Category: A-Z Terms

1. Artwork: The master copy containing illustrations etc either received from the customer or prepared in the press room for a print material. The art work –either in black and white or colored format- may include all graphics,...

1. Backup: To print on the reverse side of a printed sheet. Also it refers to the replica of the additional copy being kept in another drive or pen drive or hard disc in computers as safety measure. 2. Binding: The process of...

14. Basic Weight : Paper is grouped by their basis weight which is not only meant to put them to use for specific print material designed, but also to work out the cost of printing as well. The term paper weight not only...

1. Caliper: It is an instrument to Measure the thickness of the paper which is normally expressed in units called micron (1mm equals 1000 microns). Also available is a tabletop model(caliper) with which the thickness of the...

15. Computer-To-Plate: Called CTP, by this technology the design to be printed is directly transferred on to the plate by digital process eliminating the traditional use of process camera in which the negatives or positives are...

23.Color filters: A small sheet of colored substance either made of glass, very thick gelatin, or highly transparent plastic material is used as stopper of certain light rays  while making color separation negatives or positives...

  1. Densitometer and Density : A photo-electric device that measures the degree of darkness of the processed negative  or degree of light transmitted or reflected back from the surface of an opaque object to calculate and set...

  9. Dummy: Rough layout which will show  the position of  texts and illustrations to be incorporated in each of the page of the final publication. Based on this guidance layout, the final page making with all corrected text...

16.Dandy Roll: A dandy roll is a light roller made of a fine metal mesh fixed on the paper making machines that can affix a watermark onto the sheet besides smoothing the surface. The dandy roll woven with raised image carry a...

1. Emboss : Read under debossing. 2. Emulsion : Though there are two types of emulsions referred, when some one refers to emulsion, it is meant to be for the photographic films or photographic papers. The emulsion is a chemical...

Estimating- An Model exercise A model estimate is shown below. The pattern may change from press to press to include or exclude certain factors as the in-house processing techniques may differ from press to press. Generally the...

1. Foil: A thin film made of metallic, plastic or other similar material which will be used like ink in  foil embossing and foil stamping. The foil also comes printed with several designs. They are also used by food packaging...

10. Finished Size : Ultimate size of print that will be delivered to the customer  after production is completed.  In 90 % of the cases the printed paper is trimmed to the correct size after the printing is completed. However in...

 1. Gang Runs: Where the print runs , colors and also the sizes are same, they are clubbed in one layout  and printed in order to utilize the machine effectively and to reduce wastage of paper. This is called gang run. On...

10. Graphic Arts Film : Some kind of plastic substrate base film on whose surface some kind of  photographic sensitive material remains coated. These films are meant  to make negatives or positives suitable for  printing press....

1. Halftone: Every photograph, whether   black and white or in colour will virtually have unlimited range of shades of grays, or other colour hues starting from white to dark greys  or very light colour hues  to darkest hues...

1. Image Area: Every sheet will have some areas where the images and other texts will be printed. The image will be surrounded by white margins all around. The sheet where the images and texts are to be printed is termed the...

1. Interleaves or interleaving : Inserting a sheet in between  two printed sheets is called interleaving. In the traditional printing, especially when the art paper or coated paper was printed, slightly absorbent papers called...

1. Job No: A simple number assigned to a specific printing work in a printing firm to track the progress of the work. This will also be required for future references and therefore part of the record keeping process. 2. Job...

Justification: The text will look better when justified. The alignment of text to the right  and  left margins is called justification. Setting the body of text in such a manner that the composed matter will be equal in width in...

  1. Kiss Impression : A delicate printed impression,  but print sufficient enough to be seen. This term is attributed more while printing thin paper in which, the impression from the back side should not be visible on the back...

1. Laminate : A thin film of plastic material pressed on to another stock like Kraft paper to give glossy effect and to add strength. Besides the said use, the lamination is also done on to thick stocks of printed material which...

10.Letterpress : The process where in the prints are taken from relief surface of blocks or plates. This is one of the oldest processes in the four basic processes of printing. The plates used for printing by Letterpress process...

17. Linter pulp : This refers to ready made Cotton pulp sheets and pulp cakes prepared from trimmings and other processed waste paper  for making hand made paper and other good quality paper.  The Linter pulp is the mixture of...

1. Make ready: All the activities like setting the machine feeder, positioning the plates/ blocks with text matter, readying blankets (in offset and Intaglio), inking, loading the paper, registering the images on paper, setting...

