Below we have placed some of the more common printers terms to help you understand the printing process.



Art paper: A term used to describe a range of smooth papers with a filled surface.

Application: A computer program designed for a particular use, such as a graphics package or page layout application, i.e. Photoshop or InDesign.
Artwork: A process which follows the initial design stage which makes rough ideas into a print-ready form.

A/W: Abbreviation for artwork.

Backing up: Printing on the reverse side of a printed sheet.

Binding: Process of fastening papers together.

Blanket: Thick rubber sheet that takes receives ink image from plate and delivers to paper on the press.

Bleed: The printed image which extends beyond the trim edge of a sheet or page. A bleed may occur at the head, front, foot and/or gutter of a page.
Blend: A smooth transition between two colours, also known as a graduated tint.

Carbonless paper: Paper coated with chemicals that enable transfer of images from one sheet to another when pressure is placed on the sheet via writing or typing. Also known as NCR

CMYK: Abbreviation for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black) which are the 4 process colours and which when combined together in varying ratios can be made to produce the full colour spectrum.

Collating: Gathering together of sheets of paper and placing them into the correct order.

Colour separation: Process by which a continuous tone colour image is separated into the four process colours (CMYK) for print production.

Concertina fold: A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect.

Continuous Stationery: Forms which are produced from reels of paper and then fan folded. these can be either single or multi-part forms.

Crease: To mechanically press a rule into heavy paper or board to enable it to be folded without cracking. Also known as scoring

Crop Marks: Lines indicating where to trim, perforate or fold a printed job.

Crop: To trim the edges of a picture or page to make it fit or remove unwanted portions.

Densitometer: Our printers use this machine to measure the density of the ink on the paper, this enables the printer to maintain the highest level of standards throughout the print run.

Density: The degree of darkness of light absorption or opacity of printed images.

Die-cutting: Process of using sharp metal rules on a wooden block to cut out specialised shapes such as folders.

DPI: A measure of the quality of an image from a scanner or output resolution of a printer. The more dots per inch, the higher the quality will be but with a larger file size.

Duotone: A method of enhancing a mono image by using two colours.

Embed: Implies the inclusion of elements and data into a computer file necessary to maintain or change the elements when used remotely.

Embossing: A process performed after printing to stamp a raised (or depressed) image into the surface of paper, using engraved metal embossing dies, extreme pressure, and heat. embossing styles include blind, deboss and foil-embossed.

EPS: Encapsulated PostScript, a computer file format widely used by the printing and graphics industries.

Foil stamping: A metallic finish, or other embossed finishes applied by specialist equipment.

Font: One of a range of typefaces in which lettering can be produced during the type setting stage, e.g. Arial - 10pt.

Four-colour process: Reproduction of full-colour photographs or art with the four basic colours of ink (cyan, magenta, yellow and black).

French fold: Two folds at right angles to each other.

Full colour: Or 'four colour process' using the four basic printing colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

Gutter: Line or fold at which facing pages meet.

GSM: Paper weight is measured in grams per square metre.

Greyscale: Shades of grey ranging from black to white; in printing, greyscale uses only a black halftone plate.

Halftone: Picture with varying shades of tone created by varying size dots.

Head margin: The white space above the first line on a page.

Hickey: Spot or imperfection in printing.

Heidelberg: Probably the best printing presses in the world – all of our presses are made by Heidleberg.

ISDN: A file transfer system using one or more telephone lines, faster than e-mail enabling it to carry larger computer file sizes.

Image area: Portion of paper where ink appears.

Imposition: Positioning pages in a press-ready form so that they will be in the correct numerical sequence after folding.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Electronic Group - a common standard for compressing image data.

Kerning: The adjustment of spacing between letters.

Kiss-cut: To die-cut but not all the way through the paper – commonly used for peel off stickers.

Lamination: A thin film coating which is applied to the paper or board to give a more glossy or matt appearance.

Lithographic printing: A printing process based on the principle of the natural aversion of water to grease. the areas to be printed receive and transfer ink to the paper, the non-printing areas are treated with water to repel the ink.

