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Print Technology Warehouse - Printing glossary Category: Agriculture and Industry > Printing Date & country: 15/12/2007, UK Words: 1575

Overlap
Wrap-around labelling of a container in which one end of the label overlaps the other.

Overlay
Transparent sheet covering a piece of artwork indicating colour separations, corrections or directions to the plate maker.

Overprinting
Printing over an area already printed. Used to emphasise changes or alterations.

Overs
Additional paper required to compensate for spoilage in printing. Also used to refer to a quantity produced above the number of copies ordered.

Overset
Excess type that cannot fit into space specifications.

Overstrike
A method used in word processing to produce a character not in the typeface by superimposing two separate characters, e.g. forming a $ character using the S and l characters.

Oxidizer
A mild chemical solution that causes un-coated areas of brass and aluminium to turn black.

Oxygen Delignification
A processing step that takes place after pulping and before bleaching. Oxygen is used to remove lignin (delignify) resulting in lower chemical usage in the bleach plant.

Ozalid
A trade name to describe a method of copying page proofs from paper or film.

Packaging
Term used to describe applications that collect together images, documents and fonts into one place, ready to be sent to an output bureau.

Pad Printing
See Tampo printing.

Padding
Amount of space separating a text or graphic element from the top, bottom, and sides of the table cell in which it is placed.

Page
One side of a leaf. 2pp means two printed pages which is one leaf.

Page Description Language (PDL)
A special form of programming language that enables both text and graphics (object or bit-image) to be described in a series of mathematical statements. Their main benefit is that they allow the applications software to be independent of the physical printing device as opposed to the normal case where specific routines have to be written for each d…

Page makeup
Assembly of all materials necessary to produce a page proof.

Page Printer
The more general (and accurate) name used to describe non-impact printers that produce a complete page in one action. Examples include laser, LED and LCD shutter xerographic printers, ion deposition, electro-erosion and electro-photographic printers.

Page proofs
The stage following galley proofs, in which pages are made up and paginated.

PageMaker
The software program from Adobe Corporation that everyone associates with desktop publishing due to its immense success on the Apple Macintosh. Now available on both the Macintosh and the PC, it is still used as a benchmark product, although in many areas competitors such as QuarkXPress, and more recent products such as InDesign have supplanted it.

Pagination
Numerical sequence of pages in a book.

Palette
Limited number of colours available for a given image - typically 2 colour, 256 colour, or (24-bit). And a name often applied to floating toolbars in certain applications (e.g. Photoshop).

Pallet
A platform with a slatted bottom, used to hold and ship cartons of paper stacked on top of each other.

Panchromatic
Film sensitive to the full spectrum of light and Ultra Violet.

Pantograph
For many years the mainstay of the engraving industry and still in common usage serving a vital role. Pantograph is on all-inclusive term that is used to describe a wide variety of machines ranging from very small two dimensional, fixed ratio non-motorized machines, to large, free standing, three dimensional, variable ratio ones. Regardless of thei…

Pantone Matching System (PMS)
The most widely used system for specifying and blending match colours. The PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM identifies more than 700 colours. It provides designers with swatches for specific colours, and gives printers the recipes for making those colours. Neither a commercial printer nor an ink manufacture developed PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, leaving the cho…

PANTONE®
A company whose name has become almost synonymous with the standard range of inks, papers, markers and colour specifiers they produce. The Pantone Matching System (PMS) system is a way of choosing precisely coloured inks for printing in spot or process, spot to process comparison, tints, duotones, etc.

Paper
A complex matted web of cellulose fibers.

Paper Consultant
A representative from a paper mill or merchant who has the expertise to help designers and printers choose just the right paper for a specific job.

Paper Cut
The excruciating, often unforeseeable, and usually invisible-to- the-naked-eye cut received when skin slides along the edge of a piece of paper at just the wrong angle.

Paper-ink Affinity
The tendency for paper and ink to attract and stay attracted to each other. This keeps the ink on the paper and off the reader's hands or the next sheet. An incompatibility between ink and paper can cause printing problems.

Paperback
A soft cover book, less durable but less expensive than hardcover.

Paperboard
Paper with a caliper greater than .012 inches, or 12 points. Paperboard is used primarily for packaging and construction materials. Paperboard doesn't need to have the same white- ness and brightness as premium printing and writing papers, and because the process of de-inking is less important in its manufacture, it is a perfect product for using r…

Papermaking
Creating a web of fiber from plant cellulose (or, less commonly, from synthetic fibers). Papermakers today follow the same steps that its inventor, Ts'ai Lun, followed almost two thousand years ago: pulping vegetable matter and leaving the cellulose fibers behind; mixing the pulp with lots of water; draining it; forming paper on a sieve-like mold; …

Paperplate
A short run offset printing plate on which matter can be typed directly.

