Monster Media 1994 #2/Monster Media No. 2 (Monster Media)(1994).ISO/freq_qa/dtpfaq.zip/DTPFAQ.EXE/GLOSSARY.FAQ

Text File | 1993-03-20 | 54KB | 1,509 lines

The following text is glossary of printing and typesetting terms that Henry
Budgett ([e-mail]) has compiled. Many thanks goes to him for such a
great piece of work!

Enjoy!

Geof.

========================== snip here ===============

This glossary of terms associated with the typesetting and printing
industries was put together as a series of articles in a newsletter called
``Desktop Publisher'' which I wrote, edited and published between 1986 and
1989. The material was gathered from a wide variety of sources and compiled
by J K Johnstone who deserves credit for the original effort. Terms taken
from US sources are so labelled.

I must confess that this version is now slightly dated, the requests from
the many will spur me on to update it!

The material contained in this glossary is originally the copyright of The
Desktop Publishing Company Ltd and must be acknowledged as such if the
material is re-used in any other form. However, permission for re-use is
freely granted.

Comments and other feedback are welcomed.


A
A/W - an abbreviation for Artwork.

Acetate - a transparent sheet placed over artwork allowing
the artist to write instructions or indicate where second
colour is to be placed. (See Overlay)

Addendum - supplementary material additional to the main
body of a book and printed separately at the start or end
of the text.

Air (US) - an amount of white space in a layout.

Airbrush - a mechanical painting tool producing an
adjustable spray of paint driven by compressed air. Used in
illustration design and photographic retouching.

Align - to line up typeset or other graphic material as
specified, using a base or vertical line as the reference
point.

Alphabet (length or width) - the measurement of a complete
set of lower case alphabet characters in a given type size
expressed in points or picas.

Anodized plate - an offset printing plate with a specially treated surface to reduce wear during printing.

Apex - the point of a character where two lines meet at the
top, an example of this is the point on the letter A.

Apron (US) - additional white space allowed in the margins
of text and illustrations when forming a foldout.

Art paper - a smooth coated paper obtained by adding a
coating of china clay compound on one or both sides of the
paper.

Art (US) - in graphic arts usage, all matter other than
text material eg illustrations and photographs.

Ascender - any part of a lower case letter extending above
the x-height. For example, the upper half of the vertical
in the letters b or h.

Authors corrections - changes made to the copy by the
author after typesetting but not including those made as a
result of errors in keying in the copy.

B
Backing up - to print the second side of printed sheet.

Backslant - letters that slant the opposite way from italic
characters.

Balloon - a circle or bubble enclosing copy in an
illustration. Used in cartoons.

Bank - a lightweight writing paper.

Banner - a large headline or title extending across the
full page width.

Base artwork - artwork requiring additional components such
as halftones or line drawings to be added before the
reproduction stage.

Baseline - the line on which the bases of capital letters sit.

Bed - the base on which the Forme is held when printing by
Letterpress.

Binding - the various methods used to secure loose leaves
or sections in a book; eg saddle-stitch, perfect bound.

Black patch - material used to mask the window area on a
negative image of the artwork prior to 'stripping in' a
halftone.

Blanket cylinder - the cylinder via which the inked litho
plate transfers the image to the paper. The cylinder is
covered with a rubber sheet which prevents wear to the
litho plate coming into contact with the paper.

Bleed - layout, type or pictures that extend beyond the
trim marks on a page. Illustrations that spread to the edge
of the paper without margins are referred to as 'bled
off'.

Blind emboss - a raised impression made without using ink
or foil.

Block in - to sketch in the main areas of an image prior to
the design.

Blow up - an enlargement, most frequently of a graphic
image or photograph.

Blurb - a short description or commentary of a book or
author on a book jacket.

Board - paper of more than 200gsm.

Body (US) - the main text of the work but not including
headlines.

Body size - the height of the type measured from the top of
the tallest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender.
Normally given in points, the standard unit of type size.

Bold type - type with a heavier darker appearance. Most
typefaces have a bold face.

Bond - a sized finished writing paper of 50gsm or more. Can
also be used for printing upon.

Border - a continuous decorative design or rule surrounding
the matter on the page.

Box - a section of text marked off by rules or white space
and presented separately from the main text and
illustrations. Longer boxed sections in magazines are
sometimes referred to as sidebars.

