Absorption A process by which ink is absorbed by the paper. Textured paper will absorb more ink than a smooth paper.

Accordion Fold In binding, two or more parallel folds that open like an accordion.

Additive Color Colors that make up white light; red, blue, and green are additive primary colors.

Adhesive Binding The fastening together of printed sheets or signatures with glue.

Aliasing In computer graphics, the process of offsetting a portion of a line to the closest available pixel causing a stepped or jagged edge.

Anti-Aliasing On low-resolution devices, a method that smooths the jagged edges of objects, such as type and line art. On a computer monitor anti-aliasing is achieved by partially lightening intermediate pixels.

Ascender The part of a letter that extends above the x-height, e.g.,: b d h l

Assembling Finishing operations that bring together all elements of a printing job into its final form; some common operations are gathering, collating, and inserting.

Return to top


Baseline In typesetting, an imaginary line on which the bottom of letters sit.

Batch Scanning Sequential scanning of multiple originals.

Bit The smallest unit of stored information in a computer expressed as a binary notation, either a one or a zero.

Bit Depth The number of bits used to represent each pixel in an image, determining its color or tonal range.

Bitmap A series of individual dots or pixels that define graphics. A bitmap defines an image by turning each pixel on or off.

Black Point A mobile reference point that defines the darkest area in an image, causing all other areas to be adjusted accordingly.

Blanket– A rubber surfaced fabric that is clamped to the cylinder, on which the image is transferred from the plate. Then the image is transferred to the paper.

Blanket Cylinder part of an offset printing press that transfers the image from the plate cylinder to the press sheet.

Bleed Extending an image beyond the finished trim size of the piece so that the image runs right to the edge of the printed sheet after trimming and binding.

Board Paper over 110# index, used for file folders, displays, postcards; also called paperboard.

Body Type A type style used in the main part of the printed piece.

Bold Type A type style that is heavier thicker, and blacker than the regular typeface.

Bond Paper A grade of paper used for letterheads, usually containing cotton or rag fiber. Also, book paper (see below) may be referred to as bond, i.e.20# white bond.

Book Paper The most common type of paper found in the printing industry. It is available in a wide range of grades and noted for easy printability.

Brightness The amount of light being reflected from a surface. Brightness is affected by the reflectance of the paper.

Bristol Paper A stiff, heavy paper that is commonly used for programs, file folders, and inexpensive booklet covers.

Burn In platemaking, a common term used to describe the exposure of a plate.

Byte Eight bits of stored information, or 26 discrete levels of data. In electronic publishing, each byte represents a value or character.

Return to top


CT Abbreviation for Continuous Tone. In the printing industry, continuous tone describes an assortment of tone values that range from minimum density to maximum density in any amount.

Calendering A paper making process that passes paper between two rollers to smooth or polish the paper surface.

Camera Ready Art A finished paste-up that is used to create the plates for printing.

Carbonless A paper that is used to make postcards and index cards.

Chipboard An expensive board, usually brown or gray, that is used for backing on notepads; also referred to as fiberboard.

Choking In trapping, this holds the top layer and shrinks the knockout below. See spreads.

Chroma The attribute of color that specifies its amount of saturation or strength.

Chrome A slang term referring to a color transparency that is used as the original copy. Note: Chrome is sometimes used incorrectly as a short term Cromalin.

Clip Art Art that is camera ready. A copyright is given when you purchase clipart. A number of companies specialize in providing clipart to printers.

Clipping The conversion of all ones lighter that a specified gray level to white, or darker that specified gray level to black, causing a loss of detail.

CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black; the base colors used in printing. CMY are the primary colorants of the subtractive color model.

Coated Paper Paper with an added layer of pigment bonded to the original fiber surface to smooth out the rough texture.

Collating Finishing operation in which individual printing sheets are assembled into the correct sequence.

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

Color Cast an unwanted coloration of a copy or color proof caused by an overabundance of one color or light. Color cast pieces are blush red or pinkish blue. The color cast can be digitally altered during or after scanning by using a gamma correction.

Color Control Bar A test strip printed or exposed onto a film or substrate. The control bar is used to measure and control the printing process. It will also ensure accurate color proofing.

Color Correction Changing a color in the production process from is original hue.

Color Separation– The process of making a separate electronic or photographic record or each process color (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) needed to reproduce the original.

Colorimeter An instrument that measures values of color with the precise and defined response similar to that of the human eye.

Complimentary Color The color that moves (dirties) a pure color toward gray.

