| A
Align - to line up typeset or other graphic material as specified, using a base or vertical line as the reference point.
Anodized plate - an offset printing plate with a specially treated surface to reduce wear during printing.
Art (US) - in graphic arts usage, all matter other than text material eg illustrations and photographs.
Ascender - any part of a lower case letter extending above the x-height. For example, the upper half of the vertical in the letters b or h.
Authors corrections - changes made to the copy by the author after typesetting but not including those made as a result of errors in keying in the copy.
B
Backing up - to print the second side of printed sheet.
Baseline - the line on which the bases of capital letters sit.
Binding - the various methods used to secure loose leaves or sections in a book; eg saddle-stitch, perfect bound.
Blanket cylinder - the cylinder via which the inked litho plate transfers the image to the paper. The cylinder is covered with a rubber sheet which prevents wear to the litho plate coming into contact with the paper.
Bleed - layout, type or pictures that extend beyond the trim marks on a page. Illustrations that spread to the edge of the paper without margins are referred to as 'bled off'.
Blind emboss - a raised impression made without using ink or foil.
Board - paper of more than 200gsm.
Bold type - type with a heavier darker appearance. Most typefaces have a bold face.
Bond - a sized finished writing paper of 50gsm or more. Can also be used for printing upon.
Bullet - a large dot preceding text to add emphasis.
C
Caliper - the thickness of sheet of paper or board expressed in microns (millionths of a metre). Also the name of the tool used to make the measurement.
Camera ready - artwork or pasted up material that is ready for reproduction.
Caps - an abbreviation for capital letters.
Caps and small caps - a style of type that shows capital letters used in the normal way while the body copy is set in capital letters which are of a slightly smaller size.
Carbonless - paper coated with chemicals and dye which will produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required).
Cast coated - art paper with a exceptionally glossy coated finish usually on one side only.
Coated - printing papers which after making have had a surface coating with clay etc, to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity.
Collate - to gather separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding.
Color separations - the division of a multi-colored original or line copy into the basic (or primary) process colors of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. These should not be confused with the optical primaries; red, green and blue.
Condensed - a style of typeface in which the characters have an elongated appearance.
Continuous tone - an image in which the subject has continuous shades of color or gray without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced in that form for printing but must be screened to translate the image into dots.
Contrast - the degree of tones in a photograph ranging from highlight to shadow.
Copyright - The right of copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without express permission or acknowledgement of the originator.
Corner marks - marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim or register marks.
Cropping - the elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.
Cut flush - a method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to the pages.
Cutout - a halftone where the background has been removed to produce a silhouette.
D
Descender - any part of a lower case letter that extends below the x-height, as in the case of y and j.
Die - a hardened steel engraving stamp used to print an inked image. Used in the production of good quality letter headings.
Downloadable fonts - type faces which can be stored on a disk and then downloaded to the printer when required for printing. These are, by definition, bit-mapped fonts and, therefore, fixed in size and style.
DPI (Dots Per Inch) - the measurement of resolution for page printers, phototypesetting machines and graphics screens. Currently graphics screens reproduce 60 to 100dpi, most page printers work at 300dpi and typesetting systems operate at 1,000dpi and above.
Drop cap - a large initial letter at the start of the text that drops into the line or lines of text below.
E
Embossing - relief images formed by using a recessed die.
Expanded type - a typeface with a slightly wider body giving a flatter appearance.
F
Face - an abbreviation for typeface referring to a family in a given style.
Flexography - a rotary letterpress process printing from rubber or flexible plates and using fast drying inks. Mainly used for packaging and labels.
Flush left - copy aligned along the left margin.
Flush right - copy aligned along the right margin.
Flyer - an inexpensively produced circular used for promotional distribution.
Foil blocking - a process for stamping a design on a book cover without ink by using a colored foil with pressure from a heated die or block.
Font (or fount) - a complete set of characters in a typeface.
Four color process - printing in full color using four color separation negatives - yellow, magenta, cyan and black.
G
Gatefold - an oversize page where both sides fold into the gutter in overlapping layers. Used to accommodate maps into books.
Gathering - the operation of inserting the printed pages, sections or signatures of a book in the correct order for binding.
