useful information

Glossary - F

Face

An abbreviation for typeface referring to a family in a given style.

Face Material

Any paper, film, fabric, laminate or foil material suitable for converting into pressure sensitive label stock. In the finished construction, this web is bonded to the adhesive layer and becomes the functional part of the construction.

Face slit

A slit in the face material of a pressure sensitive product to facilitate removal from the backing.

Face split

See face slit.

Face-cut label

Any pressure sensitive label where the face material is cut to the liner.

Facestock

Any material, including paper, film, fabric, laminated or solid foil, suitable for converting into PS label stock.

Facsimile transmission/fax

The conversion of scanned graphic images or type into electronic signals that are transmitted into a recorded likeness of the original at another location.

Faded colour

Colour lost (usually in large solids or solid tints) during drying or when the printed sheet is exposed to light.

Fan Fold

Zigzag fold. The put-up of pressure-sensitive labels on a continuous backing in such a way as to form a flat pack as different from roll form.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions posted on websites to answer common/repetitive questions.

Fatty

A photographic internegative mask used to enlarge copy slightly to allow for exact registration of butted elements by lapping one over the other.

Feathering

Ink spread at edges of type due to the poor quality of ink or its distribution.

Feed slots

Round or rectangular holes or slits put in pressure sensitive label stock to maintain the register of pressure sensitive labels while they are being printed or imprinted.

Feint rules

Pale blue lines printed on a page, which act as a guide for handwriting.

Felt

A fabric of natural or synthetic fibers used in the press section of a papermaking machine to absorb water from the paper as it is manufactured.

Felt Finish

A soft texture that affects the look but not the strength of an uncoated paper. A felt finish can be created at the wet end during the papermaking process in one of two ways; either with a roll that is covered with a felt, or with a rubber roll with a felt-patterned finish. An embossed felt finish is created off the machine, after the paper has dried. Champion Carnival Felt is an example of a paper with a felt finish created during the papermaking process.

Felt Side

The top side of the paper, which comes in contact with the dandy roll and felts during the papermaking process. The bottom side of the paper, which comes in contact with the wire (forming fabric) or the papermaking machine, is called the wire side. The felt side of a paper may appear to be softer, while the wire side of a paper may have more "tooth." During printing, the softer texture of the felt side of an uncoated paper may pick up slightly more ink than the wire side of the same sheet, and the printer may have to adjust ink densities to compensate for this. Paper is generally packed and shipped as it is made: felt side up.

Fiber

Filaments of plant tissue, such as cotton fiber and wood fiber. Some specialty papers may contain synthetic fibers, such as rayon or nylon.

Fiber-added Paper

Paper with visible fibers, flecks, and specks. The term may be a bit misleading because all paper is made from fiber. The most common fiber additives are wood chips, coloured cotton fibers, and coloured rayon fibers.

Filler (1)

Materials like clay added to pulp before it's formed into paper. Fillers improve a sheet's smoothness, brightness, and affinity for ink.

Filler (2)

Extra material used to complete a column or page, usually of little importance.

Filling In

A condition when ink fills in the space between halftone dots and also fills in type.

Fills

Backgrounds created using crosshatch patterns, imported bit-mapped graphics, or transitions from one colour to another.

Film assembly

See Stripping.

Film negative

Film developed after exposure. Images appear with black hues transparent and white areas opaque.

Film positive

Film exposed to a film negative and developed. Images appear with black hues opaque and white areas transparent. Required for photo stencils in serigraphy (screen printing).

Film processor

A machine that develops, fixes, washes and dries film and paper automatically.

Films

Acetate, polyester, polyethylene vinyls and other polymeric. Face material manufacturing from synthetic high molecular weight polymers.

Filter

Creative effects applied with an illustration program to selectively emphasise or de-emphasise all or portions of an image. Filters can be used to sharpen or blur images or apply special effects. Filters also allow text and graphic images to look like they were created using textured backgrounds or applied on various types of backgrounds using different types of paint.

Final film

The positive or negative film used in the plate making.

Fine line work

Refers to maps etc made up of many fine lines.

Fine rule

A hairline rule.

Finish

The surface characteristics of a paper. Finishes may be created on-machine or off-machine. On-machine finishing can be done two ways: for a smooth or vellum finish, pressure is imparted on the sheet with a finishing "stack." Laid of felt finishes are made with a marking roll, which actually presses the pattern into the paper while it's still wet. Off-machine finishes are called embosses. This is a separate step that presses the paper between a steel pattern roll and either a hard cotton backing roll (to create the finish on both sides), or a plastic roll (for smoothness on one side). Several generic terms describe the various finishes of uncoated paper, such as vellum, smooth, and laid. Individual paper manufacturers may not use these terms consistently; instead using unique finishes or unique names for common finishes.

