a frame border. Keyline options can be set through design software applications to adjust the width, to be solid or dotted, or to show different patterns.

L

Layers A tool within graphic software that permits the user to gather, organize, and re-edit their artwork.

Leading Refers to the amount of added vertical spacing between lines of text.

Leaf One piece of paper in a publication.

Legend A table inside a project that lists vital illustrations or instructions; footnote that helps users better understand information.

Letterpress A technique of printing where movable type is inked and then pressed against paper to create an impression. Also called block printing.

Lossless Refers to a form of data compression where the detail is maintained and no data is lost after file downsizing. The lossless compression method is often used in TIFF and GIF formats.

Lossy A form of data compression where detail is deleted as the file size is decreased. JPEG is an example of a lossy compression method.

Lower Case The smaller form of letter used in type.

Low-Resolution Image A low-quality scan made from a photograph or the like.

Luminosity The brightness of an area arranged by the amount of light it reflects or diffuses.

M

Magic Wand Tool A tool in graphic software that permits the user to select fractions of an image such as areas with the same color.

Margins Guidelines in a page layout software that shows a user the body copy areas. It also allows the user to indicate the dimensions. Margins are not supposed to be printed.

Mask See clipping path.

Master Page A property found in a page layout software that allows the user to create a constant page layout. Repeating elements—like page numbers—are created once on a master. This permits the user to stay clear of adding the numbers for each page manually.

Matte Finish Non-glossy finish on photographic paper or coated printing paper.

Mean Line Also called x-height. The imaginary point of all lowercase characters without ascenders.

Midtones In a photograph or illustration, tones composed by dots between 30 percent and 70 percent of coverage, as opposed to highlights and shadows.

Mock Up A recreation of the original printed material; could possibly contain instructions or directions.

Modern An altered version of Old Style. these high-contrast letters have heavy, untapered stems and light serifs. Originally established by Firmin Didot and Giambattista Bodoni during the late 18th to early 19th centuries.

Multimedia Offering the use of various communications such as text, sound, and still or moving images.

N

Negative Space Also known as white space. The area of a page that doesn’t contain images or words.

Neon Glow A type of glow on a graphic image that gives the appearance of neon lighting.

News Print Paper used in printing newspapers; not considered a high-quality paper.

Noise Noise is a term used to describe the development of pixels that contain random colors.

O

Oblique A Roman typeface which slants to the right. Often confused with italics.

Offset Printing A printing method that transfers ink from a plate to a blanket to paper as opposed to directly inking from plate to paper.

Old Style A style of type characterized by slight contrast between light and heavy strokes and slanting serif.

Opacity The degree of a color or tonal value. The opacity of an image or object that can range from transparent (0% opacity) to opaque (100% opacity). The ability to edit the opacity of specific objects allows the designer to create images that seem to flow into and through one another.

OpenType A font format created by Adobe and Microsoft. Open Type font can include a set of glyphs defined as True Type or Type 1 curves.

Orphan Line The first line of a paragraph appearing on its own at the bottom on a page with the remaining part of the paragraph appearing on the next page.

Outline This can refer to the outside edge of a font or the outer edge of a vector graphic image drawn in a package such as Illustrator or Freehand.

Overlay Layer of material taped to a mechanical photo or proof. Acetate overlays are used to divide colors by having some type or art on them instead of on the mounting board. Tissue overlays are used to carry instructions about the underlying copy and to protect the base art.

Overprint To print additional material or another color over a previously printed image.

Over Run Additional printed material beyond order. Over run policy differs in the printing industry, usually within 10% of the original quantity run.

P

Page Layout Deals with the setup and style of content on a page. An example of a page layout is the pages in magazines or brochures.

Page Size A setting that allows the user to define the size of the page they are creating their artwork on.

Pantone Matching System The Pantone matching system is used for defining and blending match colors. It accommodates designers with swatches of over 700 colors and gives printers the formulas for making those colors.

PDF Stands for Portable Document Format. Developed by Adobe Systems in its software program, Adobe Acrobat, to serve as a universal browser. Files can be downloaded over the web and viewed page by page, provided the user’s computer has installed the application.

Pica A unit of measurement for type. Commonly used for typewriters.

Pixel The smallest picture content that can be individually assigned a color.

Plate A piece of paper, metal, plastic, or rubber carrying an image to be duplicated using a printing press.

PNG Portable Network Graphics format. PNG (usually pronounced “ping”), is used for lossless compression. The PNG format displays images without jagged edges while keeping file sizes rather small, making them popular on the web. PNG files are generally larger than GIF files.

PPI Pixels Per Inch. A measurement of the resolution of a computer display.

Primary Colors The primary colors are put together to produce the full range of other colors (non-primary colors), within a color model. The primary colors for the additive color model is red, green, and blue. The primary colors for the subtractive color model is cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Q

Quark Express Quark Express is page layout application usually used for magazines and brochures.

Quick Mask A filter in Photoshop in which a translucent colored mask covers selective areas of an image.

Quick Time QuickTime was developed by Apple Computer. It’s built into the Macintosh operating system computers and is used for displaying and editing animation.

R

Ragged The imbalanced alignment of text lines. Ragged is the opposite of flush. A text block may be formatted to be evenly flush (align) right and unevenly aligned (ragged) on the left.

Rasterize An image is said to be rasterized when transformed from vector image to a bitmapped image. When opening a vector image in a bitmap-based editing program, you are generally presented with a dialog box of options for rasterizing the image.

Resample A function accessible in image editing that permits the user to change the resolution of the image while keeping its pixel count intact.

Resolution The resolution of an image is an important factor in deciding the attainable output quality. The higher the resolution of an image, the less pixelated it will be and the curves of the image will appear smoother.

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) RGB is the color model used to project color on a computer monitor. By combining these three colors, a large percentage of the visible color spectrum can be represented.

Rich Media Rich media are banner ads that use technology more developed than standard GIF animation. For example: Flash, Shockwave, streaming video, etc.

Right Justified Type aligned with its right margin. Also known as “flush right.”

RIP (Raster Image Processor) Transfers fonts and graphics into raster images, which are used by the printer to draw onto the page.

Rivers A river is a typographic term for the ugly white gaps that can appear in justified columns of type when there is too much space between words on concurrent lines of text. Rivers are particularly common in narrow columns of text, where the type size is relatively large.

Royalty-Free Photos Intellectual property like photos and graphic images that are sold for a single standard fee. These can be used repeatedly by the purchaser only, but the company that sold the images usually still owns all the rights to it.

S

Sans Serif A style of typeface that means “without feet.” Usual sans serif typefaces include Arial, Helvetica, AvantGarde, and Verdana.

Saturation The intensity of hue. The quality of difference from a gray of the same lightness or brightness.

Scale A design or program is said to scale if it is relevantly efficient and reasonable when applied to larger situations.

Screen Printing Technique of printing by using a squeegee to force ink through an assembly of mesh fabric and a stencil.

Selection Selection refers to an area of an image that is isolated so it can be edited while the rest of the image is protected.

Shadow Detail Shadow detail refers to the amount of detail held in the dark areas of an image. If the shadow is lightened too much in an attempt to expose more detail, you run the risk of reducing the overall contrast of the image.

Sharpen To reduce in color strength, as when halftone dots become smaller; opposite of “thicken” or “dot spread.”

Small Caps Capital letters that are about the same height as the tvpeface’s x-height. Some software programs automatically create their own small caps, but true small caps are often only found in expert typefaces.

Spread (1) Two pages that face each other and are created as one visual or production unit. (2) Method of slightly enlarging the size of an image to make a hairline trap with another image. Also called fatty.

Subtractive Color A term defining the three subtractive primary colors: cyan, magenta, and yellow. As opposed to the three additive colors: red, blue, and green.

T

Template Refers to a printing project’s basic details with regard to its dimensions. A general layout.

Text Wrap A term used in page layout software, specifically to the way text can be shaped around the edges of images.

Thumbnail A thumbnail is a reduced-size version of the original image.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) A graphic file format used for storing images . TIFF is a commonly used file format for high color depth images.

Tint A color is made lighter by adding white, this is called a tint.

Tolerance Tolerance is the range of pixels a tool in graphic software functions in. Or the range of shade or color pixels a Magic Wand selects, etc.

Tonal Distribution Tones can be redistributed during the scanning or image editing process. To lighten dark images or to darken light images.

Trim Size The size of the printed material in its finished stage.

True Color System A true color system is a 24-plane graphics sub-system which composes the entire range of 16.7 million colors.

Typeface A typeface consists of a series of fonts and a full range of characters such as, numbers, letters, marks, and punctuation.

Typography The art of arranging type—which includes letters, numbers, and symbols—so that it is pleasing to the eye. This includes not only the font that is used but how it is arranged on the page: letter by letter, size, line spacing, etc.

U

Uncoated Paper This is paper that doesn’t have a coating applied to it for smoothness.

Unsharp Mask A method used to heighten the sharpness or focus of images by selecting and increasing the contrast of pixels alongside the edges of images.

Uppercase Also known as capital letters, they are the larger characters in a typeface.

UV Coating A glossy coating applied to the paper surface and dried using ultraviolet light. It is glossy and adds a certain level of protection to the printed material.

V

Value This refers to the degree of lightness or darkness of a color.

