Glossary

A   

Acetate - a transparent sheet placed over artwork where the artist writes
instructions or indicates where second color is to be placed. Also known as
Overlay. (also see amberlith)

Airbrush - a tool used in illustration design and photographic retouching.
Produces an adjustable spray of paint driven by compressed air.

Align - to line up typeset or other graphic material, using a base or vertical
line as the reference point.

Amberlith - amberlith area appears black to the camera, and prints clear on
the resulting film, red-orange acetate is used for masking mechanicals to be
photographed for plates.

Ampersand - (&)- a character used instead of the word "and".

Art - in graphic arts industry, all matter other than text material, e.g.
illustrations and photographs.

Ascender - any part of a lower case letter extending above the x-height.
For example, the upper half of the vertical in the letters b or h. (see also
Descender)

Attachment - a computer file that is appended to an electric mail message.

Automatic hyphenation - when software application decides where to
break or hyphenate a word.

Automatic pagination - to let the computer automatically divide a
multi-page document into pages of a specific length.

B

Backing up - to print the second side of the printed sheet.

Bad break - any page or column that results in a widow, orphan, an
incorrectly hyphenated word or the break to another line of two works that
should stay together.

Balloon - a circle or bubble used in cartoons that encloses copy in an
illustration.

Banding - This occurs in gradations when a screen percent change that is
too small is made over an area that is too large.

Banner - a headline or title extending across the full page width.

Bar code - A pattern of vertical bars and spaces representing characters
that is readable with a scanner.

Baseline - the line on which the bases of capital letters sit.

Baseline-to-baseline - the distance from the baseline of one line to the
baseline of the following line, usually measured in points. Also known as
leading.

Bezier curve - a mathematical function capable of generating curves
suitable for outlining graphic forms or characters of any typeface, style or
size.

Bit map (.bmp file) - a dot-by-dot description of an electronic image.

Bit map graphics - graphics created by controlling individual pixels on a
display screen that can be reproduced as a printed image. The quality of bit
mapped graphics is not as good as other available formats.

Bit map font - a type of font in which the characters are represented by bit
maps. T is usually used to represent the font on the screen. While
reproducible on paper, bit mapped fonts are not of the same quality as
higher resolution fonts.

Bleed \ layout - type or pictures that extend beyond the trim marks on a
page. Illustrations that spread to the edge of the paper without margins are
referred to as 'bled off'.

Blind emboss - a raised impression made without using ink or foil.

Blow up - an enlargement of a graphic image or photograph.

Blueline - a proof made directly from the press negative onto
photo-sensitive paper showing the printed piece exactly as it will appear.

Body - the main text of the work. Does not include headlines and captions.

Boilerplate - stored paragraphs or documents that may be combined or
recalled to create a new document.

Bold type - type with a heavier darker appearance.

Border - a decorative design or rule surrounding an element on the page.

Box - a section of text marked off by rules or white space and presented
separately from the main text and illustrations. Longer boxed sections are
sometimes referred to as sidebars.

Bullet - a large dot preceding text to add emphasis.

C   [back to top]

CAD - Computer Aided Design. Software used in engineering and
manufacturing applications to create and modify technical drawings.

Caliper - the thickness of the sheet of paper or board expressed in microns.
Also the name of the tool used to make the measurement.

Callout - text that identifies element of an illustration or any material such as
a "pull quote" that is called out of the text.

Camera ready - artwork or pasted up material that is ready for reproduction.

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

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 - the line or lines of text that refer to information identifying a
picture or illustration.

Carbonless - paper coated with chemicals which will produce copies without
carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required).

Carriage return - the act of returning to the beginning of the current line,
abbreviated C/R.  Somtimes referred to as "enter" or "return".  Do not
confuse with Line Feed, abbreviated LF.   Computers generally associate
C/R and LF together as carriage-return/line feed CR/LF- (these are
holdovers from manual typewriters; to move the carriage  back to the
beginning of the line, and then to feed a line of paper up in the typewriter).

Character count - the number of letters, figures, signs or spaces in a piece
of copy, line or paragraph. Used to calculate the length of headlines and the
amount of body copy.

Cicero - a unit of measure. One cicero is 4,511 mm or 0.178 inches or 12
didot points.

Clipboard - a temporary storage area used for copying and storing data on
a computer.

CMYK -The four colors in the four color process: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow,
and Black.


Coated - paper with a clay surface coating that has a smoother, more even
finish with greater opacity.

Collate - to put together iÜö[_e correct order for binding.

Color separations - A division of a multi-colored original or line copy into
(CMYK) the primary process colors of yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

Color matching - technology that produces color ../images on a laser
printer identical to those produced by a press.

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 column deep.

Column rule - a light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type.

Communication protocol - the exchange of a special sequence of control
characters between two computers so information can be transferred
correctly.

Comp - term for a detail full-sized mock-up made of a document.

Composition - the process of setting type and arranging it on the page.

Continuous tone - an image in which the subject has continuous shades of
color or gray 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.

Contract Proof - A color proof representing an agreement between the
printer and the customer regarding how the printed product will look.

Contrast - the degree of tones in a paragraph ranging from highlight to
shadow.

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Conversion Tables

 Inches Fractions Decimals Millimeters

 Points, picas, inches, millimeters


Correction Marks

P

Proportional Spacing - a method of spacing whereby each character is
spaced to accommodate the varying widths of letters or figures, so
increasing readability. Books and magazines are set proportionally spaced,
typewritten documents are generally mono spaced.

Pull Quote - a small piece of text pulled from the main text and set off in
larger type or boxed for emphasis.

Q   [back to top]

Queue - the order in which documents are to be printed by the computer.

R   [back to top]

Ragged - lines of type that do not start or end at the same position.