Make-ready: The work associated with the set-up of printing equipment before running a job.

Metal plate: A metal sheet with a specially coated 'emulsion' on its surface which when exposed through a film mask or by CTP process will produce an image on the plate. When the plate is loaded onto the printing press it then reproduces this image using inks onto the paper.

Micrometer: Instrument used for measuring the thickness of paper.

Moiré pattern: An undesirable grid-like pattern caused by the misalignment of dots on a printed document, this can occur when printing or sometimes when scanning from pre-printed material.

Matt: A non glossy finish.

Origination: A term used to describe all of the processes which prepare a job for the printing stage.

Outline paths: A term used when converting a font or graphic into a mathematical vector format.

Offset printing: A method in which the plate or cylinder transfers an ink image to an offset or transfer roller, which then transfers the image to stock.

Over-run: Copies printed in excess of the quantity specified in the order.

Page count: Total number of pages, including blanks and printed pages without numbers.

Perfecting: Process of printing both sides of one sheet during a single pass through the press.

Perfect binding: A bookbinding method in which pages are glued rather than sewn to the cover - used primarily for paperback books.

Point: A measurement for the size of type, distance between lines and thickness of rules. One point equals 0.3515mm).

Pantone® colours: Premixed ink colours that are often specified for printing as a spot colour, can be matched using CMYK but will not be exactly the same colour as its Pantone colour counterpart.

Process colour: Colour specified in percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. When superimposed during printing the four colour printing process this can recreate millions of different colours.

Proof: A representation of the finished job produced for customer inspection so errors can be corrected prior to printing.

Registration marks: Crosses or other marks placed on artwork which help to ensure perfect alignment.

Reversed-out: Type appearing white on a black or colour background, either a solid or tint.

Resolution: the number of dots per inch (dpi) in a computer-processed document. The level of detail retained by a printed document increases with higher resolution.

RIP: (Raster Image Processor) A computer used to create an electronic bitmap for actual output.

Registration marks: Reference marks on the page used to align overlaying colours. Also known as trim marks or crop marks.

RGB: An acronym for red, green and blue. RGB is a colour model used for computer monitors and colour video output systems. Colour separations for litho printing can not be made directly from RGB files and need to be converted to CMYK first.

Saddle stitch: A binding process in which a pamphlet or booklet is stapled through the middle fold of its sheets using metal wires.

Scanning: The process of converting a hard copy into digital data ready for editing and design. The quality of the scan is dependent on the quality of the original, the scanning equipment and software used.

Score: A pressed mark in a sheet of paper or card to make folding cleaner and easier.

Self-cover: The paper used inside a booklet is the same as that used for the cover and is generally printed on the same press run.

Stock: A term for the material any project is printed onto.
Spot colour: Spot colour is not made using the process colours instead the colour is printed using an ink made up specially. Each spot colour requires its own separate printing plate.

Spread: Two or more adjoining pages that would appear in view on sheet.

Solid: An area on the page which is completely covered by the ink.

TIFF: Acronym for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF (.TIF) pictures can be black-and-white line art, greyscale or colour. This is a widely used format for image/photographic files but is unsuitable for text unless created at a very hi-resolution.

Tint: An area of tone made by a pattern of dots, which lightens the apparent colour of the ink with which it is printed.

Trapping: A slight overlapping between two touching colours that prevents gaps from appearing along the edges of an object because of misalignment or movement on the printing press.

Turnaround time: Amount of time needed to complete a project.

UV varnish: A liquid laminate that is bonded and cured with ultraviolet light.

Varnishing/sealing: The application of a varnish/sealant to a surface to offer protection against marking and improve it's overall appearance.

Wire-o binding: A method of wire binding books along the binding edge that will allow the book to lay flat.

Work and tumble: To print one side of a sheet of paper then turn the sheet over from gripper to back using the opposite gripper edge but the same side guide to print the second side.

Work and turn: To print one side of a sheet of paper then turn the sheet over from left to right and print the second side using the same gripper edge to print the second side.