Bristol board - a fine board made in various qualities for
drawing.

Broadside - an original term for work printed on one side
of a large sheet of paper.

Bromide - a photographic print made on bromide paper.

Bronzing - an effect produced by dusting wet ink after
printing with a metallic powder.

C
Bullet - a large dot preceding text to add emphasis.

Calendered finish - produced by passing paper through a
series of metal rollers to give a very smooth surface.

Caliper - the thickness of sheet of paper or board
expressed in microns (millionths of a metre). Also the name
of the tool used to make the measurement.

Camera ready - artwork or pasted up material that is ready
for reproduction.  Cap line - an imaginary line across the
top of capital letters. The distance from the the cap line
to the baseline is the cap size.

Caps - an abbreviation for capital letters.

Caps and small caps - a style of type that shows capital
letters used in the normal way while the body copy is set
in capital letters which are of a slightly smaller size.

Caption - the line or lines of text that refer to
information identifying a picture or illustration.

Carbonless - paper coated with chemicals and dye which will
produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as
NCR (No Carbon Required).

Caret marks - an indication to the printer of an ommission
in the copy indicated as ( ) showing the insertion.

Cartridge - a thick general purpose paper used for
printing, drawing and wrapping.

Case bound - a hardback book made with stiff outer covers.
Cases are usually covered with cloth, vinyl or leather.

Cast off - a calculation determining how much space copy
will take up when typeset.

Cast coated - art paper with a exceptionally glossy coated
finish usually on one side only.

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

Century Schoolbook - a popular serif typeface used in
magazines and books for text setting which 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.

Character count - the number of characters; ie letters,
figures, signs or spaces in a piece of copy, line or
paragraph used as a first stage in type calculations.

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

Close up - a proof correction mark to reduce the amount of
space between characters or words indicated as (').

Coated - printing papers which after making have had a
surface coating with clay etc, to give a smoother, more
even finish with greater opacity.

Cold type - type produced without the use of characters
cast from molten metal, such as on a VDU.

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

Colour separations - 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.  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.

Compose - to set copy into type.

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

Condensed - a style of typeface in which the characters
have an elongated appearance.

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 tones in a photograph ranging from
highlight to shadow.

Copyright - The right of copyright gives protection to the
originator of material to prevent use without express
permission or acknowledgement of the originator.

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

Cropping - the elimination of parts of a photograph or
other original that are not required to be printed.
Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be
enlarged to fill the space.

Cross head - a heading set in the body of the text used to
break it into easily readable sections.

Cursive - used to describe typefaces that resemble written
script.

Cut flush - a method of trimming a book after the cover has
been attached to the pages.

Cutout - a halftone where the background has been removed
to produce a silhouette.

D
Dagger and double dagger - symbols used mainly as reference
marks for footnotes.

Dash - a short horizontal rule used for punctuation.

Descender - any part of a lower case letter that extends
below the x-height, as in the case of y and j.

Die - a hardened steel engraving stamp used to print an
inked image. Used in the production of good quality letter
headings.

Disk Operating System (DOS) - software for computer systems
with disk drives which supervises and controls the running
of programs. The operating system is 'booted' into the
computer from disk by a small program which permanently
resides in the memory. Commom operating systems include
MS-DOS, PC-DOS (IBM's version of MS-DOS), CP/M (an
operating system for older, 8-bit computers), Unix and
BOS.

Display type - larger type used for headings etc. Normally
about 18 point or larger.

Dot matrix printer - a printer in which each character is
formed from a matrix of dots. They are normally impact
systems, ie a wire is fired at a ribbon in order to leave
an inked dot on the page, but thermal and electro-erosion
systems are also used.

Double density - a method of recording on floppy disks
using a modified frequency modulation process that allows
more data to be stored on a disk.

Double page spread - two facing pages of newspaper or
magazine where the textual material on the left hand side
continues across to the right hand side. Abbreviated to
DPS.

Downloadable fonts - type faces which can be stored on a
disk and then downloaded to the printer when required for
printing. These are, by definition, bit-mapped fonts and,
therefore, fixed in size and style.