Compression The reduction in size of an image file.

Condition or Season A process that allows paper to adjust to press room atmospheric conditions.

Continuous Paper A style of paper that is perforated and fan folded with a tractor strip on each side. Used for business forms.

Contone (CT) An abbreviation for continuous tone.

Contrast The tonal relationship between an original image and its reproduction.

Coverage The percentage of paper covered by ink.

Critical Color Accurate color reproduction throughout the entire color spectrum. This type of color is required in images of food and any product a customer wants to match “perfectly.”

Cromalin A type of color proof that is used for verifying colors, checking register, obvious blemishes and size of images. Cromalin is a trademark of DuPont.

Crop To cut, trim or eliminate a portion of the paper, image or copy.

Crop Marks Symbols placed outside of the image area that indicate where the piece will be trimmed during the binding/finishing process.

Return to top


Dampening System The mechanism in a printing press that transfers the fountain solution to the plate keeping the non-image area clean during the printing process. Deckle Edge A type of paper that has a rough edge; often referred to as a “feathered.” Most commonly used for invitations. Decompression The expansion of compressed image files. See also lossy and non-lossy. Descenaer The portion of a lower case letter that extends below the body of the letter, such as on a “p” and “q.” Densitometer An instrument that registers the density (darkness) of visual images and colors. Density range The difference between the lightest and darkest parts of an image. A good scanner will read 0-4. Descreening The process of removing a halftone screen pattern from an image, either optically, with the use of electronic filters, or electronically on a computer. Desktop Publishing A term used to describe the process of preparing page layouts with text and images on a computer instead of traditional methods. Die A metal outline of a design used for cutting a piece to shape or size. Die cutting A finishing technique used to cut paper. Digital color Proof A proof from a printer that does not require color separated films. The proof is usually continuous tone and therefore not a contract proof for color accuracy. Digital Plate A plate that is exposed directly by data from prepress systems. Direct-to-Plate the direct exposure of image data onto printing plates, without the intermediate use of film. Direct-to-Press The elimination of intermediate film and printing plates by directly transferring image data to the printing cylinders in the press. DMax the point of maximum density in an image or original. DMin the point of minimum density in an image original. Dot Gain The apparent dot size increase from the film to the printed reproduction. The physical enlargement of the dot caused by plate exposure image spread, by pressures between the plate blanket and impression cylinder of a press, or by ink spread as it penetrates the paper. Dots Per Inch (DPR) A term that quantifies the resolution of output devices. Not to be confused with LPI. Down-line Finishing Another term for bindery; includes all post-press processes. Down-Sampling reducing the resolution of an image, necessitating a loss in detail. Drop Cap A paragraph format where the first character of the first word is 3x the height of the body copy. Drying Time The time it takes for something to dry or for liquid ink to harden. Duplicator Offset lithographic machine that makes copiers and can feed a maximum sheet size of 12 x 18 inches. Dye Sublimation A process of printing color images using thermal dye combined with heat transfers to create an image. Dye sublimation is usually used for initial proofs and non-critical color proofs.

Return to top


EM or EN Dash Dash lines used for emphasis. For example, an em dash — can be used in place of two hyphens, and an en dash _ can be used in a sequence of numbers. Embossing Blind embossing or a: “bump” is a raised impression of a design, made by a die, with no color. When a raised image effect is desired with an ink or foil in the image area, this process would be performed after the printing. Both processes are performed using a metal die, heat, pressure, and a counter die to reshape a printing surface, creating a raised image. EPS Encapsulated PostScript. A standard format for files that allow them to be placed into other documents. EPS files normally include a low resolution screen preview. Ethernet A fast LAN (Local Area Network) cabling system.

Return to top


Fake Color A one color reproduction printed on a colored sheet.

Feathering The tendency of ink to spread out on a rough, porous surface.

Feeding The action on a press that moves paper from the feed pile to the receiving end of the offset. Finishing Any operation that is performed after the job has left the press. Fixing Bath An acid solution that removes unexposed emulsion in film processing; follows the developer. Also called fixer. Flush Cover A cover that is trimmed to be the same size as the inside pages. Flush Left Type which has been set so that the left-hand margin aligns vertically. Flush Right Type which has been set so that the right-hand margin hand margin aligns vertically. Font A collection of letters, numbers, punctuation & symbols with an identifiable and consistent look. Fonts See Type 1 and Type 3 fonts. Font family All weights and sizes of a font i.e.: regular, bold, italic, expanded, bold italic, demi, etc. Fountain The unit that holds ink and controls the amount of ink passed to the inking system of an offset press. A fountain can also be part of the moisture system that holds water and a concentrated fountain solution. Four Color Process The printing technique that uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks to reproduce images as they would appear in a color photograph. This process uses dots and screen angles to create the illusion of millions of colors. FPO For Position Only. A low resolution image placed in a document to indicate where the final version will be positioned.

