useful information

Glossary - C

C1S

Paper that is coated on one side only (coated one side). An example of a C1S sheet is Champion All-Purpose Litho.

C2S

Paper that is coated on both sides (coated two sides).

Calcium Carbonate

CaCO3, a naturally occurring substance found in a variety of sources, including chalk, limestone, marble, oyster shells, and scale from boiled hard water. Used as filler in the alkaline paper manufacturing process, calcium carbonate improves several important paper characteristics, like smoothness, brightness, opacity, and affinity for ink; it also reduces paper acidity. It is a key ingredient in today's paper coatings. See also alkaline papermaking, ingredients of paper.

Calendered finish

Produced by passing paper through a series of metal rollers to give a very smooth surface.

Calendering

The process of finishing a sheet of dried paper by pressing it between the highly polished metal cylinders of a calenar "stack". The calender smoothes the paper by compression. See also finish, papermaking, smoothness, super-calendering.

Caliper

The thickness of a single sheet of paper, as measured with a sensitive tool called a micrometer, and expressed in units of thousandths of an inch. Caliper is a critical measure of uniformity. Excessive variation in caliper can lead to print variation, undesirable visual effects, and uneven stretch or press-feeding problems. It can also create problems in folding and binding. See also bulk, thickness.

Calligraphy

From the Greek meaning beautiful writing.

Camera-ready Artwork

Black and white artwork that contains no imperfections or irregularities and is ready to be reproduced. This type of artwork provides the best results when reproducing imagery for hot stamping, sublimation, screen printing, digitising or scanning.

Cap Layer

The top or outer surface layer of engraving plastic.

Cap line

An imaginary line across the top of capital letters. The distance from the cap line to the baseline is the cap size.

Cap or caps

An abbreviation for capital letters.

Caps and small caps

A style of type that shows capital letters used in the normal way while the body copy is set in capital letters which are of a slightly smaller size.

Caption

Incorrect use describes the line or lines of text that describe and run under a picture or illustration. Pedantically it is a headline above an illustration that serves the same purpose.

Carbide

An extremely hard material manufactured primarily from tungsten and cobalt. Its hardness and abrasion resistance qualities make it suitable for a variety of cutting tool and wear part applications. Carbide is generally recommended for the majority of engraving cutter applications due to its toughness and long life characteristics.

Carbonless

Paper coated with chemicals and dye that will produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required).

Caret marks

An indication to the printer of an omission in the copy indicated as ( ) showing the insertion.

Carolingian script

A 9th century script developed for the Emperor Charlemagne’s revision of grammars, bibles and church books.

Carrier

Sometimes used to refer to the liner materials of pressure sensitive labels.

Cartridge

A thick general-purpose paper used for printing, drawing and wrapping.

Case binding

See binding.

Case bound

A hardback book made with stiff outer covers. Cases are usually covered with cloth, vinyl or leather.

Cast coated

Coated paper dried under pressure against a polished cylinder produce a high-gloss finish to the paper.

Cast coating

Paper produced with a surface that is a reasonably accurate replication of some other surface. To manufacture cast-coated paper, a paper web with wet or moistened coating is brought into contact with a polished chrome drum surface, which is replicated in the coated sheet. There are two basic cast-coating technologies: the "wet process", invented and developed by Champion in 1937; and the "re-wet" process. Both methods remain in use to produce the world's out- put of cast-coated products. The advantage of the "wet process," used to manufacture Champion Kromekote, is that the sheet is both smooth and absorbent, not just smooth, allowing for excel- lent ink transfer with minimal pressure. Cast-coated papers allow inks to set and dry quickly, making wet trapping easier and minimising dot gain. In general, cast-coated papers uniquely combine a superior flat surface with excellent ink receptivity, making them the best of printing surfaces, regardless of the type of printing process.

Cast off

A calculation determining how much space copy will take up when typeset.

Cast-coated paper

A paper, the coating of which is allowed to harden or set while in contact with a finished casting surface.

Casting off

See Copy fitting.

Catching-up

When non-image areas of a offset press plate begin to take ink or scum up.

Catchline

A temporary headline for identification on the top of a galley proof.

Cavity

Usually refers to the engraving on a rotary die cutter that die cuts a single shape.

Cellulose Fiber

The main component of the walls of all plant cells, cellulose gives plants their structural support and makes plant material fibrous. Both cotton and wook fibers are mostly made up of cellulose.

Central Impression

A press with a number of printing units around a large cylinder that serves as the impression cylinder against which the substrate rides.

Centring

To position something in such a way that it is the same distance from all sides of an object: for example, centring copy or text on a plaque, or centring a name on a nameplate.