Varnish This is a liquid coating applied to a surface for protection and for a glossy effect.

Vector Graphic Vector graphics allow the designer to expand or reduce the vector graphic in size without any loss in quality using curves, points, lines, and polygons.

Verso The left-hand page of a book or a manuscript.

W

Watermark Translucent design impressed on paper created during manufacture, it is visible when held to light.

Web-Safe Colors A color table containing only 216 out of a possible 256 colors, used to accurately match the colors of graphics and pictures in cross-platform web browsers.

Weight The range of a stroke’s width. Also knows as semi-bold, light, and bold. Some typeface families have many weights like ultra-bold and extra-light. Associated to the heaviness of the stroke for a specific font, such as Light, Regular, Book, Demi, Heavy, Black, and Extra Bold.

White Point One of a handful of reference illuminants used to define the color “white”. Based on the application, different definitions of white are needed to give sufficient results.

White Point Adjustment A white point adjustment establishes the amount of highlighted detail in an image.

Widow Line A single line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page or column.

Width Refers to whether the basic typeface has been lengthened or compressed horizontally. The typical variations are Condensed, Normal, or Extended.

Word Processing Program A software application package that assists in creating, editing, and printing

Work and Turn This is when you print on one side of a sheet of paper, then you turn the sheet over from left to right and print the other side. The same gripper and plate are used for this process.

WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get. This is an approximate screen representation of what the final printed image will look like.

X

X-Height This is the height of the lowercase letters that do not have ascenders or decenders, such as a, c, e and mm

Y

Yellow One of the subtractive primary colors of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) that is used in four-color process inks.

Z

Zip Stands for Zone Information Protocol: This is a way of compressing files into a smaller size, so they can be transferred with more ease over the Internet or any other means.

Zoom Most design software lets you zoom in or out on an image to get a closer or farther away look. Zooming in is especially useful when photo retouching or working on tiny details.

Some extensive and advanced terms

A

A2

A2 is a paper size that is frequently used for medium size posters, architectural drawings and diagrams. A2 measures 420 x 594 millimeters or 16.54 x 23.39 inches.

A3

A3 is a paper size that is typically used for drawings, diagrams and large tables. It is also frequently used in laser printers to output two A4 pages as a spread. A3 measures 297 x 420 millimeters or 11.69 x 16.54 inches.

A4

A4 is a popular paper size that is used for a wide range of documents, including magazines, catalogs, letters and forms. It measures 210 x 297 millimeters or 8.27 x 11.69 inches.

A5

A5 is a paper size that is often used for notepads or pocket books. It measures 148 x 210 millimeters or 5.83 x 8.27 inches.

AA

Abbreviation for Author’s Alterations – changes other than corrections, made by a client after the proofing process has begun. The client is usually charged for these corrections.

absorbency

The ability of a material to take up moisture.

ablation

The removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. Ablation technology is used in some proofing devices and platesetters to create proofs or plates by vaporizing or blasting away a part of the emulsion, typically with a thermal laser.

above the fold

An expression that refers to the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. In web publishing it refers to the section of a Web page that is visible without scrolling.

abrasion resistance

– The ability of ink or paper to withstand rubbing and scuffing.
– The resistance to scratching of a surface of paper by other paper surfaces or other materials.

absorptance

The relationship of the light absorbed by a surface to the total light striking the surface expressed as a percentage. A person is able to see colors because a portion of the light striking the surface of the scene is absorbed and a portion is reflected to the eyes. In printing, for example, red is achieved because the magenta and yellow dots absorb the green and blue light respectively leaving only red light reflected from the paper. The absorbed amount of a certain color of light determines the hue and lightness or darkness of the color.

AC

Abbreviation for Author’s Corrections: corrections, made by a client during the proofing process.

accent

A mark used with a letter to modify its pronunciation.

access control list

A database that holds the names of the valid system users and notes the level of access that each has been granted on the network.

accordion fold

Binding term for two or more parallel folds that open like an accordion. Leaflets and maps often use accordion folds.

accurate screens

The rational screen angle system incorporated in Adobe’s PostScript Level 2.

accutance

A measure of the sharpness with which an image is reproduced. Larger numbers indicate better sharpness.

acetate

A transparent type of plastic. The term is often used to refer to a sheet made of this plastic that can be used for overhead transparencies. It can also be used as an overlay and placed over artwork to add comments or instructions.

achromat

A lens designed and corrected for color distortion

achromatic

Having no color (black, white and gray)

actinic

Used to describe radiation that will render a developable latent image

activator

An alkaline liquid to initiate image development in stabilisation processing.

ADA

Abbreviation for Apparent Dot Area: the dot area of a printed halftone.

ADC

Abbreviation for Analog to Digital Convertor

ad complaint

A publishers or advertisers formal grievance about the quality of the printed advertisement that is filled with a printer.

AdConnexion

A file format that resembles SpaceXML. It deals with display advertising specifying how the business transactions should be handled. It comes out of work done in Europe and reflects some of the particular characteristics of the Scandinavian ad industry. It has limited adoption in Europe.

additive color mixing

Color system in which red, green and blue light are mixed to form other colors. Televisions and computer monitors use additive color mixing.

additive color primaries

The colors red, green and blue. When white light is broken down into it’s componant parts, a rainbow is created. Dividing the rainbow into approximately equal thirds results in red light, green light and blue light. By combining the three colors of light together, white light is created. The above drawing shows the principle.

addressability

Refers to the capability of being addressed. For an output device, 2400 dpi addressability implies that each individual pixel that is output is no larger than 1/2400 of an inch.

adhesive binding

A method of holding the pages of a publication together by applying an adhesive to the spine of the gathered pages. Also called perfect binding.

adshel

A poster that is integrated into the structure of a bus shelter.

advertorial

An advertisement that is designed to look like editorial, usually with smaller headlines and photos and text set in columns.

AES

Abbreviation for Advanced Encryption Standard, an encryption standard that is adopted by the US government but also used in applications like Adobe Acrobat.

AFM

Abbreviation for Adobe Font Metrics.

against the grain

Perpendicular to the grain direction of fibers in a sheet of paper.

agate, agate line

Term used originally to designate 5-1/2 point size type. Still used by newspapers to measure display and classified advertising.

AGFA

Abbreviation for Aktiengesellschaft fur Anilinfabrikation – the Belgian/German company that manufactures prepress software and equipment like platesetters as well as consumables like film or printing plates.

AI

Abbreviation for Adobe Illustrator – Popular drawing program for Macintosh and PC. The name also refers to the corresponding file format.

air

– Large white areas in a design layout.
– Adobe AIR is a technology that allows the use of web standards like Adobe Flash, HTML or Ajax to create applications that run on Macs, Windows or Linux systems.

Albion press

A hand operated printing press made of iron

album paper

A wood pulp paper with an antique finish used for pages of photo albums.

albumin paper

A coated paper used in photography; the coating is made of albumen (egg whites) and ammonium chloride.

algorithm

A sequence of exact instructions that define a method to solve a particular problem. For example, algorithms are used to create a digital halftone screen.

alias

A pointer file that actually represents another file. This word is only used on Macintosh computers. On Windows systems, the same pointer file is referred to as a ‘shortcut’.

aliasing

The appearance of jagged steps (jaggies) along object edges in computer-generated images or type. The stair casing effect is caused by sharp tonal contrasts between pixels. This effect can be very apparent in low resolution images.

Anti-aliasing is the technique that is used to minimize the staircasing effect. It softens the edges by adding extra graylevels or colors between the contrasting pixels. The example to the right demonstrates this effect.

align

To line up type or other graphic elements using a horizontal or vertical line as the reference point.

alignment

– The condition of type and or art materials as they level up on a horizontal or vertical line.
– The way text is positioned within the page margins. Text can be left justified (also called flush left) like in this sentence

or it can be centered

or it can be right justified (flush right)

Another option is to simply justify the text, which means that it aligns with both the left and right margin. This effect cannot be used on a web page so I can’t show an example.

alkali blue

A pigment used in carbon black inks and varnishes to improve luster. It is also called reflex blue.

alley

– A random, coincidental path.
– A row of white space within a segment of copy.
– The space between columns within a page.

alphabet length

Measurement, in points, of the lower case alphabet of any typeface from “a” through “z”. Aids in copyfitting and determining the relative space required for different typefaces.

alpha channel

A special channel reserved by some image-processing applications like Photoshop for masking or retaining additional color information.

alphanumeric

Refers to any system that combines letters and numbers. A contraction of “alphabet” and “numeric”.

alternate characters

Variations in designs of certain characters in a type font. Alternate version permit more variety of letter combinations, especially in headline typography.

ambigram

A graphical figure that spells out one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also in another direction or orientation. This effect is also called an inversion.

American Paper Institute

An organization that correlates all paper related information.

American quarto

Outside of North America the ‘Letter‘ page size is known as ‘American Quarto’.

ampersand

In Latin, this is the symbol for ‘et’ which means ‘and’. The name is believed to be derived from the phrase ‘and per se and’.

analog scanner

A computer or other device that manipulates analog data as variable voltages. Some scanners utilize hard-wired electronic circuit to do analog color correction and tone reproduction, other scanners utilize digital data to do similar functions. Nowadays all scanners are digital.

angle bar

In web-fed printing (printing on rolls of paper as opposed to single sheets), an angle bar is a metal bar that is used to turn paper between two components of the press.

angle quotes

Single angle quotes are similar, but not identical to the “less than” and “greater than” symbols.