Finishing

Finishing preparing printed pages for use. Most printed jobs require one or more finishing steps, such as trimming, folding, or binding.

Firewall

A router, or pair of routers, between the Internet and a private network to prevent unauthorised access.

First colour down

The first colour printed on a printing press.

Fish Eye

Round or oval deformation in an adhesive, coating, or ink.

Fixing

A chemical action in photography to remove unexposed silver halide and make the image unresponsive to further exposure following development.

Flag

The designed title of a newspaper as it appears at the top of page one.

Flame polishing

A technique for smoothing and polishing the edges of a material using an open flame.

Flame Retardant

A material that resists burning when exposed to a flame.

Flap

A protective covering of artwork or mechanicals made by affixing a sheet of tracing paper or heavier paper over the face of the original.

Flat colour

Any colour other than process colour used in printing.

Flat pack

A continuous web folded at a cross perforation at regular intervals. See fan fold.

Flat tint halftone

A black halftone printed over a flat tint. Also called Fake duotone.

Flex

Another term for deflection of rolls or cylinders in press. Also, bending qualities or characteristics of any material, including printing substrates.

Flexibility (Conformability, Pliability)

Property of face stock material that indicates how readily it conforms to curved surfaces.

Flexible die

See magnetic die.

Flexible Engraving material

A soft, pliable, bendable thermoplastic material that is easy to cut and engrave.

Flexing

Condition that can occur on a die when the die circumference is less than the width of the cross-blades. Causes the center of the cross-blades to fail to cut properly and consistently.

Flexography

A direct (not offset) printing method that uses relief plates, similar to rubber stamps, which are made from rubber or photopolymer. The flexible plates are wrapped around a cylinder on the printing press. "Flexo" works best when printing large areas of solid colour, making it popular for printing plastic bags, wrapping paper, and milk cartons. It's also used for the Sunday colour comics and newspaper inserts. Rubber manufactures, eager to find new uses for rubber, have invested heavily in flexographic research, and improvements have been made in ink coverage and four-colour registration.

Flip

Repositioning a text or graphic object end for end. Objects can be flipped horizontally or vertically.

Floatation

Floatation a method for removing ink from paper during the de-inking process by floating if off the paper.

Floating accent

An accent mark that is set separately from the main character and is then placed either over or under it.

Flood coat

The coating of an entire surface with ink, adhesive, coating, etc.

Flop

To turn an image over in order to get a mirror image of it.

Floppy disk

1.4mb disc.

Fluorescent Dye

A colouring agent added to paper to increase its brightness. Fluorescent dyes give white papers added brilliance in natural light and may add a slight cast like blue or green.

Fluorescent Inks

Printing inks that both emit and reflect light. Generally, these inks are brighter and more opaque than traditional inks. Using one or more fluorescent inks can actually brighten a printed image - especially four-colour process printing on uncoated stock. On the down side, fluorescent inks are not colourfast and will fade in bright light and sunlight over time. They can also have a negative effect on dot gain and trapping, making the printing less sharp and without as much detail.

Fluorescent Paper

A paper that is coated with fluorescent pigment that not only reflects a visible wavelength, but also is activated by most of the remaining absorbed light to re-emit it as colour of a longer wavelength that results in reinforcement of the reflected colour.

Flush cover

A book cover trimmed to the size of the text pages.

Flush left

Copy aligned along the left margin.

Flush paragraph

First line is not indented.

Flush right

Copy aligned along the right margin.

Fly

A sheet folded once to make four pages.

Flyer

An inexpensively produced circular used for promotional distribution.

Flyleaf

End papers.

Focaltone

A proprietary colour matching system for process colour.

Foil

A very thin metal sheet that can be used as a face stock material in label production.

Foil blocking

A process for stamping a design on a book cover without ink by using a coloured foil with pressure from a heated die or block.

Foil paper laminate

A foil laminate to a sheet of paper used as a face stock. The foil is usually top coated to improve ink receptivity.

Foil Stamping

To cover paper with a thin, flexible sheet of metal or other material. The foil, which may be clear or opaque, comes in a range of colours, and is carried on a plastic sheet. Stamping separates the foil from the plastic and makes it adhere to the paper. Foil stamping can be combined with embossing or debossing as an added design element.

Fold lines

Marks usually printed in the trim areas to show where press sheets

Folding

Folding doubling up a sheet of paper so that one part lies on top of another. Folding stresses the paper fibers. To create a smooth, straight fold, heavy papers, like cover stocks and bristols, need to be scored before they're folded. Multiple fold strength is important in printed pieces like books, maps, and pamphlets. It's far less important in one-fold operations like greeting cards or envelops, where fold cracking is the vital consideration. Folding strength is negatively affected y the drying heat of various printing and finishing operations.