DPI (Dots Per Inch) - the measurement of resolution for
page printers, phototypesetting machines and graphics
screens. Currently graphics screens reproduce 60 to 100dpi,
most page printers work at 300dpi and typesetting systems
operate at 1,000dpi and above.

Drawn on - a method of binding a paper cover to a book by
drawing the cover on and gluing to the back of the book.

Drop cap - a large initial letter at the start of the text
that drops into the line or lines of text below.

Dry transfer (lettering) - Characters, drawings, etc, that
can be transferred to the artwork by rubbing them off the
back of the transfer sheet. Best known is Letraset.

Dye transfer - a photographic colour print using special
coated papers to produce a full colour image. Can serve as
an inexpensive proof.

E
EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) - a graphics standard for
the PC which can be added or built into a system to give
sharper characters and improved colour with the correct
display device. Standard EGA resolution is 640 by 350 dots
in any 16 out of 64 colours.

Egyptian - a term for a style of type faces having square
serifs and almost uniform thickness of strokes.

Eight sheet - a poster measuring 60 x 80in (153 x 203cm)
and, traditionally, made up of eight individual sheets.

Electronic Publishing - a generic term for the distribution
of information which is stored, transmitted and reproduced
electronically. Teletext and Videotext are two examples of
this technology in its purest form, ie no paper.. Desktop
publishing forms just one part of the electronic publishing
market.

Em - in printing terms it is a square unit with edges equal
in size to the chosen point size. It gets its name from the
letter M which originally was as wide as the type size.

Em dash - a dash used in punctuation the length of one em.

Embossing - relief images formed by using a recessed die.

En dash - a dash approximately half the width of an em dash.

En - a unit of measurement that is half as wide as an em.

End papers - the four page leaves at the front and end of a
book which are pasted to the insides of the front and back
covers (boards).

Epson emulation - the industry standard control codes for
dot matrix printers were developed by Epson and virtually
all software packages and most dot matrix printers either
follow or improve on these codes.

Exception dictionary - in word processing or desktop
publishing this is a store of pre-hyphenated words that do
not conform to the usual rules contained in the hyphenation
and justification program (H & J).Some programs, PageMaker
for example, only use an exception dictionary.

Expanded type - a typeface with a slightly wider body
giving a flatter appearance.

Express - a printer control language developed by OASYS.

F
Face - an abbreviation for typeface referring to a family
in a given style.

Filler - extra material used to complete a column or page,
usually of little importance.

Flag - the designed title of a newspaper as it appears at
the top of page one.

Flexography - a rotary letterpress process printing from
rubber or flexible plates and using fast drying inks.
Mainly used for packaging.

Floating accent - an accent mark which is set separately
from the main character and is then placed either over or
under it.

Floppy disk - (see disk)

Flush left - copy aligned along the left margin.

Flush right - copy aligned along the right margin.

Flyer - an inexpensively produced circular used for
promotional distribution.

Foil blocking - a process for stamping a design on a book
cover without ink by using a coloured foil with pressure
from a heated die or block.

Font (or fount) - a complete set of characters in a
typeface.

Form letter - used in word processing to describe a
repetitive letter in which the names and addresses of
individuals are automatically generated from a data base or
typed individually.

Forme - type and blocks assembled in pages and imposed in a
metal chase ready for printing.

Four colour process - printing in full colour using four
colour separation negatives - yellow, magenta, cyan and
black.

French fold - a sheet which has been printed on one side
only and then folded with two right angle folds to form a
four page uncut section.

Full measure - a line set to the entire line length.

Full point - a full stop.

G
Galley proof - proofs taken from the galleys before being
made up into pages.

Galleys - the printing term for long metal trays used to
hold type after it had been set and before the press run.

Gatefold - an oversize page where both sides fold into the
gutter in overlapping layers. Used to accommodate maps into
books.

Gathering - the operation of inserting the printed pages,
sections or signatures of a book in the correct order for
binding.

GEM - Digital Research's Graphics Environment Manager. A
graphical interface designed both to make the operation of
software simpler for the non-expert and to allow programs
to communicate with one another. Two key desktop publishing
packages, Ventura and DR's own GEM Desktop Publisher
operate under this environment.

Gloss ink - for use in litho and letterpress printing on
coated papers where the ink will dry without pentration.

Golden ratio - the rule devised to give proportions of
height to width when laying out text and illustrations to
produce the most optically pleasing result.

