Against the Grain
Folding or printing on press at a right angle to the grain direction of the paper.

Aqueous Coating
Water based coating applied by printing press over printing.

Artwork - Art
Images, including photos and type that is set-up for printing on press.

Author's Alterations -- AA
Changes or corrections requested by author after art has been submitted. AA's are charged at an additional cost.

B

Binding
The covering of for a book such as leather, cloth, coated papers. Also, to compile leafs or signatures together with glue, stitching, sewing or other means to keep together.

Binding Cloth
Usually a cotton fabric that has been treated to affix to books as cover wrapping.

Bindery
Department within a printing plant that for folds, cut collates, drills, binds printed pieces or books. At times, some or all bindery services are contracted though an outside bindery.

Bleed
To run am image over the edge of a sheet or page and then trim after printing. Typically a bleed is 1/8 inch or .125 inches in decimals.

Blind Folio
The page number is not printed on the page. This could be a blank page.

Blind Image
An image that is not foiled or printed with ink, but is embossed, de-bossed or stamped.

Blueline
A proof made from a negative by means of a photographic process. The page(s) and/or plate(s) to be printed show up in the color blue. Similar processes produce similar proofs, but know by different names. A blue-line might be known a position proof, Ozalid, blueprint, diazo, Dylux, VanDyke, a brown-line, among others. It is simply a proof of the film negative versus a proof showing color. Blue-lines should be checked to view the film from which plates are made to print from, not for
content.

Board Paper
Board is paper at or over 110 pound index, 80 pound cover or 200 gsm.  It used for products such as file folders, business cards, perfect bound book covers, and post cards.

Body Type
Formatted type used for text, versus type used for heading, subheads, titles, chapter headings, etc. Body type should be easy to read.

Burst Binding
Spine perforated and glued. Also see Perfect Binding and Burst Binding.

C 

C1S and C2S
Abbreviations for "coated one side" and "coated two sides" referring to a type of paper.

Camera-ready Copy
Artwork ready for printing without need for further copy or other changes.

Case
The hard cover for the covers and spine.

Case Binding
Encasing a book in a case made of grey board covered with leather, vinyl coated paper or cloth.

CMYK
Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), the four process colors used in the printing process.

Coated Paper
Paper with a clay coating In Asia it is commonly provided in gloss and matte finish.

Color Correct
Action to change or adjust process colors. Generally done correctly by professionals under controlled lighting. 

Color Key
The brand name for a type of color proof that overlays each plate for form the composite color.

Color Separation
(1) Breaking down continuous-tone color images into four screened process inks suitable for printing on press. Can scanned on a drum scanner, flatbed scanner, and digitally separated. (2) The final color separated for four-color process printing.

Color Transparency
The process of transparent film which is used to make color separations. A 35mm slide is an example of a color transparency

Continuous-tone Copy
Images like photographs and illustrations that have not been prepared for printing. They have to dot pattern. A print of a photo taken with a camera is a continuous tone photo.

Cover
The front, back, inside front, inside back, and spine of a book are considered the cover.

Cover wrap
The covering material used on the grey board of a hard case book. It may be cloth, paper, vinyl, bonded leather or leather.

Crop Marks
Lines indicating trim and bleed.

CRA
Camera Ready Art.  The printed piece will be exactly as the CRA, unless it is reduced or enlarged with the camera. The film is then used to make the printing plate after it is stripped

Cyan
One of the four process colors that make up process color printing.

Data Compression
Reducing the size of a digital file so that it may be transmitted faster.

Deboss
To press an image so it lies below the surface. It is the opposite of Emboss - to raise the image.

Die
Used to cut, score, stamp, and emboss.

Die Cut
To cut shapes or special edges on paper using a die. It is often custom made.

Digital Proofing
Proofs produced from digital files printed on paper. They can be lasered or ink-jetted.

Double Bum
To print a single image twice so it has two layers of ink.

DPI
Dots per inch, a measure of the resolution of the printed image.

Drill
To drill a whole in a printed matter. Instead of using a 3-hole punch,
printers would drill the holes.

Dummy
An example of what the final product may look like. The sample is usually made up of plain stock. Sometimes the cover wrap that used is what was quoted to the client, can also called a mock-up.