Folio

Page number.

Font

A complete assortment of a size and face of type, including letters, punctuation, numerals and ligatures.

Food Contact Adhesives

Adhesives meeting specified sections of the Food & Drug Administration Code of Federal Regulations. These regulations cover direct food labelling as well as incidental contact. Special product recommendations are necessary for specific applications.

Foot

The margin at the bottom of a page.

Fore-edge or leading edge

Opposite to the back edge.

Foreword

Introductory comments about a book - not written by the author.

Form

The assembled pages and images as printed on a single large sheet, before trimming. With the correct imposition, the pages of a form will be in correct order after folding and trimming. Once folded and trimmed, a form becomes a "signature."

Form letter

Used in word processing to describe a repetitive letter in which the names and addresses of individuals are automatically generated from a database or typed individually.

Format

Particular style, size and layout specifications of a printed piece.

Format (files)

The way a file is saved to and retrieved from disk. There are many different file formats for all types of data. Some common graphic formats are EPS, DCS, AI, PICT, PNG, PS, DWG, DXF, SWF, JPEG, GIF, BMP and TIFF.

Formation

The uniformity of fibers in a sheet of paper. For example, paper with fine formation has evenly dispersed fibers, and will be smoother and more uniform than a paper with uneven formation. The tighter the fibers are bound, the more uniform the surface, and the better the printed sheet usually looks.

Formatting

Altering the appearance of text, graphic accents, or visuals by changing their formatting attributes, including - in the case of text - typeface, type size, leading, kerning and colour.

Forme

Type and blocks assembled in pages and imposed in a metal chase ready for printing.

Forme

The assembly of pages and materials for offset printing. Also known as a signature or any portion of a signature.

Former

The mechanism that makes the first fold of a web-fed press.

Foundry type

Type cast in hot metal.

Fountain

A reservoir for the ink supply in a printing press or one that supplies a solution for dampening the rollers of an offset press

Four-colour process

A method that uses dots of magenta (red), cyan (blue), yellow, and black to simulate the continuous tones and variety of colours in a colour image. Reproducing a four-colour image begins with separating the image into four different halftones by using color filters of the opposite (or negative) colour. For instance, a red filter is used to capture the cyan halftone, a blue filter is used to capture the yellow halftone, and a green filter is used to capture the magenta halftone. Because a printing press can't change the tone intensity of ink, four-colour process relies on a trick of the eye to mimic light and dark areas. Each halftone separation is printed with its process colour (magenta, cyan, yellow, and black). When we look at the final result, our eyes blend the dots to recreate the continuous tones and variety of colours we see in a colour photograph, painting, or drawing.

Fourdrinier

A papermaking machine with a horizontal continuous wire belt. A slurry of pulp is poured or sprayed onto the wire (forming fabric); the water is then drained off and pressed out; and the paper is dried.

FPO (For position only)

A small low resolution image that is used only to show the size and position of the final object, usually used either because the final object is too large or because the high resolution version is not yet available.

Fraction

A ratio of two whole numbers, such as 1/2 (one half). Presents a problem in typesetting because there are too many possible fractions to create a character for each one, so although some fractions are usually included in a character set, the rest must be typeset using subscripted and superscripted characters kerned around a solidus.

Frames

(a) boxes frequently used in word processing and DTP programs allowing text or visuals to be moved and locked to a specific position on a page or locked to adjacent text. These frames allow headlines to span more than one text column and allow pull quotes to be positioned between columns. (b) In Internet terminology frames are used to subdivide a browser window in order that different files or windows consistently appear in frames along the top, bottom, or side of the screen. Frames permit Web site visitors to navigate throughout a Web site while the firm's logo or positioning statement remains in the same position to enhance branding of the site and all navigation links remain visible.

Freehand

Drawing program from Macromedia, competitor to Illustrator. Or, artwork drawn by hand.

Freesheet

Paper that contains no more than 10% mechanical wood pulp. Most freesheet papers are "free" of mechanical (groundwood) pulp. See also pulping wood, uncoated freesheet, and uncoated paper.

Freezer adhesives

Adhesives that can be applied and will function at temperatures below the freezing point. They are usually removable at room temperature.

French fold

A sheet which has been printed on one side only and then folded with two right angle folds to form a four page uncut section.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol; allows the uploading or transfer of files or Web sites created on local computers to a host computer. Used to download files from a Web site to a visitor's computer. Examples of FTP software are Fetch and Anarchie.

Fugitive colour

Colours and inks that change/fade with exposure to light.

Full measure

A line set to the entire line length.

Full point

A full stop.

Furnish

Fully prepared pulp and all its ingredients: fiber, fillers, sizing, and pigments - diluted with water and ready for the papermaking machine. Furnish contains about 99% water.