Printing Dictionary

Solid – a uniform background applied with one ink of any color in exactly 100% quantity. The effect of a solid is a uniform print surface (instead of halftone) meaning full coverage.

Scoring (creasing) – a bookbinding process involving pressing (indenting) grooves into material, e.g., paper or cardboard to facilitate its folding. The pressed groove is called a score or crease.

Proof certification – a process of checking the correctness of proof execution, consisting of determining the color difference between values measured on the control strip fields placed on the proof and target values. Target values are determined based on the ICC profile with which the proof is made.

Certified proof – proof with attached color difference measurement results ΔE. The color difference cannot exceed the tolerance limit specified in standards 12647-7. A control strip Ugra/Fogra v2.2a is added to the commissioned print. After printing the proof, its certification is performed.

CMYK – a set of four basic printing ink colors commonly used in color printing in printing and related methods. This set of colors is also called primary colors, process colors or triadic colors.
C - Cyan
M - Magenta
Y - Yellow
K - blacK

CTP – (Computer To Plate) involves direct exposure of printing forms (offset or flexographic plates) from postscript files. The advantage of this technology is maximum accuracy of all parameters – both related to halftone dot quality (e.g., no "dot gain" that accompanies exposure from film in CtF, ability to reproduce smaller dots than in CtF), and overall assembly. An undoubted advantage is also shortening the entire printing form preparation cycle and its makeready (mounting on machine and machine adjustment).

DTP (Desktop Publishing) – all activities related to preparing materials on a computer that will later be reproduced by printing methods.

DPI (Dots Per Inch) – the number of dots per inch of length. This unit describes the degree of image detail reproduction in computer-controlled printing, exposing, cutting, engraving devices, etc.

Folding – single or multiple folding of a paper sheet, blank or printed, in half (most commonly) or in any other proportions, in various ways (in different directions), to achieve the target format and number of pages in a signature. For example, folding a sheet in half three times gives a sixteen-page signature. Each folding place of the sheet is called a fold.

Laminating – a type of print finishing involving gluing transparent film (laminate) to the printed surface on one or both sides. Thanks to laminating, the printed surface gains additional aesthetic values and is protected against mechanical, chemical action, UV radiation and moisture.

Optical density – the decimal logarithm of the inverse of the ability to transmit or reflect light by a given material. A parameter indicating the degree of darkening (coverage) on film, CTP plate or print. Measurement is made with a densitometer on a completely blackened surface, thus devoid of halftone. The higher the optical density, the smaller the amount of reflected or transmitted light.

Grammage – paper weight given in grams per square meter.

Mounting – finishing cardboard or corrugated board by gluing thin paper (unprinted or printed) for decorative or technological purposes. A typical example of mounting for decorative purposes is gluing thin, decoratively printed paper to the surface of corrugated board intended for product packaging, which cannot be directly printed on a printing machine due to its thickness and internal structure.

Spot colors – ready-made colors, available in a large number of different shades. The most commonly used color system is the Pantone ^® color matching system (Pantone Matching System – PMS). Silver, gold and other metallic colors also belong to spot colors.

Screen ruling – the number of transparent or opaque lines fitting in a unit of length, used in screens, specified in lines per inch (rarely per cm).

Mockup – a graphic layout design of a publishing publication, made as a template for forming (breaking) individual print pages, presented as a set of sheets of a specific format or computer printouts of composition and/or illustrations.

Moiré – an unwanted effect appearing in the form of regular dots or patterns, as a result of crossing at least two regular halftone screen grids, or similar patterns (as well as crossing of halftone with bitmap pixel arrangement).

Bookbinding – a form of finishing printed or unprinted paper, consisting of permanently connecting sheets (insert) with a cover.

Book binding – an activity including folding printed sheets to an established format, gathering signatures (collating), sewing, trimming and connecting with a cover.

Page number – a number indicating the page order.

Pantone – a color identification system developed by Pantone inc. from the USA. Colors are marked with a number (e.g., PMS 130) with additional designations for features such as fluorescence, metallicity, etc. The basic scale describes 1114 colors. They are created by mixing 15 pigments (including white and black). Hence their reproduction on CMYK and RGB scales is not obvious. These colors in printing are treated as spot colors.

Registration mark – a graphic element (small marker, usually in the form of a combination of circles and crosshairs centered on them) placed outside the net format of the publication. Registration marks are located on each color separation in the same place and have the same shape. They serve as a "sight" in color printing, for precise alignment of the printed image applied with successive printing inks in the same place.

In single-color printing, registration marks have no application.

ICC profile – a digital file containing the color characteristics of a device "working with color" (printer, monitor, scanner, etc.). In great simplification, it can be assumed that an ICC profile is a digital record characterizing how a specific device, on selected material, will reproduce a specific color. This profile complies with requirements specified by the ICC Specification (International Color Consortium).

Halftone – a monotonal image consisting of fine dots (or in special cases lines), giving the impression of halftones when viewed from normal distance, when these dots are small enough to blend with the surrounding background. The brightness of halftones achieved this way results from the ratio of the area occupied by halftone elements (halftone dots) to the area of the unprinted bright (usually white) printing substrate surrounding these elements.

RGB – one of the color space models, described by RGB coordinates. Its name was created by combining the first letters of English color names: R – red, G – green and B – blue, from which this model consists. It is a model resulting from the receptive properties of the human eye, in which the impression of seeing any color can be evoked by mixing in established proportions three light beams of red, green and blue color.

RIP (Raster Image Processor) – software, integrated circuit, or entire computer workstation designed to convert continuous-tone images (containing color at many brightness levels) into halftone images, where the ratio of halftone dot area to background should reproduce the appropriate shade. Halftone dots by their very nature have one single color - full, 100 percent, and it is their size compared to the background that gives the impression of appropriate lightening (tone).

Resolution – a quality measure or characteristic characterizing the ability to reproduce image details, e.g., optical or photographic, determined by the number of points (pixels or lines) that can be counted per unit length.

Kiss cutting – cutting the surface of a paper product (most often self-adhesive film or self-adhesive paper) without cutting through the substrate completely.

Color separation – dividing a color original into separate colorations corresponding to three primary colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and additionally black, in the CMYK system used in the printing process. In the case of printing with spot colors, the number of separations may be different.

Bleed – an area of graphics extending beyond the cutting line defining the net page format. Bleed guarantees that the print area will reach the very edge after trimming the sheet.

Die cutting – a bookbinding operation consisting of cutting out from a sheet (or stack of sheets) of paper, cardboard, board or other similar substrate, a desired shape that cannot be obtained by ordinary cutting on a bookbinding guillotine. Cutting is done using a die.

Embossing:

a) blind embossing – a type of print finishing. It is a process of creating a three-dimensional pattern in the embossed material (usually paper, cardboard, leather) by compression with a die/counter-die, usually to highlight a previously printed pattern (inscription, logo, decorative element).

b) hot-stamping (thermal printing) – a finishing technique similar to "blind embossing" but using colored hot-stamping foils and raised dies made of heat-conducting material.

Graphic layout (layout) – designed arrangement of graphic elements on a sheet, card, page or other form.