Double angle quotes are sometimes called “chevrons”.

aniline dye

A synthetic, organic dye used in flexography printing inks.

animal sized

A technique of paper making which hardens the surface by passing the paper through a bath of animal glue or gelatin.

anodized plate

In lithography, a plate manufactured with a barrier of aluminum oxide, which prevents chemical reactions that break down the plate. It provides optimum press performance.

ANSI

– Abbreviation for American National Standards Institute, (pronounced an-see): A non-governmental organization to propose, modify, approve and publish data processing standards in the USA.
– The Microsoft collective name for all Windows code pages. It is sometimes used specifically for code page 1252, which is a superset of ISO/IEC 8859-1.

annulus

The small aperture that passes the image signal data during scanning. The annulus is surrounded by a larger unsharp masking aperture or mirror.

anti-offset spray

A dry or liquid spray attachment on presses to prevent ink from transferring from the top of one printed sheet to the bottom of the next. It is sometimes called set-off spray.

antigua

An eleventh century Italian script typeface.

antiquarian

The largest known handmade paper (53 x 31 inches).

antique finish

A natural, textured surface on book, text and cover papers.

apex

The point at the top of a character such as an uppercase A.

APIS

Abbreviation for Agfa Printer Interface Standard – protocol defined by Agfa to exchange information between RIPs and imagesetters or printers.

aplanat

A lens designed and corrected for spherical aberrations.

appendix

The additional information provided at the end of a book or article.

AppleTalk

The part of the operating system of older Macintosh computers that deals with networking. Initially the software ran on a proprietary network from Apple, called LocalTalk. LocalTalk used a serial port on the Mac and could transfer information at a raw speed of 230 kilobits per second (about 1 MByte per minute in real life). Later on Apple added support for Ethernet (EtherTalk) and Token Ring (TokenTalk) to the AppleTalk software. Nowadays Macs can also use the standard TCP/IP protocol and AppleTalk has disappeared from the market.

APR

Abbreviation for Automatic Picture Replacement: OPI-alike technology used by Scitex systems. An APR-system can generate low resolution images from large scans or drawings. Users place these lowres images in their lay-out files and will also print using these low res files. This speeds up the handling and printing of images. Once the file commences ripping, the RIP picks up the low res info and then proceeds to locate the corresponding high resolution images in the desired destination.

apron

The white area of text or illustrations at the margins which form a foldout.

aqua tint

A printing process that uses the recessed areas of the plate; ideal for graded and even tones.

aquarelle

The hand application of color, through stencils onto a printed picture.

aqueous coating

A water-based finish coating applied in-line like a varnish to protect the finished printed surface.

aqueous plate

Water soluble plate coatings, which are less toxic and less polluting.

arabesque

An art element used for ornamentation or decorative effect.

arc lamp

A lamp that produces light by an electrical current arcing across two electrodes. Used as light source in photography and platemaking.

archival storage

The maintenance of a permanent record of images, on a medium such as photographic film, magnetic tape or optical disc. Archival storage is retained until intentionally destroyed, remove or altered.

area mask

An outline mask that isolates a specific area of an image either by shape, color or tone value.

argon laser

A very strong, collimated, directional bluish-colored light that is used to expose images onto orthochromatic or blue sensitive photographic film, paper or printing plates. The spectral output peaks at 470 nanometers. The advantage of an argon laser over a helium neon laser is that the argon laser can image sensitive film,which can be used with a red or yellow safelight. Argon lasers are not used anymore.

arms

Those elements of letters that branch out from the stem of a letter, such as ‘K’ and ‘Y’.

arrowhead

A symbol shaped like an arrowhead that is used in illustration to direct a leader line.

art director

The person who is responsible for overseeing the creative process. Art directors can also manage the production process.

art paper

A paper evenly coated with a fine clay compound, which creates a hard smooth surface on one or both sides.

artifact

A visible defect in an electronic image.

art-lined envelope

An envelope that is lined with an extra fine paper; can be colored or patterned.

artwork

Any materials or images that are prepared for graphic reproduction.

as to press

A term used in gravure printing for proofs showing the final position of color images.

ascender

The upward vertical line in lower case type that extended above the body (or x-height) of a letter, such as on a ‘b’ or a ‘d’.

ASCII

Abbreviation for American Standard Code for Information Interchange: Click here for more information

aspect ratio

The ratio of the height to the width of an object like an image, a logo or a page.

assembled view

In illustration, a term used to describe a view of a drawing in its assembled or whole format.

assembly

Traditionally, the process of attaching film components of pages in their correct positions to a carrier film, goldenrod paper or plastic. A printing plate is exposed using the page imposition. Electronic assembly is the process of placing all pictures, tint blocks, text and line work in their proper location within a digital page file.

asset management

The process of storing, tracking, finding and using digital assets (like images, fonts, documents,..) in a well-organized, efficient manner.

attachment

A data file that is included in an e-mail. There are a lot of e-mail systems that will refuse to forward such attachments if their size exceeds a certain value, typically 2 MB. This keeps a lot of users from using e-mail to exchange prepress files.

ATM

– Abbreviation for Adobe Type Manager, a utility for older computer systems to improve the handling and visual appearance of PostScript Type 1 fonts on Macs and PCs. Nowadays it is no longer necessary to install ATM at all: a Type 1 rasterizer is in all Mac OS versions, for OS 8.6 onwards , and in Windows from Windows 2000 onwards.
– Abbreviation for Asynchronous Transfer Mode, a high bandwidth, low delay network technology.

atomic regions

The area’s in which Adobe applications split up a page to calculate how transparency effects need to be flattened. Sometimes artifacts show up in the atomic regions of a PDF file.

author’s alterations (AA’s)

Changes made after composition stage where customer is responsible for additional charges.

autochrome paper

Coated papers that are regarded as exceptional for multi-colored printing jobs.

autoflow

A page layout program feature that automatically flows text from column to column and page to page.

automatic picture replacement

See APR.

autotrace

A feature in draw programs that automatically traces bitmapped images to create smooth-drawn objects.

azure

– The light blue color used in the nomenclature of “laid” and “wove” papers.
– The name of the cloud solutions of Microsoft

Acrobat

A product developed by Adobe systems to create PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Acrobat is an independent means of creating, viewing, and printing documents.

Airbrush

A propellant using compressed air that to spray a liquid, such as paint, and ink. Often used in used in illustration and photo retouching.

Alignment

The adjustment of arrangement or position in lines of a text or an image — left, right, centered, etc.

Alpha Channel

The process of incorporating an image with a background to create the appearance of partial transparency. Alpha channels are used to create masks that allow you to confine or protect parts of an image you want to apply color, opacity, or make other changes.

Analog Proof (Prepress Proof)

A proof that uses ink jet, toner, dyes, overlays, photographic, film, or other methods to give a an idea of what the finished product should look like.

Anchor Point

Anchor points allow the user to manipulate a path’s shape or direction by clicking the point and moving it in a direction. They appear along the beginning of a path, at every curve, and at the end of a path. You can also add or subtract anchor points on a path.

Animated GIF

A small animation based on continuous GIF images, giving the impression of movement or action.

Animation

Generating movement by displaying a series of images using frames.

Art Director

The individual responsible for the selection, execution, production, so on, of graphic art.

Asymmetrical

This is when graphics and/or text are not identical on both sides of a central line.

Aliasing

In computer graphics, an undesirable effect–also known as “jaggies”–in which the edge of the image or letter is characterized by a stair-step appearance.

Alignment

A term used to refer to the proper positioning of all typefaces and size variations along an imaginary reference line.

All Rights

In publishing, the purchase of all subsidiary rights to a publication, illustration, or photograph, including North American and international rights, serials rights, etc.

Aqueous Coating

Water-based coating applied by a printing press to protect and enhance the printed surface.

Ascender

The part of a lowercase letter which rises above the main body, as in the letters “b”, “d”, “h”, and “k”.

B

Back Matter

All the material that follows the main text of the book such as appendix, bibliography, and glossary.

Banner

In typography, any large headline, especially one that spans the width of a page.

Baseline

An invisible horizontal line on which the feet of all characters on a line of type are set, used for proper alignment of type.

Binding and Finishing

Activities performed on printed material after printing. Binding involves fastening individual sheets together, while finishing involves additional decorative actions such as die-stamping and embossing.

Bitmap (Bitmapped)

In computer graphics, the collection of individual dots–or pixels–that make up a screen image.

Blanket

A synthetic rubber mat used in offset lithography to transfer–or “offset”–an image from a metal plate to the paper.

Bleed

A printed image that extends beyond one or more of the finished page margins and is later trimmed so that the image “bleeds” off the edge of the sheet.

Block Text or Block Type

In typography, paragraphs set without indents.

Body Text

The main portion of a book or other document, excluding front matter and back matter.

Book Typography

The setting and arrangement of the various parts of a book.

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 the author is quoting.

Byline

In magazine and newspaper publishing, a line added to an article identifying the author (and other contributors) of the article.

Bad Break

Refers to widows or orphans in text copy; any break that causes awkward reading.

