Artwork: An original illustration intended for printing which includes photos, graphics and fonts.

Aqueous coating: More environmentally friendly than UV coating  and holds up better than varnish, it is a clear layer of water-based components applied to a printed product for a glossy finish.

Backprinting: Printing on the second side of a sheet which is already printed on the front side.

Barrel fold: Type of folding which will result in a piece of paper being folded in three equal parts, with the right side folded to the left and the left side folded to the right, on top of the right hand side or folded twice in the same direction. Similar to tri fold.

Basis weight: The weight, measured in pounds, of a ream of paper (500 sheets) cut to a standard industry size.

Binding: Assembling sheets of paper with wire, thread, glue or any other means.

Bindery: The department which takes care of finishing or binding products.

Bleeds: Term referring to printing that goes to the edge of the sheet after trimming.

Block outs: Any portion of a file or artwork that will not be printed. For example, on carbonless forms, block outs can be used so that any credit card information that is written on the first sheet will not transfer to the other sheets.

Bond paper: Uncoated, plain, paper commonly used for letterheads and general business forms. You can have 20# bond paper and 24# bond paper, the latter being a little heavier and thicker, thus slightly more expensive.

Bulk: Term referring to the actual thickness of paper expressed in thousandths of inches but also to refer to the purchasing of printed products in large quantities, without any special binding or wrapping. 

Carbonless paper: Term used for pressure sensitive paper that is coated with specific chemicals that will enable the transfer from one sheet to the next when writing or typing and that does not use carbon inserts. Also called NCR paper. 

Camera-ready artwork: Artwork that is ready for commercial printing, designed at the final output size and that will not require the intervention of our graphic artists.

CMYK: Abbreviation commonly used in the printing and desktop publishing industries to refer to a color model using four primary colors (also called process colors) used in four color or full color printing: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

Coating: A layer of any material, usually liquid, spread over the surface of a sheet of paper to protect it from handling and destructive environment agents but also to add a smooth or glossy finish or color depth to the printed piece. 

Collating: Arranging printed sheets of paper in a precise order or desired sequence.

Color separations: Refers to the separation of colors in a multi-colored artwork into the basic component colors. For full color printing, a separate film is generated for each of the four colors used to generate a full color art effect: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.  

Comb bind: A binding method which uses a plastic comb that is inserted into pre-punched holes along the sheets of paper in order to hold them together.

Continuous forms: Sheets of paper that are used with a dot matrix printer. Holes are punched on each side of the form so that they can be pin-fed by the printer’s mechanism.

Consecutive numbering: Printing of numbers in a consecutive counting order so that you do not have to keep track or write down invoice numbers and so on.

Contrast: A change in color tone which ranges from light to dark, commonly used to differentiate between images and backgrounds.

Cover paper: Heavy paper used to cover booklets, brochures and similar items or to make presentation folders. 

Crop: Cutting off parts of a picture or an image on screen.

Crop marks: Refers to crossed lines that may be placed at the edges of an artwork to indicate where the final printed piece should be trimmed or in cases of proofs, to show the final art size.

Cyan: One of the four standard process colors; a shade of blue which reflects blue and green and absorbs red, showing somewhat of a turquoise color.

Dies: Wooden blocks with steel blades used to punch out parts of a printed piece of paper in desired shapes.

Die cuts: Cutting paper in a specific shape by using a wooden block at the desired shape which holds steel blades that will be applied with pressure to a stack of sheets by hydraulic or mechanical presses. Commonly used to inserts slits in presentation folders, circles in door hangers and so on.

Draft: A rough layout of a printed piece showing position of images and text as well as finished size. Also called sketch.

Duotone: Artwork made up of two printed colors.

Emboss: Producing a raised image on the surface of a sheet of paper by using pressure and heat to reshape the paper surface.

Foil: Very thin and flexible sheet of metal which is stamped or embossed on sheet of paper to give a raised look. 

Foil emboss: The fact of stamping a heated foil sheet of metal to create a flat imprint on a sheet of paper. The foil is pressed with a die against the sheets with enough pressure so that it sticks only in the intended places. Combined with heat or several layers of foil, dimensionality can be added to have the image appear raised, curved or sculpted onto the printed piece.

Foil stamping: Using a die to place a metallic or pigmented image on a sheet of paper. The foil is pressed with a die against the sheets with enough pressure so that it sticks only in the intended places.

Four color printing: Printing process which uses the combination of four basic colors (CMYK) to create a printed color picture composed from the basic four process colors. 

Gate fold: Type of folding which will result in a tri-panel piece with a portion of the right side folded to the left and a portion of the left side folded to the right, opening up to the “inside” of the piece, as if two gates were opened.

Ghosting: A faint unwanted image that appears on a printed sheet of paper where it was not intended. More often than not this problem is a function of graphical design and is very complicated to anticipate. Sometimes you can see the problem developing immediately after printing the sheet (called mechanical ghosting), other times the problem occurs while drying (called chemical ghosting). However the problem occurs, Ghosting is costly to fix, if at all possible. Occasionally it can be fixed by changing the color sequence, the inks, the paper, changing to a press with a drier, printing the problem area in a separate pass through the press or changing the number of sheets placed on the drying rack. Since it is a mostly a function of graphical design, the buyer pays for the increased cost.

Glossy: Term referring to a smooth and shiny aspect of a sheet of paper.

Grain: The direction in which a paper fiber lies.

Gummed flap: An envelope that you have to lick to seal.

Half fold: Type of folding which will result in a piece of paper being folded in two equal halves.

Hard copy: The printed copy that can be given to the printer from a computer file or simply typed text that will be used for comparison or for typesetting. A hard copy may be requested for full color printing jobs in order to compare the final printed colors to the colors printed on the original copy or on standard and custom printing jobs to be recreated or designed in a software that is compatible with commercial printing.  

