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

Strip heating
Heating a piece of plastic along a narrow line in order to bend it at that line. Used for making self-standing counter signs or nameplates and over-the-pocket badges.

Stripping
The process of assembling film for type, art and halftones in position for photomechanical reproduction.

Stroke
The line that defines a shape (such as the outline of a letter).

Stub roll
A short roll of face material or pressure-sensitive label stock.

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

Styrene
A liquid unsaturated hydrocarbon (CgHg). See polystyrene.

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

Substrate
The surface to which a label is applied; adhered. Converters also refer to the face stock being printed as the substrate.

Subtractive colours
In printing, an ink or filter that subtracts some of the colours from white light projected through it.

Supercalender
Alternating steel and fiber-covered calender rolls that increase a sheet's gloss and smoothness. The supercalender is a separate piece of equipment located close to the dry end of the paper machine.

Supercalendered paper
A smooth finished paper with a polished appearance, produced by rolling the paper between calenders. Examples of this are high gloss and art papers.

Superscript
Small letters or figures set above normal letters or figures.

Surprint
Superimposing a second negative on an already exposed negative.

Swash letters
Italic characters with extra flourishes used at the beginning of chapters.

Swatch
A colour sample.

Swatchbook
A booklet containing paper samples and paper specifications for a line of paper. Champion produces individual swatchbooks for each of its fine printing papers.

Swelled rule
A line that is thicker in the middle and tapers to the ends.

SWOP
Specifications Web Offset Publications, a booklet that gives the web offset specifications for separations, proofing and printing process colour.

Symbols
Typographic characters used to replace spelled-out words, e.g. © for copyright.

Symmetry
A design term describing individual pages or two-page spreads characterised by left-right balance.

System fonts
Come as standard with Windows and Macintosh systems and are used in the system to display menus etc. Usually named after cities or people who fetch and carry (New York, Monaco, Geneva, Courier etc).

Table
Design technique that organises complex information in row and column format, permitting easy comparisons - also a tool that permits Web developers to control the horizontal and vertical placement of text and graphics.

Tabloid
A page half the size of a broadsheet.

Tabular setting
Text set in columns such as timetables.

Tack
Quick adhesion. The property of a pressure-sensitive label which causes it to adhere to a surface instantly with a minimum of pressure and contact time as measured by TLM Tester or equivalent equipment.

Tack Range
The time during which an adhesive film remains tacky.

Tack Stickiness
Tack is a critical property of the ink used in lithography. Because the ink sits on a flat surface, it needs internal cohesion; in other words, it needs to stick to itself so that it doesn't run all over the plate. However, too much tack can cause it to pull the paper apart. When printing two or more ink colours in line, the ink tack and sequence m…

Tag paper
A heavy utility grade of paper used to print tags, such as the store tags on clothing. Tag paper must be strong and durable, yet have good affinity for printing inks.

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)
A common format for interchanging digital information, generally associated with greyscale or bitmap data.

Tagged Text
Text in a format that also includes styles or codes, which denote Properties of the text, such as the font, size, weight etc. Modern word processors use tagged text in their custom file formats, and some of these may to be imported directly

Tags
The various formats that make up a style sheet- paragraph settings, margins and columns, page layouts, hyphenation and justification, widow and orphan control and automatic section numbering.

Tamper Proof Label
Destructive label. A pressure-sensitive construction made with a face material having a low strength so that attempted removal of a label made from this stock will usually result in destruction of the label.

Tampo Printing
Process used for printing across relatively small areas on plastic items, and when the area to be printed is difficult to get at.

TCP-IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; a de facto UNIX standard, the protocol of the Internet, and is the global standard for communications.

Tear Strength
A measure of how likely a paper will continue to tear once started. Tear strength will be different with and against the grain of paper. Paper that will be punched should have good tear strength.

Tearing
Breaking or slivering of a tape during unwind.

Telescoping
A sideways sliding of the tape layers, one over the other, such that the roll looks like a funnel or telescope.

Template
Read-only file containing the formatting information necessary to create a finished document. Templates contain standing elements, like the nameplate on the front cover of a newsletter and the address panel on the back cover, as well as column.

Tensile Strength
A measure of how likely a paper is to break when pulled at opposite ends, in opposite directions. A web offset paper must have good tensile strength if it is to withstand the high speed of the printing press.

Tension
The mechanical control of unwinding a rewinding paper, film, foil and other roll materials. The stress caused by a force operating to extend, stretch or pull apart.

Text
The written or printed material that forms the main body of a publication.

Text colour
The appearance of set type from a distance where the words cannot be read. The text should have an even grey appearance ranging from light to dark (depending on typeface, leading, etc.) with no gaps, or 'rivers.'

Text Paper
Premium uncoated printing paper of fine quality, manufactured in weights suitable for the text of books or brochures. Text papers are made in a wide variety of finishes, including smooth, antique, vellum, laid, felt, and embossed. They are characterized by excellent folding qualities, printability, and durability. Text papers are used most often fo…

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

Text wrap
Reducing the left or right margins of a text column to accommodate an irregularly shaped photograph or pull-quote placed next to the column or extending from an adjacent column aka Runaround.

Texture
The smoothness of a column of text. The goal of fine typography is to create columns without distracting 'holes,' or 'rivers',

Thermal
Adjective describing the effects of temperature of heat, e.g. thermal effects.

Thermal Transfer
A thermal printing process utilizing a temperature sensitive ribbon that through heat and pressure is selectively transferred to a printable surface thus creating the desired image. The ink is transferred from the ribbon to the print surface thus the term “thermal transfer�.

Thermal transfer paper
A face paper specifically designed to accept heat-activated ink from the ribbon of a thermal-transfer printer.

Thermographic paper
A label paper having a heat activated coating that will accept an image from a thermal graphic printer.

