Common UK Printing Terms Explained

Here is a guide to some common terms used in the print industry.

A series
Standard international metric range of paper sizes

Acetate
Transparent sheet of plastic

Acid-free paper
Paper made without the use of acidic chemicals which reduce its shelf life

Acrobat
A software developed by Adobe Systems Inc. that allows documents to be read and printed across computer systems, using PDF (portable document format) files

Additive Colour
Colours achieved through the mixing of colours of light. When all of the colours of the spectrum are added together, they produce white light. Computer screens and TV’s use additive colour

Against the grain
Folding or cutting a sheet of paper at right angles to the grain of the paper

Ampersand
The ‘&’ symbol used for the word ‘and’

Anti set-off spray
A fine spray used when printing to stop the ink setting off when the paper is stacked

Antique
A printing paper with a rough textured finish

Apple
The computer system most commonly used in the graphic industry

Archive
Digital storage of previously jobs

Art paper
Gloss paper coated with china clay and then calendared to a gloss finish

Artwork
Copy or digital file used to produce the printed job

Ascender
Part of a letter that extends above the x-height

Attachment
File sent with an email message

Author’s corrections
Corrections made on a proof

B series
Alternative international range of paper sizes

Binding
The process of fastening printed sheets together in a secure way

Bitmap
Digital image file made up of individual pixels

Black and white
Mono or monochrome image in black only

Bleed
Part of the image that beyond the trim area of the print

Blind embossing
The effect created by a non printed raised area on the print

Blocking
Binding process that impresses an image or lettering onto a sheet

Blow-up
When a graphic or area is enlarged

Bmp
Bitmap graphics format

Board
General term for paper above 200gsm

Body text
The main text of the print

Bold
Thick version of a typeface

Bond
A range of uncoated papers often used for stationery

BPIF
British Printing Industries Federation trade body

BPOP
Bulk Packed on Pallets

Bromide
Photographic light-sensitive paper once used in print reproduction

Burst binding
A strong form of adhesive binding for books and brochures

CAD/CAM
Computer-aided design/computer aided manufacture

Camera ready artwork/copy
Conventional artwork ready for processing

Caps
Capital or upper case letters

Carrier sheet
A sheet of paper which shows the delivery address placed inside a film wrapped brochure

Cartridge
Uncoated paper with high opacity and good bulk often used for sckettching

Case
Refers to whether letters are capitalised (upper case) or not (lower case)

Case-bound
A book with a hard case outer cover

Cast coated
Paper with a high mirror like gloss

China clay
Material used for coating onto matt, silk and gloss papers

Chlorine-free paper
Paper whitened without the use of environmentally harmful chlorine chemicals

Clipping path
Outline around an illustration or image which determines the cut out area

CMYK
Abbreviation used for four colour process printing – cyan, magenta, yellow and black (K)

Coated paper
Paper coated with china clay

Collate
Place the printed sheets into the correct order for finishing

Colour bars
Coloured strips and circles added to four-colour process printed sheets showing ink densities and used for quality and consistency

Colour separation
The breaking down of full colour into the four process colours

Colour splits
The separation of the different colours on artwork

Colour swatch
A sample of a specified colour

Colour transparency
A full-colour photographic image on piece of film

Computer-to-plate
System which exposes litho plates by laser or thermal imaging directly from data supplied from a computer file

Continuous stationery
Stationery produced on a reel used on certain computer printers

Continuous tone
An uncountable range of colour variation or shades of grey such as occurs in a photography or painting, which cannot be directly reproduced

Contract proof
A colour proof that was used to mimic the expected result of a printed job

Copier paper
Paper used in photocopying machines usually 80gsm uncoated

Copy date
An agreed date to send copy to the printer

CTP
Computer To Plate (as above)

Crease
Score a line across a sheet of board to assist folding and reduce cracking

Cracking
When the fibres are broken when they are folded

Creep
The effect of the outer printed pages in a brochure or catalogue becoming wider than the inner pages, due to the thickness of paper across the fold

Cromalin
An old proofing system used in full colour litho printing

Crop
Removing an area of an image or illustration to achieve better fit

Crop marks
Marks printed on a sheet indicating where the sheet will be trimmed

Cross fold
A sheet that is folded in half and then again in the opposite direction

