A-Z of PRINT JARGON

Artwork - Is the term we use when a computerised design is made print ready. An Artwork file created after being proofed by the customers in a format need by the printer to move from design to print, with crop marks and bleed.

Binding - is a term which describes gathering and fastening together separate sheets. Primarily used for the creation of books, brochures or leaflets. This could be saddle stitch, wire binding, perfect binding, ring or spiral binding and trimming. Cutting your printed material to its required size using crop marks

Bitmap -Any image which is digitised is likely to be a Bitmap. This is a grid of pixels or dots generated by computer graphics software in order to re-present an image

Bleed - For us to print a document with colour from edge to edge, it must be printed larger than the intended size so the design has to extend beyond the edge of the trim size. This bleed is usually required to be 3mm on all 4 edges of a document. With no bleed, any slight movement on the press will leave a white boarder around your document

Case Bound - refers to book binding where a hardback book is made with a rigid material.

CMYK - Is the abbreviation of printing colour process Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key colour (Black). A mixture of these 4 colours allows us to have millions of colours to choose from

Colour Blend - is when two colours smoothly merge into one another, or a colour ‘blends’ to nothing or white, it’s also referred to a graduated tint.

Collating - When several sheets are printed in order to make up a document, once they are printed they need to be gathered together in the correct order before they are bound or stapled

Colour Separation - This computerised process creates the ‘Four colour’ or ‘Full colour’ separation of design and artwork so it can be printed using the CMYK Process.

Crop Marks - These are added to artwork to show us where a print design needs to be trimmed or ‘cropped’, folded or perforated

Die-Cutting - Is a process where the sheet of paper or card is cut out to a desired shape

Digital Printing - Is similar to your home computer which and is more suitable and cost effective for shorter runs because there is less initial set up involved. Digital printing is what we call a four-colour process reproduction method that uses electronic files (PDF artwork). Dots of colour are used to produce an image using toner or ink. It is great for a quick turnaround as the job is produced in its finished format with no additional drying time required.

DPI - All full colour printing is done by using very small dots. Dpi refers to the amount of ‘Dots per inch’. The higher the dots per inch, the higher the quality of the final printed result. We would say that as a minimum we would expect 300dpi, using anything less will make the image appear blurred and you can see the pixilation.

Embossing - This is when a non-inked shape is pressed into the back of a sheet in order to create a raised or ‘embossed’ image viewable on the front of the sheet. Commonly used for logos on corporate brochures or even on business cards.

Foil Stamping or blocking - A specialised process of applying metallic or pigment foil to paper or card, where a heated die is stamped onto the foil. This technique is superb to add elegance and distinction to a brand.

Fonts - Are typefaces or type styles used for creating text. The most common of all being Ariel and’ Times Roman’

Full colour process - This is the same as ‘four colour process’ the principal behind all colour printing using the colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

Font Matching - This occurs when a document is supplied from designer to printer and has an unusual Font which cannot be matched. Although text looks like a close match, it can cause problems with the text not flowing properly causing errors which may result in text disappearing.

JPEG -Joint Photographic Electronic Group, which is a common file type used for compressing photographic images

Lamination Is the most common finishing technique applying a thin layer of plastic to paper or card sheets to enhance and protect the paper from moisture, staining, smudges or tears. Common types of laminate are soft touch, gloss, matt and silk which makes it excellent for durability and enhances the vibrancy of the ink colours.

Lithographic Printing is a process using wet ink and printing plates, and is more cost effective and suitable for larger runs. However, there is a lot of cost and time involved in making the printing plates and time involved for preparing the ‘spare’ material that is required until all the plate images are processed and registered before the job can be run. However, once this is done the cost per copy will be cheaper than digital printing on longer printing runs. The turnaround time is longer with litho, usually a 5 working day average. This is because time should be allowed for the ink to completely dry before finishing and longer run jobs have to be scheduled to run on the bigger presses.

Overs or Over Run - Extra copies printed over and above the desired original quantity

Paper GSM - is all about how the paper or card thickness is measured.(Grams per Square Metre)

Pantone® colours - is a worldwide recognized colour matching system where you can give a pantone reference to a printer specifically for companies who need to retain colour consistency with their brands across the world.

Perfect Binding - this is where multiple sheets of paper are glued together rather than stapled or stitched. Particularly if the brochure of magazine has a large number of pages.

Print Proof - Usually printed digitally to give you an accurate representation of the final print job, normally for bespoke printing orders in order to check for any errors prior to giving the approval to print the larger quantity.

NCR refers to ‘No Carbon Required’. The paper has been coated with chemicals so that its able to transfer any impression hand written or typed onto it onto the sheet or sheets below. This saves having to duplicate the same information onto several sheets, commonly used for restaurant receipts and tradesmen who need to write quotes for customers and keep a copy for themselves.

Print Crease - A process done before folding, in which a line is pressed into a sheet to create a crease. This is to help avoid cracking.

Print Format - This refers to the overall size of your document

Saddle Stitch - Is a binding technique of stapling or wire stitching.

UV Varnish - Is a laminate which is applied as a liquid in a similar procedure to ink., it is then cured under an Ultraviolet light which sets, giving the impression of a high gloss area. This is excellent for used highlighting areas of a design, such as a logo or background effect.

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