Gothic - typefaces with no serifs and broad even strokes.

Gravure - a rotary printing process where the image is
etched into the metal plate attached to a cylinder. The
cylinder is then rotated through a trough of printing ink
after which the etched surface is wiped clean by a blade
leaving the non-image area clean. The paper is then passed
between two rollers and pressed against the etched cylinder
drawing the ink out by absorption.

Greeking - a software device where areas of grey are used
to simulate lines of text. One of desktop publishing's less
clever methods of getting round the slowness of high
resolution displays on the PC.

Grey scale - a range of luminance values for evaluating
shading through white to black. Frequently used in
discussions about scanners as a measure of their ability to
capture halftone images. Basically the more levels the
better but with correspondingly larger memory
requirements.

Grid - A systematic division of a page into areas to enable
designers to ensure consistency. The grid acts as a
measuring guide and shows text, illustrations and trim
sizes.

GSM - Grams per square metre. The unit of measurement for
paper weight.

Guard - a narrow strip of paper or linen pasted to a single
leaf to allow sewing into a section for binding.

Gutter - the central blank area between left and right
pages.

H
Hairline rule - the thinnest rule that can be printed.

Hairlines - the thinnest of the strokes in a typeface.

Half up - artwork one and a half times the size which it
will be reproduced.

Halftone - an illustration reproduced by breaking down the
original tone into a pattern of dots of varying size. Light
areas have small dots and darker areas or shadows have
larger dots.

Halftone screen - a glass plate or film placed between the
original photograph and the film to be exposed. The screen
carries a network of parallel lines. The number of lines to
the inch controls the coarseness of the final dot
formation. The screen used depends on the printing process
and the paper to be used, the higher the quality the more
lines can be used.

Hanging punctuation - punctuation that is allowed to fall
outside the margins instead of staying within the measure
of the text.

Hard disk - a rigid disk sealed inside an airtight
transport mechanism. Information stored may be accessed
more rapidly than on floppy disks and far greater amounts
of data may be stored. Often referred to as Winchester disks.

Hardback - a case bound book with a separate stiff board
cover.

Head - the margin at the top of a page.

Helvetica - a sans serif typeface.

Hickies - a dust particle sticking to the printing plate or
blanket which appears on the printed sheet as a dark spot
surrounded by an halo.

Highlight - the lightest area in a photograph or
illustration.

House style - The style of preferred spelling, punctuation,
hyphenation and indentation used in a publishing house or
by a particular publication to ensure consistent
typesetting.

I
Icons - pictorial images used on screen to indicate utility
functions, files, folders or applications software. The
icons are generally activated by an on-screen pointer
controlled by a mouse or trackball.

Imposition - refers to the arrangement of pages on a
printed sheet, which when the sheet is finally printed on
both sides, folded and trimmed, will place the pages in
their correct order.

imPRESS - a page description language developed by Imagen
and supported by over 60 software products including
Crystal, TeX, Superpage and AutoCAD. Almost certainly the
first commercially available PDL.

Impression cylinder - the cylinder of a printing machine
which brings the paper into contact with the with the
printing plate or blanket cylinder.

Imprint - the name and place of the publisher and printer
required by law if a publication is to be published.
Sometimes accompanied by codes indicating the quantity
printed, month/year of printing and an internal control
number.

Insert - an instruction to the printer for the inclusion of
additional copy.

Interface - the circuit, or physical connection, which
controls the flow of data between a computer and its
peripherals.

International paper sizes - the International Standards
Organisation (ISO) system of paper sizes is based on a
series of three sizes A, B and C. Series A is used for
general printing and stationery, Series B for posters and
Series C for envelopes.

Interpress - Xerox Corporation's page description language
which was the first such product to be implemented. At
present the language still has to be adopted commercially
by a third party.

ISBN - International Standard Book Number. A reference
number given to every published work. Usually found on the
back of the title page.

Italic - type with sloping letters.

Ivory board - a smooth high white board used for business
cards etc.

J
Justify - the alignment of text along a margin or both
margins. This is achieved by adjusting the spacing between
the words and characters as necessary so that each line of
text finishes at the same point.

K
K (Kilobyte) - 1024 bytes, a binary 1,000.