Return to top


Gathering Assembling printed signatures and placing one next to the other. GBC Binding A type of binding in which plastic spines go through pre-punched pages.GBC binding is usually used on small booklets and manuals.GBC is a brand name for General Binding Corp. Glaze A build-up on rubber rollers or the blanket of a printing press that prevents proper ink distribution. Gigabyte (“Gb) 1,024 megabytes or 1,048,576 kilobytes of digital data. Gloss A characteristic of ink, paper or varnish that reflects large amounts of light. Grade The measurement system for paper quality. This term is often used interchangeably with category or class of paper. Grain The direction of the fibers in a sheet of paper. Gray Balance The balance between CMY colorants required to produce neutral grays without a color cast. Gray Levels The number of tonal differentiations that can be output on film or paper. The number of gray levels depends upon the output resolution and the halftone screen ruling. Grayscale A strip os standard gray tones, ranging from white to black, placed art the side of an original copy during photography to measure tonal range and contrast of the film. Grippers Mechanical “fingers” that pull a sheet through the printing unit of the press. Gripper Margin The area of paper held by grippers. You need to know this value in prepress and/or stripping so that no image appears in this area. Gumming In platemaking, the process of applying a thin coating of gum to the non-printing areas of a lithographic plate.

Return to top


Halftone The reproduction of continuous-tone images, through a screening process, which converts the image into a dot pattern. Hickey Defects in a printed sheet appearing as a speck of ink surrounded by a white halo; caused by particles of ink, paper or dust attached to the plate or blanket. Highlight The lightest tones in an image. A spectral highlight is a bright, reflected light source. Holdout The amount of ink not absorbed by the paper. HSB Hue, Saturation, Brightness.A color model used to create accurate reproductions. Hue The property of color that designates its dominant wavelength and distinguishes it from other colors. Red is a different hue than green. While bright red and dark red may have a different brightness, they may be of the same hue.

Return to top


Imagesetter A high resolution laser output device that writes bitmap data to photosensitive paper or film. The bitmap is generated by a RIP. Imposition The placement of images so that they will be in the proper location on the final printed piece. Impression A single sheet of paper passed through the press; measured by one rotation of the plate cylinder. Impression Cylinder The part of the press that forces the press sheet (paper) against the blanket cylinder. Ink Printing inks are made up of three properties; vehicle, pigment and solvents/ additives. Ink Train The area from the ink fountain to the ink form rollers on a printing press. Ink Viscosity Measures resistance to flow. Interpolation In the image manipulation context, this is the increase of image resolution by the addition of new pixels throughout the image, the colors of which are based on neighboring pixels. Inserting Placing one signature inside another.

Return to top


Joggies See aliasing. Joe Black A black ink that is used for most runs, ordinary jobs. Job Schedule A schedule that is prepared for each job as it passes through each production phase. Jog To align sheets of paper into a compact pile. Justified Text Lines of set type that are aligned on both their left and right hand sides.

Return to top


Kerning Subtracting space between to characters, making them closer together. Kilobyte (Kb) 1,024 bytes of digital data. Knockout In desktop graphic software, an overlapping image area will often prevent the underlying image from printing, creating a knockout. White type is often created by “knocking out” an image in a specific area so that the color of the paper shows through.

Return to top


Laid A pattern in bond paper that resembles a basket-weave. When printing, use the patterned (felt) side. Lamination Plastic film bonded by heat and/or pressure to a printed piece for protection and to enhance its appearance. LAN- Local Area Network A wire or optical fiber link between computers installed on a single site for data transfers. Landscape A horizontal orientation of the page format, as opposed to portrait, which is a vertical orientation. Laser Paper A category of bond paper that has an extra smooth surface and high moisture content that is designed to be used in a laser printer. Laser Printer A desktop output device that prints images from digital data to paper or film. The images can be text, graphic or halftones. Layout The art of placing every element of a printed piece into its proper position- prepress. Lead Edge The portion of the press sheet that first enters the press, also called gripper edge. Leading The distance between the baseline of one line of type and the baseline of the next. Light Table A special device with a frosted glass surface and a light that projects up through the glass for viewing and working with the film. Linen Tester or Loupe A magnifying glass used for close visual inspection or the final printed piece. Lines Per Inch/lpcm Lines per inch or per centimeter. Units of measurement for halftone and screen ruling. Lithography A process that prints from flat plates using water to repel the ink form the non-image areas of the plate. The images are first printed to a rubber blanket and then offset to paper, this the popularity of the name “offset” or offset lithography. Long or Short The measure of viscosity. Offset inks are generally long as they have greater viscosity. Low Key A dark image that is lacking in highlight detail. LW Line Work; images such as logos or type.

