useful information

Glossary - B

Back etching

In lithography, reducing the negative's density.

Back margin

The margin of a page that is closest to the spine.

Back Split

See split back.

Back step (collation) marks

Black marks printed on a signature that show where the final fold will be.

Backed

A sheet of paper that has the second side printed.

Backing

Refers to the carrier sheet of material in a pressure sensitive lamination as opposed to the face material. Usually has a release coating applied so that the adhesive will not stick too tightly to it. Release liner, backing paper, carrier, etc.

Backing up

To print the second side of printed sheet.

Backslant

A typeface that slants backward, opposite of italic.

Bad break

inappropriate, unattractive or illegible word hyphenation at the end of a line of type.

Bakelite

A rigid plastic used as an engraving material or as a matrix material for making rubber stamps. It is commonly called phenolic or melamine.

Balloon

A circle or bubble enclosing copy in an illustration. Used in cartoons.

Bandwidth

Amount of data that can be transmitted over a network or circuit measured in bits per second.

Bank

Lightweight writing paper.

Banner

Large headline or title that extends for the full width of a page in print and a full width advertisement on a web page that always remains in view. 'Hot-linked' to advertisers site.

Bar code

An array of rectangular bars and spaces which are arranged in a predetermined pattern following unambiguous rules in a specific way to represent elements of data which are referred to as characters.

Bar code density

The number of data characters which can be represented in a linear unit of measure. Bar code density is often expressed in characters per inch.

Bar code reader

A device used to identify and read bar code symbols.

Barrier coat

A coating applied to the face material on the side opposite the printed surface to provide increased opacity to the face material and/or to prevent migration between adhesive and the face material and/or to improve anchorage of adhesive to face material.

Base

The major constituent, other than pigments and filler, comprising the non-volatile portion of an adhesive coating or sealer compound.

Base artwork

Artwork requiring additional components such as halftones or line drawings to be added before the reproduction stage.

Base Roll

See anvil.

Baseline

The imaginary line upon which the bases of some letters sit.

Basic Sheet Size 

The customary sheet size used to establish the basis weight of a ream (500 sheets) of a given grade of paper. Standard basic sizes vary by paper grade. For example, the basic size of book paper is 25"x38", while the basic size of cover stock is 20"x26".

Basis Weight

The weight, in pounds, of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a given standard (basic size). Each major paper grade, like cover, bond, or offset, has its own basic sheet size, which determines its basis weight. For example, the basic size of book paper is 25"x38" for 500 sheets; therefore, 500 sheets of 70lb. offset book paper in 25"x38" will actually weigh 70 pounds. see also basic size, ream weight, weight.

Bastard

Any non-standard paper size.

Batch file

See Macro.

Beard

The area of a lower case character into which the descenders extend.

Bearer

Type-high supports mounted or molded around each end of printing plate to help carry part of the impression load and to help prevent bounce. Also the load bearing surface(s) of a rotary die, usually positioned at each end of the die.

Bearing block

A device that holds the die in place in the die station.

Bed

The base holding the Forme in Letterpress printing.

Bevel

A sloped edge that runs from the top to the bottom of a nameplate's edges providing a bordering effect.

Bezier curve

A mathematically created curved line in graphics programmes and in QuarkXpress 4x. A curved line has a minimum of three anchor points, one at each end and the one defining the curvature. The curvature can be altered and adjusted by the use of handles. File size in Vector format is very small.

Bible paper

Very thin, strong opaque paper used for Bibles and Prayer books.

Binary

The fundamental 2-digit system all computers use (made up of the two Bits, 1 or 0, the smallest unit of information a computer can process) to perform calculations and store and retrieve data.

Binding

Various methods used to fasten the loose leaves or sections in a magazine, report or book using staples, thread or glue; e.g. saddle-stitch, perfect bound.

Bit depth

Number of bits used to store pixel information - higher the bit depth the more specific colour information that can be stored and the larger the file size. An 8-bit image is 2 to the power of 8 which is 256 colours. 24-bit will yield 16.7 million colours.

Bitmap

An image in Bitmap mode is 1 bit, i.e. Black and White. Most often refers solid black line art. A TIF Bitmap imported into Quark can be coloured. As they are not hafltoned they give fine, crisp edges and they must be saved with a resolution of 1,200 ppi. All resolution dependent, pixel based images are bitmaps.

Black letter

An angular script developed in Germany in the 12th Century, also refers to the types developed from it - Fraktur, Gothic and Old English.

Black point

The point on a scanned image deemed to be the darkest, and set to a CMYK value - C80, M80, Y80 K70 works well.

Blade-coating

A method of coating paper and paperboard using a flexible blade to control the amount of coating applied to the paper. The coating is made of pigments, additives, and adhesives. Blade coating can take place either on the papermaking machine or on an off-machine coater. While paper may be coated on one side (C1S) or both sides (C2S), blade-coated paper is usually calendered. This helps create a compressed sheet with a glossy surface, reduced bulk, and enhanced printed properties.

Blanket

A sheet made from rubber or rexine that is clamped around a blanket or impression cylinder on an offset press, it receives the image from the plate and transfers it to the paper.

Blanket cylinder

The cylinder of an offset press holding the blanket.

Blanket-to-blanket press

See Perfecting press.

Bleaching

A chemical treatment used to whiten and purify pulp. Bleached pulp is known for being strong and durable.

Bleed

In layout: type or pictures extending beyond the trim marks of a page. Illustrations or photos (“Pics”) that spread, without margins, to the edge of the paper are referred to as “bled off”. Those that spread into the central spine area are “bleeding into the gutter”.