Keep standing - to hold type or plates ready for reprints.

Kerning - the adjustment of spacing between certain letter
pairs, A and V for example, to obtain a more pleasing
appearance. Not all DTP systems can achieve this.

Keyline - an outline drawn or set on artwork showing the
size and position of an illustration or halftone.

Kraft paper - a tough brown paper used for packing.

L
Laid - paper with a watermark pattern showing the wire
marks used in the paper making process. Usually used for
high quality stationery.

Laminate - a thin transparent plastic coating applied to
paper or board to provide protection and give it a glossy
finish.

Landscape - work in which the width used is greater than
the height. Also used to indicate the orientation of tables
or illustrations which are printed 'sideways'. See
Portrait.

Laser printer (see also Page printer) - a high quality
image printing system using a laser beam to produce an
image on a photosensitive drum. The image is transferred on
to paper by a conventional xerographic printing process.
Currently, most laser printers set at 300dpi with newer
models operating at up to 600dpi.

Lateral reversal - a positive or negative image transposed
from left to right as in a mirror reflection of the
original.

Layout - a sketch of a page for printing showing the
position of text and illustrations and giving general
instructions.

Lead or Leading - Space added between lines of type to
space out text and provide visual separation of the lines.
Measured in points or fractions therof. Named after the
strips of lead which used to be inserted between lines of
metal type.

Legend - the descriptive matter printed below an
illustration, mostly referred to as a caption. Also an
explanation of signs or symbols used in timetables or
maps.

Letraset - a proprietary name for rub-down or dry transfer
lettering used in preparing artwork.

Letterpress - a relief printing process in which a raised
image is inked to produce an impression; the impression is
then transferred by placing paper against image and
applying pressure.

Letterset - a printing process combining offset printing
with a letterpress relief printing plate.

Letterspacing - the addition of space between the letters
of words to increase the line-length to a required width or
to improve the appearance of a line.

Library picture - a picture taken from an existing library
and not specially commissioned.

Ligature - letters which are joined together as a single
unit of type such as oe and fi.

Lightface - type having finer strokes than the medium
typeface. Not used as frequently as medium.

Line block - a letterpress printing plate made up of solid
areas and lines and without tones.

Line gauge - a metal rule used by printers. Divided into
Picas it is 72 picas long (11.952in).

Linen tester - a magnifying glass designed for checking the
dot image of a halftone.

Lineup table - a table with an illuminated top used for
preparing and checking alignment of page layouts and
paste-ups.

Lining figures - numerals that align on the baseline and at
the top.

Linotype - manufacturers of a range of high resolution
phototypesetting machines such as the 100, 202, 300 and
500. The 100, 300 and 500 series are capable of processing
PostScript files through an external RIP and typesetting
desktop publishing files direct from disk at 1270dpi and
beyond.

Lithography - a printing process based on the principle of
the natural aversion of water to grease. The
photographically prepared printing plate when being made is
treated chemically so that the image will accept ink and
reject water.

Logo - short for logotype. A word or combination of letters
set as a single unit. Also used to denote a specially
styled company name designed as part of a corporate image.

Loose leaf - a method of binding which allows the insertion
and removal of pages for continuous updating.

Lower case - the small letters in a font of type.

M
M (Megabyte) - one million bytes.

Machine glazed (MG) - paper with a high gloss finish on one
side only.

Macro - a series of instructions which would normally be
issued one at a time on the keyboard to control a program.
A macro facility allows them to be stored and issued
automatically by a single keystroke.

Magnetic ink - a magnetized ink that can be read both by
humans and by electronic machines. Used in cheque
printing.

Make-up - the assembling of all elements, to form the
printed image.

Making ready - the time spent in making ready the level of
the printing surface by packing out under the forme or
around the impression cylinder.

Manilla - A tough brown paper used to produce stationery
and wrapping paper.

Manuscript (MS) - the original written or typewritten work
of an author submitted for publication.

Margins - the non printing areas of page.

Mark up - copy prepared for a compositor setting out in
detail all the typesetting instructions.

Mask - opaque material or masking tape used to block-off an
area of the artwork.

Masthead - details of publisher and editorial staff usually
printed on the contents page.

Matt art - a coated printing paper with a dull surface.

Measure - denotes the width of a setting expressed in pica
ems.