Return to top


Make-Ready All press preparations, from mounting the plate on the press to obtaining an accurate image on the page. Make-Ready Paper Paper that is used when setting up press or bindery equipment; It is part of the spoilage (waste) of every job. Mask A photographic film that is placed over an image in order to modify the light that passes through the image thereby altering the reproduction. Match Print A product originally made 3M that has become the industry term for a contact color proof. Megabyte (Mb) 1,024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes of digital data. Memory Colors Colors that we can create without seeing an original such as sky blue, apple red, grass green, flesh tones, etc. Moiré A repetitive interference caused by overlapping symmetrical grids of dots or lines with differing pitch or angles. Results in an objectionable pattern on the final printed piece, often caused by rescreening a halftone. Monochrome Single-colored. An image or medium displaying only black-and-white or grayscale information.Grayscale information displayed in one color is also monochrome. Mottle The spotty or uneven appearance of printing, mostly in solid areas.

Return to top


Negative A film on which images are reversed. It is used to create metal plates for high quality printing. Neutral An area of no color bias; white, gray, or black. Noise When scanning, this refers to random, incorrectly read pixel values, normally due to electrical interference or device instability. Non-Lossy Image compression without loss of quality.

Return to top


Offset Lithography A high-volume, ink-biased printing process, in which ink adhering to image areas of a lithographic plate is transferred (offset) to a blanket cylinder before being applied to paper or other substrate. Opacity The hiding or covering quality of ink. An opaque ink will show its own color when printed on top of another ink. Orphan In copy, a single line of type alone at the bottom of a page or a single word at the end of a paragraph. Orphans should be avoided. Overprint To print dots of one process color ink over dots of another process color ink to produce overprint or secondary colors, such as red, green and blue.

Return to top


Padding Adhesive binding of individual sheets; inexpensive binding usually used with notepads. Pantone Matching System (PMS) A widely accepted mehtod for specifying and mixing colors from a numbering system in a swatch book. Parchment A paper that is not totally opaque, such as engraver’s parchment and vegetable parchment business cards. Perfecting Press A press that prints both sides of the paper in one pass. Perforating Tiny slits are cut in the paper so that a portion can be neatly torn away. Permanence Maintains color, does not fade when exposed to sunlight. Suitable for signs and posters. Pica A unit of measure equal to 1/6 of an inch and exactly equal to 12 points. Used to measure the elements of type. Picking The lifting of the paper surface during printing. It occurs when pulling force (tack) of ink is greater than surface strength of paper. PICT/PICT2 A common format for defining images and drawings on the Macintosh platform. PICT 2 supports 24-bit color. Pigment The color producing element in ink. Pigment is also the most expensive element in ink. Pinholes Small openings in film emulsion that pass light; are caused by dust in the air during camera exposure; must be painted out in the stripping operation. Pixel Short for “picture element.” A pixel is the smallest resolvable point of a raster image. It is the basic unit of digital imaging. Plate Cylinder The cylinder on the press that holds the printing plate. Platemaker Any analog machine with an intensive light source and a system of mirrors that photograph a flat original. It then reproduces the image onto a material that will to be used as a printing plate. Plates Thin flexible sheets for lithographic printing; can be made of metal, polyester or paper. Pleasing Color When an exact color match is not critical, you can produce pleasing color. These colors are accurate enough to match the memory colors and present the image well. It usually costs less to produce than critical color. Point A unit of measure equal to 1/72 of an inch. Type is measured in picas and points. Portrait An adjective describing a vertical orientation of a page format, as opposed to landscape, which is a horizontal orientation. Post-Consumer Waste Post-consumer waste includes paper, paper board and fibrous wastes from retail stores, offices, and homes after these items have served their end-use with the consumer. Posterization The conversion of continuous tone data into a series of visible tonal steps or bands used for special effects. PostScript Fonts See Type 1 fonts. PPI/PPCM Pixels per inch/pixels per centimeter; units of measure for scanned images. Pre-Consumer Waste Paper that is recycled before it reaches the consumer. This includes paper trimmings from the paper mill and printer, and printed materials that never reach the consumer. Pressure Sensitive Paper Adhesive-backed paper. When pressure is applied to the paper it sticks to other surfaces; usually used for labels. Primary Color A base color that is used to make other colors. Process Color A printing process that uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to create all other colors. Proof A sample print of a job used for approval before the piece is mass produced.

