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

Catching-up
When non-image areas of a offset press plate begin to take ink or scum up.

Catchline
A temporary headline for identification on the top of a galley proof.

Cavity
Usually refers to the engraving on a rotary die cutter that die cuts a single shape.

Cellulose Fiber
The main component of the walls of all plant cells, cellulose gives plants their structural support and makes plant material fibrous. Both cotton and wook fibers are mostly made up of cellulose.

Central Impression
A press with a number of printing units around a large cylinder that serves as the impression cylinder against which the substrate rides.

Centring
To position something in such a way that it is the same distance from all sides of an object: for example, centring copy or text on a plaque, or centring a name on a nameplate.

Century Schoolbook
A popular serif typeface used in magazines and books for text setting that has a large x-height and an open appearance.

Chalking
A powdering effect left on the surface of the paper after the ink has failed to dry satisfactorily due to a fault in printing - caused by overly rapid absorption of the vehicle and improper curing of paper before it goes onto the press.

Chamfer
A sloped surface that starts at the top of the material's edge and ends part way down the side rather than at the bottom. The bordering appearance is similar to that which is produced by a bevel.

Character
A single element in a typeface (letter, numeral, punctuation mark).

Character count
The total number of typographic characters in a manuscript (including spaces and punctuation).

Chase
A rectangular metal frame in which metal type and blocks (engravings) are locked into position to make up a page.

Chatter
The vibration produced by a rotating engraving cutter. Generally caused by defective cutters or spindles and results in rough cuts and finishes in the work.

Check Digit
A digit included with-in a symbol whose value is based mathematically on other characters included in the symbol. It is used to perform a check to ensure the accuracy of the read.

Chemical Pulping
Manufacturing pulp by pressure-cooking wook or other raw fibrous material into its component parts with solutions of various chemical liquors. The predominant chemical pulping process is the sulphate (kraft) process.

Chemical Resistance
The resistance of a P.S. label to the deteriorating effects of exposure to various chemicals under specified conditions.

Chill Roll
Metal roll or drum cooled internally with water, etc. Often used after the press dryer to cool the printed web prior to die cutting, rewinding, etc.

Choke (Choking)
When trapping colour closing in an area that has another colour inside so the choked colour overlaps, also spreading.

Chroma
See Hue.

Chromalin
A colour proofing system, usually the final colour proof before going on the press. This is a high quality proof and all corrections and alterations should be made prior to this.

Chrome
See Colour transparency.

Cicero
The European measurement for type, One Cicero = 4.511mm or 12 Didot points.

CIP4
International Cooperation for Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress Organisation

Circumferential register
See running register.

Clay
A naturally occurring substance commonly used in the paper industry. Clay is used as both a filler and a coating ingredient. By adding clay, papermakers can improve a paper's smooth- ness, brightness, opacity, and affinity for ink.

Clay coated
A term used to describe a paper with a clay coating on either one or both sides.

Clear area
A required clear space, containing no data marks, which precedes the start character of a symbol and follows the stop character. Also known as the 'quiet area.'

Clear Coat
A varnish. A coating that protects the printing and the surface of a pressure-sensitive label from abrasion, sunlight, chemicals, moisture, or a combination of these.

Clearance Angle
Refers to the angle of the cutting edge with respect to the face of the cutter. This angle allows for chip clearance, determines how fine the cutting edge is and is selected based on material properties.

Clip art
See stock art.

Clipping path
A vector path deep etching by masking unwanted areas of an image.

Close up
A proof correction mark to reduce the amount of space between characters or words.

CLUT
Colour Lookup Table - a colour indexing system allowing computers to appear to display greater colour depth than they are capable of by rounding a colour value down to one that it can display.

CMYK
Abbreviation for the four processing inks; cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The four process colour inks. Their admixture on the receiving paper creates the illusion of full colour.

Co-Extruded Engraving Plastic
A flexible engraving material produced by simultaneously merging two plastics together during the manufacturing process. One plastic forms the cap surface, the other the core.

Co-extrusions
Film produced by more than one extruder through a common die. Films have been made with as many as 13 layers.