Bar

The horizontal or vertical line drawn through a grapheme (unit of writing, such as a letter). Sometimes added to distinguish one grapheme from another.

Baseline

An imaginary line upon which letters sit and descenders extend below the baseline.

Bevel

A tool in design software for drawing angles or modifying the surface of your work to a certain inclination.

Bezier Curve

A parametric curve that represents a vector path in computer graphics. They are frequently drawn using a pen tool and by placing anchor points which can be controlled to form shapes or lines.

Bitmap

A series of bits that forms a structure representing a graphic image. The color of each pixel is individually defined.

Bleed

When a graphic object extends through another in an unwanted manner. It is then trimmed so there is no chance for a white line on the edges.

Body Type

The typeface used in the main text of a printed matter.

Border

The decorative design or edge of a surface, line, or area that forms it’s outer boundary.

Branding

The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers‘ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.

B

– Abbreviation for Blue, one of the three primary additive colors.

– Abbreviation for Bytes or Bits (usually an lower case B means bits but not everybody respects this convention)

back lining

The fixing of a material, either paper or cloth, to the back of a book before it is bound.

back margin

A term referring to the margin which lies closest to the back of the book.

back step collation

The collation of book signatures according to reference marks which are printed on the back fold of each section.

back to back

Print applied to both sides of a sheet of paper.

backbone

The back of a case bound book connecting the front and back covers, also called the spine.

background

That portion of a photograph or line art drawing that appears furthest from the eye; the surface upon which the main image is superimposed.

backing up

– Printing the reverse side of a printed sheet.
– Making a duplicate of data as a precaution against losing the original files.

backlight

The illumination of a subject or object (e.g. a picture or poster) from behind.

backslant

An effect in typography in which the letters slant to the left instead of to the right as in italics.

backslash

\

backstep marks

Marks printed on signatures that indicate where the final fold will occur. When gathering and initial folding is completed, these marks appear as a stepped sequence.

back up

– An extra copy of computer work that is kept on separate disks , tape or CDs for safety’s sake in case anything happens to the original data
– The printing of the reverse side of a press sheet.

bad break

Starting a page or column of type with a widow or at the end of a hyphenated word

baking

– A term given to the procedure of drying coatings onto papers.
– A term given to the procedure of heating printing plates in an oven to increase the run length that can be printed with them.

balance

A term used to describe the aesthetic or harmony of elements, whether they are photos, art or copy, within a layout or design.

balloon

In an illustration, any line which encircles copy or dialogue.

banding

The undesirable effect of waves or bands of the same colour on a digital graphic.

bandwidth

The capacity of a data connection expressed by the amount of data that can be conducted by it per second

bang

An exclamation mark! Like this one! and these!!!!!

bank paper

A thin uncoated stock used for making carbon copies.

banker’s flap envelope

The wallet flap has more rounded flap edges, also called a wallet flap

banner

The primary headline of a periodical, which appears on the cover of a magazine or the first page of a newsletter. It usually spanning the entire width of the page and contains the name of the publication and serial information (date, volume, number,..).

bar code

A pattern of vertical lines of varying thickness that identify a product, conforming to the Universal Product Code (UPC).

barrier coat

A coating that is applied onto the non-printing side of paper to add to the opacity of that paper.

baryta paper

A coated stock (barium sulfate compound) used for text impressions on typesetting machines.

base

Metal below the shoulder of a piece of type; the metal or wood block used for mounting letter press printing plates to make them type high

baseline

In typesetting, an imaginary line on which the bottom of letters rest.The descenders, such as the tail on y and g, fall below the baseline

basis weight

Weight in pounds of 500 sheets of paper cut to a given standard size

Baskerville, John

English writing master, stonecutter, letter designer, typefounder and printer (1706-1775) who worked alongside William Caslon. He is one of the people who transformed English printing and type founding. Of course there is a font named after him.

bas relief

In art, an image that is pressed or engraved into the surface of the work. The opposite effect is called intaglio.

basis weight

Basis or basic weight refers to the weight, in pounds, of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a given standard size for that particular paper grade.

Bass

The original codename used by Apple for the TrueType font technology. Later they changed it to RoyalT. According to an insider, its derivation was down to the fact that a bass (fish) is scale-able.

bastard copy

In typesetting, any text for which the type specifications vary from those that are typically used, such as the use of an unusual point size or typeface.

Bauhaus

German design school which influenced many type designers and graphic artists.

beam splitter

An optical device to redirect a beam of light in two or more directions. A color scannner splits the input light into red, green and blue light beams and directs each to a PMT. The output beam splitter separates the light into as many as ten beams, one to each modulator

bearoff

The adjusting of spacing of type in order to correct the justification.

bed

The steel flat table of a cylinder printing press upon which the type sits during the printing process.

bellyband

A band or strip of paper that is wrapped around the cover of a magazine. The band is glued together at the back and carries advertising.

benday

A method of passing down screen tone percentages on the illustrations, artwork, etc. to be photographed. These screen tints are usually on pressure sensitive plastic sheets with a release backing, and are used to create a tonal or dot pattern, and eliminate the need for an overlay.

bending chip

A recycled paperboard product used for making folding cartons.

berliner

A popular page size for newspapers, measuring around 470 × 315 millimeter (18.5 × 12.4 inch). It is also called ‘midi’.

Bézier curve

A Bézier curve is a curve defined by two end-points and two control-points, which in general are not on the curve. As well as other characteristics, the control-points define the tangents of the curve as it leaves the two end-points.

Bézier curves are used in PostScript as well as many standard computer drawing packages, The curve formulation was conceived by Pierre Bézier of the Renault car company in the late 1960s for representing 3D car body forms.

BF

Abbreviation for Boldface, used to determine where boldface copy is to be used.

BFT

Abbreviation for Binary File Transfer, scheme used to transmit bitmapped images of documents between fax machines.

bible paper

A thin but strong paper (opaque), used for bibles and books.

bibliography

A list of publications providing reference material on a particular subject, usually included in the endmatter of a book.

bi-directional interface

A connection between two pieces of equipment that allows the transmission or reception of data in either direction.

billboard

Large format outdoor advertising, usually placed in high traffic areas for maximum exposure of their message.

bimetal plate

A plate which is used in long print runs; the printing image is copper or brass, and the nonprinting area is aluminum or stainless steel.

binder’s board

A heavy paperboard with a cloth covering that is used for hardback binding of books.

bindery

The place where printed jobs undergo their final treatment including trimming, folding, drilling and packaging. This is either a designated part of a printing facility or a separate company.

binding

In finishing binding refers to all the processes that are needed after a job was printed to fasten the individual sheets together. This includes cutting, folding, trimming, gathering (or collating), stitching,…

bit

Abbreviation for BInary digiT – the smallest unit of information used in computers. A bit is either a 1 (or ‘on’) or a 0 (meaning ‘off’). Since ‘on’ and ‘off’ are of little significance to us mere humans, computers bundle a series of 8 bits into a byte which can contain actual characters or color information or other meaningfull stuff.

bit depth

The number of bits used to represent each element in an image. A bit depth of 8 means that 256 colors or gray levels are used for every pixel.

bitmap

A digital image that uses a grid of picture elements (pixels). Every pixel uses a number of bits to determine its color. A 1 bit bitmap only contains black-and-white pixels, a 24 bit bitmap is a picture that can contain up to 16 million different colors.

blanket

Reinforced sheet of rubber used on one of the rollers of an offset press to transfer the to-be-printed data from the plate onto the paper.

blanket cylinder

The cylinder on a press that is used to transfer the image from the inked litho plate to the paper. This cylinder is covered with a rubber sheet, called the blanket. It prevents wear to the litho plate coming into contact with the paper.

black

– The absence of reflected light caused by printing an ink whose colorant gives no apparent hue
– One of the four inks in four color process printing

black box

A conversion that accepts input data and alters it for output.

blackening

Darkening of a portion of a press sheet due to the excessive pressure of the calendar roll.

blackletter

Class of typefaces that are very ornate and complex. They are sometimes refered to as Old English, Text, or Gothic. It is the style of text used by scribes throughout Latin Christendom during the Middle Ages. In Germany they were used until World War II.

