A Sizes
One of the series of standard paper sizes, usually used to define the finished size of printed items. For example, the majority of letterheads are termed A4 (297 x 210mm)

Accordian Fold
Two or more parallel folds in which each fold opens in the opposite direction

Acetate
A transparent sheet placed over originals or artwork, allowing the designer to write instructions and\or indicate a second color for placement.

Additive Color
Color produced by light falling onto a surface, as compared to subtractive color. The additive primary colors are red, green and blue.

Against the Grain
Folding or printing on press at a right angle to the grain direction of the paper.

Airbrush
Pen-shaped tool that sprays a fine mist of ink or paint to retouch photos and create continuous-tone illustrations.

Alteration
Any change made by the customer after copy or artwork has been given to the service bureau, separator or printer. The change could be in copy, specifications or both. Also called AA, author alteration and customer alteration.

Aqueous Coating
Water-based coating applied during printing to protect and enhance the printing underneath.

Art Paper
Paper which has received a coating to give it a smooth finish – either gloss, matt or silk. A generic classification to differentiate from uncoated papers.

Artwork
All original copy, including type, photos and illustrations, intended for printing. Also called art.

Basic Size
The standard size of sheets of paper used to calculate basis weight. The Basic Sizes in Taiwan are 31” x 43” and 25” x 35”

Basis Weight
The weight, in pounds, of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to the basic size. Also called ream weight.  

Bind
The fastening of sheets or signatures along one edge of a publication to create a book. Binding includes processes such as folding, gathering, trimming, stitching, and gluing.

Bindery
The department within a printing company responsible for collating, folding, and trimming.

Blanket
Rubber-coated pad, mounted on a cylinder of an offset press, that receives the inked image from the plate and transfers it to the surface to be printed.

Bleed
Area of an artwork that extends to the edge of a sheet, beyond the trim lines. Bleeds provide a margin of safety during the trimming process to prevent white borders from showing up on the edges once the books are trimmed to size.
  
Blind Folio
A page number not printed on the page.

Blind Image
Image debossed, embossed or stamped, but not printed with ink or foil.

Blocking
Sticking together of printed sheets causing damage when the surfaces are separated.

Blueline
Prepress photographic proof made from stripped negatives where all colors show as blue images on white paper. Because 'blueline' is a generic term for proofs made from a variety of materials having identical purposes and similar appearances, it may also be called a blackprint, blue, blueprint, brownline, brownprint, diazo, dyeline, ozalid, position proof, silverprint, Dylux and VanDyke.

Board Paper
General term for paper over 110# index, 80# cover or 200 gsm that is commonly used for products such as file folders, displays and post cards. Also called cardboard.

Bond paper
Category of paper commonly used for writing, printing and photocopying. Also called business paper, communication paper, correspondence paper and writing paper.

Book Block
Folded signatures gathered, sewn and trimmed, but not yet covered.

Book Paper
Category of paper suitable for books, magazines, catalogs, advertising and general printing needs. Book paper is divided into uncoated paper (also called offset paper), coated paper (also called art paper, enamel paper, gloss paper and slick paper) and text paper.

Border
The decorative design or rule surrounding matter on a page.

Brightness
The amount of light reflected by a piece of paper or specific color

Broadside
The term used to indicate work printed on one of a large sheet of paper.

Brochure
A pamphlet of two or more pages that is folded or bound

Bromide
A photographic print created on bromide paper.

Build a Color
To overlap two or more screen tints to create a new color. Such an overlap is called a build, color build, stacked screen build or tint build.

Bulk
Thickness of paper relative to its basic weight.

Burst Perfect Bind
To bind by forcing glue into notches along the spines of gathered signatures before affixing a paper cover. Also called burst bind, notch bind and slotted bind.

Buy Out
To subcontract for a service that is closely related to the business of the organization. Also called farm out. Work that is bought out or farmed out is sometimes called outwork or referred to as being out of house.

C1S and C2S
Abbreviations for coated one side (C1S) and coated two sides.(C2S)

Calender
To make the surface of paper smooth by pressing it between rollers during manufacturing.

Caliper
(1) Thickness of paper or other substrate expressed in thousandths of an inch (mils or points), pages per inch (ppi), thousandths of a millimeter (microns) or pages per centimeter (ppc). (2) Device on a sheetfed press that detects double sheets or on a binding machine that detects missing signatures or inserts.

Camera-ready Copy
Mechanicals, photographs and art fully prepared for reproduction according to the technical requirements of the printing process being used. Also called finished art and reproduction copy.

Case
Covers and spine that, as a unit, are wrapped around the boards of a casebound book . Also called Coverwrap.

Case Bind
To bind using glue to hold signatures to a case made of binder board covered with fabric, plastic or leather. Also called cloth bind, edition bind, hard bind and hard cover.

