Copy of `Print Technology Warehouse - Printing glossary`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

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

Plate finish
Even, hard finish on paper.

Plate Ready Film
Final photographic film used to 'burn' printing plates.

Platen
Small letterpress that holds plate and paper parallel to each other. (Also known as a clam shell because of its opening and closing motion.)

Pliability
See flexibility.

Plug-in
Bolt-on addition to a program to increase or improve it`s functionality.

Plugging
Printing problem when ink fills in around halftone dots, causing a loss of shadow detail.

Ply
An individual layer of a laminated material.

PMS
Short for Pantone Matching System, a widely used colour-coding system that allows designers to define colours by numbers.

PNG
Portable Network Graphic - 'Ping', developed for use on the Internet. It became popular after the standard GIF file format was ruled to breach copyright and will increase in popularity as software developers can incorporate PNG compatibility without paying royalties.

Point
In measurements of the thickness of paper, one point is 1/1000 or .001 inches; a measurement of the size of type, one point is 1/72 inch. see also caliper, thickness.

Polycarbonate
A high clarity film having the versatility of acetate with the durability of polyester.

Polyester
A strong film having good resistance to moisture, solvents, oils and many other chemicals. It is usually transparent.

Polyester liner
A polyester film that is silicone release coated. It provides an excellent die cutting surface and is also used on over-laminating films to provide a smooth, glass-like surface of adhesive.

Polyester overlam
A clear, glossy polyester film coated with clear acrylic adhesive. Can also be supplied with a matte surface.

Polyethylene
An extruded, tough stretchy film having limited temperature resistance but good moisture barrier properties.

Polymer
A complex, relatively large, molecule produced by the reaction of a simpler compound with itself. Usually refers to synthesized organic resins, but may also refer to natural materials such as starch, sugar, cellulose, and natural rubber.

Polypropylene
A polyolefin plastic similar in properties to polyethylene but with higher temperature capability and greater strength.

Polystyrene
A water-white thermoplastic produced by the polymerisation of styrene. The electrical insulation properties of polystyrene are outstandingly good and the material is relatively unaffected by moisture.

Polythene
Trade name for polyethylene available in films or as custom molded articles.

Polyvinyl
Refers to a group of resins formed by polymerising various vinyl monomers.

Polyvinylidene chloride
Usually a very thin transparent film with excellent resistance to acids, water and organic solvents.

Poor trapping
Condition in wet printing when less ink transfers to previously printed ink than to unprinted paper.

POP
Point of Purchase. Advertising or promotional displays at the checkout in a store.

Porosity
Refers to the openness or compactness of the fibers in a paper, is measured by the ability of air to pass through the sheet. The more open a paper is, the greater its porosity.

Portal
Marketing term to describe a website that is the first place people see when using the web. A ‘portal site` generally has a catalogue of websites and/or a search engine. Portal site may also offer e-mail and other services to entice people to use that particular site as the ‘point of entry` of choice.

Portrait
An upright image or page where the height is greater than the width.

Positive
Film or print reproduction of an original containing the same color relationship and subject placement as the original.

Post Cure
The phenomenon peculiar to radiation curing. Whereas, exposure to ultraviolet radiation will continue to react chemically for a period of minutes to hours after exposure.

Post-consumer Recovered Paper
Paper material recovered after being used by a consumer.

Posterisation
Image manipulation technique that reduces the total number of colour in an image and eliminates some of the tonal range, creating impressionistic high-contrast effects similar to line drawings.

Postscript
Device independent page description language pioneered by Adobe. PostScript is essentially a computer language that describes the objects and elements that make up a page, and hence is effectively non-resolution dependent. Thus Postscript is widely supported by both hardware and software vendors as it represents the current 'standard' in the market…

PPI
Paper per inch, or the number of sheets in a one-inch stack of paper; used to describe the bulk of a paper.

PPM
Pages Per Minute: a measurement of a printer's output speed.

Pre-consumer Recovered Paper
Paper recovered after the papermaking process, but before use by a consumer.

