Glossary

Bleed
Is when an illustration, background or image is extended beyond the trim edge of the page. This allows for a small amount of movement that may occur when your order is being trimmed to size. We require 3mm of bleed on all files. For a further explanation of bleed please refer to the Supplying Artwork section.

Border/Inside Margin
A margin/strip around the outer edge of the artwork. We recommend that all borders are a minimum of 4mm wide on all trim edges. This limits how noticeable any variation is as there can be 1-2mm movement during the production process. For a further explanation of bleed please refer to the Supplying Artwork section.

Celloglaze
This is a plastic film heat bonded to printed products such as booklet covers, business cards and postcards. This provides protection, as well as a matt or gloss finish. It can be applied to one side, or both sides of a printed item. It is sometimes referred to as laminate. Unlike laminate ‘pockets’ the edges are not sealed or encapsulated.

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black)
These are the colours used for full-colour printing. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are subtractive colours. If you combine cyan, magenta and yellow on paper, you will get what is perceived to be black. In order to get strong rich dark colours, black (K) ink is added in increasing proportions, as the colour gets darker and darker thus commercial printing is done in CMYK.

Coated Paper
Printing papers that have had a surface clay coating to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity. This paper is not recommended for overprinting.

Colour Mode
This is the colour setting used to create your artwork. Depending on the software you are using the default colour mode may be either RGB or CMYK. For full colour printing we require all artwork to be in CMYK colour mode.

Cracking
Occasionally with magazines/folded jobs there can be a small amount of cracking of the paper along the fold/spine. Paper being made of fibre naturally cracks when folded depending on the grain direction and weight of the paper. If this is an issue for you we recommend avoiding heavy ink coverage in your design where the folding is to occur. With heavier weight stocks they can be creased/scored to prevent cracking.

Creep
In saddle-stitch bindng it refers to the inner sheets of inserted spreads or signatures sticking out further than the one it is enclosed in. The inside pages or signatures move away from the spine.

Crop Marks
Crop marks show where the job will be trimmed to size. Anything outside of the crop marks will be trimmed off.

Die-cut
Where an irregular shape is cut from the paper instead of trimming square edges. This can be any shape but requires a die or cutting forme to be made up specially. Commonly used for presentation folders and tabs.

Drilling
Where holes are drilled. This is essentially hole punching but on a larger scale. We can hole punch 2,3 or 4 holes for ring binders or holes for swing tags for example.

Finished Size
This is the final size that your artwork will be trimmed to, e.g. the finished size of a DL flyer is 99 x 210mm. 

Finishing
Any process that occurs after printing. This includes processes for example trimming, folding, stitching, binding, drilling and celloglazing.

Grain
The direction of the fibres of paper. It is easier to fold with the grain and it reduces cracking. Creasing/scoring can prevent cracking.

Grayscale
A range of gray shades from white to black, as used in a monochrome or single colour printing.

GSM
Grams per square metre. This is the standard measurement of weight for paper.

Imposed / Imposition
The arrangement or layout of pages on a printed sheet. Please do not impose your artwork. We will impose it for print to suit our requirements.

Laminate
This is a plastic film heat bonded to printed products such as booklet covers, business cards and postcards. This provides protection, as well as a matt or gloss finish. It can be applied to one side, or both sides of a printed item. It is sometimes referred to as celloglaze. Unlike laminate ‘pockets’ the edges are not sealed or encapsulated.

Laminate Pockets
Printed items can be sealed/encapsulated in laminate to protect them against dirt and water. Unlike celloglazing the entire sheet is sealed which is ideal for restaurant and cafe menus so they can be wiped over. Pockets can be a gloss or matt finish.

Landscape
Where a document is oriented so the long edges are at the top and bottom. As opposed to portrait.

Low-resolution Images
If you have been advised that there may be low-resolution images in your artwork, this means that some or all of the images in your artwork are less than 250ppi. We recommend that all images be supplied at 300ppi for optimum print quality.

Make-ready
All work associated with setting up the printing press before production.