Century Schoolbook

A popular serif typeface used in magazines and books for text setting that has a large x-height and an open appearance.

Chalking

A powdering effect left on the surface of the paper after the ink has failed to dry satisfactorily due to a fault in printing - caused by overly rapid absorption of the vehicle and improper curing of paper before it goes onto the press.

Chamfer

A sloped surface that starts at the top of the material's edge and ends part way down the side rather than at the bottom. The bordering appearance is similar to that which is produced by a bevel.

Character

A single element in a typeface (letter, numeral, punctuation mark).

Character count

The total number of typographic characters in a manuscript (including spaces and punctuation).

Chase

A rectangular metal frame in which metal type and blocks (engravings) are locked into position to make up a page.

Check Digit

A digit included with-in a symbol whose value is based mathematically on other characters included in the symbol. It is used to perform a check to ensure the accuracy of the read.

Chemical Pulping

Manufacturing pulp by pressure-cooking wook or other raw fibrous material into its component parts with solutions of various chemical liquors. The predominant chemical pulping process is the sulphate (kraft) process.

Chill Roll

Metal roll or drum cooled internally with water, etc. Often used after the press dryer to cool the printed web prior to die cutting, rewinding, etc.

Choke (Choking)

When trapping colour closing in an area that has another colour inside so the choked colour overlaps, also spreading.

Chroma

See Hue.

Chromalin

A colour proofing system, usually the final colour proof before going on the press. This is a high quality proof and all corrections and alterations should be made prior to this.

Chrome  See Colour transparency.

Cicero

The European measurement for type, One Cicero = 4.511mm or 12 Didot points.

CIP4

International Cooperation for Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress Organisation

Clay

A naturally occurring substance commonly used in the paper industry. Clay is used as both a filler and a coating ingredient. By adding clay, papermakers can improve a paper's smooth- ness, brightness, opacity, and affinity for ink.

Clay coated

A term used to describe a paper with a clay coating on either one or both sides.

Clear area

A required clear space, containing no data marks, which precedes the start character of a symbol and follows the stop character. Also known as the "quiet area."

Clear Coat

A varnish. A coating that protects the printing and the surface of a pressure-sensitive label from abrasion, sunlight, chemicals, moisture, or a combination of these.

Clip art

See stock art.

Clipping path

A vector path deep etching by masking unwanted areas of an image.

Close up

A proof correction mark to reduce the amount of space between characters or words.

CLUT

Colour Lookup Table - a colour indexing system allowing computers to appear to display greater colour depth than they are capable of by rounding a colour value down to one that it can display.

CMYK

Abbreviation for the four processing inks; cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The four process colour inks. Their admixture on the receiving paper creates the illusion of full colour.

Coated Paper

Paper with an outer layer of coating applied to one of both sides. The coating may be added while the paper is still moving through the papermaking machine, or after it comes off the machine. Coated papers are available in a variety of finishes, like gloss, dull, and matte. They tend to have good ink holdout and minimal dot gain, which can be especially important for recreating sharp, bright images, black and white halftones, and four-colour process images. The smooth surface of coated papers also helps to reflect light evenly.

Coating

A material, usually liquid, used to form a covering film over a surface. Its function is to decorate and or protect the surface from destructive agents or environment.

Coating Weight

The amount of weight of coating (normally adhesive) per unit area. This can be expressed as grams per square meter or pounds per ream.

Code 128

A full alphanumeric bar code capable of encoding all 128 ASCII characters.

Code 39

A full alphanumeric bar code consisting of nine black and white bars for each character symbol.

Cold type

Typesetting without the use of molten metal, ie typewriting, photocomposition, computerized composition.

Cold-set inks

Solid-form inks when molten and used with a hot press, solidify on contact with paper.

Collate    

To gather separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding.

Collotype

Continuous-tone printing process using a gelatine coated printing plate.

Colophon

Inscription formerly placed at the end of a book, giving details of the title, the printer, the date and place of printing etc.

Colour

Refers to use of paper other than white and ink other than black. Computer monitors use the RGB colour space and most printers use CYMK. Most colour problems stem from either poor translation between these colour models, limitations in one of the colour models (out of gamut colours), or poor colour separation. Also common is spot colour, in which black ink is supplemented with an additional colour. One way of ensuring that colour fidelity is maintained across the design and printing process is to use a standardised set of colours, usually from the Pantone Matching System.

Colour bars

Appear on four-colour process proofs and used to check registration of all printing colours, dot gain and indicate density and ink evenness.