Dust Jacket
A paper wrapping for a hard case or perfect bound book. Also called a jacket, it has flaps, and may also ha have fold-overs on top and bottom. The dust jacket and flaps often contain promotional information.

E
 
Electronic or Hard Proof
A process of generating a prepress proof in which paper is electronically exposed to the color separation negatives and passed through electrically charged pigmented toners, which adhere electro-statically, resulting in the finished proof

Emboss
To press an image into paper so it sits above the surface as a raised image.

Encapsulated PostScript file
A digital file containing both images and PostScript commands. Abbreviation;  EPS file.

Endpapers
Folded sheet that attach the inside front and back cover of a case bound book . Endpapers can be plain white paper, a colored paper, printed, or a specialty endpaper that comes in different colors and
finishes. Also called end-sheets.

Fifth Color
Ink color used in addition to the four needed by four-color process. It is usually a spot ink..

Film Laminate
A permanent covering used to protect the cover of a printed book cover. It can be matte or gloss.

Finished Size
The size of printed item after trimming or folding. The flat size would be a different measurement. Finished is also sometimes referred to as the trimmed size.

Flat Size
The finished size of a printed item after trimming but before folding.

Foil Emboss
To emboss an image and apply a foil stamp.

Foil Stamp
A foil stamp may be used on a book cover and or spine. A die is made for a provided image, usually the title and authors name. Then the images is pressed or stamped into the cover and a foil is affixed to the impression.

Format
Refers to the  style, shape, size and layout determined for a book design.

Four-color Process Printing
Full color printing uses CMYK, or cyan, yellow, magenta and black inks.  The shorthand for 4 color process on both sides on a page is 4/4 or 4C/4C. Four color process printing on one side is 4/0.

Galley Proof
Proof of typeset text that has not yet been paginated.

Gathered
Signatures assembled in the correct order for binding.

Ghost Halftone
A digital image whose density has been scaled back so that it is a faint or ghosted image.

Gilding
To gild the edges of a book with gold leafing. Bibles and special edition books may have gilding.

Grammage
Basis weight of paper in grams per square meter (gsm). Grams per square meter is the standard in Asia and Europe.

Gray Component Replacement
Technique of replacing gray tones in the cyan, yellow and magenta films. It is used to reduce the amount of ink on paper. Abbreviated GCR.

Gray Scale
Strip of values ranging from white to black.

GSM
The unit of measurement for paper weight (grams per square meter).

Gutter
The two inside margins toward the center or spine of the book.

Half Fold
A full width of one web of paper that is folded once perpendicular to the cut off the paper roll and folded a second time parallel to the cut off.

Halftone
To scan a continuous tone image and convert the image into halftone by means of adding a dot pattern which can be coarse or fine. The screened image is also called a halftone

Head Margin
The margin at the top of the page.

Imposition or Pagination
This is when you strip your film into position so that the folded signatures will have all pages in the right order when printed, folded and collated.

Impression
An impression is one sheet passing through a unit of a press.

Imagesetter
A high resolution device to output printers film from a disk.
 
Ink Jet Printing
Method of printing by spraying droplets of ink. This is not used for books printed on a printing press, but is commonly used for printing envelopes. Also called jet printing.

ISBN
International Standard Book Number, a number assigned to a published work. It is most often on the copyright page.

To get an ISBN number, go to www.ISBN.org.  

 

 

Laminate
A clear sheet applied to a hard case book over printed paper, and to perfect bound books. It protects the surface and comes in gloss and matte finishes.

Landscape
The landscape orientation means it is horizontal. The width or a book, image or style is greater than the height. The opposite is portrait, or vertical.

Lay Flat Binding
A process of binding that allows a publication to lie fully open, with a hollow back.

Leading
Amount of space between lines of type.

Leaf
One sheet of paper in a book. Each side of a leaf is one page.

Lightweight Paper
Book paper with basis weight less than 40# (60 gsm).

Loupe
A magnifying lens that stands upright on a surface. It is used to inspect proofs, color, printing, etc.  It is also called a glass and another similar item is a linen tester.

Magenta
One of the four process colors including cyan, yellow, magenta and black, CMYK.

Makeready
The set-up and detail work to ensure proper printing and bindery operations for a particular project. The printing and bindery setup.

Manuscript
An author's original work, in any form, submitted for publication.

Margin
The white space around the edge of the page.