Coated Paper
Paper with an outer layer of coating applied to one of both sides. The coating may be added while the paper is still moving through the papermaking machine, or after it comes off the machine. Coated papers are available in a variety of finishes, like gloss, dull, and matte. They tend to have good ink holdout and minimal dot gain, which can be espec…

Coating
A material, usually liquid, used to form a covering film over a surface. Its function is to decorate and or protect the surface from destructive agents or environment.

Coating Weight
The amount of weight of coating (normally adhesive) per unit area. This can be expressed as grams per square meter or pounds per ream.

Code 128
A full alphanumeric bar code capable of encoding all 128 ASCII characters.

Code 39
A full alphanumeric bar code consisting of nine black and white bars for each character symbol.

Cold flow (Ooze)
The flow of a P.S. adhesive under pressure or stress.

Cold type
Typesetting without the use of molten metal, ie typewriting, photocomposition, computerized composition.

Cold-set inks
Solid-form inks when molten and used with a hot press, solidify on contact with paper.

Collate
To gather separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding.

Collet
Device that holds collet cutters in the spindle.

Collet Cutter
A cutter that is typically shorter than a standard cutter. Collet cutters are inserted into the bottom of the spindle and held in place by a collet.

Collotype
Continuous-tone printing process using a gelatine coated printing plate.

Colophon
Inscription formerly placed at the end of a book, giving details of the title, the printer, the date and place of printing etc.

Colour
Refers to use of paper other than white and ink other than black. Computer monitors use the RGB colour space and most printers use CYMK. Most colour problems stem from either poor translation between these colour models, limitations in one of the colour models (out of gamut colours), or poor colour separation. Also common is spot colour, in which b…

Colour bars
Appear on four-colour process proofs and used to check registration of all printing colours, dot gain and indicate density and ink evenness.

Colour correction
Adjustments made on a computer in, for example Adobe Photoshop, to bring the reproduction as close to the original as possible.

Colour filling
The method of filling deeply cut, rotary engraved characters with ink, paint, or paste to odd colour or contrast. Also known as paint filling.

Colour Key
A printer's proof usually used for viewing the individual layers of C, M, Y and K, four sheets of coloured acetate, for examining the quality of process colour separations.

Colour negative film
Film that delivers a negative colour image.

Colour scanner
Device used to make colour separations by electronically reading the densities of the original either flatbed or drum. Flatbeds use CCD technology and are more economical to purchase than laser Drum scanners. Drum scanners provide very high quality results although many flatbeds offer excellent quality for the price.

Colour Separation (1)
Literally separating the areas of a piece to be printed into its component spot and process ink colours. Each colour to be printed must have its own printing plate. Usually referred to in a photographic sense a colour separation of a photo done either digitally or traditionally on a scanner.

Colour Separation (2)
In photography, the process of separating colour originals into the primary printing colour components in negative or positive form. In lithographic plate making, the manual separation of colours by handwork performed directly on the printing surface. An artist can pre-separate by using separate overlays for each other.

Colour separation (3)
The division of a multi-coloured original or line copy into the basic (or primary) process colours of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. These should not be confused with the optical primaries: red, green and blue.

Colour sequence
Order in which the four process colours are printed, usually yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

Colour transparency
Full-colour photograph on transparent film.

Colour value
Tonal value of a specific colour as compared to a greyscale.

Colour-curve System
A colour matching system based on light reflectance curves rather than on ink formulations. It is intended to coordinate colours across a variety of surfaces and materials and to reduce metamerism. see also match colour, metamerism, PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, Toyo.

Colourfastness
having colour that won't run when wet, and won't fade in bright light.

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 inch deep.

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

Comp (comprehensive)
A complete but prospective example of a design project, demonstrating size, layout of images and type, use of colour, and paper. See also dummy

Compose
To set copy into type, with the advent of computers this is now ‘digital artwork composition�.

Composite Image
A photograph or other graphic image, which is made of a combination of multiple images.