Colour correction

Adjustments made on a computer in, for example Adobe Photoshop, to bring the reproduction as close to the original as possible.

Colour Key

A printer's proof usually used for viewing the individual layers of C, M, Y and K, four sheets of coloured acetate, for examining the quality of process colour separations.

Colour negative film

Film that delivers a negative colour image.

Colour scanner

Device used to make colour separations by electronically reading the densities of the original either flatbed or drum. Flatbeds use CCD technology and are more economical to purchase than laser Drum scanners. Drum scanners provide very high quality results although many flatbeds offer excellent quality for the price.

Colour Separation (1)

Literally separating the areas of a piece to be printed into its component spot and process ink colours. Each colour to be printed must have its own printing plate. Usually referred to in a photographic sense a colour separation of a photo done either digitally or traditionally on a scanner.

Colour Separation (2)

In photography, the process of separating colour originals into the primary printing colour components in negative or positive form. In lithographic plate making, the manual separation of colours by handwork performed directly on the printing surface. An artist can pre-separate by using separate overlays for each other.

Colour separation (3)

The division of a multi-coloured original or line copy into the basic (or primary) process colours of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. These should not be confused with the optical primaries: red, green and blue.

Colour sequence

Order in which the four process colours are printed, usually yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

Colour transparency

Full-colour photograph on transparent film.

Colour value

Tonal value of a specific colour as compared to a greyscale.

Colour-curve System

A colour matching system based on light reflectance curves rather than on ink formulations. It is intended to coordinate colours across a variety of surfaces and materials and to reduce metamerism. see also match colour, metamerism, PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, Toyo.

Colourfastness

having colour that won't run when wet, and won't fade in bright light.

Column inch

A measure of area used in newspapers and magazines to calculate the cost of display advertising. A column inch is one column wide by one inch deep.

Column rule

A light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type.

Comp (comprehensive)

A complete but prospective example of a design project, demonstrating size, layout of images and type, use of colour, and paper. See also dummy

Compose

To set copy into type, with the advent of computers this is now ‘digital artwork composition”.

Composite Image

A photograph or other graphic image, which is made of a combination of multiple images.

Compression

Broadly in two forms - "lossy" and "losless". JPEG is a lossy compression format; it discards information on a sliding scale of size v. quality. With size over quality the image pixelates. Each time it is compressed it throws away more data. Lossless compression - GIF (Graphics Image Interchange) for onscreen use using LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch), also works with TIFFs but delivers larger file size.

Concertina fold

A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect - see Accordion fold.

Condensed

A style of typeface with a vertically elongated, narrow appearance.

Condensed face

A face having a narrow appearance.

Conditioning

Process of subjecting material to specific temperature and humidity conditions for stipulated time.

Contact frame

Vacuum-backed board for holding copy.

Continuous code

A bar code or symbol where the space between characters (inter-character group) is part of the code.

Continuous label

Fan-folded labels manufactured from a continuous web of label stock which is not cut into units prior to execution. Continuous labels are mostly used for data processing applications.

Continuous Tone

An image in which the subject has continuous shades of colour or grey without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced in that form for printing but must be screened to translate the image into dots.

Contrast

The degree of difference between light and dark areas in an image. Extreme lights and darks give an image high contrast. An image with a wide tonal range has lover contrast.

Conversion

The process of creating a three dimensional (3D) item from a flat sheet of paper. I.e. envelope conversion / box conversion.

Converter

Refers to that type of manufacturer who produces plain or printed rolls, sheets, bags or pouches, etc., from rolls of film, foil or paper, including pressure sensitive labels and tags.

Cookies

automatically downloaded small files from a web server to the hard drive of someone browsing a site. Information stored in cookies can be accessed any time the computer returns to the site. Cookies allow websites to ‘personalise’ appearance by identifying visitors, tracking preferences, storing passwords etc.

Copier label

A label designed for overprinting by a plain paper photocopier.

Copy

The original manuscript used in typesetting.

Copy fitting

Calculating how much space a manuscript will use once typeset in a specified typeface. Old terminology - also referred to as Type fitting, Copy casting or Casting off. The old typesetters would calculate this by counting the number of characters, the line length and available depth to find the ‘mutton-quod’ - the square of the point size.

Copy Writer

The individual who writes the written information or "copy" for an advertisement, newsletter, publication or brochure.

Copyright

Copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without the express permission or acknowledgement of the author or artist. All work appearing with the © symbol or the word "copyright" is protected by its creator or his heirs. For more information, contact your attorney.

Corner marks

Marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim or register marks.

Corner radius

Describes the arc or curvature of the die blades where they meet so that they can impart a rounded corner to a die cut label.

