Printing Definitions
Backing Up
Printing the reverse side of a sheet already printed on one side.
Black and White
Originals or reproductions in single colour (black).
Bleed
Printed area which extends off the trimmed area. It is not possible to print all the way to the
edge of the paper sheet. To achieve this effect it is necessary to print a larger area than is
required and then trim the paper down.
Bond Paper
A basic uncoated paper, often used for copying or laser printers. The better quality bond papers,
with higher rag content, can be used for letterheads.
CMYK
Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black - used as the basic colours in the printing industry. See ‘Four Colour Process’.
Coated Stock
Paper which has a coating usually of china clay. It can be gloss, silk or matt and is suitable for jobs
requiring a fine finish such as colour brochures and annual reports.
Crop Marks/Trim Marks
In printing, marks placed on the copy to indicate the edge of the paper. Used as a guide when cutting documents to finished size.
Die-Cutting
The process of using sharp steel rules to cut special shapes, such as the pockets of a folder.
Digital Printing
Printing processes in which information is transferred from a computer directly onto paper, without the need
for film and printing plates. Digital printing is faster and more cost-effective for small/medium print runs and allows
special techniques such as personalisation and printing-on-demand.
Drilling
Making the holes in paper for use in a ring binder.
Encapsulation
A form of protective enclosure for papers and other flat objects; involves placing the item between two sheets of
transparent polyester film that are subsequently sealed around all edges.
Finishing
Any process that follows the actual printing. Can include folding, creasing, stitching, binding, die cutting, spot UV varnish, lamination, etc
Four-Colour Process / Full Colour Printing
The most common system for producing full colour print. The four ink colours are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black - often referred to as CMYK.
The inks can be overprinted and combined in a variety of different proportions to produce a wide range of colours.
GSM
Abbreviation for ‘grams per square metre’. This indicates the weight of paper or other stock. For example a typical photocopier paper is
80gsm, a good letterhead paper might be 100gsm or 120gsm, a postcard would be about 300gsm or 350gsm.
Laid Paper
Uncoated paper often used for business stationery which has a textured pattern of parallel lines similar to hand made paper. Compare to Wove Paper.
Lamination
A plastic film bonded by heat and pressure to a printed sheet for protection. Available in matt or gloss finish.
Landscape
An oblong artwork or photograph where horizontal dimension is greater than the vertical.
Micron
Although paper is usually measured in grams per square metre (weight), it is sometimes measured in microns (thickness).
A micron is a unit of measure equal to one millionth of a metre or .00004".
Pantone
Pantone, Pantone Matching System and PMS + are Pantone Inc’s industry-standard trademarks for colour standards,
colour data, colour reproduction and colour reproduction materials, and other colour related products and services,
meeting its specifications, control and quality requirements.
Paper Sizes
The most common system of paper sizes in Europe is the ISO standard. Most people are familiar with the A series which includes A4 -
the usual letterhead size. The main advantage of this system is its scaling: if a sheet with an aspect ratio of √2 is divided into
two equal halves parallel to its shortest sides, then the halves will again have an aspect ratio of √2. Folded brochures of any size can
be made by using sheets of the next larger size, e.g. A4 sheets are folded to make A5 brochures.
In addition to the A series, there is a less common B series. The area of B series sheets is the geometric mean of successive A series sheets.
So, B1 is between A0 and A1 in size, with an area of 0.71 m² (√0.5). As a result, B0 has two sides 1 metre long, and other sizes in the B series
have two sides that are half, a quarter or an eighth etc of a metre. While less common in office use, it is used for a variety of special situations.
The C series is used only for envelopes and is defined in ISO 269. The area of C series sheets is the geometric mean of the areas of the A and B
series sheets of the same number; for instance, the area of a C4 sheet is the geometric mean of the areas of an A4 sheet and a B4 sheet.
This means that C4 is slightly larger than A4, and B4 slightly larger than C4. The practical usage of this is that a letter written on A4 paper
fits inside a C4 envelope, and a C4 envelope fits inside a B4 envelope.
The other series which you may come across is SRA which is used by printers. It is slightly larger than the A series to provide for grip,
trim and bleed:
•SRA0 - 900 x 1280mm
•SRA1 - 640 x 900mm
•SRA2 - 450 x 640mm
•SRA3 - 320 x 450mm
•SRA4 - 225 x 320mm
PDF
Portable Document Format - The industry standard for saving files in an acceptable format.