10. Mark-Up copy: The instructions usually written on the manuscript ( model version of each section of the printed material ) to guide type setting process and the compositor is called ‘mark up copy’. These...

17. MICR and Magnetic ink : MICR denotes  Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. The numerals printed by this technique is of special designs and character  and are used by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of the...

1. Nested : Keeping the Signature marks remain hiding, the sections of the books are assembled in the proper sequence for binding   is called Nesting in binding process. This is also called nested. The signature mark is a...

7. Numbering : The process of printing numerals  on a print material by a set of boxes or a single box that contains numbering wheels is  called numbering. Numbering is a wide term but in printing what is referred to as...

1. Overrun: – Production of print copies more than the ordered quantity is called Over run. This may occur due to inadvertent error in judgment of the printer expecting reprint order, or over printed by mistake due to...

Oxidation: Oxidation is one of the chemical reaction in which certain chemicals react with the Oxygen content in the air and polymerizes or changes their physical and chemical properties. In the process of drying of the inks,...

  1. Paper Plate : A special type of paper based printing plate with a laminated back, meant for use on small Offset Printing machines. Once very popular for small Offset machines like Romayor, Rota print, Swift, and Adast...

7. Page proof: Every printed material whether book, circular, pamphlet, leaflet or any other print material will have some text material or some images. The first task of book printing is to compose the text material or the...

13. Perf Marks: The dotted print Marks usually seen at edges where perforations should occur is called the Perf Mark or Perforating mark . Read more under Perforation below. 14. Perforation: The process of piercing small...

17. Progressive Proofs: In multi color printing, prior to printing, as pre-press exercise, the colour proofs of each colour  will be taken with the same color inks (as single up image ) which will be used in the final printing....

22. Pre-sensitized Plate: The printing plates or the Offset Printing are made by exposing the plates with Negatives or Positives. In order to form the images from the negatives or the positives, the plates will have to be coated...

26. Pica : Pica is the unit of measure in the process of hand composing . One inch is equal to 72 Points and a Pica is 1/6th  of an inch i.e  approximately 0.166 in. Therefore  are 12 points make one Pica. 27. Photo chromic ink...

1. Quality : It is a subjective term relating to expectations of the customer on the print job given by him. The level of expectation may vary between the Customer and the Printer, but when some one says ‘I need Quality job’, he...

1. Ream: A term that denotes 500 sheets. The Paper supplied by every mill will be in lots of 500 sheets or 20 quires of 25 sheets each of the same quality, and same size of the paper totaling to 500. This 500 is the unit...

8. Reprography : The term Reprography is a wide term that covers various processes including small Offset printing machines like Rota Print, Autolith, Multilith etc (Not bigger machines).  Reprography in real sense means...

12. Rosin : Rosin a  translucent chemical substance used as sizing material  in paper making process. It is used for internal sizing of the paper and act as filler between fibers. Rosin will help the paper surface resist water...

18. Reflection Copy: A design with elements of text, images and other artistic work has to be photographed to make printing plates. Some of those meant for reproduction will be opaque objects and some may be transparent. While...

1. Saddle Stitch: When a book is bound, it is fastened in multiple ways. One of the processes involve the stitching of the back edge of the book either with thread or steel wires. Fastening the back edge fold of the book (Spine)...

8. Screen Printing : One of the printing process in which the inks are squeezed through a screen to form the image. The screen is also called the stencil. The ink is forced through the mesh screen opening by rubbing it with a...

13. Slurring: This is one of the most commonly seen  printing defect in Offset printing. Specially while printing halftone images, the occurrence of slurring is seen to be more. The problem could be due to The blanket becomes...

17. Set off :While printing on  smooth paper or coated stock of paper, it may so happen that the ink from the previously printed sheet may transfer some amount of ink from its front surface on to the back of the  printed sheet...

21. Scanner:- Various types of Scanners are in use in printing. The scanner is a device that captures the images and converts them into digital image and stores them in the memory of a computer, which is further processed for...

28. Shingling : Shingling is a very important term in printing, particularly to printers who print the books bound by  saddle stitching. In a saddle stitched book the bulk of the paper cause the inner pages to extend further out...

29. Specifications : Specification means the series of parameters pertaining to a specific material or product used/procured.  Every material or product has several qualities and in order to ensure that the product in demand...

1. TAPPI : TAPPI  represents the Technical Association of Pulp and Paper which is internationally accepted institution whose testing procedures for evaluating the qualities of the paper is accepted as reliable and accurate.  The...