Mechanical binding - a method of binding which secures
pre-trimmed leaves by the insertion of wire or plastic
spirals through holes drilled in the binding edge.

Mechanical tint - a pre-printed sheet of dots, lines or
patterns that can be laid down on artwork for
reproduction.

Memory - the part of the computer which stores information
for immediate access. Nowadays this consists exclusively of
RAM, random access memory, which holds the applications
software and data or ROM, read only memory, which holds
permanent information such as the DOS bootstrap routines.
Memory size is expressed in K or M.

Menu-driven - programs which allow the user to request
functions by choosing from a list of options.

Metallic ink - printing inks which produce an effect gold,
silver, bronze or metallic colours.

MG (Machine glazed) - paper with a high gloss finish on one
side only.

Mock-up - the rough visual of a publication or design.

Modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) - a device for converting
digital data into audio signals and back again. Primarily
used for transmitting data between computers over telephone
lines.

Modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) - a device for converting
digital data into audio signals and back again. Primarily
used for transmitting data between computers over telephone
lines.

Modern - refers to type styles introduced towards the end
of the 19th century. Times roman is a good example of
modern type.

Moire pattern - the result of superimposing half-tone
screens at the wrong angle thereby giving a chequered
effect on the printed half-tone. Normally detected during
the stage of progressive proofs.

Monospace - a font in which all characters occupy the same
amount of horizontal width regardless of the character.

Montage - a single image formed from the assembling of
several images.

Mounting board - a heavy board used for mounting artwork.

Mouse - a handheld pointing device using either mechanical
motion or special optical techniques to convert the
movement of the user's hand into movements of the cursor on
the screen. Generally fitted with one, two or three buttons
which can control specific software functions.

MS (Manuscript) - the original written or typewritten work
of an author submitted for publication.

Mutt - a typesetting term for the em space.

N
Newsprint - Unsized, low quality, absorbent paper used for
printing newspapers.

Nipping - a stage in book binding where after sewing the
sheets are pressed to expel air.

O
Oblique stroke - (/)

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) - a special kind of
scanner which provides a means of reading printed
characters on documents and converting them into digital
codes that can be read into a computer as actual text
rather than just a picture.

Offprint - a run-on or reprint of an article first
published in a magazine or journal.

Offset lithography - (see Lithography) a printing method
whereby the image is transferred from a plate onto a rubber
covered cylinder from which the printing takes place.

Oldstyle (US) - a style of type characterised by stressed
strokes and triangular serifs. An example of an oldstyle
face is Garamond.

Onion skin - a translucent lightweight paper used in air
mail stationery.

Opacity - term used to describe the degree to which paper
will show print through.

Optical centre - a point above the true centre of the page
which will not appear 'low' as the geometric centre does.

Optical Disks - video disks on which large amounts of
information can be stored in binary form representing
characters of text or images. The disks cannot be used to
view the information using a modified compact disk player
and TV. Mainly used for reference works such as
dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.

Orphan - line of type on its own at the top or bottom of a
page.

Outline - a typeface in which the characters are formed
with only the outline defined rather than from solid
strokes.

Overlay - a transparent sheet used in the preparation of
multi-colour artwork showing the colour breakdown.

Overprinting - printing over an area already printed. Used
to emphasise changes or alterations.

Overs - additional paper required to compensate for
spoilage in printing. Also used to refer to a quantity
produced above the number of copies ordered.

Overstrike - a method used in word processing to produce a
character not in the typeface by superimposing two separate
characters, eg $ using s and l.

Ozalid - a trade name to describe a method of copying page
proofs from paper or film.

P
Page Printer - the more general (and accurate) name used to
describe non-impact printers which produce a complete page
in one action. Examples include laser, LED and LCD shutter
xerographic printers, ion deposition, electro-erosion and
electro-photographic printers.

Page Description Language (PDL) - a special form of
programming language which enables both text and graphics
(object or bit-image) to be described in a series of
mathematical statements. Their main benefit is that they
allow the applications software to be independent of the
physical printing device as opposed to the normal case
where specific routines have to be written for each device.
Typical PDLs include Interpress, imPress, PostScript and
DDL.

Page proofs - the stage following galley proofs, in which
pages are made up and paginated.