Imprint: Adding text or images to a previously printed product.

Imprint area: The maximum area allowed for printing so that no text or image overlaps parts of the previously printed product. 

Knock outs: Masking out or removing text or images so that they do not print or overlap on the final product. For example, white text on a black background will not be printed on white paper and that is referred to as knock out.

Laid paper: Paper with a pattern of fine parallel lines that give it a ribbed effect and textured finish.

Laminating: Covering printed materials with film, glue or plastic to bond the different layers together or to give the materials a smooth and glossy finish.

Linen paper: Paper with a pattern that simulates the effect of linen cloth. 

Magenta: The red color, part of the four basic colors in process or full color printing.

Marginal wording: Text printed on the outside margins of a sheet and used for directions or useful references on a business form. For example, lines printed on continuous forms for correct placement and so on.

Matte finish: A dull paper or ink finish; the opposite of glossy or lustrous.

MICR: Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Type of recognition that relies on detecting characters that have been machine-printed in magnetic ink to rigid specifications. The disctinctive shape of each character and the amount of magnetic material in the ink are strictly defined by the American National Standards Institute.

MICR line: The row of characters printed in machine readable magnetic ink at the bottom of each check. Part of this MICR line identifies the issuing bank and the check number and is usually preprinted on the check. The face value of the check is typed into the far right of the MICR line before that check is routed back to the issuing bank. This allows the check to be recognized cheaply and easily by the Federal Reserve in order to forward it back to the bank on which it was drawn.

NCR paper:  Term used for pressure sensitive paper that is coated with specific chemicals that will enable the transfer from one sheet to the next when writing or typing and that does not use carbon inserts. Also called carbonless paper.

Opacity: The measure of light obscured or shown on a printed sheet or graphic. The more opaque or the thicker the paper, the less it will be see-through. Correspondingly, the thicker or heavier the paper is, the higher the cost will be. When designing artwork, layering images can be used to control which parts of the final printed graphic will appear more or less. 

Overrun: Copies printed in excess of the specified quantity. Generally, a 10% of overrun-underrun is considered acceptable in the printing industry. More copies than ordered are printed but during the cutting process for example, some loss can occur. 

Page count: Total number of pages in a book including any blank sheets. 

Paper brightness: Term referring to the paper brilliance. The brighter the paper, the whiter it appears. The brightness of the paper will affect the way colors are reflected. Colors printed on paper that is not very bright will seem darker. As a general rule, the brighter the paper, the more vibrant the colors will appear. On bright paper, however, light colors can appear washed out.

PMS color: Abbreviation for the Pantone Color Matching System; color system used to reproduce/match specific spot colors.

Postscript: Computer language most recognized by printing devices, describing the text and graphic elements (or appearance) of a file that will be printed.

Pressure-sensitive paper: Paper containing self sticking adhesive coating and covered by a backing sheet which will be removed upon use.

Process colors: Cyan (process blue), magenta (process red), yellow (process yellow) and black (process black) inks used in four color printing.

Proof: Final approved copy of the artwork before production begins.

Quad fold: Type of folding which will result in a piece of paper being folded in four equal parts.

RGB: color model using red, green and blue to display colors as accurately as possible on a screen device (monitor).

Ream: Five hundred sheets of paper.

Saddle stitch: Binding a book, booklet or magazine with staples that are placed where it folds.

Score: Crease paper to make folding easier.

Self-cover: Using the same paper used for the inside of a book, booklet or magazine as the cover.

Sets: term used when carbonless paper is involved to refer to the amount of invoices/deposit tickets and so on. For example, 250 sets of 3-part invoices means 250 original invoices with 2 copies (one yellow, one pink usually). 

Sketch: A rough layout of a printed piece showing position of images and text as well as finished size. Also called draft.

Snapset: same as glued-edge carbonless form except it has a top stub with perforations for easy tear-off and holes drilled all along the stub.

Specifications: Describing a print order precisely and thoroughly.

Spine: The binding edge of a book, booklet, magazine or publication.

Stamping: Term commonly used for foil stamping.

Stock: The type of material or paper.

Text paper: Various grades of uncoated paper commonly used in printing.

Trapping: Term referring to the overlapping of ink colors to eliminate white lines between colors.

Tri fold: Type of folding which will result in a piece of paper being folded in three equal parts. Commonly used for brochures. Similar to barrel fold.

Trim marks: Marks showing where to trim the printed materials.

Underrun: Production of fewer copies than ordered. Generally, a 10% overrun-underrun is considered acceptable in the printing industry. More copies than ordered are printed but during the cutting process for example, some loss can occur. 

Up: Printing two, three or four up means printing multiple copies of the same image on the same sheet of paper.

UV coating: A clear liquid similar to ink applied to a sheet of paper and dried with ultraviolet light. It gives more protection than aqueous coating or varnish but is more difficult to recycle.

Varnish: A liquid layer spread over the surface of a sheet of paper to protect it from handling and destructive environment agents. It is essentially ink without pigment. It requires its own printing unit on the press. 

Watermark: A distinctive design created in a sheet of paper at the time of manufacture that can be seen when holding the paper up to a light.

Wove paper: Paper with a uniform unlined surface, resulting in a smooth finish.

Z fold: Type of folding which results in a piece of paper that resembles the letter Z. The paper is folded into three equal parts, making a ‘diagonal’ with the central third. Also known as zigzag fold.

Zig zag fold: Type of folding which results in a piece of paper that resembles the letter Z. The paper is folded into three equal parts, making a ‘diagonal’ with the central third. Also known as z fold.