Bleedthrough

Migration of materials from an adhesive or substrate into a face material, resulting in a mottled appearance of the face stock and possible detrimental effects to the adhesive.

Blind Embossing

Stamping raised letters or images into paper using pressure and a die, but without using foil or ink to add colour to the raised areas. Braille is an example of blind embossing.

Blinding

The poor surface condition of an apparently sound printing plate causing a substandard image.

Blocking in

To roughly sketch in the main areas of an image prior to the design.

Blow up

An enlargement, usually of a graphic or photograph.

Blue, blue line, blueprint

A low-quality but effective, cheap proof used to proof films, particularly spot colour jobs, ensuring all elements are in place. Also known as a dyeline.

Blurb

A short description on a book jacket about the contents of a book or about the author.

BMP

A computer graphics format "Bitmap IBM format" not generally used in professional printing.

Board

Paper of 200gsm and heavier.

Body

The main part of a book excluding preliminary pages and appendices.

Body copy, body matter, body type

Referring to text rather than the headline or display copy- usually six to 14 point type.

Body size

The height - or as some say the depth - of type measured from the top of the tallest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender. Normally given in points, the standard unit of type size.

Boilerplate

Boilerplate items usually refer to large sections of standard text, such as might be found in legal documents, as opposed to a corporate logo or masthead, or to a template which is a fixed way of laying out graphic and text elements in repetitively produced documents.

Bold type

Type with a heavier, darker appearance.

Bolts

The three folded edges of sheet or section that will be trimmed off.

Bond

The adhesion of a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape to the surface to which it has been applied.

Bond paper

A sized finished writing paper generally of 80gsm characterized by its durability, strength and permanence. Useful for letterheads, business forms etc.

Bonding Strength

The internal strength of a paper; the ability of the fibers within a paper to hold to one another. Bonding strength measures the ability of the paper to hold together on the printing press. Good bonding strength prevents fibers from coming loose ("picking").

Book dummy

A bound, limp proof showing a book in page form, useful to determine bulk.

Book paper

A classification of papers suitable for book printing.

Border

A decorative continuous design or rule that surrounds the material on a page.

Box

A section of text marked off by rules on all four sides or white space and presented separately from the main text and illustrations. Longer boxed sections in magazines are sometimes referred to as sidebars.

Brass  

A metal alloy made up of copper and zinc, commonly used as an engraving material or in the manufacture of engravable gift items. Most often recognised by its natural yellow-gold colour, brass is also available in a variety of lacquered colours. Brass that contains a higher lead content is referred to a "leaded" brass or engravers brass. This is softer, easier to machine and is recommended for rotary engraving. Trophy brass is harder and is generally intended for diamond engraving.

Brightness

Brilliance or light reflectivity characteristic of a particular printing paper. If paper lacks brightness it will absorb too much light, so little will reflect back through the ink.

Bristol Paper

Solid or laminated heavyweight paper made to a caliper thick- ness of .006" or higher. Bristols are generally used for tags, covers, and file folders and have a basic size of 24.5"x30.5".

Broadband

Any transmission system combining multiple signals - text, voice, and video - on a single circuit at the same time.

Broadside

Printed sheet of paper used for large advertising circulars and newspapers. Usually printed on one side only.

Brochure

Pamphlet or other unbound short work, sometimes with stitched pages - generally associated with advertising material.

Bromide

A photographic print made on bromide paper.

Bronzing

A lustre effect produced by dusting wet sizing ink with a metallic powder.

Browser

Program used to locate and displays HTML documents.

Browser caching

Browsers store (cache) recently used pages on a user’s hard drive. If site revisited, browsers display pages from cache instead of requesting them from the server. Servers can, therefore, under-count number of pages viewed.

Bulk

The thickness of a stack of paper, technically measured as the thickness of a specified number of sheets under a specified pressure. For example, using the measurement of an inch, it may take less that 100 bulky bristol sheets to make an inch- deep pile. On the other hand, it might take hundreds of sheets to make an inch of a lower-bulk text paper. Where thickness or the illusion of substance is a desired effect, bulk is a key factor.

Bulk of paper

See Caliper. Also the thickness of a book without covers.

Bull’s eye

Imperfection in the printing process, caused by hard particles in the ink, paper and atmospheric dust or dirt on the plate or blanket. A.k.a. hickey, fisheye, Newton’s rings.

Bullet

A dot adding emphasis to the text that follows can be small or large.

Burn (1)

The exposure of a plate in plate making.

Burn (2)

To expose photosensitive media to light. I.e. burning a negative or burning a printing plate. Also, to doge and "burn" a photo print (makes the image darker in an area that is burned, ads detail to lightly exposed areas)

Burn out

Removing unwanted images in plate making with an opaque mask.

Burnishing

A method of engraving on metal that allows for wider line widths than diamond engraving without having to rout deeply into the material. It is a surface technique generally done on coated metals such as lacquered brass. A faceted, rotating tool called a burnisher removes the lacquer coating and exposes the bare metal.

Bursting Perf

A fold perforation that permits mechanical bursting.

Bursting Strength

The pressure required to rupture a material specimen when it is tested in a specified instrument under specified conditions. It is largely determined by the tensile strength and extensibility of the material.

Bus

The wiring that communicates information from one part of a computer to another.

Butt

When two or more elements on a page touch edge to edge - butt registration has no trapping.

Butt Cut Labels

Labels separated by a single cross-direction cut to the liner. No matrix area exists between labels. Butt cut labels are not suitable for automatic dispensing.

Butt Labels 

See butt cut labels