Match Print
A name of a proof for process color.

Matte Finish
Flat (not gloss) finish on coated paper.

Mechanical Binding
Binding materials using a comb (GBC), spiral coil, 3-ring binder, or a technique not requiring gluing, sewing or stitching.

Mil 1/1000 Inch
The thickness of plastic films, "mils". The measurement for plastic sleeves for CD's or DVD's are expressed in mils.

Minitab
Also known as Ponly or Magazine format, a common publication format used in web printing in which the full width of the roll is folded three times to produce a 16 page section.
 
Mock Up
An example of what the final product may look like. Usually made up of plain stock. Sometimes the cover wrap  used is what was quoted to the client. Also called a dummy.

N

Notch Binding
Spine notched and glued. Also see Perfect Bonding and Burst Binding

Offset Printing
Most commonly used for books. Ink is offset from plate to blanket and then from blanket to paper.

Orphan
A word, or part of a word appearing alone at the end of a paragraph. Orphans should be avoided by re-wording or changing spacing to lengthen or shorten it.

Over Run
Additional printed pieces to the original requested quantities. Overage varies in printing. Typically, a US standard is plus or minus ten percent unless a request to print for "exact quantity" is received. In Asia, unders and overs can (although infrequently) vary by as much as fifteen percent. Typically, the range is closer to two to five percent. Please request "exact quantity" at time of request for quote.

Page
Either side of a leaf in a book.

Pagination
The flow of pages in a proper order throughout the publication.

PDF
Portable Document Format. An Adobe document that allow viewing and editing (in upgraded versions).  Get a free version by following the link.

Perfect Binding
Spine roughened and glued. Also see Notch Binding and Burst Binding.

Perfecting Press
A press that prints both sides of the paper at the same time.

Perforating
Creating a line of small dotted wholes to be able to tear-off part . A reply device may have a perf to be able to tear off a portion to mail back.

Pica
A unit of measure equal to is approximately 0.166 in. There are 12 points to a pica and 6 picas to an inch.

Pixel
A unit of a digital image. It is a scanner, computer, or other digitally generated dot.

Plate
A printing plate contains the image to be reproduced on press.

Pleasing Color
Color acceptable to the client. It may not match original samples such as a fabric swatch, a continuous tone photo or print..

PMS
Pantone Matching System.

Point
A unit of measure in typography equaling 1/12 pica or .013875 inch (.351mm). There are 12 points to a pica and 6 picas to an inch.

Portrait
The landscape orientation means it is vertical. The width or a book, image or style is greater than the width. The opposite is landscape, or horizontal.

Prepress
Procedures performed by the printer, color separator or service bureau prior to make art of files ready to print.

Prepress Proof
A color proof made by ink jet printers or most any other means but a press proof that uses ink. Also called dry proof.

Press Check
Press sheets that are examined before allowing production to begin.

Press Proof
Proofs made by press using before the job is started..

Press Sheet
The paper stock specified for printing.

Printing Method
There are different methods of print. Digital Printing, Heat Set Web, Offset Web (cold), Sheet Fed (litho) and Screen Printing

Process Color
The colors used for four-color process printing: cyan, yellow, magenta and black, CMYK.

Q
 
Quarter Fold
A fold, half folded once again perpendicular to the roll of papers cut off point.

R
 
Rag Paper
Paper or stock with a high content of cotton.

Registration
This is the exact positioning of two or more printed colors. When an image (full color picture in a newspaper) appears fuzzy, it is said to be out of register, (unless, of course it is a picture of a fuzzy object). Look closely and you will see that the blue extends out on one side and yellow extends out on the other side. This is indicative of poor printing quality.
 
RIP
A Raster Image Processor Device translates native files into bitmapped information for a laser printer or imagesetter; both output devices.

Recycled Paper
Paper that is made from old paper that has been recycled, such as newspapers, boxes, preprinted inserts, etc..

Register Marks
Short lines marking edges of paper, trim, or bleeds.

Resolution
This refers to the sharpness of an image. The higher the resolution, requires smaller the dots. Books are typically printed at 300. Higher resolution files may be processed, but the printed results will be 300 dpi.

Reverse
Image or type produced reversing the ink color. Black type on a white background becomes white type on a black background.