Cut marks
See crop marks

Cut-out
Illustration where the background has been removed

Cyan
The blue colour used in full colour printing

Dandy roll
Cylinder on paper making machine which impresses patterns and watermarks onto the surface

Data integrity
The degree to which date is trusted or assumed correct

Densitometer
An optical device used by printers to measure and control the density of ink printed on the paper

Descender
The part of a letter extending below the character baseline

Desktop publishing (DTP)
The production of fully made-up documents using a MAC or PC with page layout software

Die cutting
The process of cutting out shapes from the sheet of card

Digital printing
Printing directly from computer files to paper

Digital proof
A proof generated from a computer fie

Digital workflow system
Prepress system that manages the flow of made-up pages from creation through proofing to imposition on plate

Dingbat
A term for typographical characters such as arrows, starts, hearts and snowflakes

Dithering
A technique used in computer graphics to create the appearance of additional colours and shades of grey

Dot gain
The increase in the size of the dot in a halftone image when printed onto paper

DPI
Abbreviation of dots per inch, which indicates the resolution of images. The more dots per inch, the higher the resolution. Minimum required for printing is 300 dpi for all images

Dots per inch (dpi)
Measurement used to determine the resolution of a printer or scanner

Double spread
Print going across two facing pages

Double-page spread
When two facing pages in a book or periodical are shown

Down-time
The non-productive time when a printing machine is being maintained or serviced

Download
The transfer of files from one computer another

Drawn-on-cover
A binding style in which the cover is wrapped around the spine and glued directly

Drilling
The making of holes in a pile of paper for binding methods, such as loose leaf

Drop-caps
Drop Capital. A letter or letters at the beginning of the paragraph which extend below the depth of the rest of the text line

Drum Scanner
The original method of scanning transparencies using a cylindrical clear drum

Drying time
Time taken for the ink to dry on the printed sheet

Dummy
Mock-up of a book or other piece of printing to show how it will look before the main run

Duotone
A black-and-white image that is reproduced using two colours to add depth

Duplex printing
Printing on both sides of the paper

ECF
Elemental Chlorine Free pulp and paper during manufacture

Edge gilding
Gold-leaf edging on a book

Em
Standard unit of measurement (also called pica). One em = 4.22mm

Em dash
An elongated hyphen (the width of capital M in the font in use)

Embossed finish
Surface pattern pressed in paper

Embossing
See blocking

En
Half the width of an em

En dash
An elongated hyphen (the width of capital N in the font in use)

Encapsulated postscript
Line graphic created using software that produces Postscript code

Endpaper
Strong paper used for securing the body of a book to its case

EPS
See Encapsulated Postscript

Estimator
The person who calculates the cost of a printed job

Expanded type
Typeface with characters wider than the normal font

Extended type
See expanded type

Extent
The length of book expressed in pages

Face
A style of type ie typeface

Facing pages
Pages that face each other in an open book or magazine. Also called double page spread

Fade-out
See ghosting

FAQ
Frequently asked questions

Feathering
In printing, ink spread

Feed edge
The edge of the sheet of paper that is presented to the lays of a press that take it into the machine. Also called gripper edge, leading edge or pitch edge

Fill
The pattern and or colour that is inside an object produced in a illustration programme

Fine papers
High quality printing and writing papers

Finish
The type or surface that a particular grade of paper has

Finishing
Bindery process taking place after a job is printed. Ie folding, stitching, cutting inserting etc

Finished size
Size of printed item after production is complete. Also called trimmed size

Flat size
Size of printed item after printing and trimming but before finishing

Firewall
A digital security barrier to prevent external access to a computer system by outside sources

First proof
The first proof used for checking

First revise
The corrected first proof made after errors have been noted

Flat
When a printed image lacks contrast or colour density

Flatbed
A press where the printing surface is flat rather than curved as on a litho press

Flatbed scanner
An image scanner with a flat platen or bed

Flexography
Relief printing process using flexible bendable plates

Flush cover
A bound book or booklet having the cover trimmed to the same size as the text pages