Pre-Flighting
Term which has come to be used to describe the process of checking a document for missing items - images and fonts - prior to it being output.

Pre-Press
The various printing related services, performed before ink is actually put on the printing press. (i.e. stripping, scanning, color separating, etc. . .)

Pre-sensitised plate
Printing plate with a light-sensitive coating.

Precision Sheeting
Converting rolls of paper into finished sheet sizes in a single operation.

Press proof
A test printing of a subject prior to the final production run. Press proofs are generally printed on the paper stock that will be used for the finished project. A few sheets are run as a final check before printing the entire job.

Pressure Bridge
The steel support mechanically secured over the die stations, through which the pressure screws are threaded.

Pressure screws
Steel shafts threaded through the pressure bridge which are used to apply pressure (in rotary die cutting station) to facilitate die cutting.

Pressure sensitive label stock
The combination of face material, pressure-sensitive adhesive and release liner from which pressure-sensitive labels are manufactured.

Pressure sensitive laminate
See pressure-sensitive stock.

Pressure sensitive tape
A combination of a pressure-sensitive adhesive with a carrier. Tapes are either self-wound or utilize release liners or films.

Preview mode
A mode where word processing or desktop publishing software that doesn`t operate in WYSIWYG fashion can show a representation of the output, as it will look when printed. The quality ranges from acceptable to worse than useless.

Primary colours
Primary colours: Pigment: Red, Yellow and Blue when mixed together with black will produce a reasonable reproduction of all other colours. Light spectrum primaries: Red, Green and Blue - added together create white light.

Primary label
Label that acts as the main identification of a product. Often designed to attract attention and contains information to appeal to a buyer and is usually applied at the time of its manufacture.

Primer
Coating applied to the face material on the side opposite to the printing surface to improve anchorage of the adhesive and prevent migration of adhesive components into face material.

Print engine
The parts of a page printer that perform the print-imaging, fixing and paper transport.

Print Quality
The overall excellence of a printed piece. Paper, ink, press, and the skill of the press operators all affect print quality.

Print treated
A proprietary chemical alteration of the surface by the film manufacturer done during the film making process.

Printability
How well a paper performs with ink on press. Absorbency, smoothness, ink holdout, and opacity all affect printability.

Printer Command Language
A language developed by Hewlett Packard for use with its own range of printers. Essentially a text orientated language, it has been expanded to give graphics capability.

Printer driver
File used by a computer to ascertain the operational parameters of a printer and to translate files into a suitable form to print on that device.

Printing
The process of applying images to a variety of surfaces. Some printing processes include: offset lithography, thermography, la gravure, letterpress, silkscreen, digital, laser, dye sub, photographic.

Printing Methods
A means or tool for placing ink on paper. Most printing is done with a plate. The four main types of printing methods are relief, where words or images are raised above the surface of the plate; intaglio, where they are etched through the surface; plano- graphic, on the same plane as the surface; and stencil, or screen printing, cut below the plate…

Process camera
Camera that is specifically designed to photograph material for printing.

Process colours (2)
The mechanical process of reproducing a full colour image with the three primary subtractive colour inks. (Magenta, cyan, yellow and black)

Process lens
Photographic lens that is corrected for line, colour and halftone work.

Process plates
Halftone plates printing in one of the four process colours.

Process printing
Multi-colour printing utilizing a variety of printing screens, depth of etch, etc., and usually using yellow, magenta, cyan and black inks to give an optical effect of all colours and hues being present in a composite picture.

Production Artist (Paste-up Artist)
A skilled labourer who produces finished camera ready or plate ready artwork from the visual elements and instructions provided by the designer or client

Profiling
The technique of cutting through a piece of material using a rotary engraving cutter. This method of engraving is commonly used for making badge blanks, cutting out irregular shapes or making cut-outs in control panels.

Progressives
Colour proofs taken at each stage of printing showing each colour printed singly and then superimposed on the preceding colour.

Proof
Laser, chemical or blueline proof prepared prior to printing which allows the client to check how colour, photos, type, art and so on, will register and print.