Corporate Identity

The image of a company that is consistently portrayed through logotype, symbol, typeface and colour, applied to everything from stationery to vehicles, advertising to clothing.

Cotton Paper

Paper with a minimum cotton fiber content of 25%, and a maxi- mum fiber content of 100%. When fiber other than cotton is used, the balance comes from wood pulp. Cotton pulp is made from rags or clippings from textile mills, raw cotton, and cotton linters. Cotton papers are primarily used as writing papers.

Coupon Base

A splittable film product with adhesive and protective liner. When used in combination with another pressure-sensitive coated facestock affords the label converter the capability of manufacturing on press a redemption coupon that has a lift tab and is printed on both sides. A clear film remains on the labelled item after the coupon has been removed.

Cover Paper

Heavier, generally stiffer paper commonly used for book covers, folders, greeting cards, business cards, and brochures. Uncoated cover papers generally match the colour and finish of corresponding text papers. The basic size of cover stock is 20"x26". see also basic size, text paper.

Cover stock

Heavyweight paper stock that is used for the covers of magazines, booklets, catalogs and other printed materials.

Cover title

Title of a book printed or stamped on the cover.

CPU

Central processing unit - the microprocessor chip that is the "brains" of a computer.

Crash finish

A variety of paper that has a surface like coarse linen.

Creasing

Machine made linear indentation in thick paper to create a hinge.

Creep

The movement of the image-area towards the fore-edge in a saddle stitched book/magazine, to a maximum at the centre spread. Can be compensated for by careful measurement of paper width (thickness) with a caliper and moving the image areas progressively throughout the document in the appropriate direction by fractions of a mm.

Crocking

Transfer or smudging of dry ink on the finished product.

Cromalin

Widely-used dry colour laminate proofing system, made by Dupont, whereby powder - instead of ink - is used to reproduce colour on a proofing sheet.

Crop Marks

Marks made on the outer edges of artwork to designate the area to be printed.

Cropping

The elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.

Cross direction

The direction across the web. Papers are weaker and are affected more by changes in relative humidity in the cross direction than the grain direction.

Cross head

A heading set in the body of the text used to break it into easily readable sections.

Crossover

When a photograph, rule or piece of line art crosses over from one page of a bound job to the other.

Crush cut

A cut made by a rotary blade in contact with an anvil or base roll.

Crush score

See score.

Cure

To change the properties of an adhesive by chemical reaction or heat alone or in combination with or without pressure.

Curing

Preparing paper for the printing process by bringing it to the same temperature and humidity levels of the pressroom.

Curl

The waviness of a sheet of paper generally seen along its edges. Curling is generally the result of physical stresses or changes in humidity, and may occur at the paper mill, in the pressroom, on press, or after binding. Paper tends to curl along, rather than across, the grain of the paper. Recycled and recycled content papers have fewer tendencies to curl than virgin fiber papers because their fibers are shorter. See also grain, relative humidity.

Cursive

Used to describe typefaces that resemble written script.

Cut edge

The three edges of a book after trimming with a guillotine.

Cut flush

A method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to the pages - also know an trimmed flush.

Cut rule

Steel rule blades designed to cut material being produced on flatbed die cutting equipment.

Cut-off

In web printing, the cut or print length corresponding to the circumference of the plate cylinder and/or die cutter: equipment.

Cutout

A halftone where the background has been removed to produce a silhouette.

Cut-size

Writing or business papers that are cut to a finished size of 8.5"x11", 8.5"x14", or 11"x17". Cut-size papers, like Champion Inkjet, are usually packed in reams of 500 sheets before leaving the mill.

Cutter Grinder

A machine used to sharpen and tip engraving cutters.

Cutter Shank

The main body of an engraving tool.

Cutters

An all-inclusive term used to describe the rotating cutting tools used in the engraving operation. Cutters can be manufactured from high-speed steel or carbide and are available in a variety of configurations for specific applications. Typically, engraving cutters are single-flute tools, which means they have only one cutting edge.

Cyan

Blue process colour.

Cylinder

Most rollers in the printing press are called rolls with the exception of ones on which the rubber plates are mounted, and the one which receives the impression. These are usually referred to as cylinders, i.e., plate cylinder, impression cylinder.

Cylinder Machine

A type of papermaking machine. Wire covered cylinders are rotated through a vat of pulp, and paper is formed as the water drains from the cylinder. Cylinder machines are mostly used for manufacturing paperboard. Multi-cylinder machines are capable or producing multi-layered paperboard (one layer for each cylinder). See also paperboard, papermaking.