Blackletter typefaces can be difficult to read which is why they are only used for stuff like invitations, announcements, diplomas, certificates, or initial caps at the beginning of chapters.

black line

– the practice of lawyers underlining changes in contracts.
– a type of monochrome one-sided proof, also called a Dylux.

black printer

The plate made during the prepress printing process that is used with the cyan, magenta and yellow printers to enhance the contrast and to emphasize the neutral tones and the details in the final reproduction shadow areas

blanket

a rubber surface cylinder on offset presses that receives and transfers the inked image from plate to paper

bleed

– extending an image beyond the finished trim size so that the image runs right to the end of the printed sheet after trimming and binding
– image areas of a sheet or page. When trimmed, the image ‘bleeds’ off the page or sheet

blend

Smooth transition from one colour to another or from one tint to another.

blind

An impression of an uninked image

blind debossing

A strong letterpress impression of an uninked image on the front surface of a sheet of paper. The image is recessed.

blind embossing

A design which is stamped without metallic leaf or ink, giving a bas-relief effect.

blind folio

A page number that is not printed on the page.

blind image

An image that has lost its ink receptivity and fails to print.

blinding

– In offset printing blinding is the problem of printing plates losing their ink receptivity. This is typically caused by an excessively acidic fountain solution that damages or eats away the image areas of the plate.
– In editorial workflows blinding refers to the process of  making sure that a reviewer does not see who the author of an article or book is. This can be important to guarantee objective reviewing of scientific publications.

blistering

Although seemingly dry, paper does contain approximately 5% moisture. In cases where there is excessive moisture, and the paper is passed through a high heat-drying chamber, the moisture within the paper actually boils and causes a bubble or blistering effect.

block

– In computers, a group of characters, digits or words that can be handled as a unit.
– Illustrations or line art etched onto zinc or copper plates and used in letterpress printing.

block in

To sketch the primary areas and points of reference of an illustration in preparation for going to final design or production.

block printing

An ancient relief printing technique, also called woodcut or xylography.

block resistance

The resistance of coated papers to blocking

blocking

The adhesion of one coated sheet to another, causing paper tears or particles of the coating to shed away from the paper surface.

blocking out

To mask a section of an art layout before reproduction.

block quote

A long quotation (four lines 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.

blow-in card

A card that is not bound into a printed publication but that is loose or ‘blown into it’. Such cards typically contain adverts or subscription information.

blow-up

An enlarged image

blue

– Describes the colour of a clear sky
– A primary color of light
– A portion of the color spectrum aligned between green and violet
– In printing, a secondary color resulting in over printing dots of cyan and magenta process color inks.

blueline (proof)

A monochrome proof that is generated from film and used to check the layout and positioning of pages on a signature. The blue color was originally chosen to prevent reproduction or use for something besides a proof.

blurb

A short description or commentary of a book or author on the book jacket.

BM

Abbreviation for Back Matter – special pages at the end of a book including the appendixes or the index.

BMP

Abbreviation for BitMaP – A graphic file format for Windows that is not really suitable for prepress use.

BO

Abbreviation for Back Order.

board

Paper of more than 200 gsm.

BOD

Abbreviation for Books On Demand – a printing technology and business process in which a single book or a small set of books are only printed when they are actually needed, either because they are ordered (single-copy printing) or to maintain a small stock (‘top-up’ printing).

body

– The main shank or portion of the letter character other than the ascenders and descenders.
– A term used to define the thickness or viscosity of printer’s ink.

body height

The height of a lowercase letter ‘x’, also called the x-height.

body size

The point size of a particular type character. Sometimes instead of the point size thex-height is used.

body type

Generally 6 to 14 point size type is used for regular reading matter, depending on the readability of the typeface

boldface or bold type

– A heavier weight version of typeface, generally used for emphasis, indicated as “BF”
– A type style that is heavier, thicker and blacker than the regular typeface, generally used for emphasis. Bold can be in italic format as well as roman.

bolts

The edges of folded sheets of paper, which are trimmed off in the final stages of production.

bond

Paper of a higher quality finish often used for business correspondence. It has a standard size of 17×22 inches.

book

– A general classification to describe papers used to print books; its standard size is 25×38 inches.
– A printed work which contains more than 64 pages.

book block

A term given the unfinished stage of bookmaking when the pages are folded, gathered and stitched-in but not yet cover bound.

border

A continuous decorative design or rule surrounding the matter on the page.

bounce

– A registration problem, usually on copiers, where the image appears to bounce back and forth. A bounce usually occurs in one direction depending on how the paper is passing through the machine. This is usually accented by card stock (especially if it’s over the machine’s spec).
– When a customer refuses a job for whatever reason.

bounding box

In a page description language, such as Postscript, the defined rectangular area within an image is contained

bow

An image distortion caused by misalignment of the scanner head scanning axis with respect to the cylindrical drum axis

box

A section of text marked off by rules or white space and presented separately from the main text and illustrations. A sidebar in a magazine is a type of box.

box cover paper

A lightweight paper used expressly for covering paper boxes.

box enamel paper

A glossy coated paper used to cover paper boxes.

box liners

A coated paper used on the inside of boxes, which are used for food.

brace

Also called a curly bracket.

braces

Characters used to connect or embrace lines

break for color

In layout design, the term for dividing or separating the art and copy elements into single color paste-up sheets.

brightness

– The amount of light being reflected from a surface
– In a printed reproduction, the lightness value regardless of the hue or saturation. Brightness is affected by the reflectance of the paper.
– term for reflection density

brilliance

The subjective expression of brightness

broad fold

A term given to the fold whereby paper is folded with the short side running with the grain.

broadsheet

The  largest format that is used for printing newspapers. The dimensions are slightly different per country or region. A full broadsheet spread measures around 749 × 597 millimeter (29.5 × 23.5 inch). After being folded this results in long vertical pages. Many newspapers who initially used broadsheet have now switched to smaller handier formats such as Berliner.

brocade

A heavily embossed paper.

brochure

A pamphlet that is bound in booklet form.

broken bar

This glyph or character shape is also called the piping symbol.

bronzing

Applying bronzing powder over a surface printed with sizing ink that is still wet, to produce a metallic effect.

Bristol Board

A board paper of various thickness; having a smooth finish and used for printing and drawing.

braille

A writing system using a series of 64 or 256 raised dots that are read with the fingers by people who are (nearly) blind.

buckle folder

In finishing a binding machine with rollers that folds paper.

buckram

A coarse sized cloth used in the bookbinding process.

bulk

– The thickness of paper or cardboard relative to its weight.
– The thickness of a book excluding its covers.

bulks

newspaper copies sold for a nominal fee to be handed out on airlines and in hotels.

bullet

A dot or other character that is placed at the left of items in a list, to show that they are individual, but related points.

bulls eye

A spot or imperfection in printing caused by dirt or hardened specks of ink. The problem is most visible in areas of heavy ink coverage. A bulls eyeis also called ahickey or a fish eye.

burn

A term used in platemaking to describe the amount of plate exposure time.

burnish

A term used for the process of “rubbing down” lines and dots on a printing plate, which darkens those rubbed areas.

burnishing

Creating a polished finish on paper by rubbing with stone or hand smoothing a surface.

burst binding

A binding technique that entails nicking the backfold in short lengths during the folding process, which allows glue to reach each individual leaf and create a strong bond.

butt register

Register refers to the process of aligning colors (plates) properly during printing. With butt register the ink colors meet perfectly without overlapping or gaps. With lap register the colors do overlap slightly.

B&W

Abbreviation for Black and White

BWR

Abbreviation for Bar Width Reduction – When a barcode is printed, the bars are usually slightly wider than in the original artwork. To compensate for this print gain or ink spread, a bar width reduction is applied when making the original barcode.

BYGMCR

Abbreviation for BuY General Motors CaRs: a simple rule to remind you about the complimentary colors: Blue versus Yellow, Green versus Magenta and Cyan versus Red.

byline

In magazine and newspaper publishing, a line added to an article to identify its author(s).

C

Callout

In typography, any of several different typographic elements that are, in essence, “called-out” of the main body text, such as text pasted onto an illustration to identify specific portions of it.

Camera-Ready

To-be-printed copy and/or artwork that requires no additional layout, positioning, redrawing, or typesetting or, in other words, is prepared to be photographed for a negative or printing plate. Synonymous terms are camera-ready copy and camera-ready art.

Camera-Ready Art

Alternate term for camera-ready. See Camera-Ready.

Camera-Ready Copy

Alternate term for camera-ready. See Camera-Ready.

Cap Height

In typography, the distance from the baseline to the top of the capital letters.

Caption

In typography and page layout, any strictly descriptive text accompanying an illustration, located beneath it, alongside it, or above it.

Cast Coated Paper

Paper dried under pressure against a heated, polished cylinder to produce a high-gloss enamel finish.

Character

Any letter, figure, punctuation, symbol or space.

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 a disk.

CMYK

Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). The four process colors.

Coated Paper

Paper with a coating of clay or other substances that improve reflectivity and ink holdout.

Color Chart

A set of color swatches, or samples of printed color that are used to accurately mix, match, choose, and communicate a particular color.

Color Matching System

A set of color charts and/or swatches–either in printed form or as computer-generated samples–used to compare, match, and specify different colors.

Color Separation

A means of dividing a full-color photograph into four separate components, corresponding to the four primary colors used in process color printing – cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

Color Swatch

A sample of a specific color–either printed or stored digitally–used to describe a particular printing ink or combination of printing ink colors.

Color Wheel

Primary Colors = red, blue and yellow. (In printing; cyan, magenta, and yellow).
Secondary Colors = Orange, Violet, and Green.
Tertiary Colors = Colors produced by mixing two or more secondary colors, as in Green-Violet, Orange-Green, Violet-Orange, etc.

Column Gutter

The space between columns of type.

Complementary Colors

On a color wheel, the colors opposite of each other as in Blue and Orange, Yellow and Violet, Red and Green.

Comprehensive Layout

Commonly referred to as a “comp” is a stage in the page layout and design process consisting of a detailed dummy or layout of the page to be reproduced, showing the exact placement of page elements (text, illustrations, etc.) in a form comparable to that of the final print.
Condensed Font (also Condensed Type)
A font in which the set widths of the characters is narrower than in the standard typeface. Often used when large amounts of copy need to fit into a small space.

Continuous Tone

Essentially, a photographic image that is not composed of halftone dots or, in other words, an image that consists of tone values ranging from some minimum density (such as white) to a maximum density (such as black).

