USEFUL TERMS

• Backing up – to print the second side of a printed sheet.
• Bitmap – a digital graphic image formed by tiny squares called pixels. The more pixels in an image, the clearer it appears.
• Binding – this is the process used to keep your books and booklets together. There are many different methods of binding; for example saddle stitch, perfect and wire.
• Black – for CMYK printing, you will get the deepest black possible by using this combination (C=40, M=0, Y=0, K=100).
• Bleed – when an illustration or image is extended beyond the edge of the page a 3mm bleed is required on anything that touches an edge must be extended a further 3mm past it. This allows for a small amount of movement in the printing process.
• Borders – a margin around the edge of artwork.
• Celloglaze – this is a plastic film heat bonded to printed products. It can be either gloss or matt and can be applied to either both or just one side of an item.
• Colour mode – colour mode/space/model must be CMYK (NOT RGB).
• Colour separation – the process of separating a continuous tone colour into the four process colours for print production.
• Concertina fold – a method of folding where each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect.
• Crop marks – marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim.
• Crease – an indent made in paper to make folding easier without cracking the paper and ink.
• Cyan – the blue colour used in four-colour process printing.
• CMYK – the abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The colours used in our full-colour printing process.
• CTP – computer-to-plate, a process of printing directly from a computer onto the plates used by a printing press, it eliminates the need for a separate film-to-plate exposure system.
• Debossing – an inverted form of embossing. An image or decoration is recessed into the paper, so it’s lower than the paper surface.
• Digital printing – printed sheets are produced directly from a computer file without being transferred onto printing plates. Maximum size is A3.
• High quality with a fast turnaround and great for short runs.
• Digital proofing – the final hard copy view of your artwork before it hits the press and your final chance to make changes.


• Drilling – the process of drilling holes in printed material.
• DPI (dots per inch) – the measurement of resolution for page printers, phototypesetting machines and graphics screens.
• Embossing – a process which produces images or decorations that are raised above the surface of the paper.
• Embedded fonts – a process that allows fonts to be viewed by all computers – even if they don’t have the same font installed. Essential for printing production.
• EPS – encapsulated Postscript File, a vector-based, computer graphics file format. EPS is the preferred format for many computer illustrations because of its efficient use of memory, colour control and scaling capabilities.
• Finishing – any process that follows printing, including folding, stitching, binding, laminating.
• Four-colour process – printing using four colour separation plates – yellow, magenta, cyan and black. The inks are translucent and can be combined to produce a wide range of colours.
• FTP – File Transfer Protocol, a method of transferring files from one computer to another over the internet without using email. Please click on ‘Send A File’ to access our FTP site.
• Gloss cello – a clear, shiny finish that brings out and emphasises colours.
• Gluing – a permanent method of fixing multiple items together.
• Guillotine – a machine used to trim stacks of paper. The guillotine-cutting blade moves between two upright guides and slices paper evenly as it moves down.
• GSM – grams per square metre, a standard measure of the weight of paper.
• Image area – any part of the design to be printed, stamped or embossed.
• Imposition – the arrangement or layout of pages on a printed sheet.
• Knife or die cut – the process of cutting paper and card into different shapes after it has been printed.
• Laminate – a thin transparent plastic coating that is bonded to paper or board by heat and pressure. This provides protection, as well as a matt or gloss finish.
• Matt cello – a non-reflective varnish applied to a printed surface to protect it. A matt cello has a slightly granular look and tends to make colours look more vivid.
• Numbering – printing sequential numbers on your printed material. Numbering can be printed in a number of different fonts and in black or red ink.
• Offset – a printing method that transfers an image from an inked plate onto a rubber blanket covered cylinder and then onto the printed surface.
• Overprinting – the process of printing over an area that’s already printed. Used to emphasise changes or alterations.
• Pantone – the name of an ink colour matching system, created by Pantone Inc of USA.
• Perforation – a hole, or one of a series of holes, bored or punched through something to facilitate separation.
• Preflight – in digital prepress this is the test used to used to analyse or evaluate every component needed to produce a high quality print job. The process helps reduce the likehood of rasterisation problems and the subsequent production delays that they cause.
• Plate – the surface that carries an image to be printed.
• Proof – a test print that shows how the finished product will look.
• PDF – Portable Document File, a type of formatting that enables files to be viewed on a variety of computers regardless of the program used to create them.
• PMS – Pantone Matching System, a standard that creates different ink colours by mixing inks with a minimal amount of base colour. A process guide shows how Pantone spot colours will appear when converted to process colours (CMYK).
• PPI – Pixels Per Inch, a measurement describing the size of a printed image. The higher the number, the more detailed the image will be.
• Resolution – the number of pixels in an image. The more pixels, the higher the resolution and the better the picture. For a good quality print result, colour and gray scale raster images (pixel-based/scans) should be 300dpi. Mono raster images (bitmaps) should be 1200 dpi maximum.
• RGB – Red, Green, Blue, a model for describing colours that are produce by emitting light rather than absorbing it. They are known as additive colours because when they are added together they create all colours. RGB colours are what you see on your computer screen, these must be converted to CMYK for printing.
• Spot colour – a colour that’s not produced with our standard four-colour process, the colour is printed using ink made exclusively. It’s used when you require a very specific ink colour.
• Spot varnish – varnish is applied to a particular spot on your printed material – not the whole thing. It creates a shiny effect on just this spot and nowhere else.
• Stock – the general term for any paper or board that is used as a printed surface.
• Swatch – a sample of colours or paper stocks.
• Transparency – the ability of an ink or coating to allow light to pass through it. Process colours are transparent to allow them to blend and create other colours.
• Trapping – a process used in pre press to create an overlap between colours to allow for slight errors in the printing process. All vector elements are automatically trapped in our RIP process, and raster files are not affected.
• Trim – cutting the printed product down to the correct size.
• Trim marks – the guide marks on the printed sheet that indicate where you want to cut/trim the printed sheet.
• TIFF – Tagged Image File Format, a bitmapped file format used for the reproduction of digitally scanned images such as photographs, illustrations and logos.
• Variable data – variable data printing allows you to customise every brochure, card or letter with a specific message.
• Vector graphics – these are images created using mathematical statements that define geometric shapes. You can move, resize, and change the colour of vector graphics without losing quality. Unlike bitmaps, vector graphics are not dependent on resolution so you can scale them to any size without losing detail or clarity.
• Wire binding – this type of binding is a unique system of permanent binding, which has no sharp edges, can lie flat and stays flat when opened.