FAQ / Glossary of Printing

• DESCRIPTION: What type of item do you need the quote for? (book, brochure, catalog).

• QUANTITY: How many of the above item do you need? It is a good idea to bracket your quote up, as the unit pricing is more favorable once you are on press and running.e for? (book, brochure, catalog).

• NUMBER OF PAGES: How many of the above item do you need? It is a good idea to bracket your quote up, as the unit pricing is more favorable once you are on press and running.e for? (book, brochure, catalog).

• Digital Printing: is printing using digital techniques developed for computerprinters such as inkjet or laser printers.Digital Printingis used for personal-ized printing orvariable data printing(VDP or VI), for example personalized children’s books, which are customized with the specific child’s name and images.Print on Demand(POD) systems also use digital printing, for short run books of varying page quantities, and binding techniques.

• Offset Printing: The transfer of an inked image from a plate to a blanket cylinder, which in turn transfers the image to theprintingmaterial as it passes between the blanket and the impression cylinder and pressure is ap-plied. Also referred to asoffset lithography.

• Spot Color: Printing with one or more solid colors, generally black ink is used with the addition of other colors. It is used to add highlight and add color to a printed product without having to print with four-color process.

• Dots Per Inch (dpi): A measurement of resolution of input, output and display devices. 300 dpi means that when printed, each square inch of your image will contain 90,000 pixels (dots), the higher the dpi (the more pixels per inch) the crisper the printed image will be. Our electronic (digital files) must have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Anything less than that is considered aslow resolution and may appear blurry when printed.

• Pixel: The smallest unit of a digitized image created by a digital device, suchas a computer, camera, or scanner. Pixel is short for “picture element.” The more pixels per inch the better the resolution. On computer monitors, the display is divided into rows and columns containing thousands or millions of pixels. Each pixel is composed of three dots representing the three colors channels of red, green, and blue light that are necessary for creating a color image on computer monitors and television screens. Because of their small size, the pixels appear to merge, simulating a continuous tone image, but when magnified they appear to be tiny square blocks of light, as shown in the illustration.

• Resolution: The measurement of output quality expressed in pixels (dots) per inch on a computer monitor or dots per inch on printed media. For example, a monitor displaying a resolution of 800 by 600 refers to a screen capable of displaying 800 pixels in each of 600 lines,which translates into a total of 480,000 pixels displayed on the screen. When referring to printed media, a 300 dpi (dots per inch) printer for example, is capable of outputting 300 dots in a one-inch line, which means that it has the ability of printing 90,000 distinct dots per square inch (300 x 300).

• Line Screen: A transparent screen which has been etched with fine lines. It is used to convert a picture or photograph into a halftone dot pattern so that can be printed.

• TRIM SIZE FOLDED: Foldingis the size of your final piece once folded. (Ex-ample: if you fold a letter to fit an envelope, the folded size is the “trim size folded=3 2/3 x 8 1/2′′ verses the flat size of the letter you started with of 8 1/2 x 11′′).

• FLAT/SPREAD SIZE: This is the flat and trimmed size of your piece before folding. (Example: and 8 1/2 x 11′′ 4-page brochures spread out as a 2 page “spread” would be 17 x 11 “) NOTE: IN PRINTING THE WIDTH IS ALWAYS THE FIRST DIMENSION GIVEN.

• TEXT STOCK: A fine quality light weight printing paper, frequently with a texture. Used for announcements, brochures, booklets, and similar items. Most texts are 70 or 80 lb.

• CARD STOCK/COVER STOCK: Mostly heavyweight papers are called cards stock. The thickness of card stock is indicated with point sizes such as 10pt, 12pt, 14pt, 16pt. Some people will also refer to 70lb, 80lb, 100lb gloss cover as a card stock.

• C1S: Cover stock paper coated on one side.

• C2S: Cover stock paper coated on both sides.

• CMYK: (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) the primary colors used in 4-color printing. CMYK are used to reproduce full color on the printed sheet. CMYK also called PROCESS COLOR.

  

  RICH BLACK is an ink mixture of solid black, 100% K, with additional CMY ink values. This results in a darker tone than black ink alone. If you print black alone as 100% K, the resulting black may not be as dark as you might like.

  100% K on screen

  

  C: 0%, M: 0%, Y: 0%, K: 100%.