Gray scale - a range of luminance values for evaluating shading through white to black. Frequently used in discussions about scanners as a measure of their ability to capture halftone images. Basically the more levels the better but with correspondingly larger memory requirements.
Gutter - the central blank area between left and right pages.
H
Hairline rule - the thinnest rule that can be printed to a laser printer. Not to be used in a document that will be output to an imagesetter.
Hairlines - the thinnest of the strokes in a typeface.
Halftone - an illustration reproduced by breaking down the original tone into a pattern of dots of varying size. Light areas have small dots and darker areas or shadows have larger dots.
Hardback - a case bound book with a separate stiff board cover.
Head - the margin at the top of a page.
Hickies - a dust particle sticking to the printing plate or blanket which appears on the printed sheet as a dark spot surrounded by a halo.
Highlight - the lightest area in a photograph or illustration.
I
Imposition - refers to the arrangement of pages on a printed sheet, which when the sheet is finally printed on both sides, folded and trimmed, will place the pages in their correct order.
Insert - an instruction to the printer for the inclusion of additional copy.
ISBN - International Standard Book Number. A reference number given to every published work. Usually found on the back of the title page.
Italic - type with sloping letters.
J
Justify - the alignment of text along a margin or both margins. This is achieved by adjusting the spacing between the words and characters as necessary so that each line of text finishes at the same point.
K
K (Kilobyte) - 1024 bytes, a binary 1,000.
Keep standing - to hold type or plates ready for reprints.
Kerning - the adjustment of spacing between certain letter pairs, A and V for example, to obtain a more pleasing appearance. Not all DTP systems can achieve this.
L
Laid - paper with a watermark pattern showing the wire marks used in the paper making process. Usually used for high quality stationery.
Laminate - a thin transparent plastic coating applied to paper or board to provide protection and give it a glossy finish.
Landscape - work in which the width used is greater than the height. Also used to indicate the orientation of tables or illustrations which are printed 'sideways'. See Portrait.
Laser printer (see also Page printer) - a high quality image printing system using a laser beam to produce an image on a photosensitive drum. The image is transferred on to paper by a conventional xerographic printing process. Currently, most laser printers set at 600dpi with newer models operating at up to 1200dpi.
Layout - a sketch of a page for printing showing the position of text and illustrations and giving general instructions.
Lead or Leading - Space added between lines of type to space out text and provide visual separation of the lines. Measured in points or fractions therof. Named after the strips of lead which used to be inserted between lines of metal type.
Lightface - type having finer strokes than the medium typeface. Not used as frequently as medium.
Line gauge - a metal rule used by printers. Divided into Picas it is 72 picas long (11.952in).
Lineup table - a table with an illuminated top used for preparing and checking alignment of page layouts and paste-ups.
Lining figures - numerals that align on the baseline and at the top.
Lithography - a printing process based on the principle of the natural aversion of water to grease. The photographically prepared printing plate when being made is treated chemically so that the image will accept ink and reject water.
Logo - short for logotype. A word or combination of letters set as a single unit. Also used to denote a specially styled company name designed as part of a corporate image.
Loose leaf - a method of binding which allows the insertion and removal of pages for continuous updating.
Lower case - the small letters in a font of type.
M
MB (Megabyte) - one million bytes.
Magnetic ink - a magnetized ink that can be read both by humans and by electronic machines. Used in cheque printing.
Making ready - the time spent in making ready the level of the printing surface by packing out under the forme or around the impression cylinder.
Margins - the non printing areas of page.
Mark up - copy prepared for a compositor setting out in detail all the typesetting instructions.
Mask - opaque material or masking tape used to block-off an area of the artwork.
Matt art - a coated printing paper with a dull surface.
Mechanical binding - a method of binding which secures pre-trimmed leaves by the insertion of wire or plastic spirals through holes drilled in the binding edge
Metallic ink - printing inks which produce an effect gold, silver, bronze or metallic colours.
Mock-up - the rough visual of a publication or design.
Moire pattern - the result of superimposing half-tone screens at the wrong angle thereby giving a chequered effect on the printed half-tone. Normally detected during the stage of progressive proofs.