Page
One side of a sheet of paper. For example, an A4 sheet has 2 pages. An A4 sheet folded in half to A5 has 4 pages and is called 4pp A5 (printed pages) for short.

PDF
Portable Document Format. Universal file format which combines images and text. A link to download Adobe Reader is available to download on our website. Download Adobe Reader now.  

Perfect Binding
A form of booklet making in which all pages are glued along the spine using special adhesive. This binding method is recommended for books with a high number of pages.

Pixel
The small coloured dots that make up images including JPEGs and TIFFs. 

PMS (Pantone Matching System) Colour Printing
A PMS colour print job artwork must be supplied containing PMS colours that are separate to any other CMYK colours. The PMS colours must be selected from the Pantone Solid Coated or Uncoated range. PMS is also referred to as a spot colour.

Portrait
Where a document is oriented so the long edges are on either side. As opposed to landscape.

PP (printed pages)
When we refer to PP (printed pages), we mean the actual number of printed pages not the number of sheets of paper. For example, an 8pp A4 magazine is 2 x A3 sheets, double sided, folded and saddle stitched to A4.

PPI (pixels per inch)
For printing we recommend all artwork is supplied at 300ppi (300 pixels in every square inch). E.g. if you are printing a postcard that is 150x100mm (6x4 inches) you need 1800x1200 pixels for optimum print quality at 300 pixels per inch.

Pre-flight
In digital prepress this is the procedure used to analyse or evaluate every component needed to produce a high quality print job.

Rasterized Fonts
If you have been advised that there may be rasterised fonts in your artwork, this means that some or all of the text in your artwork is made up of pixels rather than vectors. 
When creating text in desktop publishing software (e.g. Microsoft Publisher / Adobe InDesign), or vector software (e.g. Adobe Illustrator / Corel Draw), the text is made up of shapes which can be scaled indefinitely without losing quality. However, if a design is saved to an image file format (e.g. JPEG / Tiff), the text automatically becomes rasterised (it is no longer made up of vector shapes, it is now made up of pixels). This means that if you enlarge text it will lose quality.
High resolution rasterised text may look the same as vector text when printed. However if rasterised text is low-resolution it may appear blurry, jagged or pixelated. If the rasterised text is very low resolution it may appear so blurry and pixelated that it is no longer legible.

Ream
500 sheets of paper

RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
This colour mode is the language of computer monitors and TV screens and is not suitable for printing. RGB is based on additive colours – combine red, green and blue light, and you get white light. If you supply RGB files they will be automatically converted to CMYK. This automatic conversion can slightly change colours. For this reason artwork should always be supplied using CMYK colour mode to prevent any colour conversion problems.

Saddle Stitched/Stapled
A form of binding commonly used to create magazines and booklets.The magazine or booklet is stapled through the middle fold of its sheets using two wire staples. The maximum amount of printed pages that can be saddle stitched depends on the weight of the stock and whether the creep will cause artwork issues.

Self-Cover
Where the cover and text pages are on the same paper stock.

Set Off
This is where the ink from one sheet is transferred on to the reverse of the sheet above. Leaving ample time for the ink to dry and applying a sealer helps to prevent this.

Soft Proof
A digital PDF file created from the customers supplied artwork. A soft PDF proof is supplied for every order. The soft PDF proof allows the customer to confirm we are printing the correct file and that the trim marks are in the correct location. For every order the soft proof must be approved prior to printing.

Trim Edge
The edge along which the job will be cut to size.

Trimming Variance
Due to automated systems, there may be a small amount of movement during the printing and trimming of your job. This can result in your job being trimmed 1-2mm either side of the trim edge. For this reason we require 3mm bleed and a 4mm inside margin. For a further explanation of bleed please refer to the Supplying Artwork section.

Uncoated Paper
Printing papers that have had a surface without clay coating, also called bond or laser bond. An example of an uncoated paper would be a standard letterhead.

Vector Text and Graphics
Text and graphics created using mathematical equations that define geometric shapes. You can enlarge vector text and graphics indefinitely without losing quality.