Return to top


Quartertone The 25% dot printing area of an image. An image will have quarter, mid adn three-quarter tones in addition to white and black.

Return to top


RC Paper Resin coated paper. Paper that is used in stat cameras, typesetters and imagesetters. Raster A synonym for grid. Sometimes used to refer to the grid of addressable positions in an output device. Ream 500 sheets of paper. A ream is the package size for most paper. Recycled paper Paper that contains at least 50% pre-consumer or post-consumer waste. Reflection Copy Originals that are opaque, must be viewed or scanned with a light source reflecting off the original, such as photographs. Register The fitting of two or more printed images in exact alignment with each other. Registration Marks Targets applied to the paste-up board and used in stripping, platemaking, and on the press to ensure that multicolor images fit together with perfect register. Res A term used to define image resolution instead of ppi. Res 12 indicates 12 pixels per millimeter. Resistant A resistant ink is designed to withstand the effects of gases, chemicals, heat, moisture, etc. RGB Red, Green, and Blue are the primary colors of light as perceived by the eye. RIP Raster Image Processor.Software that converts computer data to spots understandable by various laser printers, imagesetters and other output devices.Every PostScript (or laser) output device requires a RIP. Rosette Pattern A dot pattern of CMYK that should look continuous, giving a clear image in process printing. Rub Resistance A property of some specific printing inks allowing the ink to set hard and become a solid. Inks such as Van Son adn Tough Tex are “Rub Resistant.” Run The number of impressions or pieces ordered by the customer.

Return to top


Saddle Binding The fastening together of one or more signatures along the folded edge, usually with staples (also referred to as saddle stitching, or saddle wiring). Safelight A fixture in the darkroom that allows the user to see but not expose the film. Safety paper Paper designed to show evidence of erasure, duplication or tampering, also called check paper. Safety paper is used for checks and government documents. Sampling The process of converting analog data into digital data by taking a series of samples or readings at equal time intervals. San Serif Type fonts that have no serifs. Saturation The extent to which one or two of the three RGB primaries predominate within a printed color. As quantities of RGB equalize, color becomes desaturated towards gray or white. Scaling Determining the percentage of reduction or enlargement to fit an original to a layout. Scaling is done prior to scanning the original. Scan Electronically creating a digital image from a phot or line art image. Scanner The device that samples images and converts them into a digital form. Scoring Creasing of paper or card stock so that it can be easily folded. Screen To break up a continuous tone image into halftone dots for printing. Also refers to a `flat screen’ for background tints and gradients. Screen Angle The direction of rows of dots for each process color. Proper angles avoid moiré, make invisible rosettes, create accurate colors and create the illusion of a continuous tone to the human eye. Screen Frequency The number of rows or lines of dots in a halftone image within a given distance, normally stated as lines per inch (lpi) or lines per centimeter (lpcm). A frequency of 200 lpi would be used for high-quality printing. Screen Ruling Another term meaning screen frequency. Scuff Resistance A property of some specific printing inks allowing the ink to resist scuffing. Scumming A press condition where the non-image area of the plate will accept ink. Secondary Color Color obtained by mixing two primary colors. Although known as primary colorants, C, M and Y are the secondary colors of light. Red plus green produce yellow for example. Serif A small ornamental line added to the basic form of a type character to make a font more readable or decorative. Set The ability of ink to stick to paper. Set-Off The undesirable transfer of ink from the front of one sheet to the back of another sheet. Shadow The darkest area of an image. Sheet Paper in its original size is a sheet; sometimes referred as the “parent sheet.” Parent sheets are cut to the size needed for a specific job. Sheet-Fed Press An offset press that prints on individual pieces of paper rather than on paper from a roll. Shrink In trapping, see Spread and Choke. Shrinkage & Swelling A condition that affects paper if it is not stored properly. Print quality is directly related to the moisture content of the paper. Signature The name given to a single press sheet after it has been folded to make two or four pages. Slur A condition in which the image is inconsistent in density and appears to be blurred. Spectral Highlight A bright reflection from a light source containing little or no detail. Often seen in jewelry, crystal and other metallic or white objects. Spoilage Allowance Extra sheets that are fed through the press to allow for inevitable waste and to ensure that the required number of pieces is delivered to the customer. Spot Color A specific color assigned to a graphic or block of text, prepared with a color break and printed without the use of color separations or process inks. Staircasing See Aliasing. Stripping The process of assembling all pieces of film containing images that will be carried on the same printing plate and securing them on a masking sheet that will hold them in their appropriate printing positions during the platemaking process. Substrate Any base material used in printing; paper (all weights and types), foil, fabric, etc. Sucker Foot A part of the feeder in an offset sheet-fed press. The sucker feet lift the top sheet from the pile and feed it into the gripper fingers in a direct-feed offset. Swatchbook A sample book of papers.