Flyleaf
The plain sheet of paper in a book between the cover and the text pages

Foils
A sheet with a surface that resembles metal

Foil emboss
To stamp and emboss an image onto a sheet of paper, also called a heat stamp

Folding boxboard
High quality board used for making cartons which has good scoring and folding characteristics

Foldout
An extra page that is attached to another page, often used for a map or chart. Also called throw out, gatefold and pullout

Folio
The page number at the head or foot of a page of text

Font
A complete family set of the same typeface and point sizes

Font size
The actual size that the type is produced at. In the UK and US font size is usually given in points

Footer
The common text that appears at the bottom of each page

Format
Trimmed page size or physical specification for a page or a book

Four colour process
See CMYK

Four colour separation
See colour separation

FTP
File Transfer Protocol. An old system for transferring digital files between 2 fixed sites securely

Full colour
See CMYK

Full point
Full stop

Galley proof
An old system of proofing text that is not made up into page finished pages

Gatefold
A page in a magazine or book which folds out twice

Gather
The process of collecting individual sheets of a printed job into the correct sequence for binding

Ghosting
A problem in litho printing where an image can reappear faintly somewhere else on the sheet

GIF
The filename extension for files in Graphics Interchange Format

Gigabyte (Gb)
One thousand million bytes

Gloss art
A paper with a highly calendared/glossy surface

Graduated fill
The gradual change from one colour to another. eg From a dark tone to a light tone across an image

Grain direction</strong
The direction that the fibres that make up a sheet of paper lay

Grammage
How the weight of paper is measured – grams per square metre

Gravure printing
A method of printing in which recesses on a cylinder are filled with ink and then the surplus is removed with a blade. Used for long run magazines and catalogues

Grey board
Particular kind of bulky board used as backing board for pads etc

Grip
The area on the lead edge of the sheet of paper that the litho print machine grabs to feed the sheet of paper into the press

gsm or g/m2
Grams per square metre. How the weight of paper and board is measured

Guillotine
The machine that cuts the sheets of paper

Gummed paper
A paper coated on one side with adhesive

Gutter
The margin used when binding a book

Hairline
Very fine line or stroke in a letter

Halftone
Illustration created by dots of varying sizes

Hard copy
Physical written copy, typed or printed as distinct from a digital file

Hard-bound
See Case-bound

Hardcover
See case-bound

Header
The running headline appearing at the top of each page or letterhead

Hickey
Spot on a printed sheet caused by a spec of dust or dirt that causes an imperfection in the printed image ink. This is particularly noticeable in solids, large type, halftones, tints etc

High resolution
An image produced in high detail

Highlights
The lightest tonal areas in a graphic

Hot-melt
The adhesive used in perfect binding to glue the pages into the spine

Icon
A small picture that is used to represent something

Images
There are two main types of images – Vector Graphics and Bit-Mapped Graphics. Vector images use a composite of lines and nodes while Bit-Mapped Graphics use a composition of a pattern of dots (sometimes called Raster Graphics). Programs that enable you to create and manipulate Vector Graphics are often called drawing programmes (e.g. Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand). Programmes used for creating and manipulating Bit-Mapped images or photographs are sometimes referred to as image editing or paint programmes (e.g. Adobe Photoshop or MS Paint)

Image area
The printed area of a sheet

Imposition
How the pages are arranged on the printed sheet so that when a publication is folded and bound, the pages run in the correct order

Imprint
The publishers and/or printers identifying tag printed in a book or other work

Indent
Where the type is set further in from the left hand margin of a page than the rest of the surrounding text

India paper
Very thin opaque rag paper often used for high-quality bibles

Indigo
A digital printing process

Ink set-off
Unintentional transfer of wet ink from one printed sheet to another in the paper stack

Insert
A loose sheet of printed material that will be inserted into another piece of printed material such as a magazine or brochure

Interleaves
Blank sheets of paper placed between wet printed sheets to prevent a ink set-off when cutting

Iris proofs
An old system of full colour digital proofing generated from a Postscript file

ISO
International Standards Organisation – the international accepted working standards in paper sizes

Italic
Letters in the font family that slope forward

Ivory board
The traditional high grade smooth white board used for business cards

