14 Jul GuideLines : Print Terminology

In recent months we have been reaching out to new Birmingham & West Midlands based start-ups, to provide graphic design and brand development services. Helping to launch new ventures is a very rewarding and important part of our growing client portfolio. Having been there ourselves a few years ago we’re always happy to share advice and lessons learnt for developing sound business and marketing plans.

To aid new businesses we are putting together some regular know-how and reference guides covering useful information for those buying web, print and design services for the first time. In this; the first ‘GuideLines’ post, we cover some key print terminology to help you bust the jargon of printers quotes.

Not everybody who is required to purchase print services need be an expert in the terminology behind it, but it really does help to have a grasp of some of the key terms used so you can play a role in the design decisions made.

If you’ve ever received a print quote and been baffled by some of the terminology used then the below glossary will help you to understand some key terms which are most likely to come up in print buying.

A R T W O R K
Artwork is the recognised term for design work which is production ready. It has been proofed, edited and signed off by the client and therefore ready to go to print without any further amendments.

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B L E E D
Bleed refers to print which goes over the edge of the paper before trimming. Bleed allows the printer a margin of error for movement of the paper during the printing and trimming processes. As standard most layouts sent to professional printers require artwork to be extended by at least 3mm on each edge.

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C M Y K
CMYK is an abbreviation for Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Key (black). These are the four colours used in the four colour printing process. The majority of printing is done using CMYK inks and therefore any imagery or colours used in artwork should also be set up as CMYK for consistency.

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C O L O U R   S P A C E
Colour space is a three dimensional graphical representation of the colours which can be generated using a particular colour model. In print the standard colour space is CMYK whilst computer screens display colours in the RGB colour space. Certain colours (often at the vivid end of the spectrum) are not easily printed using standard CMYK inks and in those circumstances a fifth/ spot colour or Pantone ink can be used.

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C R O P   M A R K S
Crop marks are a set of lines, both horizontal and vertical, which indicate where the design should be trimmed or cut to.

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D I G I T A L   P R I N T I N G
Digital printing is a cost effective method for producing small volumes of printed material. Digital printing removes the need for films or printing plates which are needed in offset printing and lithography; ideal for short runs and often more cost effectives for print runs of under 300-500 copies. Digital printing is also used for large scale and one off printing such such as large format posters and roller banners.

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D I G I T A L   P R O O F
A digital proof is a pre-press file (most often a PDF) provided by printers for sign off by a client before releasing artwork for print. It is often offered by printers as an alternative to a physical print off (hard copy), to save time and expense in the print process.

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D P I
DPI is an abbreviation for dots per inch. Dots per inch is a measure of resolution of input apparatus such as scanners and output devices such as printers. DPI is used to measure images both on screen and in print. For most professional print projects artwork should be set up at a minimum of 300dpi, as a lower resolution can result in pixelation of content. Traditionally images for screen have been set up at 72dpi, however with the advent of HD screens higher resolutions are now often used.

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F O L D ,   G A T H E R ,   T R I M
Fold, gather and trim are standard processes needed for the construction of a printed product. Folding is the process of bending the printed sheets into the right size and area to create the end product. Gathering is the insertion of the folded pages into the right order for binding, and trimming is the process of cutting the product to the right size for completion. The excess cut off is also known as the trim.

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G S M
GSM is an abbreviation which refers to the grams per square metre in the weight of a piece of paper or card. The higher the GSM the thicker/ stiffer the paper stock will be. Standard printer copier paper is around 80gsm whilst high quality business cards tend to be around 350 – 400gsm.

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G U T T E R
The gutter is the name for the inside margins between two facing pages of a printed book or magazine. This gutter space exists primarily to compensate for the space lost/ hidden from the viewer when a document is binded.

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H A L F T O N E
Halftone is a method of production for a range of tones such as photographs and tinted areas. It works by dividing images into series of dots and plotting these dots differently. Dark areas have big dots, close to each other and light areas have small dots surrounded by large amounts of white space. The number of dots present is also used to determine the quality of an image produced and in newspapers, for example, the dots can even be seen.

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H A R D   P R O O F
A hard proof is a physical print off or mock up of a printed design provided by printers before beginning a print run. Hard proofs require additional time and expense from the printer so often incur additional charges.

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L I T H O   P R I N T I N G
Lithographic printing is a process which involves the image being transferred onto metal printing plates using lasers and chemical reactions. Lithography uses four printing plates, to account for CMYK inks. These plates are then loaded into the printing press and the ink is transferred from the plate to a rubber blanket which then prints onto the paper.

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P A N T O N E
Pantone is a standardised colour reproduction system. The Pantone Colour Matching System makes it easier for different printers and manufacturers to refer to a set system of colours – allowing for a seamless design process. There are many different colours in the Pantone system that cannot be achieved by standard CMYK printing; including metallics and neons, but there is also a subset of Pantones which can be reproduced using CMYK.

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I S O  P A P E R   S I Z ES
Paper sizes are categorised through the ISO standard. There are three common categorisations of paper: A, B and C. The A series is used for letterhead size paper, the C series is for envelopes and the B series provides an intermediate between the two. There are also RA and SRA sizes used by printers which allow for more leeway in bleed and trim.

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P P
PP is shorthand for printed pages and refers to the number of pages that make up the document. For example, 6pp equates to 6 printed pages.

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R E G I S T E R
Registration in the printing process is the alignment of the printing plates in offset and litho printing. The register of the plates is important as if they are not aligned correctly the image quality will suffer and colour changes are likely.

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S E L F – C O V E R
Self-cover is the name for a printed product, document or book which uses the same paper for the outer covers as the inner pages. It allows for the simultaneous printing of outer and inner pages.

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S P O T   C O L O U R
Spot colour refers to any colour which is created by using a single or special ink such as a Pantone. Spot colours are often used to ensure colour consistency across a range of printed materials.

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S T O C K

Stock is the technical name for the paper or print materials held and used in the printing process.

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T R I M   S I Z E
Trim size is the final dimensions of the printed page after the excess bleed and trim has been removed. It is also known as finished size.