RGB
Stands for red, green, blue. RGB mode is used for web design, where color is made for red, green and blue. In process color printing, CMYK is used, cyan, yellow, magenta and black. Photographs should be changed to CMYK mode before handing off native files or PDF files to a service provider. This can be done in PhotoShop by the client, or for an extra cost in prepress.

Round Back Bind
A hard cover case binding with a rounded spine.

Saddle Stitch
Saddle stitching is a  binding method of putting multiple pages together by stapling the spine or edge.

Scanner
Used to scan an image. There are different types of scanners including a wide range of flatbed and drum scanners. Quality is an important consideration.

Scanning
To convert an image to a digitized format that can be stored on a computer. In the four color printing process, to scan is to specifically break down an illustration into the four separate colors - separations which, when combined, will make up the full color picture. There are different types of scanners which printers use today. There are drum scanners, and there are table top scanners. There are even small handheld scanners now used for computer scanning.

Screen Tint
Color created by dot pattern rather than solid ink.

Self Cover
A booklet or catalog having the same paper on the cover as on the inside.

Separations
This refers to the process of separating the colors of a full color photo or illustration to enable a printer to print it in the four basic colors. (See Scanning). Images that have been separated into the four inks for process printing, cyan, yellow, magenta and black, CMYK.

Sheet-fed Press
A press that prints sheets of paper. A  web press prints on rolls of paper. Books are usually sheet-fed. Large run catalogs may be run on a
web press.

Signature
A large printed sheet with an even number of pages printed front and back. It is then folded several times and trimmed to form a signature, or group of pages in a book. A printed section made up of 16 pages (or a multiple of 4 pages) that is printed all on one big sheet which is folded down to produce a section of a book.

Smyth Sewn
Smyth Sewn (section sewn) book bindings are the highest quality book binding available on the market today. Books with Smyth Sewn bindings lay completely flat making them perfect for use in log books, journals, and any book that you want to use for recording purposes.
 
Specifications
Complete details of a book or any project to be printed. Ink, paper, bindery and well as any specifics are detailed. Abbreviated as "specs".

Spine
The back or binding edge of a book. It is the area between the front cover and back cover. It will vary in width depending on the type of binding and number of pages in the book.

Spiral Bind
A binding using a continuous wire or plastic, thread  through punched holes.

Spot Color or Varnish
One ink or a varnish applied to a specific portion of a page or pages.

Spread
Pages that are side by side. Pages 2 and 3 would be a reader spread.

Standard Viewing Conditions
Colored viewed under a Kelvin lights in a color viewing booth.

Stock
Stock is a type of paper used for a particular printing job.

Tabloid
A common publishing format used in web printing which the full width of the roll is cut once and folded once to produce a 8 page section.

TIFF Tagged Image File Format
A stable file format commonly used for photographs and images in graphic design.

Tip In
A separate printed imaged added to a book. Often to a cover or spine.

Trade Shop
A printer or bindery strictly for trade professionals such as print brokers; not for the general public.

Transparency
A positive photographic image that allows light to come through. An example is a 35mm slide

Trapping
Overlapping colors which butt together. When in perfect registration you will not see white around the edges of the two joining colors. More trapping is required when printing a newspaper, as opposed to printing a quality full color brochure.

Trim Size
The size of a printed item after it is printed and then trimmed to size.

Uncoated Paper
Paper that has not been coated. Coated papers are coated with clay.

UCR Under-color Removal
When making color separations a potion of the of cyan, magenta and yellow ink is removed and black ink is added.

UV Coating
A liquid coating applied to a printed sheet. It is cured to bond with UV
light.  This is a extremely shiny, and all kinds of creative combinations can be done with this process

Varnish
A thin coating applied over a printed sheet for protection and
appearance. This economical finish provides a mild shine and protection. It can be done inline as either spot varnish or flood coated.

Viewing Booth
A booth for proper viewing of prepress materials, especially color.

Vignette
A graphic element or illustration that fades to the background paper.

 
W

Web Press
A press that prints using large rolls of paper versus a press that is sheet-fed with sheets of paper. Books are usually printed on sheet-fed
presses.

Widow
A short line that is the end of a paragraph that appears at the top of the next page. A widow should be avoided by re-wording text or modifying spacing to lengthen or shorten it.

Wood-free Paper
Made with a chemical pulp only. Wood-free paper is typically used for novels or paperback books.