Jacket
The dust cover on a book

Java
An object-oriented programming language designed for programming the internet

Joint photographic experts group (JPEG)
A standard for coding and compression of colour images

JPEG
See above

Justification
Where the text on a page is aligned with either the left or right margin or with both

Kerning
The adjusting of the space between two adjacent letters to create a better appearance

Kerning pairs
Pairs of letters which invariably need spacing adjustments made to them visually neater

Keyline
A thin line drawn on artwork to show where illustrations or other material should be placed

Kraft
A strong brown paper used in packaging and printing

Laid paper
A high quality paper that has lines parallel to each other imprinted into the paper

Lamination
A thin plastic film that is glued to a sheet of paper or board using heat and pressure that adds to the protection and/or appearance of the finished job

Landscape
The orientation of a page or image or picture so that its width is greater than its height

Leaf
As single sheet, comprising two pages ie printed both sides

Letterpress
A printing process using raised lead metal letters to transfer the ink onto the paper

Letter spacing
Adding or reducing the space between individual characters

Lick-coated paper
Paper with a very light coating

Lightfast ink
Ink that fades more slowly than normal ink on prolonged exposure to strong light

Limp binding
Paperback binding

Literal
A mistake introduced when keying in copy, often only affecting one or two characters

Lithography
Print process in which ink is applied selectively to the plate by chemically treating the image areas to accept ink and the non-image areas to accept water. Shortened to litho

Litho plate
The printing plate used in offset litho

Loose leaf
Binding which uses steel rings passing through drilled holes in the paper to hold the sheets together

Low resolution
Often shortened to low-res. An image that is produced in low quality

Lower case
Small letters as distinct from capitals. Abbreviated as lc

Mac
Abbreviation for the Apple Macintosh computer widely used in the print and publishing industries

Machine binding
Binding printed sheets by machine rather than manually

Machine coated
Paper that is coated during the paper-making process

Machine minder
The person who supervises the running of a printing machine

Machine proof
A proof made by printing from the actual printing plate. Also known as a wet proof

Magenta
One of the colours used in 4 colour printing

Make-ready
The setting up of a printing machine ready to run a specific job

Manila
A tough brown paper made from hemp and often used for envelopes

Matchprint
An old system of dry proofing, similar to a Cromalin

Mechanical binding
Binding system using metal or plastic coils. See also spiral binding

Megabyte (mb)
One million computer bytes

Metallic inks
Inks that contain metallic particles such as gold or silver take give a shiny metallic printed effect

Micrometer
Instrument used to measure the thickness of paper

Micron
Units used to measure the thickness of board

Mid tones
The tonal ranges between highlights and shadows

Mini web
Small web offset machine typically producing 16pp A4 colour sections (8pp A4 to view)

Misregister
One colour or more on the printed sheet do not align up

Moire
Undesirable chequered pattern on the printed sheet caused by a conflict of screen angles of the four colour process dots

Monochrome
Literally means one colour. Often black on white

Monotone
An illustration in one colour

Mutton
An em quad

NCR
The proprietary name given to a paper which has been impregnated with dye on one or both sides of the sheet that transfers an image on to the sheet below when written or typed on

Neckline
White space under a headline

Oblique
Where text or sometimes a graphic is slanted

OCR
Optical Character Recognition. The interpretation of typewritten characters by a machine which scans the text and uses software to store it to a file

Octavo
The Latin word meaning “in eighth” or “for the eighth time”, abbreviated as 8vo. The technical term describing the format of a book, referring to the size of pages produced after folding a flat sheet of paper containing multiple printed pages to form the individual sections of a book

Offprint
Part of a book or journal printed separately. Eg and article from a journal

Offset
The printing process that uses a rubber blanket wrapped around a cylinder to transfer the image onto paper as in offset litho

Offset lithography
See Offset

Offset paper
A term for uncoated book paper

On the fly
Refers to any process which occurs as output is being performed

One sided art
Paper coated on one side only

Onionskin
A lightweight, often translucent paper in book and brochure production

Opacity
The term given to how see through a piece of paper is

OPP lamination
Oriented Polypropylene Lamination. The standard lamination film used in print

Optical character recognition
See OCR

Origination
All the processes used in the production of the original material such as typesetting, up to the plate making, to get the job ready to print

Orphan
The first line of a new paragraph, or a sub head, that appears dangling at the foot of a page that is considered undesirable

Out of register
When one or more of the colours on the printed sheet are out of alignment with the others

Outline
An area comprising of only an outline with no solid area

Overprinting
Additional printing over a previously printed sheet

Overrun
Copies printed in excess of the specified printing number requested

Overs
See spoilage

Page
One side of a sheet of paper

Page proof
Proof of a page before printing

Pagemaker
One of the original DTP programmes – now rarely used

Pagination
The numbering of pages

Pamphlet
A small booklet comprising of only a few pages

Pantone
Proprietary name of a widely used colour matching system

Pantone matching system (PMS)
See Pantone

Parallel Folding
Folding a sheet with all the folds parallel to each other

Parenthesis
A round bracket

Pass
When a job goes through a machine

Pass for press
Customer authorisation of the final form of a job for printing

PDF
PDF is a way of saving a document that protects the document formatting so that it will look exactly the same when viewed on any computer or when printed.

PDF
See Portable Document Format

Perfect binding
Adhesive binding method widely used on paperback books and magazines

Perfecting
Printing both sides of a sheet in one pass

Perforating
Punching a series of tiny holes in paper to facilitate tearing

Photoshop
An raster image manipulation programme from Adobe

Pic
Abbreviation for picture

Pica
A typographical unit of measurement

Picking
The lifting of parts of the paper surface during the printing process

Pigment
The constituent of a printing ink that gives it its colour

Pitch
The horizontal spacing of printer characters

Pixel
An abbreviation for picture elements

Pkzip
A widely used file compression and archiving software on PC’s

Plastic proof
An old system of proofing such as Cromalin or Matchprint etc

Plate
The the piece of aluminium used to transfer the image from the printing blanket to the paper in offset printing

Platesetter
The imaging unit on a ctp device to etch the image into the plate

Plate Sunk
Area of paper compressed

PMS
PMS stands for Pantone Matching System used by the printing industry to print spot colours. It is not always possible to match PMS colours using CMYK.

Point sizes
The unit of measurement for characters in the typeset copy. This is measured by the height of the capital letters. 1 point equals 1/72 of an inch

Pop-ups
A form of portable graphic display system

Portable Document Format (pdf)
The format used by Adobe Acrobat Files

Portrait
The origination of a picture, screen or page, such that its height is greater than its width

Positive
An image on film or paper in which the dark and light values are the same as the original as distinct from a negative

Poster paper
One-sided glazed paper with rough underside suitable for pasting

Postscript
Adobe Systems proprietary page description language

Postscript Level 2
An improved version of Postscript

Postscript Level 3
An even further improved version

pp
Pages

Pre-flight
A process of checking a digital file for errors before sending for proofing or printing.

Pre press
All the functions required by the printer before he is able to print

Pre-printed
Part of a job printed before the main run through the press

Press
Printing machine

Press proof/press pass
Proof taken from the press after make-ready but before the main run

Process colours
The 4 colours CMYK used in printing and the colour separation process

Progressive proofs or progs
An historical proofing system made from each plate in a colour set showing each colour alone and in combination with the others as a guide to colour matching at the printing stage

Proof
A trial printed sheet or copy made before the production run for the purpose of checking

Proof reader’s marks
Symbols used by a proof reader in marking corrections on proofs

Proofreading
Checking typeset copy for accuracy

PUR
A strong system of gluing books and magazines using Polyurethane glue

QuarkXPress
Once the leading DTP or page layout programme in the graphics arts industry

Quarto
A page one quarter of the traditional broadsheet

Quire
One 20th of a ream (25 sheets)

Quotes
Inverted commas

Ragged
Text layout that is not justified

Ream
500 sheets of paper

Ream-wrapped
Paper sheets wrapped in lots of 500

Recto
A right hand page

Reel
The master roll of paper as it comes off the paper making machine before it is cut down to sheets

Register marks
Marks in the same relative position on the printing plates that enable the correct alignment of colours to be achieved

Registration
The alignment of the different colours used in printing

Relative Humidity (RH)
Amount of water vapour present in the atmosphere expressed as a percentage of saturation

Relief
Printing method using a raised image eg letterpress

Reprint
The subsequent printing of the first edition of a publication

Repro
The processes used before a job can be printed – prepress, scanning and make-up

Resolution
Measurement of image quality stated in lines per inch (lpi), dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch

Retouching
Correcting a photographic print or transparency before reproduction

Reversed Out
Where the the type printed in white and the background is another colour

Revise
A revised proof for subsequent checking

RGB
Red, Green, Blue – the colour system used in tv’s and computer monitors

Rich Text Format
A basic format for word processing

Right-angle folding
Folding a sheet with one or more folds at right-angles to each other

Ring binding
Binding by means of holes in paper which locate on metal rings in a binder

River
Undesirable formation of word spaces into a vertical river of white in the text

Roman type
Upright letters as distinct from italic

Rough
Sketch or layout

Royal
The traditional standard size of paper 480 x 636 mm

Rule
A line

Rules
Printing lines measured in points

Runnability
Ability of paper to be printed without problems

Running head
A title repeated at the to of each page. Also known as a running headline

s/s
Abbreviation for ‘same size’ in reproduction specifications

Saddle stitching
Method used to bind books with wire staples

Sans serif type
Type in which there are no serifs

Scalable font
A font that can be used at any size and any resolution

Scamp
Rough layout

Scatter proofs
Proofs of illustrations or photos arranged in random order on the sheet for checking

Scoring
To impress into a board with a rule to make folding easier and reduce cracking

Screen angles
Each of the colour dots are printed at a different angles to avoid a moire pattern

Screen clash
A moire pattern is caused by the screen angles being incorrect or when a previously printed image is re screened

Screen ruling
The number of lines or dots per inch on a screen

Screen tint
When a colour is printed as a shade rather than full strength the dots are percentage (10-90%)

Script
A typeface that simulates handwriting

Scum or scumming
The build up of ink on the non image area of an offset plate

Section
A folded sheet which is assembled with others to make up a book. Eg an A2 will provide a section of 8 x A4 pages when folded twice

Section sewing
A conventional method of binding where a thread is used to sew the section together  as in most paperback or hardback books

Security paper
Paper incorporating features which make counterfeiting difficult

Self copy paper
Carbonless copy paper

Self cover
Where the paper used for the cover and the text are the same weight

Self adhesive paper
Gummed pressure sensitive paper

Self mailer
Printed piece mailed without envelope

Serif
The terminal stroke at the end of a line making up part of a character

Set-off
The transfer of wet ink onto the sheet

Sew
To fasten the sections of a book with thread

Shade
The lightness or darkness of a colour

Shadows
The dark areas in a photograph or halftone print represented by a 70-100% dot

Sheet
The full size piece of paper used for printing before folding or cutting

Sheet fed
Where individual cut sheets are used for printing as distinct from paper on a continuous reel

Sheet work
Each side of the sheet is printed with a different image. As distinct from work and turn

Show through
Lack of opacity in a sheet of paper to the point where the printed image on one side of a page is excessively visible from the other side

Shrink wrap
Plastic film wrapping used to package printed items

Side lay
The guide on a sheet fed press which positions the sheet sideways to ensure each sheet is in the same position before it starts to travel through the press

Side stabbing
A form of stitching where the stitch goes through the side of the document rather than in the fold

Signature
Synonym for section

Silk screen printing
A printing method which employs a fine mesh screen to support a stencil through which ink is squeezed

Slip case
A cardboard case for a book

Slur
Image distortion caused by drag on the printing machine

Small capitals
Capitals the same size as the x-height of the normal lower case

Smoothness
Evenness of paper surface

Soft cover
A paper cover as distinct from hard case board

Soft proof
A representation on screen of what will be printed in the form of a PDF, rather than a proof on paper

Solid
Printed area where the colour is printed at 100%

Solvent
Ink dissolver

Spec
Specification

Spine
The back edge of a book

Spiral binding
Binding using a continuous spiral of wire or plastic threaded through punched holes in the back margin