Proof correction marks
A standard set of signs and symbols used in copy preparation and to indicate corrections on proofs. Marks are placed both in the text and in the margin.

Proportion scale
Circular slide rule used in sizing art (reduction or enlargement) for reproduction. Easier and more accurate to use a calculator. The formula is as follows; reproduction divided by original, and then hit the percentage key.

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.

Proxy
A stand in, such as an intermediary server on a LAN, an image in the DTP application that is for position only, or the object manipulation tool on the PageMaker control strip.

Pt. abbreviation for "point."
Abbreviation for 'point.'

Pull-down menus
Developed from Xerox research, they are a method of providing user control over software without cluttering up the screen. Accessed by point and click with the mouse or keyboard shortcuts.

Pull-tab
Area on a face stock that facilitates easy removal of the label, usually a cut area on a sheeted label. Also called a peel tab or tear tab.

Pulp
The raw material used in papermaking consisting mainly of wood chips, rags or other fibers. Broken down by mechanical or chemical means.

Pulping Wood
Transforming wood, the raw material of most paper, into pulp. Pulping breaks wood apart, separating the rows of cellulose fibers that are stuck together with lignin. These separated fibers will later create the matted web of fibers we know as paper. Paper may be made with pulp from just one of the following processes, or by mixing mechanical and ch…

Punched out labels
Anvil cut or sheeted labels. Also referred to as metal-to-metal cutting due to the die cutting edge coming in contact with the anvil.

Quad
Specified typesetting size - em-quad, en-quad - hence the old term from the pre-digital era - quadding: the addition of space between words/letters to fill out a line of type using en or em blocks.

Quadratone
A black and white image printed with four screens and four colours, such as one or more blacks and different shades of grey, used to enrich the contrast between light and dark areas.

Quarter-round Cutters
Half-round tools that have a secondary split at 90 degrees to the original flat producing a tool that has a cross-section that is one quarter of a cylinder.

Quarto
A piece of paper folded in half then half again, making quarters or 8 pages.

Quire
1/20th of a ream (25 sheets).

Rag paper
High quality stationery paper made from cotton rags. Paper with at least 25% and as much as 100% cotton fibers.

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

Ragged right-ragged left
Type aligned vertically right or left.

RAM
Random Access Memory; the memory in which a computer stores all current information. The computer can access data in RAM very fast (usually in about 10 nano seconds). It is lost, unless saved, if the computer is shut down or crashes.

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
A line-by-line bitmap representation of the current screen being seen on the computer.

Raster Image Processor (RIP)
The hardware engine that calculates the bit-mapped image of text and graphics from a series of instructions.

Rasterise
To convert page description information into a bitmap: the action of a RIP when attached to an output device.

Re-winder
A machine that takes rolls from the winder, slits or rewinds into smaller rolls.

Re-winding
The operation of winding the paper from the reel on to a core to produce rolls of the desired width, diameter and tension.

Ream
Five hundred sheets of paper.

Ream Weight
The actual weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of paper.

Recovered Paper
Paper that has been separated, diverted, or removed from the solid waste stream.

Recto
The right-hand page of a book, magazine.

Recycle
Ground material from flasit and trimmings which after mixing with a certain amount of virgin material is fed back into the blow mold machine.

Recycled Content Paper
A paper product containing some, but consisting of less than 100% recovered fiber. Champion Carnival is an example of a recycled content paper.

Recycled Paper
A paper product consisting of 100% recovered fiber. Recovered fiber includes pre- and/or post-consumer sources. Champion Benefit is an example of a 100% recycle paper.

Reference marks
Symbols used in text to direct the reader to a footnote. E.g. asterisk (*), dagger, double dagger, section mark or paragraph mark.

Refining
The process of cutting, breaking, and flattening the cellulose fibers in pulp. In order to form a strong, flexible paper, pulp fibers need to be flattened and frayed. The refiner has metal discs that can be adjusted to create longer or shorter fibers.

Reflectance
The measured level of light reflected by a paper or imprinted characters thereon, expressed in percent of a standard reference material.