Contour

In typography, the setting of type in a shape in order to create the appearance of an object.

Copy

Any material that is to be typeset, be it a manuscript or typescript, or a typewritten document with handwritten changes and edits. Copy is also used to refer generally to any other page elements–including illustrations, photographs, etc–that will need to be prepared and assembled.

Copyfitting

In typography, the process of estimating the point size and leading in which a particular piece of copy will need to be set to fit in a (usually) predetermined amount of space.

Counter

In typography, the space in a letter or other character enclosed–either fully or partially–by the strokes of the character, as in the center of the letter “o”.

Crop Marks

Lines drawn or printed on a photograph, overlay, or printed product to indicate the proper cropping of the image or print in question. Also spelled as one word in cropmarks.

Cropping

Cutting off an undesired portion of a printed piece, photograph or other image.

Canvas Size

Allows you to change the complete size of the document without adjusting the contents of the document

Clipping Path

A tool or shape that’s used to cut out an image.

Cloning Pixels

A function that allows you to replicate pixels from one place to another.

CMYK

Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black;  this color model (also called process color, four color) is a subtractive color model  used in color printing.

Color Palette

A set of colors that make up the total range of colors used in graphic computers.

Comp (Comprehensive)

Comps are made to see what the initial design project will look like before it’s printed, showing the layout of the text and illustrations.

Complementary Colors

The colors that are opposite of each other when viewed on the color wheel.

Contrast

The difference in color found between the light and dark parts of an image.

Copy

Copy refers to editorial text supplied for incorporation into a design or website.

Crop

A tool that removes portions of an image. It is usually used in digital photography.

C

– Abbreviation for Cyan, a blueish color that is one of the primary colors in printing.
– A popular programming language.

C1S

Acronym for coated one sided paper, used for postcards, fliers or covers.

CA

Abbreviation for Customer Alteration

CAD

Abbreviation for Computer Aided Design – using computer programs and systems to design two- or three-dimensional models of physical objects. In graphic arts CAD software is for instance using in the packaging industry.

cadmium yellow

A pigment made from cadmium sulfide and cadmium selenide.

calendar board

A strong paperboard used for calendars and displays.

calendar rolls

A series of metal rolls at the end of a paper machine; when the paper is passed between these rolls it increases its smoothness and glossy surface.

calibration

The process of adjusting a device or process to match certain criteria. This is usually done by measuring the devices’ deviation from standard values and then, during operation of the device, applying values to compensate the deviation. In prepress, in particular, calibration is the fine-tuning of scanners, monitors, printers, and imagesetters in order to increase the accuracy of their output.

calibration bar

A strip of tones used to check printing quality on proofs or printed sheets.

caliper

The thickness of a single sheet of paper, expressed in units of thousandths of an inch.

call-out

In magazine and newspaper publishing, a quotation or edited excerpt from an article that is placed in a larger typeface on the same page. It leads readers into the article and can highlight a key topic. Also known as a pull quote or a lift-out quote.

cameo

A dull coated paper, which is particularly useful in reproducing halftones and engravings.

camera-ready art or camera-ready copy

Original matter from which reproduction is eventually made, complete with all necessary guide marks. Text and graphic assembled in position, ready to be photographed for film assembly.

canvas board

A paperboard with a surface of simulated canvas, used for painting.

cap

Abbreviation for a capital or uppercase letter.

cap height

In typography, the distance from the baseline to the top of the capital letters.

capital

Synonym for uppercase. THESE ARE CAPITALS.

cap line

An imaginary horizontal line running across the tops of capital letters.

caps & lower case

Instructions in the typesetting process that indicate the use of a capital letter to start a sentence and the rest of the letters in lower case.

caps & small caps

Two sizes of capital letters made in one size of type.

cap size

The distance from the the cap line to the baseline on a typeface.

caption

In typography and page layout, a descriptive text accompanying illustrations or photographs. It is sometimes called a cutline. Text accompanying an illustration of a more explanatory nature is called a legend.

carbonate paper

A chemical pulp paper (calcium carbonate), used mostly for the printing of magazines.

carbonless

Paper coated with chemicals and dye which will produce copies without carbon paper. Also called NCR (No Carbon Required).

carbon wedge

A small transparent gray scale made on a stripe of film. A carbon wedge increases in density from clear film to a maximum density. The minimum to maximum variation maybe in incremental steps, or it may be continuous. The scale is made using a carbon dispersion coating that has very fine grain with low light scattering characteristics. This attribute makes the carbon wedge suitable for scanner calibration. A photographic step tablet will scatter light rays and not as useful in the scanner specular optics.

cartridge

– A rough finished paper used for wrapping.
– A plastic container that holds the ink or toner of a small desktop printer or a copier.

caret

Proofreader’s mark used to indicate where corrections or additional copies are to be inserted.

case

The stiff covers of a hardbound book.

case binding

Books bound using hard board (case) covers.

casein

A milk byproduct used as an adhesive in making coated papers.

casing in

The process of placing in and adhering a book to its case covers.

cast coated

A coated paper that is pressured dry against a highly polished cylinder to produce an exceptional high gloss.

casting-off

In copyfitting, the process of calculating and determining the amount of space the manuscript copy will occupy when set in a given typeface within a given area.

catching up

A term to describe that period of the printing process where the non-image areas can take on ink or debris.

CAV

Abbreviation for Constant Angular Velocity, term used in optical disks and CD-ROMs to indicate that the disk rotates at a constant speed. Also see CLV.

CCD array

A linear arrangement of charge-coupled devices (ccds). In a scanner, a straight row of charge-coupled devices, which may only be one inch long, scan and measure the light from as many as 1024 points.

CCD scanner

A black and white or color scanner using a CCD array.

CCITT

Abbreviation for Comité Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique, a standardization committee that is nowadays called the ITU (now go look that one up !)

cedilla

A mark originally placed beneath the letter c in French, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages to indicate that the letter is to be pronounced as an s, as in façade. It is also placed under the ‘s’ in some languages such as Kurdish and Turkish and is also called a cedille.

cellulose acetate

Plastic sheet material, usually transparent or translucent, available clear or colored and with a shiny or matte finish. It is used as the basis of artwork and overlays, and is the base material of some photographic film.

center marks

Short, straight lines outside the trimmed area, indicating the center of the job. They guide the press operation in centering the plate and sheets on the press and in registering back up printing. In some cases, they function as guides for folding.

CEPS

Abbreviation for Color Electronic Prepress System: proprietary computer systems that were used for page make-up, scanning and image manipulation. CEPS systems were manufactured by Scitex, Crosfield, Hell and others. These systems have been replaced by cheaper configurations that use standard PC or Macintosh hardware and off-the-shelf software.

C-fold

A fold where a three panel piece has both side sections folded inward, one on top of the other. Each section is approximately 1/3 the length of the piece. Also known as a letter-fold or tri-fold.

CGA

Abbreviation for Color Graphics Adapter: color display adapter used in the first PCs, allowed the simultaneous use of up to 16 colors (at a resolution of 320×200 pixels or 2 colors at 640×200)!

CGATS

Abbreviation for Committee for Graphic Arts Technology Standards, an ANSI-accredited, U.S. standards organization. The primary responsibility of CGATS is to provide overall standards coordinating activities for the graphic arts input to existing standards developers. CGATS works on writing standards only where no other standards committee is already working. The committee’s activities include the development of a glossary to help standardize graphic arts terms, the definition of color measurements practices for the graphic arts, graphic arts densitometry standards and plate dimension standards as well as a cooperative activity to move portions of SWOP to an ANSI standard.

CGI

Abbreviation for Common Gateway Interface, a scripting application that runs on a Web server and acts on information sent to it from a browser application like Netscape’s Navigator. Used to enhance the possibilities of web pages

chain screen

A type of line screen – instead of round dots that get bigger and invert, you start off with round dots that grow elliptically and then turn into ‘lines’, inverting as they go through 50%. You also put the main two inks (CM) at 90 degrees apart and place the K in the middle to get a nice structure (and don’t care about the Y).

chalking

A condition resulting from the improper drying of ink. The vehicle has been absorbed to rapidly into the paper causing the pigment to dust off.

chancery italic

A 13th century handwriting style which is the roots of italic design.

character

Any letter, number, space or mark that is used in any text

character count

The total number of individual letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces and other characters in a section of a text

character encoding

Most operating systems on the market use 1 byte to represent characters. This means that 256 different characters can be used on such a system. Unfortunately different operating systems use different character sets. So a character that can be used on a Macintosh may not be present in the character set of a Windows computer or vice versa. Any well designed font contains all the character shapes (glyphs) that are used in all character sets. A special table (the character encoding table) is used within the font or the operating system to map the character set used by the computer to the corresponding glyphs.

character per pica

A copyfitting system using the average number of characters-per-pica to calculate and estimate the length text copy will occupy when set in a given typeset within a given area.

character set

The complete collections of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and special characters that comprise specific fonts.

cheetah

Code name for Mac OS X 10.0

chevron

See angle quote

China clay

An aluminum silica compound used in gravure and screen printing inks. Also called kaolin.

choke

A type of trap in which the thickness of an object (type, an image, a line,;;° is reduced. Also see trapping.

chooser

A Macintosh desk accessory used to designate a specific printer, imagesetter, or other output device as the current output device

chroma

The attribute of color that specifies the amount of saturation or strength in the Munsell color space model.