Ranged Left / Right - successive lines of type which are of unequal length
and which are aligned at either the right or left hand column.

Raster Image Processor (RIP) - a device or program that translates
instructions from a computer to a page description language used by the
output service.

Ream - a measurement equaling 500 sheets of paper.

Record - a piece of data treated as a unit.

Register - the correct positioning of an image when printing one color on
another.

Resolution - the measurement used in typesetting to express quality of
output. Measured in dots per inch, the greater the number of dots, the more
smoother and cleaner appearance the character/ image will have.

Retouching - a means of altering artwork or color separations to correct
faults or enhance the image.

Reverse Out - to reproduce as a white image out of a solid background.

Revise - indicates the stages at which corrections have been incorporated
from earlier proofs and new proofs submitted.

RGB - a color model composed of red, green, and blue used to define
colors on a computer monitor (RGB ../images need to be converted to CMYK
for printing).

Right reading - a positive or negative which reads from left to right.

Rough - a preliminary sketch of a proposed design.

RTF - Rich Text Format. An interchange format for exchanging editable
documents among word processing programs.

Ruler - rulers displayed on the screen that show measures in inches, picas
or millimeters.

Runaround - the ability within a program to run text around a graphic image
within a document, without the need to adjust each line manually.

Running Head - a line of type at the top of a page which repeats a heading.

S   [back to top]

Saddle stitching - a method of binding where the folded pages are stitched
through the spine from the outside, using wire staples.

Sans Serif - a typeface that has no serifs ( small strokes at the end of main
stroke of the character).

Scale - to reduce or enlarge the amount of space an image will occupy.

Scaling - a means of calculating the amount of enlargement or reduction
necessary to accommodate a photograph within the area of a design.

Scanner - a digitizing device used to translate a picture or typed text into a
pattern of dots which can be understood and stored by a computer.

Scoring - a pre-defined crease in paper to aid in the folding process.

Screen Angle - when printing multiple colors, each color has to be printed
at a certain angle to avoid the creation of moire patterns.

Screen Font - the letter forms used to display type on a computer screen.

Self Cover - When the cover of a multi-page book uses the same paper as
the text pages.

Serif - a small cross stroke at the end of the main stroke of the letter.

Set Size - the width of the type body of a given point size.

Set off - the accidental transfer of the printed image from one sheet to the
back of another.

Show-through - see Opacity.

Sheetwise - Using different film and plates to print two sides of a sheet.

Side stabbed or stitched - the folded sections of a book are stabbed
through with wire staples at the binding edge, prior to the covers being
drawn on.

Size - a solution based on starch or casein which is added to the paper to
reduce ink absorbency.

Small caps - a set of letters which are smaller than standard and are equal
in size to the lower case letters for that type size.

Soft or discretionary hyphen - a specially coded hyphen which is only
displayed when formatting of the hyphenated word puts it at the end of a line.

Stat - photostat copy.

Stet - used in proof correction work to cancel a previous correction. Latin for
'let it stand'.

Straight Copy - refers to text only input.

Stripping - assembling negatives and halftones so a plate can be made.

Style sheet - a collection of tags specifying page layout styles, paragraph
settings and type specifications which can be set up by the user and saved
for use in other documents.

Subscript - the small characters set below the normal letters or figures.

Superscript - the small characters set above the normal letters or figures.

Swatch - a color sample.

T   [back to top]

Tabular format - the format of a table with rows and columns.

Tabloid - a page half the size of a broadsheet.

Template - a standard layout usually containing basic details of the page
dimensions.

Text wrap - see Runaround.

Text - the written or printed material which forms the main body of a
publication.

Text type - typefaces used for the main text of written material. Generally no
larger than 14 point in size.

Thin space - the thinnest space normally used to separate words.

Thumbnails - the first ideas or sketches of a designer noted down for future
reference.

TIFF - Tagged Image File Format. The most common and portable format
for saving bitmap scans. Useful for moving files between the Mac and PC.

Tile - print an oversize publication in section and assemble manually.

Tint - the effect of adding white to a solid color or of screening a solid area.

Translate - change one computer format into another format so it can be
read by another application.

Transparency - a full color photographically produced image on
transparent film.

Trap / Trapping - to overlap touching colors to avoid an unprinted line
between them.

Trim - the cutting of the finished product to the correct size. Marks are
incorporated on the printed sheet to show where the trimming is to be made.

TruMatch - a color matching system.

Type 1 font - a format for high quality typefaces used for the graphics
industry. Postscript fonts are Type 1 fonts.

Typeface - the raised surface carrying the image of a type character cast in
metal. Also used to refer to a complete set of characters forming a family in
a particular design or style.

Typo -an abbreviation for typographical error. An error in the typeset copy.

Typographer - a specialist in the design of printed matter, and in particular
the art of typography.

Typography - the design and planning of printing matter using type.

U   [back to top]

Under Color - In process work, black is strengthened by adding a
percentage of cyan, magenta, and yellow to create a rich black.

Unjustified - ragged right text.

Uppercase - the capital letters of a font.

V   [back to top]

Varnishing - a finishing process whereby a transparent varnish is applied
over the printed sheet to produce a glossy finish.

Vector graphics - representing graphics and pictures by lines and curves
rather than by bit maps.

Velox - screened print ready for stripping final copy.

Vertical justification - the ability to adjust the interline spacing(leading)
and manipulation of text in fine increments to make columns and pages end
at the same point on a page.

Vignette - a small illustration in a book not enclosed in a definite border.

W

Work & Turn - To print one side and turn over from left to right and print the
second side using same gripper and plate but opposite side guide.

X   [back to top]

X-height - the height of a letter excluding the ascenders and descending;
e.g. 'x', which is also height of the main body.

Y

Yellow - one of the four colors that make up the full color printing process.

Z   [back to top]