  100% K after print

  

  C: 0%, M: 0%, Y: 0%, K: 100%.

  Rich Black on screen

  

  C: 60%, M: 40%, Y:40%, K: 100%

  Rich Black on screen after print

  

  C: 60%, M: 40%, Y: 40%, K: 100%.

  For Rich Black We Recommend:
  C 60 M 40 Y 40 K 100
  This will give you a deep, dark, rich black.

  How can I make sure my blues do not come out purple?

  When using a blue in your design, always make sure to leave at least a 30% difference in your Cyan and Magenta values.

  Blue is close to purple in the CMYK spectrum. Remember, use a low amount of magenta whenever using high amounts of cyan to avoid purple.

  On screen blue

  

  R 0 G 0 B 255

  After print blue

  

  100% C 70% M 0% Y 0% K.

  For Deep Blue We Recommend
  100% C 70% M 0% Y 0% K
  This will give you a deep blue.

  RGB:

  The additive primary colors, red, green and blue, used to display color in video monitors. Printing with a file in RGB color mode will produce a washed-out appearance. 4over does not check files for RGB. That responsibility falls to the customer before submission of the files.

  

• Spot Color: Printing with one or more solid colors, generally black ink is used with the addition of other colors. It is used to add highlight and add color to a printed product without having to print with four-color process.

• Pantone Color Book:

  

• COVERAGE %: The amount of ink on the page. Always let your printer know if there are large solid areas of 100% ink on a job and the overall ink cover-age. It better allows the printer to place your job on the appropriate press

• BLEEDS: Printed colors that extend past the edge of a page. To cut the job to its actual size the processor must make sure the job gets printed with 1/8 of an inchbleedsome jobs may require more than that. For example, if the job is a business card (3.5′′ x 2′′) the file size with bleed would be (3.625′′ x 2.125′′).

• Crop Marks (Guide Marks): Lines printed in the margin of sheet that indi-cates to the cutter and bindery where the finished product should be trimmed. They are also used to show what part of a photo should be used and what part should becropped marks.

• Color Proof / Epson Proof / Match Print: An image, created by using color inks. Showing what the final printed product will look like. Color proofs within DPP are called Epson proofs they are 80%-85% match with the final product.

• DIE SCORE OR CUT: To die score a piece is to make a “steel rule” die, which is composed of thin pieces of steel that will be used to stamp a line where the cover stock needs to fold. This action compresses the paper and allows for ease of folding and prevents cracking. 100# gloss book and heav-ier, especially where there is “cross over art” (ink going from one panel to the next), especially on the spine (outer edge).

• Die Cutting: A specific shape like circle, star, etc. (any designs that cannot be done by a straight cut) which is cut by a metal blade. Door hangers are a popular product which requires die cutting.

• FOLD TYPE: Refer to Finishing for all different fold styles.

• SADDLE STITCH: Two staples added to the center of the piece on the fold line, with the head of the stapleon the outside of the folded piece.

• PERFECT BIND: A squared off edge; with scored hinges for ease of opening and glued in pages define this type of bindery. An example would be your standard “pocket” or “soft cover” book, as opposed to a “case bind” which ishard cover binding.

• PERFORATE: Toperforateor die score in holes that allow one to cleanly re-move a coupon or page from the piece with ease and not destroy the piece. If the perforation goes from top to bottom, that is a vertical perforation. If from side to side, it is a horizontal perforation. This defines type of bindery.

  

• HOLE Punching: or die scoring holes in the piece to allow for binder or other use, this defines type of bindery.

  

• FOIL: Tofoil stampcreate a stamping tool, known as a die and stamping a material onto the paper. The material usually is seen as metallic gold or sil-ver but can come as enamel colors as well. If the foil touches nearby ink on the piece or is raised by embossing, it is referred to as “registering”.

• EMBOSS: A process of imprinting an image by applying pressure to the backside of a material to change the surface, giving it a three dimensional or raised effect.Embossingcan be referred to as raised lettering.

  Foil & Emboss

  

  

  To create a die and stamp the paper from the rear in order to create a raisedeffect. De-bossing would stamp the paper from the front in order to create a sunken effect. If the embossing or de-bossing does not touch ink or a foil, then it is referred to as “blind” embossing. Should it touch ink, or have a foil on top of it, this is referred to as “registered” embossing or de-bossing.

COATING: