Print Jargon

A Sizes – Most common paper sizes used for general printing.
Artwork – Finished layout of typesetting, photographs and illustrations, made up in a form which is ready for the printer to print from.
Bleed – Printing where the colour runs to the edge of the paper.
CMYK – Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (K). K is used for black to eliminate confusion with blue. Full colour printed images are made up of these component colours (see Four Colour Process).
Coated Paper – A term used to describe paper which has received a special coating for enhanced detail and colour reproduction.
Die Cutting – Cutting the paper to a desired shape with use of steel rules.
Embossing – The process of raising letters or designs on card or durable paper.
Finishing – All operations on a job after printing is complete.
Four Colour Process – Full colour printing using four basic colours, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black.
GSM – Grams per square meter, indicating the weight of paper/card used.
Laminate – A transparent plastic coating for protection against liquid and heavy use and to enhance colour images.
Laser Proof – A low quality proof which can be black and white colour. Used for checking layout and text but not colour, before being printed.
Pantone Reference – A system for matching colours, used when specifying inks.
Proof – A printed sample of work to be checked for errors in text, positioning or quality of colour reproduction, before being printed.
Resolution – Refers to the degree of detail of an image. It is usually measured in dots per inch (dpi) or lines per inch (lpi). A high resolution gives a high quality image and a low resolution will give you a low quality image.
Saddle Stitch – A wire staple, passed through the fold of a document to bind the pages together.
Scoring – To impress paper with a rule to make folding easier.
Self Cover – Where the weight of the paper used is the same both for the cover and text pages of a booklet/brochure.
UV Varnishing – Ultra Violet system that can apply a UV gloss or matt varnish to selected areas to enhance and produce special effects.
Visual – A preliminary layout, showing the general design, and the position of type and images.