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Images or text ready for printing production. (See also Camera Ready Art).

Short for binary digit - the smallest unit of computer storage.

Images stored as a series of bits, in a grid type format when enlarged. (Bmp).

Ink that extends beyond the edges of a piece of paper is said to bleed off the sheet i.e. beyond the trim marks. In a printing project usually a bleed will cost more to produce than a piece that does not bleed. A bleed requires paper larger than the finished size of the piece to print on.

One byte is usually comprised of 8 bits. One byte is required to make up a single alphanumeric character.

As the name says, it is copy or illustration that is ready to shoot to film. The printed piece will be exactly as the camera ready art, unless it is reduced or enlarged with the camera. The film is then used to make the printing plate, after it is stripped. (See Stripping).

Colour proofing system.

Colours used in printing to reproduce colour photos. The colours are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, or Key Colour. (See Four Colour Process).

Paper which is glossy on one or both sides. The paper is treated with clay when it is produced.

Separating the colours of full colour photo or illustration to enable a printer to print it in the four basic process colours. (See Scan).

As in "to crop a picture", This process blocks out unwanted areas of a photograph.

Computer to Plate - process removing the need for the cost of Lithographic film. Better quality and cost-effective for a wide range of work.

Dots per inch. Refers to the number of dots per inch that an output device can produce, such as a laser printer or an image setter.

A 3 dimensional model. It is a mock up generally used to figure out a pagination sequence in multi page printing. A folded up piece of paper with page numbers written on it.

Used to make the printing plates with. Output from an imagesetter or taken with a camera.

A portable computer disk used for transferring information from one computer to another. Type and Artwork can be stored and transferred on a floppy disk. There are different formats. Be sure to tell your printer you are using a Macintosh disk or a PC disk, and what program you used to "build" your info. Also "Syquest Disks" are used for colour photos and colour separations which hold a lot more information than a 3.5" floppy.

All alphanumeric characters and punctuation marks in a particular typeface. Eg. Times Bold.

The usual process of printing full colour photos. (See CMYK).

Grams per Square Metre. The standard measurement of the weight of paper. 45 gsm is usually the weight of standard newsprint paper used for directories.

The process of converting continuous tone photographs into dots. As screening process done on a camera at the film stage of the pre-printing process. (See LPI).

Printed copy of the contents of a computer file.

A high resolution device to output printer’s film from a disk.

The arrangement by which a number of pages are printed together in such a way they will be in their correct order when folded or cut.

Refers to material produced within a company or organisation. Eg. Not using outside services.

Computer information storage and transport to 1 Gb. 1 Gigabyte.

The alignment of text in a paragraph so that the margins are all straight on the right side, or the left side, or both.

A horizontal page orientation where the width is greater than the height.

Black and white illustration, with no continuous tones (or greys).

Offset Lithography is the standard printing process for magazines, books, stationery, etc.

Lines per inch. The number of dots per inch in a halftone screen. Newspaper images are about 85 lines per inch where as magazine photos are usually 133 lines per inch. The naked eye can distinguish up to about 120 lines per inch. (That means you can see dots up to that resolution).

An undesirable pattern which results from incorrect screen angles on a printed picture.

Also referred to as "negs" or "film".

Any kind of artwork that is used to make more copies.

A binding method used to put together a large number of pages into a book form. Usually a wrap around cover is glued onto several folded signatures and then trimmed afterwards.

Abbreviation for the "Pantone Matching System". The printing industries special colour standard.

Used to indicate the size of type. 1 point = 1/72".

A vertical page orientation. Eg: the depth of the page is greater than the width. (As opposed to landscape format).

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key colour. (or Black). (Refer CMYK).

Used to check copy for errors. Could be a laserprint chromalin of your text from your disk. The finished product will look like on a special yellow/blue paper made from the film or negatives which, if okayed, will be used to make the printing plates. A Colour Key is another type of proof used to see the precise colour that will be produced when the job is finally printed.

The exact positioning of two or more printed colours. When an image (full colour picture in a newspaper) appears fuzzy, it is said to be out of register, (unless, of course, the picture is of a fuzzy object). Look closely and you will see the blue is hanging out on one side and yellow is hanging out on the other side. This is indicative of poor quality printing.

When an image or text is knocked out of the printed background colour. It sometimes will appear as if white ink was used on a black background, but this is usually a reverse. A light colour ink will not be opaque enough to print over a dark paper or background.

Short for Same Size. Used when instructing a printer or pre-press operator that the artwork is to be reproduced the same size as the original, or 100%.

A binding method of putting together multi page booklets. Stapling the spine or edge.

To convert an image to a digitized format that can be stored on a computer. In the four colour printing process, to scan is specifically to break down an illustration into the four separate images - separations - which when combined will make up the full colour picture. There are different types of scanners which printers use today. There are drum scanners and there are table top scanners. There are even hand held scanners now used for computer scanning.

How a continuous tone image is broken up into a halftone image.

One of the four images (CMYK) created when scanning a colour image for four colour process reproduction.

A serif is the little "feet" on a typeset letter. Sans Serif means "No feet".

A printed section made up of 16 pages (or a multiple of 4 pages), that is printed all on one big sheet which is folded down to produce a section of a book. (See imposition).

Large printed areas which are comprised of a colour. Solids use a lot more ink than non solid areas do.

Ensuring that colours overlap to avoid "fit" problems, (See Trapping).

Can be used interchangeably with paper. Eg: 70 gsm coated stock. A type of paper is the paper stock used for a particular printing job.

Attaching an opaque masking paper to raw film, in proper position, so that the plate maker can burn a printing plate.

Removable hard drive available in various sizes ( 44mb, 88mb, 200mb & 270mb among others) for storing and transporting digital files between computer systems.

(Spreading), Overlapping colours which butt together. When in perfect registration you will not see white around the edge of the two joining colours. More trapping is necessary when printing a newspaper, as opposed to printing a quality full colour brochure.

Abbreviation for "What You See Is What You Get", or the same image on the computer screen as on the laser print.

Computer disc capable of holding 100mb of information. Used to transport from computer to computer. See also Syquest and Jazz drives.