Often used for viewing proofs and for supply of final artwork.
Perfect Bound
A way of adhesive binding multi-section jobs. Individual sections are collected together and the spine is ground off (typically 3mm).
Glue is then applied to the spine and a cover pulled on before the product is trimmed to size.
Portrait
An upright, oblong artwork or photograph where vertical dimension is greater than the horizontal.
Pre-Press
All procedures (and costs) associated with bringing a job to press, such as design, artwork, proofs, set-up, etc.
Proof
A version of a document produced specifically for the purpose of review prior to reproduction.
Ream
Five hundred sheets of paper.
RGB
Red, green, blue additive primary colours.
Saddle Stitch
In binding, to fasten a booklet by wiring it (stapling) through the middle fold of the sheets.
Score
To impress or indent a mark in the paper, to make folding easier.
Spiral Binding
A book bound with wires in spiral form inserted through holes punched along the binding.
Spot Varnish/ UV Varnish
A way of highlighting an area of a page by selectively applying a gloss varnish to it.
Stock
Paper or other material to be printed.
Wove Paper
Uncoated paper often used for business stationery which has no obvious surface texture or pattern. Compare to Laid Paper
Printing Presses:
The Docutech printing press:
This is built for short run manuals or booklets of many pages. It prints directly from disk onto the paper, using toner and not ink.
It has a relatively high line screen and the end result will have a dry look (due to the toner) unlike ink, which has a wet look.
The Docucolour printing press:
The sister to the Docutech and built for colour printing When you require full colour that has many pages and is a short run quantity,
this offers the same benefits as the Docutech: better per unit pricing for short run full colour printing.
The Sheet Fed printing press (also known as Litho printing, Lithographic printing or Offset printing):
The sheet fed printing press provides you with a better quality full colour printing product and it's benefits lie within the varying
printing machine sizes. The smallest sized ink full colour machine is the Heidelberg "GTO", which is ideal for short run colour printing,
as you get the best quality printing at short run print prices.
Following the small "GTO" press, the next step up in press sizing is the 28" and this usually comes with a five plate configuration;
allowing you to print in full colour plus one pantone or spot varnish in addition to the process full colour printing.
The largest of the sheet fed machines is the 40" six colour.
While the 28" is configured to print up to a 12 page booklet, the 40" is built to print 16 pages signatures
(a sixteen page booklet of a standard letter sized page). The bottom line: the larger the page count, the bigger the machine required for
optimal print efficiency: Efficiency equals price and quality. This printing press is also the one generally used for the "gang run" process.
For example, it can run eight different flyers for eight different customers on one sheet and thereby saving each of the eight from having to
pay for a custom run of only a few thousand flyers.
The web printing press:
The web machine is a rotary one, which utilizes roll paper rather than large, or small, "parent" sheets of
paper which are pulled through one at a time. The rolls shoot through the web printing presses at very high speeds. Sometimes the pressman
will actually run between stations on these ultra high speed machines, making adjustments. This is because on these machines the paper consumption
is so fast, that any errors cause great waste of paper. Paper is usually about half the cost of the job, so waste is crucial.
There are two basic types of the web machines:
The Heat-set and Cold-set. The main difference is that the Heat-set web has heaters which dry the ink, thus allowing it to run coated stocks.
The Cold-set webs can only run offset-un coated stocks and newsprint. The secondary consideration between using a Heat-set or a Cold-set web
is the line-screen. The Heat-set webs tend to be newer and therefore having a higher line-screen (between 133-175). The Cold-set, having anywhere
from 85-150 line-screen, with larger dots and less detail.
The next difference in the web style is size. Here, once again, size matters. The smallest rotary machine is the label web and these are only several inches wide. Forms presses and the "Didde" is the next step up as both generally run a 4 page configuration. These are also referred to as "quarter webs". Then there is the "Half Web ", which manages to not only run the 1/2 form of the 8 page signature, but also is built to run a 12 page signature. This then brings us to the "Full Web", which is built to run a 16 page signature as well as the full web that can run "double sixteen's", thereby running 32 page signatures.