ChromaCom

The brand name for a color electronic prepress system from the 80′s era that was marketed by Linotype-Hell Company

chrome

A slang term referring to a color transpency that is used as the original copy. Chrome is not incorrectly used as a short term for Cromalin.

Cibachrome

Photographic color emulsion type films and papers used to make transparencies and prints. Cibachrome is manufactured by Ilford Photo Corporation

cicero

A typographic unit of length in the Didot measurement system commonly used in Europe. It is 0.1776 inchesÐslightly larger than a pica.

CID

Abbreviation for Character IDentifier, a special type of fonts developed by Adobe

CIE

Abbreviation for Comité Internationale de l’Eclairage, standardisation committee dealing with color

CIELAB

Color space defined by CIE

CIELUV

Color space defined by CIE

CIEXYZ

Color space defined by CIE

CINEPAK

Video compression/decompression (codec) format developed by SuperMac Technologies for use on a Mac. Later licensed to other companies as well.

CIP3

Abbreviation for Committee for the Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress, replaced by the CIP4 committee who manage the JDF standard.

CIP4

This is the successor to the CIP3 committee. The abbreviation stands for ‘International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress‘. The CIP4 organisation defines and promotes the JDF standard for exchanging job related information between systems, from the creation of jobs to the finished product.

Circulation-builder

A book given as a reward to subscribers or for renewing the subscription to a newspaper or magazine.

CJK

abbreviation for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. A variant, CJKV, means Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

clay-coated boxboard

A strong, easily folded boxboard with clay coating used for making folding boxes.

ClearType

A Microsoft technology that improves the appearance of TrueType fonts on LCD displays by individually addressing the red, green and blue subpixels of the display (The system provides much less of a benefit on CRT screens.) Microsoft claims it is a breakthrough technology even though Apple implemented a similar technique in 1976 for the Apple II computer
client A computer that receives information from a server or a piece of software that is doing the job of communicating with a remote server, (e.g. an FTP application or an e-mail program).

clip art

Copyright-free illustrations, characters, figures, cartoons, photographs and designs that can be purchased in printed form, or digitally on floppy disks and optical discs for use in artwork. The digital files are also called click art

clipboard

A part of memory where blocks of text or graphics are temporarily stored after they are cut or copied. Anything stored in the clipboard can be copied from there and pasted into another document. The clipboard feature is standard on the Macintosh and with Windows software.

cloning

An image processing function that is used to duplicate a pixel or many pixels from one area of a picture to another picture area. This pixel manipulation may add or remove detail. Some manufacturers call this function pixel swapping.

close up

A proof correction mark to reduce the amount of space between characters or words,  indicated as (‘).

CLS

Abbreviation for Color Layout System, the Crosfield (DuPont) Lightspeed software program of the 1980′s.

CLUT

Abbreviation for Color LookUp Table, stored computer information that is used to translate from one color space to another. Rather than recalculating in each instance, preset values are referenced.

CLV

Abbreviation for Constant Linear Velocity: term used in optical disks and CD-ROMs to indicate that the rotational speed of the disk varies depending on what track is being read.

CMP

Graphics file format that is the property of LEAD Technologies and is used by Corel (.crd files) among others. It provides better compression than JPEG at comparable quality.

CMS

– Abbreviation for Color Management System
– Abbreviation for Content Management System

CMY

See YMCK

CMYK

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black – The four process colors used in color printing

CMYO

Abbreviation for Cyan Magenta Yellow Overcoating – The names of the dyes used in many dye-sublimation printers. Next to the 3 process colors cyan, magenta and yellow these printers use a clear overcoating; This is a thin laminate to protect the print from discoloration from UV light and the air. The overcoat, which may be named differently by each manufacturer, also renders the print water-resistant.

CO

Abbreviation for Chapter Opening

coalescence

In inkjet printing coalescence is an image defect which causes images to appear blotchy or ‘puddled’, resulting in non-uniformity in solid fill areas.

coarse data file

A digitized image file of an original scene that was sampled at the resolution of a video monitor, approximately 512 x 512 or 1024 x 1024 pixels, and used to make judgment about such things as the scanner setup or the quality of the original copy -also called a low resolution file or a viewfile. It contains less picture information than a high resolution picture file that is sampled at a minimum of four pixels per output halftone dot.

coarse screen

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

coated (paper)

Paper which after making has had the surface coated with clay, white pigments and a binder to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity. Better for printing because there is less picking.

coated art paper

Printing papers used for printing projects that require a special treatment of detail and shading.

coated stock

Any paper that has a mineral coating applied after the paper is made, giving the paper a smoother finish.

coaxial cable

An electrical cable that is a single-center, copper wire surrounded by a woven metal shield. The shield acts as the second single carrier to complete a loop. Coaxial cable is used for some types of EtherNet networks.

cockling

The wrinkling of paper in areas with a high ink coverage.

CODEC

Compression/decompression, enCOder/DECoder scheme that reduces the number of bits required to represent data during transmission and storage. Then, restores the compressed data for accurate representation of the original. For example, the MPEG codec can compress video for transmission and storage, and then decompress it for on screen display.

CODEN

A six digit code used to identify various types of printed publications. It was mainly used in the scientific community for citations and as a search tool in bibliographic catalogues. Meanwhile it has been replaced by ISSN.

cold color

Any color that moves toward the blue side in the color spectrum.

coldset

A web offset printing process in which ink is allowed to dry naturally through evaporation and absorption. The alternative technology is heatset, in which an oven is used to dry the ink.

cold-set inks

A variety of inks that are in solid form originally but are melted in a hot press and then solidify when they contact paper.

collate

In finishing the assembly of sheets of paper in the correct reading sequence for binding.

collating marks

Black step-marks printed on the back of folded sheets, to facilitate collating and checking of the sequence of book signatures.

collimated

A characteristic of a beam of light from a point source an infinite length away such that every light ray in the beam is parallel to each other

colon

–

colophon

A printers or publishers identifying symbol or emblem.

color bars

A color test strip which is printed on the waste portion of a press sheet. It is a standardized (GATF-Graphic Arts Technical Foundation) process which allows a pressman to determine the quality of the printed material relative to ink density, registration, and dot gain. It also includes the Star Target, which is a similar system designed to detect inking problems.

color key

An overlay color proofing system. A proof is made by exposing the negatives to this proofing material, processing, then reassembling on a sheet of paper. The colorant is on the sheet, so one needs one of each for a cmyk proof. some spot colors are available as well. The name is a trademark currenly held by KPG.

colorimeter

An instrument for measuring the tritimulus values of color with a precise and defined response that is similar to the human eye. A densitometer can measure color strength, but is not a reliable indicator of color hue. Densitometers measure through separation filters which do not match the human visual response.

colorimetry

The science of color measurement

ColorStudio
A software program for the Macintosh that was used for image capture, retouching, color correction and color separation, published by Letraset in the late 1980′s, early 90′s..

color

The physiological sensation of different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum on the eye (the effect is actually a lot more fun than its description)

color balance

Maintaining the ratio of cyan, magenta, and yellow ink during printing. This will keep all color hues consistent and produce a picture with the desired color, one without an unwanted color cast or color bias.

color bars

Carried on all four-color process jobs to show the amount of ink used, the trapping, and the relative densities across the press sheet. A guide for the platemaker and the pressman.

color break

The process of dividing a monochrome representation of a page so that the appropriate areas will proof or print in the appropriate color.

color calibration

A procedure to standardize a video monitor, input scanner or output color printer to standard set of values so that WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).

color cast

An unwanted overall discoloration of an original copy, color proof or reproduction caused by an overabundance of one color pigment or light. Colour casts result in bluish red, pinkish blue, etc. reproduction. The color cast can be digitally altered during or after scanning by using gamma correction.

color chart

A printed array of color patches that are used to choose, communicate and match colors. The color of each patch varies, one from another, and is made to given amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks or of premixed colors.

color compression

– The shrinking of the color gamut of an original copy to a color gamut reproducible with a given ink, selected paper and printing press configuration.
– A technique to reduce the amount of data in a color image file by removing large amounts of redundant data.

color correction

A deliberate change of certain colors in the original when it is reproduced. The customer may have requested the modification, or it may be needed because of the colorants that were used to reproduce the image. Inks for process color are not pure colors; each appears as though it is contaminated with the other two colors and has a hue error that requires the compensation in the separation images. The changes can be made electronically, photographically or manually so that the separation films produce the desired result.

color gamut

The complete range of hues and strengths of colors that can be achieved with a given set of colorants such as cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink printed on a given paper and given printing press. Although it can represent strength, it usually represents hues.

color management system

A suite of software utility programs capable of making the necessary color transforms from one color space to insure calibrated color

color model

A system for describing every color in a full gamut of color within a color space, such as HLS (hue, saturation and lightness), RGB (red, green and blue) or CIELAB (lightness, redness and blueness).
color negative A color photographic film that was made from an original scene and is used to make a color print or separation. Hues appear reproduced as the complementary values of the original hues

color palette

The range of colors available within a software program or within the computer operating system

color portability

The ability to transfer color images or files from one device to another without significantly changing their appearance

color proof

A visual impression of the expected final reproduction produced on a substrate with inks, pigments or dyes, or on a video screen.
color references A standard set of process inks that were printed to standard densities or strengths on standard paper and are used for color control.