Papyrus
An aquatic plant found in northern Africa. Although papyrus is considered to be the first paper, it's not, in the strict definition of the word, paper (which is a matter web of individual fibers). Rather, peeling the plant, which is constructed like an onion, and placing one layer on top of another made early papyrus “paper�. The natural juices act…

Paragraph mark (¶)
A type symbol used to denote the start of a paragraph. Also used as a footnote sign.

Parallel Cutters
Those with a cutting edge that is parallel to the shank of the tool and produce a cut with straight edges.

Parallel fold
A method of folding; e.g. two parallel folds will produce a six page sheet.

Parchment
A writing substance made from the skin of animals. Today, parchment-like paper, or vegetable parchment, is made by dip- ping paper quickly into sulphuric acid, then quickly washing it and neutralizing the acid. This melts the fibers on the outside, which in turn coats the other fibers and fills the void between them. The result is a grease resistan…

Parenthesis
Punctuation marks (usually known as brackets).

Paste up
The various elements of a layout mounted in position to form camera-ready artwork. Pre digital.

Pattern adhesive
See pattern coating.

Pattern Coating
Refers to the width and spacing arrangement of adhesive laid down parallel to machine direction, across the width of a pressure-sensitive stock, during its manufacturing. Also refers to adhesive coating applied in a pattern which is not related to web direction.

Pattern Gum
An adhesive coating that alternates strips of adhesive/no adhesive parallel to the machine direction. The areas of no adhesive are frequently used as “lift-tabs� for order picking type labels.

PCI
Peripheral Component Interface; bus providing high bandwidth data channel between CPU and hard drives.

PCX
An outdated graphics format, originated as a memory dump of the screen RAM on a PC. This is a bitmap file format that is commonly supported, but not often actually used.

PDA
Personal Digital Assistant; handheld device like a Palm, stores information like addresses and appointments. Can access Internet. Use a stylus for input.

PDF
Portable Document Format from Adobe. This advanced form of Postscript allows you to share fully formatted documents - including typeface, type size, letter, line, and paragraph spacing - with users who have the reader. Created by Acrobat Distiller 'compressing' a Postscript file. Has the capacity to be searched and has multi-media capabilities. Any…

Peculiars
Characters for non-standard accent bearing letters used in setting foreign languages.

Peel adhesion (Adhesion)
The force required to remove a P.S. label from a standard test panel at a specific angle and speed after the label has been applied under specified conditions (Pressure-Sensitive Tape Council). The strip of test material is usually one inch wide, and the angle of measurement can be 90 to 180 degrees from the surface.

Peeler plate
A sharp edged, flat piece of metal around which the backing or carrier material is threaded, the prime function being a mechanical device which causes a pressure-sensitive label to be dispensed from the backing material.

Penetration
Bleed though. Change of appearance of the face material due to movement of one or more components from the adhesive or the substrate.

Perfect binding
A common method of binding paperback books. After the printed sections having been collated, the spines will be ground off and the cover glued on. The appearance is of a flat spine on the end of the book such as a paperback book. Often used for larger magazines and publications where saddle stitching is impractical.

Perfecting press or Perfector
Press that prints both sides of the paper at once. Also called Blanket-to-blanket press.

Perforated
Refers to a series of small incisions make in laid-on labels and/or their release liner to facilitate tearing along a pre-determined line, or for fan folding.

Perforating rule
Device on a letterpress or the cylinders of an offset press used to perforate paper.

Perforation
Series of small cuts made in labels and/or their release liner to facilitate tearing along a predetermined line.

Permanence
A paper's ability to resist tears, fading, and general aging over time. The national standard for permanence requires a pH of 7.5-8.5; at least 2% calcium carbonate; and no ground wood or unbleached fiber. The standard also has specific fold endurance and tear resistance requirements. Paper meeting the standard for permanence can be expected to las…

Permanent Adhesive
An adhesive characterized by having relatively highly ultimate adhesion to a wide variety of surfaces.

Petroleum-based Ink
An ink using petroleum as the vehicle for carrying the pigment. Ink manufacturers are seeking new vehicles to reduce the need for petroleum-based solvents, which may be toxic at high levels. see also ink, vegetable-based ink

pH
The measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a material. Paper with a pH below 7.0 is considered acidic; paper with a pH above 7.0 is considered acid-free, or alkaline. see also acid-free paper, alkaline papermaking, archival paper.

Phenolic
A rigid, brittle laminated plastic.

Phosphorescent Face
A face material coated with phosphorescent ink that emits light in a visible spectrum.

Photo CD
A proprietary format developed by Eastman Kodak for storing photographic images on a compact disc. Usually 35mm format. Images can be easily accessed for use in professional printing.

Photo Illustration
An image, primarily consisting of a photograph or composite image containing a photograph.