Compression
Broadly in two forms - 'lossy' and 'losless'. JPEG is a lossy compression format; it discards information on a sliding scale of size v. quality. With size over quality the image pixelates. Each time it is compressed it throws away more data. Lossless compression - GIF (Graphics Image Interchange) for onscreen use using LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch), also …

Concertina fold
A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect - see Accordion fold.

Condensed
A style of typeface with a vertically elongated, narrow appearance.

Condensed face
A face having a narrow appearance.

Conditioning
Process of subjecting material to specific temperature and humidity conditions for stipulated time.

Conformability
The ability of a P.S. material to yield to the contours of a curved or rough surface.

Conical Cutters
Those having an angled cutting edge which produce a 'V' shaped cut.

Contact frame
Vacuum-backed board for holding copy.

Continuous code
A bar code or symbol where the space between characters (inter-character group) is part of the code.

Continuous label
Fan-folded labels manufactured from a continuous web of label stock which is not cut into units prior to execution. Continuous labels are mostly used for data processing applications.

Continuous Tone
An image in which the subject has continuous shades of colour or grey 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.

Contrast
The degree of difference between light and dark areas in an image. Extreme lights and darks give an image high contrast. An image with a wide tonal range has lover contrast.

Conversion
The process of creating a three dimensional (3D) item from a flat sheet of paper. I.e. envelope conversion / box conversion.

Converter
Refers to that type of manufacturer who produces plain or printed rolls, sheets, bags or pouches, etc., from rolls of film, foil or paper, including pressure sensitive labels and tags.

Cookies
automatically downloaded small files from a web server to the hard drive of someone browsing a site. Information stored in cookies can be accessed any time the computer returns to the site. Cookies allow websites to ‘personalise` appearance by identifying visitors, tracking preferences, storing passwords etc.

Copier label
A label designed for overprinting by a plain paper photocopier.

Copy
The original manuscript used in typesetting.

Copy fitting
Calculating how much space a manuscript will use once typeset in a specified typeface. Old terminology - also referred to as Type fitting, Copy casting or Casting off. The old typesetters would calculate this by counting the number of characters, the line length and available depth to find the ‘mutton-quod` - the square of the point size.

Copy Writer
The individual who writes the written information or 'copy' for an advertisement, newsletter, publication or brochure.

Copyright
Copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without the express permission or acknowledgement of the author or artist. All work appearing with the © symbol or the word 'copyright' is protected by its creator or his heirs. For more information, contact your attorney.

Core
The back of 2-ply engraving material or the centre of 3-ply engraving materials. The core produces the contrasting colour to the cap surface.

Corner marks
Marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim or register marks.

Corner radius
Describes the arc or curvature of the die blades where they meet so that they can impart a rounded corner to a die cut label.

Corona treatment
Altering the surface characteristics by exposing the surface to a high voltage discharge (corona) resulting in an increase in surface energy (dyne level).

Corporate Identity
The image of a company that is consistently portrayed through logotype, symbol, typeface and colour, applied to everything from stationery to vehicles, advertising to clothing.

Cotton Paper
Paper with a minimum cotton fiber content of 25%, and a maxi- mum fiber content of 100%. When fiber other than cotton is used, the balance comes from wood pulp. Cotton pulp is made from rags or clippings from textile mills, raw cotton, and cotton linters. Cotton papers are primarily used as writing papers.

Coupon
Removable label either supplying information or having redeemable value. They may be either pressure sensitive on non-pressure sensitive.

Coupon Base
A splittable film product with adhesive and protective liner. When used in combination with another pressure-sensitive coated facestock affords the label converter the capability of manufacturing on press a redemption coupon that has a lift tab and is printed on both sides. A clear film remains on the labelled item after the coupon has been removed…

Cover Paper
Heavier, generally stiffer paper commonly used for book covers, folders, greeting cards, business cards, and brochures. Uncoated cover papers generally match the colour and finish of corresponding text papers. The basic size of cover stock is 20'x26'. see also basic size, text paper.

Cover stock
Heavyweight paper stock that is used for the covers of magazines, booklets, catalogs and other printed materials.

Cover title
Title of a book printed or stamped on the cover.