color separation

The process of making a separate electronic or photographic record of the amounts of each process color of cyan, magenta, yellow or black needed to reproduce an original copy. The record may be a photographic film made through red, green and blue separation filters or a computer file. A set of four separations, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, are required to reproduce an original color image, since each of the four process colors must be represented. The separations may be made photographically using traditional methods or digitally using scanners and software. The original copy may be a transparency, reflection photographic print, drawing, painting or printed reproduction.

color sequence

On a printing press or color proof, the order of applying the yellow, magenta, cyan and black inks to the substrate.

color space

A three-dimensional space or model into which the three can be attributes of a color can be represented, plotted or recorded. Although not always called by the names hue, value and chroma, these are the three color attributes represented.

color strength

A term referring to the relative amount of pigmentation in an ink.

color temperature

The temperature in degrees Kelvin to which a black object would have to be heated to produce a certain color light. 2900K is representative of a tungsten lamp. 5000K is close to the temperature of direct sunlight and is considered the most critical attribute of standard viewing conditions for color evaluation.

color transparency

Transparent film containing a positive photographic color image.

column gutter

The space between two or more columns of type on a page.

column rule

A light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type.

comb binding

In finishing a binding technique in which the teeth of a plastic ‘comb’ are inserted into a series of slits drilled or punched into a stack of sheets. This process is often used for reports and presentations.

comma

,

commercial register

color registration measured within plus or minus one row of dots.

comp

– A preliminary sketch or mock-up of a design. It is also called a composite.
– A proof that includes all the text, images and artwork as they will appear on the final printed piece.

composition

The process of combining typographic elements with graphics and photos that result in pleasing page layouts for print or web content.

comprehensive (or comp)

A layout or dummy that is carefully drawn or proofed to size showing all elements in correct size and position. Rendered to present a close approximation of the finished printed piece.

concentricity

Variation between centerline and rotational axis of rotating member.

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

In typesetting, the compression of font characters width without reducing their height – the opposite of extended.

condensed type

A narrow, elongated typeface in which the set-widths of the characters is narrower than in the standard typeface.

consumable

Material that gets used up in the process of creating printed materials, like film, paper or ink.

contact print

A photographic print made with a film positive or negative on presensitized paper, film or printing plates

continuous tone

Any photograph or illustration that contains a range of tones or gradation of tones in black and white or color. Must be converted by a halftone screen or digitizing process for printing.

continuous wedge

A narrow strip of film with an orderly progression of grey densities, ranging from zero to maximum density, without definite steps

contone

Jargon for continuous tone. Examples of continuous tone originals are black and white photographs or pencil sketches.

contouring

A tendency of pixels with similar values to clump together when output. The effect in reproduction looks like spots of darker density or color. When it appears as streaks across the image, it is called banding contract.

contract proof

Proof that is capable of giving an accurate representation of the colors and content of the printed result.

contrast

The relation between the lightest and the darkest areas of an image.

contre jour

Taking a picture with the camera lens facing the light source.

converting

All of the finishing operations which transform a printed piece into another physical form. This includes bagmaking and boxmaking but more general processes such as bookbinding, waxing, coating, laminating, folding, gluing or die-cutting are also considered converting operations.

CoolType

A technology used in certain Adobe applications (Indesign, the latest versions of Illustrator) that allows them to render their own fonts, rather than relying on the font rasterizer of the operating system.

cool color

A color that elicits a psychological response or impressions of coolness – a hue in the range from violet through blue to green. A color reproduction is considered cool if the color balance or grey balance is adjusted to be slightly bluish rather than pinkish or gray.

copy

Manuscript text from a word processor or typewriter, artwork, photos and drawings to be used in a publication. Usually copy only refers to the text and not to all source materials.

copyboard

A board upon which the copy is pasted for the purpose of photographing.

copyediting

The production step in the publishing process during which an editor reviews a manuscript and marks both language and content-related errors.

copyfitting

The process of adjusting the size and spacing of type to make it fit within a defined area of the page.

corner marks

Marks on a final printed sheet that indicate the trim lines or register indicators.

counter

In typography, an enclosed area within a letter. Also called the aperture. The small dot in the ‘e’ character is a counter.

Courier

Courier was originally a typeface that was designed for the IBM Selectric typewriters. It is a typical fixed pitch design, monotone in weight and slab serif in concept. On computers, it is used to emulate typewriter output for reports, tabular work and technical documentation. Many output systems use Courier as a substitution font when fonts are missing in a document or on a system. This explains its ‘popularity’ in prepress. This site has a dedicated page about the Courier typeface.

cover

A term describing a general type of papers used for the covers of books, pamphlets etc.

CPI

Abbreviation for Characters Per Inch

CPM

– Abbreviation for Characters Per Minute
– Abbreviation for Copies Per Minute

CPRM

Abbreviation for Content Protection for Recordable Media, a mechanism for controlling the copying, moving and deletion of digital media on a host device, such as a personal computer, or other digital player. It’s already used for specific removable media

CPSI

abbreviation for Configurable PostScript Interpreter, the name that Adobe used for its PostScript and PDF-based RIPs. Adobe actually sells its RIP-code to various companies who add a user interface, screening system, manual,… to sell the combination as a RIP. The Adobe PDF Print Engine or APPE which was released in 2006 is the successor of CPSI.

CR

Abbreviation for Carriage Return

cracking

Delamination

CRC

abbreviation for Cyclic Redundancy Checking, an error detection technique.

CRD

abbreviation for Color Rendering Dictionary

creep

Result of added thickness of folded sheets being behind one another in a folded signature. Outer edges of sheets creep away from back most fold as more folded sheets are inserted inside the middle. It is also called shingling.

CREST

A standard file format that is designed to handle classified advertising and focuses on categorizing and formatting the content. The standard does not concern itself with the business transaction rules. It has been adopted by a number of US publishers.

Cromalin

A type of single sheet proof that is used for verifying the colors, checking register, obvious blemishes and size of images. Cromalin is a trademark of Dupont.

crop

To eliminate a portion of the art or copy as indicated by crop marks.

crop mark

Markings (usually thin lines) that show where a page or image has to be trimmed. Don’t forget to use the color ‘registration’ (most applications have such a color) if you create your own crop marks.

cropping

The process of using only a part of a photograph. Cropping is done to enhance the focus of a photograph or to allow a designer to fit a photo in the layout.

cross-coupling

Change in position of axes when position changes in another axis, also known as crosstalk.

crossmarks

Marks of fine lines, which intersect to indicate accurate alignment of art elements.

crossover

– An illustration that covers part of two facing pages in a book or magazine. It gets its name from the fact that it crosses over the binding edge. It is important that both parts of a color illustration line up on both pages when the book is assembled and the colors match on both halves of the reproduction.
– In printing the crossover denotes the number of impressions at which there is a cost advantage to switching a job from one process to another.

CRT

Abbreviation for Cathode Ray Tube, the tube used in old computer monitors

CSM

Abbreviation for Customer Supplied Material

CSR

Abbreviation for Customer Service Representative

CT

Abbreviation for Continuous-Tone

CTP

Abbreviation for Computer To Plate

CTRL

Abbreviation for ConTRoL, refers to both the control character as well as the key on the keyboard.

curl

Paper can curl because of difference in coatings on opposite sides of a sheet, or due to absorption of moisture. The concave side of a sheet is called the curl side.

cursive

Writing style in which the letters of a word are connected

curved plate

A press plate curved to fit the printing press cylinder.

cut and paste

A built-in function in the Macintosh operating system and Windows with which a user can designate a portion of an image in one file, delete(cut) that portion, and copy it exactly (paste) into another file.

cut flush

A method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to the pages.

cutline

An explanatory text that provides information about an illustrations. Also called a legend.

cut-off

The cut or print length relating to the circumference of the plate or cylinder on the rotary press.

cutout

A halftone or image where the background has been removed to produce a silhouette.

cutter

In finishing a machine for accurately cutting stacks of paper to desired dimensions…can also be used to crease. Also trims out final bound books’ top size (soft cover).

cutting die

Sharp edged device, usually made of steel, to cut paper, cardboard, etc., on a printing press.

CxF

A file format for defining spot colors. The XML-based specifications were originally created by GretagMacbeth, who were later bought by X-Rite. The CxF 3.0 specifications might eventually become a true industry standard. The detailed definition of colors in a CxF file can be based on spectral data.

cXML

An standard file format to handle financial transactions. It comes from the business-to-business world, and is one of many standards that have emerged from EDI and similar initiatives over the years. cXML is based on Ariba technology and has some unique aspects that help support interactive synchronous messaging over the web. It has been widely adopted in other industries besides graphic arts.

cyan

Blueish color that is part of the CMYK process colors that are used in 4-color printing. Cyan is obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light. Red is the complementary color of cyan: cyan ink absorbs red light. Cyan is also called process blue.

cyan overhang

The additional quantity of cyan that is needed to create a neutral gray using the CMY process colors. In theory equal measures of cyan, magenta and yellow are needed to produce neutral gray, but in practice an additional amount of  cyan is necessary.