Catalog Paper
Coated paper with basis weight from 35# to 50# (50 to 75 gsm) commonly used for catalogs and magazines.
 
Chain Lines
(1) Widely spaced lines in laid paper. (2) Blemishes on printed images caused by tracking.

Chalking
Deterioration of a printed image caused by ink that absorbs into paper too fast or has long exposure to sun, and wind making printed images look dusty. Also called crocking.

Check Copy
(1) Production copy of a publication verified by the customer as printed, finished and bound correctly. (2) One set of gathered book signatures approved by the customer as ready for binding.

Chrome
Strength of a color as compared to how close it seems to neutral gray. Also called depth, intensity, purity and saturation.

Close Up
A mark used to indicate closing space between characters or words. Usually used in proofing stages.

CMYK
Letters which stand for Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K) when producing full color printing or 4 color process.

Coated Paper
Paper with clay coating that improves reflectivity and gives a smooth finish in either gloss or matte varieties. A generic classification to differentiate from uncoated papers.

Collate
A finishing term for gathering paper in a precise order.  

Color Control Bar
Strip of small blocks of color on a proof or press sheet to help evaluate features such as density and dot gain. Also called color bar, color guide and standard offset color bar.

Color Correct
To adjust the relationship among the process colors to achieve desirable colors.

Color Gamut
The entire range of hues possible to reproduce using a specific device, such as a computer screen, or system, such as four-color process printing.

Color Key
Brand name for an overlay color proof. Sometimes used as a generic term for any overlay color proof.

Color Separation
(1) Technique of using a camera, scanner or computer to divide continuous-tone color images into four halftone negatives. (2) The product resulting from color separating and subsequent four-color process printing. Also called separation.

Color Sequence
Order in which inks are printed. Also called laydown sequence and rotation.

Color Transparency
Film (transparent) used as art to perform color separations.

Comb Bind
Method of binding loose leaves with a pre-formed plastic strip that is curled through rectangular holes punched on the binding edge of the leaves. Also called plastic bind

Commercial Printer
Printer producing a wide range of products such as announcements, brochures, posters, booklets, stationery, business forms, books and magazines. Also called job printer because each job is different.

Composite Film
Film made by combining images from two or more pieces of working film onto one film for making one plate.

Composite Proof
Proof of color separations in position with graphics and type. Also called final proof, imposition proof and stripping proof.

Condition
To keep paper in the pressroom for a few hours or days before printing so that its moisture level and temperature equal that in the pressroom. Also called cure, mature and season.

Contrast
The degree of tones in an image ranging from highlight to shadow.

Converter
Business that makes products such as boxes, bags, envelopes and displays.

Copyboard
Surface or frame on a process camera that holds copy in position to be photographed.

Cover
Thick paper that protects a publication and advertises its title. Parts of covers are often described as follows: Cover 1=outside front; Cover 2=inside front; Cover 3=inside back, Cover 4=outside back.

Coverage
Extent to which ink covers the surface of a substrate. Ink coverage is usually expressed as light, medium or heavy or in percentage terms.

Cover Paper
Category of thick paper used for products such as posters, menus, folders and covers of paperback books.

Coverwrap
Covers and spine that, as a unit, are wrapped around the boards of a casebound book . Also called Case

Crop
To cut off parts of a picture or image.

Crop Marks
Lines near the edges of an image indicating portions to be reproduced. Also called cut marks and tic marks.

Crossover
Type or art that continues from one page of a book or magazine across the gutter to the opposite page. Also called bridge, gutter bleed and gutter jump.

Cutoff
Circumference of the impression cylinder of a web press, therefore also the length of the printed sheet that the press cuts from the roll of paper.

Cut Sizes
Paper sizes used with office machines and small presses.

Cyan
One of the four process colors. Also known as process blue.

Deboss
To press an image into paper so it lies below the surface.   

Densitometer
Instrument used to measure density. Reflection densitometers measure light reflected from paper and other surfaces; transmission densitometers measure light transmitted through film and other materials.

Density
(1) Regarding ink, the relative thickness of a layer of printed ink. (2) Regarding color, the relative ability of a color to absorb light reflected from it or block light passing through it. (3) Regarding paper, the relative tightness or looseness of fibers. 

Die
Plates used for cutting, scoring, stamping, embossing and debossing.

Die Cut
To cut irregular shapes in paper or paperboard using a die.

Digital Proofs
Paper proofs produced from computer files without the use of film or plates. They are of a reasonably high quality but not as accurate as wet proofs or press proofs.  

Digital Dot
Dot created by a computer and printed out by a laser printer or imagesetter. Digital dots are uniform in size, as compared to halftone dots that vary in size.