Return to top


Tack The characteristic of a printing ink that allows it to stick to the substrate. Text The body of a printed work as distinct from the preface, headline, footnote, or appendix; the formal content. Threshold The point at which an action begins or changes. The threshold setting used in scanning line art determines which pixels are converted to black and which will become white. The threshold defined in the USM process determines how large a tonal contrast must be before sharpening will be applied to it. Thermal Wax Transfer A printing process using a small heating elements to melt dots of wax pigment onto a carrier film, which are then transferred to paper or transparent film by contact. This differs from the dye sublimation process in that individual dots do not fuse together, therefore thermal wax transfer appears to have a lower resolution. TIFF Tag Image File Format. A popular image file format supported by most image-editing programs running on a variety of computer platforms. Tonal Range The density range of an original that can be printed. Toner In digital printing, imaging materials used in plateless printing systems like electrophotography, magnetography, ion or electron deposition, and most commonly laser printers. Toner adheres to paper when heated. Transfer The offset or transfer of ink that is not dry to the next sheet of paper, also called set-off. Transparency The photographic color positive film that represents a color image, such as Kodachrome, Ektrachrome or Fuji Chrome.The standard sizes are 35mm, 2-1/4″ x 2-1/2″, 4″ x 5″ or 8″ x 10″. Transparencies are the preferred original for color scanning because film offers higher resolution than photographic print material. Trap

  1. Adjoining colors overlapping by a row or two of halftone dots to minimize the effect of mis-register. Without trapping, a fine white line could appear between two color images during the printing process color.
  2. The ability of an ink to print onto another ink. One hundred percent trapping occurs when the same amount of ink will print on the first ink as it does on the unprinted substrate. More frequently under trapping occurs, because one wet ink will not adhere properly when applied to another wet layer of ink.

Trim Lines Lines often added to a paste-up in black ink so they will reproduce on the final job. These lines are used to guide the paper cutter in trimming the paper stack. Also called cut marks. TrueType Fonts See Type 3 fonts.   Type 1 Fonts- Also called PostScript fonts, are professional printing fonts. These fonts have become the standard in the industry because they provide the best results and the most flexibility. Type 3 Fonts Also called TrueType fonts, are fonts that come with your computer. Consult with your printer because TrueType fonts may not be the quality you expect. Type Gauge A measuring device for determining type specifications, point size, x-height, leading, image placement, etc. Also known as line gauges or pica sticks.

Return to top


USM UnSharp Masking enhances the sharpness of a screened image giving more definitions to the subject. Uncoated Book A paper that is used for books, newsletters and direct mail.(see Coated Book).

Return to top


Virgin paper Paper made exclusively from pulp (wood or cotton); no recycled products. Viscosity Resistance to flow. If ink flows readily it has low viscosity, if heavy- high viscosity.Offset inks generally have high viscosity.

Return to top


Watermark A translucent logo or message put into the paper during the manufacturing process; shows authenticity or implies exclusivity. Often used by lawyers and governments. When printing, the watermark must be readable and right side up on the finished piece. Web Paper sold in a roll for a high volume, high-speed printing; used to print newspapers, magazines, insert cards, etc. Web-Fed Press A press that prints using paper form a roll. Weight The comparative amount of a type style. Typefaces of differing weights have names such as light, semi, bold or ultra bold. White Point A movable reference point that defines the lightest area in an image, causing all other areas to be adjusted accordingly. Widow A single word on a line by itself either at the end of a paragraph, page or document. To be avoided in typography. Wire-O Binding A continuous series of double wire loops running through punched holes in the printed pages. With The Grain To print and fold in the same direction as the “grain” of the paper.