Monospace - a font in which all characters occupy the same amount of horizontal width regardless of the character.
Montage - a single image formed from the assembling of several images.
N
Newsprint - Unsized, low quality, absorbent paper used for printing newspapers.
O
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) - a special kind of scanner which provides a means of reading printed characters on documents and converting them into digital codes that can be read into a computer as actual text rather than just a picture.
Offset lithography - (see Lithography) a printing method whereby the image is transferred from a plate onto a rubber covered cylinder from which the printing takes place.
Opacity - term used to describe the degree to which paper will show print through.
Orphan - line of type on its own at the top or bottom of a page.
Overprinting - printing over an area already printed. Used to emphasize changes or alterations.
Overs - additional paper required to compensate for spoilage in printing. Also used to refer to a quantity produced above the number of copies ordered.
P
Page proofs - the stage following galley proofs, in which pages are made up and paginated.
Pagination - the numbering of pages in a book.
Pantone - a registered name for an ink color matching system.
Perfect binding - a common method of binding paperback books. After the printed sections having been collated, the spines will be ground off and the cover glued on
Perfector - a printing press which prints both sides of the paper at one pass through the machine.
Pica - a printing industry unit of measurement. There are 12 points to a pica, one pica is approximately 0.166in.
Point - the standard unit of type size of which there are 72 to the inch (one point is approximately 0.01383in). Point size is the measured from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender.
Portrait - an upright image or page where the height is greater than the width.
Positive - a true photographic image of the original made on paper or film.
Primary colors - cyan, magenta and yellow. These three colors when mixed together with black will produce a reasonable reproduction of all other colors.
Proof - a copy obtained from inked type, plate, block or screen for checking purposes.
Proof correction marks - a standard set of signs and symbols used in copy preparation and to indicate corrections on proofs. Marks are placed both in the text and in the margin.
Proportional spacing - a method of spacing whereby each character is spaced to accommodate the varying widths of letters or figures, so increasing readability. Books and magazines are set proportionally spaced, typewritten documents are generally monospaced.
Q
Quadding - the addition of space to fill out a line of type using en or em blocks.
Quire - 1/20th of a ream (25 sheets).
R
Rag paper - high quality stationery made from cotton rags.
Ragged - lines of type that do not start or end at the same position.
Ranged left/right - successive lines of type which are of unequal length and which are aligned at either the right or left hand column.
Raster Image Processor (RIP) - the hardware engine which calculates the bit-mapped image of text and graphics from a series of instructions. It may, or may not, understand a page description language but the end result should, if the device has been properly designed, be the same. A basic page printer comes with a controller and not a RIP which goes some way to explaining the lack of control.
Ream - 500 sheets of paper.
Register marks - used in color printing to position the paper correctly. Usually crosses or circles.
Register - the correct positioning of an image especially when printing one color on another.
Resolution - the measurement used in typesetting to express quality of output. Measured in dots per inch, the greater the number of dots, the more smoother and cleaner appearance the character/image will have.
Rest in Proportion (RIP) - an instruction when giving sizes to artwork or photographs that other parts of the artwork are to be enlarged or reduced in proportion.
Retouching - a means of altering artwork or color separations to correct faults or enhance the image.
Reverse out - to reproduce as a white image out of a solid background.
Revise - indicates the stages at which corrections have been incorporated from earlier proofs and new proofs submitted. Eg First revise, second revise.
Right reading - a positive or negative which reads from left to right.
Rough - a preliminary sketch of a proposed design.
Ruler - rulers displayed on the screen that show measures in inches, picas or millimeters.
Runaround (see also Text wrap) - the ability within a program to run text around a graphic image within a document, without the need to adjust each line manually.
S
S/S (Same size) - an instruction to reproduce to the same size as the original.
Saddle stitching - a method of binding where the folded pages are stitched through the spine from the outside, using wire staples. Usually limited to 64 pages size.
Sans serif - a typeface that has no serifs (small strokes at the end of main stroke of the character).
Scale - the means within a program to reduce or enlarge the amount of space an image will occupy. Some programs maintain the aspect ratio between width and height whilst scaling, thereby avoiding distortion.