Spoilage
Waste incurred during the printing or binding processes

Spot colour
A colour that is usually specified in a document as a particular pantone or PMS number

Spot varnish
Varnish applied to selected parts of a printed sheet

Spread
Pair of facing pages

Stet
Proof-readers instructions meaning ignore the marked correction ie leave it as it was

Stitch
The binding method using a stitch made with a thread or staple

Strip gumming
Applying water soluble adhesive to paper in strips

Subscript
A small character printed below the baseline

Substrate
Surface being printed on

Subtractive Colour
Colours achieved through the mixing of colour pigments such as ink or paint. When all of the colours of the spectrum are added together, they produce black. Printing uses subtractive colour

Superior
Small character set above the line

Tab
To determine the points where the text is to align vertically in typesetting

TCF
Totally Chlorine Free, relating to pulp and paper manufacture

Text
The body type in a book as distinct from headings and display type

Text pages
The body type in a book as distinct from the type on the cover

Text paper
A printing method where the body paper of a magazine or book as distinct from the cover stock

Thermographic printing
A traditional printing method where the ink is coated with a special powder and heated immediately after printing which causes the ink to raise

Thread sewing
The conventional binding method that sews the individual printed sections together to form a book

Throw out
A page which folds out of a book or a magazine to a size beyond the book trim

Thumbnail sketch
Small rough drawing

Tick marks
Alternative term for crop marks or cut marks used for finishing the printed item

TIFF (Tag Image File Format)
A standard format for the storage of bit map graphics and scanned images

Tint
A solid colour reduced in shade by screening, specified as a percentage of the solid colour

Tip in
To fix a single leaf inside a printed section using glue

Tracing paper
A transparent paper

Transparent Inks
Inks such as process inks which permit other colours to show through when over-printed and so produce subsequent mixed colours

Trap, trapping
The overlap between two colours used in printing to ensure that there is no white gap appearing between them as a result of paper movement or poor registration

Trim
To cut the edges off the printed sheet to square up or reduce in size

Trim marks
Alternative term for crop marks or cut marks

Trim to bleed
Trim so that printed solids reach the edge of the trimmed sheet

Tritone
The use of three (usually Pantone) colours in combination to produce a particular effect in printing

Type family
Roman, italic, bold and all other versions of one typeface

Typographer
The name given to the person who used to specialise in the design and layout of printed type matter particularly in the publishing industry

Typographic
Abbreviated to typos. See literals

Uncoated paper
Paper with no coating

Unjustified
Typesetting having a ragged right edge

Unsewn binding
See perfect binding

Unzip
To decompress a file that has been zipped

Upper case
Capital letters

UV varnish
A high gloss varnish that can be used as a spot or overall that is hardened using UltraViolet light

Varnish
A thin, transparent coating applied to printed work for gloss finish and protection

Vector graphics
Another name for an object orientated graphic. The term arises because graphics are defined in terms of vectors, or geometric formulae, rather than bitmaps or pixels

Verso
Left hand page with even number

Vignette
A halftone in the background that gradually fades out

Virgin fibre
Fibre used for the first time to make paper (ie not recycled)

Wash-up
The cleaning of the individual printing units of a press prior to a change of ink or when the machine is shut down

Wet proof
See machine proof

Widow
A single line of a paragraph, printed at the top of a page

Wire stitching
See saddle stitching

Wire Binding or Wire-o-Binding
Binding method comprising a continuous double loop of wire running through punched squares in the margin of a book

Word break
Division of a word at a line ending

Work and Tumble
A printing technique where the reverse side of the sheet is printed by turning it over and using the same plate

Work and Turn
Printing the first side of a sheet, turning the stack across the short axis and then printing the reverse side of the sheet using the same plate

Workflow
The control of documents moving around an organisation

Wove
A paper produced using a plain, woven dandy roll and therefore without laid lines, as distinct from laid paper

x-height
The height of the lower case letter ‘x’ in a particular typeface or font

Xerography
Electrostatic copying process in which toner adhere to charged paper to produce an image

Zapf Dingbats
A typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, which includes common dingbats

Zip
A file format widely used for data compression