Thermography
A print finishing process producing a raised image imitating die stamping. The process takes a previously printed image that before the ink is dry is dusted with a resinous powder. The application of heat causes the ink and powder to fuse creating a raised, shiny image. Also known as Verco.

Thickness
The thickness of a single piece of paper, as measured in thousandths of an inch, called 'caliper.' Thickness measurements define the bulkiness of a sheet of paper, but the actual number of sheets in an inch-high stack of paper is referred to as PPI, or pages per inch. This is usually measured under slight pressure with a special gauge.

Thin space
The thinnest space normally used to separate words.

Thirty-two sheet
A poster size measuring 120in x 160in (3048mm x 4064mm).

Threaded or Chained (US)
See Pipelining.

Through cut
A die cut in a pressure sensitive label which has been made through all components of the label stock and liner.

Thumbnail
Reduced-scale version of a document or graphic. Thumbnail documents permit you to get a better idea of the page-by-page development of your publication. Web site visitors can click on the thumbnail graphic to download the full-sized illustration also the first ideas or sketches of a designer noted down for future reference.

Tie
A term used to denote the uncut portion of a perforation.

Tie Coat
One layer of a coating system used to improve the adhesion of adjacent or succeeding coats.

Tied letters. See Ligature.
See Ligature.

TIFF
Tagged Image File Format - a common format for interchanging digital information, generally associated with greyscale or bitmap data.

Tint
Graphic elements printed with less than 100% ink coverage and the effect of adding white to a solid colour.

Tip-off
Is the flat at the tip of the cutter. Also the tip width of the cutter. The tip off (or tip width) determines the width of the bottom of the cut.

Tipped in
The separate insertion of a single page into a book either during or after binding by pasting one edge.

Titanium Dioxide
A white pigment manufactured from titanium ores and used as such or mixed with barium or calcium sulphate as a loading or coating material. These are characterized by great whiteness and brightness. Also used as a paint pigment.

Title page
The right hand page at the front of a book bearing the title, names of the author and publisher, the place of publication, the ISBN number.

Tolerance
Dimensions within a given range of preset standards.

Tone line process
The process of producing line art from a continuous tone original.

Toner
Negatively charged chemical used by Laser printers to create documents.

Toolbox
An on screen mouse operated facility that allows the user to choose from a selection of 'tools' to create simple geometric shapes, lines, boxes, circles etc. and to add fill patterns.

Tooling
Usually refers to die cutters, butt cutters, etc., used to cut out the labels.

Tooth
Refers to paper's surface roughness, a characteristic that allows it to take up ink.

Tooth count
Refers to the actual number of teeth there are on the gear which is attached to the dies and printing cylinders. Each tooth count refers to a separate and actual repeat length.

Top coating
A chemical coating applied to the surface to improve ink and toner anchorage.

Top lamination- See overlaminating.
See overlaminating.

Top-loading cutters
Cutters that are inserted into the spindle from the top and are typically held in place by means of a threaded knob.

Touchplate
In four-colour process printing, an additional fifth plate of ink that adds more of one colour to enhance the image.

Toyo
A system used for colour matching.

Tracking
Increasing or decreasing letter spacing uniformity throughout a headline or column of text. In most cases, letter spacing is too generous. Slightly reducing letter spacing to -3 often improves the appearance of the text.

Tractor feed
See pin feed.

Transitional faces
Characterised by moderate amounts of vertical stress and rounded serifs. Times Roman is perhaps the most popular Transitional typeface.

Translucency
Ability to transmit light without being transparent.

Translucent label
Material capable of transmitting light yet not totally transparent.

Transparency
That property of a material that transmits light rays so that objects can be distinctly seen through the specimen.

Transparent Label
A pressure-sensitive label whose face material, adhesive and protective coatings, transmit light so that objects can be seen through.

Transpose
To change the order of letters or words.

Trapping
Technique used when producing colour-separated film. Different colours are 'trapped' to ensure that a slight mis-registration of the final film doesn't result in ugly overlaps of colour or unsightly gaps between colours. Often achieved by a 'process bridge' - making sure that all colours contain common CMYK colours. With spot colours it is a matter…

Trigger or key mark
A code bit(s) that tells the scanner if the code is in a position to be read; used with some fixed beam readers.

Trim
The physical measurements of a page, as contrasted to the image area, or area between the margins, of page and 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.

Trim Size
The final size of a printed piece once it's been cut to specification.

Trimming
Cutting paper after printing to make all sheets the same or a specified size. After binding printed papers, the head, foot, and edge of a book are often trimmed in a guillotine to make all the pages even. The inner pages of each signature have a tighter fold and will be slightly longer than the outer pages.

Tritone
A black and white image printed with three screens and three colours, such as one black and two greys, used to enrich the contrast between light and dark areas.

TrueType
Typeface format promoted by Apple and Microsoft. TrueType fonts often print faster than competing typeface formats on Laser printers.

TRUMATCH
A proprietary colour-matching system, supported by a wide range of graphic and DTP applications.

TWAIN
Technology Without An Interesting Name; generic set of drivers used by software to interface with a scanner, or sometimes, a digital camera.

Twin wire
Paper that has an identical smooth finish on both sides.

Twin-wire Machine
A papermaking machine with two continuous forming wires, rather than just one. Twin-wires were designed to create a less two-sided paper than manufactured on a Fourdrinier paper machine. Other techniques for reducing two-sidedness have since been developed, enabling paper manufactures to created paper on single-wire machines with little side-to-sid…

Two-sidedness
The tendency of some papers to have slightly different characteristics and printing results from side-to-side.

Type gauge
Ruler divided into points used to measure how many lines are in a column of a specified type. Also called Line gauge.

Type specifications
Instructions on how to set the type from a manuscript.