Photo Plate
A light sensitive printing plate. The plate is developed like film, and then used on a printing press.

Photocopy
A mechanical printing process that uses a light sensitive printing element, magnetic toner and a heating element to fuse the toner to the paper.

Photoengraving
Photo-mechanically produced metal relief printing plate used for letterpress printing.

Photograph
An image or picture made by exposing light sensitive film with a camera.

Photogravure
A printing process where the image is etched into the plate cylinder. The main advantage of this method of printing is the high speed, long run capability. Used mainly for mail order and magazine work.

Photolithography
Lithographic printing whereby the image is transferred to the plate photographically and printed on an offset lithographic press.

Photopolymer
Plate material that is photosensitive and upon exposure, its compounds polymerise to form a tough, abrasion resistant surface which becomes the inking media.

Photopolymer coating
Coating of compounds which when exposed polymerise to a tough, abrasion-resistant plate - good for long runs.

Photosensitive
Light sensitive.

Photoshop
A program from Adobe, now dominant in image editing, touching up photos, etc.

Photostat
Positive print made directly on paper using a Photostat machine.

Phototypesetting
Setting type photo-mechanically. Superseded by the Mac.

Pi characters
Those not usually included in a font, but which are added specially. Examples of these are timetable symbols and mathematical signs.

Pica
A unit of measurement equal to twelve (12) points or one sixth (1/6) of an inch. Used by designers and other graphic professionals for its precision.

Pick
The quality of paper as it relates to the tendency of fibers or particles to be pulled away from the sheet surface when removed from tacky surfaces such as printing plates.

Pick Out
A problem on press caused by unevenly sealed paper, or paper with low bonding strength. The ink 'picks' off weak ares of the paper, lifting coating from a coated stock, or lifting fibers from an uncoated stock, and transferring them to the printing blanket. These fibers will eventually be transferred back onto the sheets being printed, causing inki…

Pick Resistance
The ability of paper fibers to hold together during the printing process.

Picking
A problem generally resulting from using an ink that's too tacky for the paper it's printed on. The ink actually pulls tiny pieces of the paper off the surface of the sheet. Two types of picking are fiber bundles and coating picking. Fiber bundles are caused by weak fiber bond, and coating picking occurs when the adhesive properties of coating bind…

PICT
PICTure; Apple's native picture file format. Used for interactive applications, CD-Rom images, video stills, slide show presentations

PICture Element
On Macs the screen resolution is 72ppi, and of course there are 72 points to the inch. Pixels are not to be confused with dots, or dots per inch.

Piggyback
Multi-ply P.S. laminate consisting of a face stock; a layer of adhesive; a standard release liner; a layer of adhesive; and a standard release liner. This type of product provides a single label that can be applied to a substrate using the adhesive on the middle liner; then the top ply is removed and applied to a different substrate using the adhes…

Pigment
In printing inks, the fine solid particles used to give colour, or opacity.

Piling
Sticking or caking of ink pigment on the plate or blanket instead of passing on readily to the intended surface.

PIM
Personal Information Manager; stores information such as addresses, schedules, appointments and phone numbers etc.

Pin feed
See feed slots.

Pin register
Holes and pins applied to copy, film, plates and presses that positioned extremely accurately to ensure correct register of colours.

Pinch roll
See nip roll or pull roll.

Pinholes
Tiny holes in the emulsion of a photographic negative that must be opaqued before plate making.

Pipelining
The ability of a program to flow automatically text from the end of one column or page to the beginning of the next. An extra level of sophistication can be created by allowing the flow to be re-directed to any page and not just the next available. This is ideal for US-style magazines where everything is 'Continued on...'

Pitch diameter
The measurement of a gear or cylinder, determined by dividing the circumference by Pi (3.1416).

Pixel
The smallest graphical element displayable by a computer. Unlike other measurements, pixels are finite, determining the resolution of an image, rather than its physical size.

Pixel Depth
The amount of data used to describe each coloured dot on the computer screen. i.e. Monochrome is 1 bit deep. Greyscale is 8 bits deep. RGB is 24 bits deep. Images to be printed as CMYK separation should be 32 bits deep.

Placeholder
Small graphic element used to replace a larger illustration or photograph until it has fully downloaded.

Planographic
A method for printing ink onto paper, where the image sits on the same surface as the printing plate. The image area is greased to attract ink, while the rest of the plate attracts water and repels ink. As the paper is pressed onto the flat surface of the plate, it picks up ink from the greasy image areas and a small bit of water from blank areas. …

Plastic plate
Lightweight duplicate of a letterpress printing plate which is easy to handle and ship.

Plate
Brief for printing plate, generally a thin sheet of metal that carries the printing image. The plate surface is treated or configured so that only the printing image is ink receptive.