Commercial Printing Terms Page 1 of 5

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SOURCING SERVICES
Commercial Printing
Commercial Printing Terms
Terms
Learn to Talk the Talk of Commercial Print
Commonly Asked Questions
Every industry has its own jargon, and commercial printing is no exception. Below you'll find a list of words used in
Paper/Printing Glossary the commercial print market place. Reading through the list and understanding the words and their meanings will
Product Lines provide you a quick education in commercial print and may even save you from embarrassment when you're making a
Who To Call call on a veteran print buyer.

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

Term Definition

Accordion Fold Two or more parallel folds which open like an accordion.

Alterations Changes or change orders made by the customer after the file is given to the printer,
usually occurring during pre-press. Examples include color corrections (making the sky
bluer, a dress brighter red), retouching (delete a logo on a shirt), adding shadows, etc.

Analog color proof An off-press color proof made from separation films, Direct-to-plate technology is causing
analog proofs to be replaced by digital proofs. Also referred to as film-based, conventional,
or manual proof.

Anti-offset powder Fine powder lightly sprayed over the printed surface of coated paper as sheets leave a
press (helps prevent sheets from sticking to each other).

Aqueous coating A water-based coating applied by a printing press to protect and enhance printing, unlike a
varnish, it does not require a printing plate or ink tower, uses a coating unit.

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Term Definition

Basis size The size in inches for specific types of paper before they are printed and finished.

Basis weight The weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a given standard size for that
grade.

Bleed An extension of printing beyond the trim mark to ensure there is no white area after the
final trim.

Blind embossing The process of producing a raised (relief) image in paper without using ink or hot stamp
foil; no registration issues.

Blueline A prepress proof where all the colors show as blue images on white paper, also referred to
as positions proof, Dylux, silver print.

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Term Definition

Case Binding A durable type of binding in which a hard cover is placed on both sides of the bound sheets.

Chalking Ink that is smeared or easily removed from the printed sheet.

Color Correction Adjustments made to the color separation process to bring the printed results as close as
possible to the original photograph.

Color Separation The process of producing separate printing plates for each of the four colors (Cyan-
Magenta-Yellow-Black) required to produce the original color during the printing process.

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Content Proof A proof used to check the content or layout of the piece.

Contract Proof A proof used to approve color.

Cover A category of thick paper used for products such as posters, menus, folders, postcards etc.
The basic coversheet size is 20" x 26" (smaller than text, which is 25" x 38").

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Term Definition

Die cutting The process of cutting special shapes into or from paper and other printable materials. In
sheetfed printing, die cutting occurs off-line. In web printing it can occur in-line.

Draw-down Used to determine how a PMS or Spot Color will look on different types of paper stock.

Dry trapping On press - printing wet ink on dry ink. Usually the ink has dried for 24 hours before the
sheet is sent through a second time to be printed on.

Dummy A preliminary layout showing the position of illustrations and text as they appear in the final
reproduction. A set of blank pages made up in advance to show the size, shape, form and
general style of a piece.

Duotones When a one-color photograph is printed using two printing plates (for a color effect other
than black & white, or to enhance shadows and highlights in a black and white photo).

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Term Definition

Enamel A coated paper, which can be either dull or gloss.

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Term Definition

Finish Size Refers to the height and width of an item in its final finished form (ie. folded down). Also
known as folded size.

Flat Size Refers to the height and width of a piece before it is folded, die cut or glued. Finished size
refers to the height and width of an item in its final form.

Flood When a sheet is completely printed with ink, aqueous coating, or varnish.

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Term Definition

Gripper Finger-like clamps that control the flow of paper through a sheetfed press. Usually about
3/8" is reserved along the leading edge of the paper.

Gutter The inner margin of a printed book or booklet; from type to binding.

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Term Definition

Halftone A photograph or continuous-tone illustration that has been converted to dots for
reproduction.

Hickies An imperfection in printing due to dried ink, dust or dirt on the press. Most likely appearing
within large solid areas as tiny donuts.

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Hot Stamping Placing Images on various substrates by using relief type, pressure and special imaging foil.

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Term Definition

Imposition The arrangement of individual pages on a signature (press sheet) so they appear in proper
sequence after folding.

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Term Definition

JPEG A type of file format that saves storage and increases transmission speed because it is
highly compressed.

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Term Definition

Kerning The reduction of space between selected letter combinations, improves visual appearance
of the line.

Kiss Impression Just enough coverage to produce a light image on paper.

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Term Definition

Loose Proof A proof that only shows part of a job, usually just the photographs. Also called randoms or
scatter proofs.

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Term Definition

Make-ready The work required to set up a press or machine to prepare it for producing a job.

Metallic ink Ink containing metal powders as pigments, used for design effects.

Mottle The spotty or uneven appearance of printing, mostly in solid areas.

Morié An undesirable pattern that results when halftones and screen tints are made with
improperly aligned screens, or when a pattern in a photo , such as a plaid, interferes with a
halftone dot pattern.

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Term Definition

Offset Lithography A type of printing in which ink is transferred to a rubber blanket instead of direct from plate
to blanket. Also called lithography.

Opaque Ink An ink that conceals the color beneath it. Typically used on clear, metallic, or dark paper or
plastic stocks so the four color printing stands out.

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Term Definition

Perfect Bound A stack of signatures (of which the edge is ground down) that are glued onto a spine.

Pre-flight The initial step of pre-press that ensure all the correct components are available to produce
the printed piece.

Press proofs A proof of a color subject made on a printing press in advance of the production run.

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Term Definition

Quark A common page layout software application used to create and compose parts of a page
into a document.

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Term Definition

RIP Raster Image Processing. When a file is converted from bytes in various source files into a
single file of dot patterns (called rastors) that can be output as film, digital proofs, or plates.

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Term Definition

Sheetwise To print one side of a sheet of paper, then turn it over and print the other side with a
different printing plate.

Signature The name given to a printed sheet after it has been folded.

Stochastic Screening A special pre-press process that converts images to tiny micro dots that are randomly
spaced; the end result is more defined detail and elimination of moiré patterns (undesirable
screen pattern).

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Term Definition

Trapping In prepress - overprinting colors so they overlap to eliminate white areas between colors
during printing.

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Term Definition

UV A liquid that is applied over printed pieces and then cured with ultra violet light to produce a
very shiny durable coating.

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Term Definition

Vignette A design effect in which the background fades gradually away.

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Term Definition

Wet trapping On press - printing wet ink over previously printed wet ink; common for achieving a strike-
through effect.

Work and Tumble When a sheet is printed on side and then turned over front to back and printed (using the
same printing plates) on the opposite side with the same images. Sometimes referred to as
"work and flop."

Work and Turn To print one side of the paper, then turn it over from left to right and print the second side
using the same printing plates.

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