Scaling - a means of calculating the amount of enlargement or reduction necessary to accommodate a photograph within the area of a design.
Security paper - paper incorporating special features (dyes, watermarks etc) for use on cheques.
Serif - a small cross stroke at the end of the main stroke of the letter.
Set off [also referred to as Off Set]- the accidental transfer of the printed image from one sheet to the back of another.
Sheet - a single piece of paper.
Sheet fed - a printing press which prints single sheets of paper, not reels.
Sheetwise - a method of printing a section. Half the pages from a section are imposed and printed. The remaining half of the pages are then printed on the other side of the sheet.
Show-through - see opacity.
Sixteen sheet - a poster size measuring 120in x 80in (3050mm x 2030mm).
Slurring - a smearing of the image, caused by paper slipping during the impression stage.
Small caps - a set of capital letters which are smaller than standard and are equal in size to the lower case letters for that typesize.
Soft back/cover - a book bound with a paper back cover.
Spell check - a facility contained in certain word processing and page makeup programs to enable a spelling error check to be carried out. Dictionaries of American origin may not conform to English standards and the option should be available within the program to modify the contents. Dictionaries usually contain between 60,000-100,000 words.
Spine - the binding edge at the back of a book.
Stet - used in proof correction work to cancel a previous correction. From the Latin; 'let it stand'.
Subscript - the small characters set below the normal letters or figures.
Superscript - the small characters set above the normal letters or figures.
T
Tabloid - a page half the size of a broadsheet.
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) - a common format for interchanging digital information, generally associated with greyscale or bitmap data.
Template - a standard layout usually containing basic details of the page dimensions.
Text wrap - see Runaround.
Text - the written or printed material which forms the main body of a publication.
Thermography - a print finishing process producing a raised image imitating die stamping. The process takes a previously printed image which before the ink is dry is dusted with a resinous powder. The application of heat causes the ink and powder to fuse and a raised image is formed.
Tint - the effect of adding white to a solid color or of screening a solid area.
Trim - the cutting of the finished product to the correct size. Marks are incorporated on the printed sheet to show where the trimming is to be made.
Typeface - the raised surface carrying the image of a type character cast in metal. Also used to refer to a complete set of characters forming a family in a particular design or style.
Typo (US) - an abbreviation for typographical error. An error in the typeset copy.
Typographer - a specialist in the design of printed matter, and in particular the art of typography.
Typography - the design and planning of printed matter using type.
U
U&lc - an abbreviation for UPPER and lower case.
Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) - gives protection to authors or originators of text, photographs or illustrations etc, to prevent use without permission or acknowledgment. The publication should carry the copyright mark c, the name of the originator and the year of publication.
V
Varnishing - a finishing process whereby a transparent varnish is applied over the printed sheet to produce a glossy finish.
W
Watermark - an impression incorporated in the paper making process showing the name of the paper and/or the company logo.
Web - a continuous roll of printing paper used on web-fed presses.
Weight - the degree of boldness or thickness of a letter or font.
Widow - a single word left on the last line of a paragraph which falls at the top of a page.
Wire - the wire mesh used at the wet end of the paper making process. The wire determines the textures of the paper.
Word break - the division of a word at the end of a line.
Word wrap - in word processing, the automatic adjustment of the number of words on a line of text to match the margin settings. The carriage returns set up by this method are termed "soft", as against "hard" carriage returns resulting from the return key being pressed.
Work and turn - a method of printing where pages are imposed in one form or assembled on one film. One side is then printed and the sheet is then turned over and printed from the other edge using the same form. The finished sheet is then cut to produce two complete copies.
Work and tumble - a method of printing where pages are again imposed together. The sheet is then printed on one side with the sheet being turned or tumbled from front to rear to print the opposite side.
Wove - a finely textured paper without visible wire marks.
WYSIWYG - What-you-see-is-what-you-get (pronounced "wizzywig") - used to describe systems that preview full pages on the screen with text and graphics. The term can however be a little misleading due to difference in the resolution of the computer screen and that of the page printer.
X
X-height - the height of a letter excluding the ascenders and descenders; eg 'x', which is also height of the main body.
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