PageMaker - the software program from Aldus Corporation
that everyone associates with desktop publishing due to its
immense success on the Apple Macintosh. Now available on
both the Macintosh and the PC it is still used as a
benchmark product although certain aspects of its design
are coming under attack from other, more recent, products.

Pagination - the numbering of pages in a book.

Pantone - a registered name for an ink colour matching system.

Paper plate - a short run offset printing plate on which
matter can be typed directly.

Paragraph mark ( ) - a type symbol used to denote the start
of a paragraph. Also used as a footnote sign.

Parallel fold - a method of folding; eg two parallel folds
will produce a six page sheet.

Paste up - the various elements of a layout mounted in
position to form camera-ready artwork.

Perfect binding - a common method of binding paperback
books. After the printed sections having been collated, the
spines will be ground off and the cover glued on.

Perfector - a printing press which prints both sides of the
paper at one pass through the machine.

Photogravure - (see Gravure) a printing process where the
image is etched into the plate cylinder. The main advantage
of this method of printing is the high speed, long run
capability. Used mainly for mail order and magazine work.

Pi fonts - characters not usually included in a font, but
which are added specially. Examples of these are timetable
symbols and mathematical signs.

Pica - a printing industry unit of measurement. There are
12 points to a pica, one pica is approximately 0.166in.

Picking - the effect of ink being too tacky and lifting
fibres out of the paper. Shows up as small white dots on
areas of solid colour.

Pipelining - the ability of a program to flow automatically
text from the end of one column or page to the beginning of
the next. An extra level of sophistication can be created
by allowing the flow to be re-directed to any page and not
just the next available. This is ideal for US-style
magazines where everything is 'Continued on...'!

Point - the standard unit of type size of which there are
72 to the inch (one point is approximately 0.01383in).
Point size is the measured from the top of the ascender to
the bottom of the descender.

Portrait - an upright image or page where the height is
greater than the width.

Positive - a true photographic image of the original made
on paper or film.

PostScript - a page description language developed by Adobe
Systems. Widely supported by both hardware and software
vendors it represents the current 'standard' in the market.
John Warnock and Chuck Geschke of Adobe both worked for
Xerox at the Palo Alto Research Centre where PDLs were
invented and set up their company to commercially exploit
the concepts they had helped develop.

Preview mode - a mode where word processing or desktop
publishing software which doesn't operate in WYSIWYG
fashion can show a representation of the output as it will
look when printed. The quality ranges from acceptable to
worse than useless.

Primary colours -  cyan, magenta and yellow. These three
colours when mixed together with black will produce a
reasonable reproduction of all other colours.

Print engine - the parts of a page printer which perform
the print-imaging, fixing and paper transport. In fact,
everything but the controller.

Printer Command Language - a language developed by Hewlett
Packard for use with its own range of printers. Essentially
a text orientated language, it has been expanded to give
graphics capability.

Progressives - colour proofs taken at each stage of
printing showing each colour printed singly and then
superimposed on the preceding colour.

Proof - a copy obtained from inked type, plate, block or
screen for checking purposes.

Proof correction marks - a standard set of signs and
symbols used in copy preparation and to indicate
corrections on proofs. Marks are placed both in the text
and in the margin.

Proportional spacing - a method of spacing whereby each
each character is spaced to accommodate the varying widths
of letters or figures, so increasing readability. Books and
magazines are set proportionally spaced, typewritten
documents are generally monospaced.

Pull-down menus - developed from Xerox research (like just
about everything else we take for granted in desktop
publishing) these are a method of providing user control
over software without cluttering up the screen with text.
Using the mouse or cursor keys the user points to the main
heading of the menu he or she wants and the menu pulls
(Windows) or drops (GEM) from the heading. When the
required function has been selected the menu rolls back up
into the menu bar leaving the screen clear.

Pulp - the raw material used in paper making consisting
mainly of wood chips, rags or other fibres. Broken down by
mechanical or chemical means.

Q
Quadding - the addition of space to fill out a line of type
using en or em blocks.

Quire - 1/20th of a ream (25 sheets).

R
Rag paper - high quality stationery made from cotton rags.

Ragged - lines of type that do not start or end at the same
position.

Ranged left/right - successive lines of type which are of
unequal length and which are aligned at either the right or
left hand column.

Raster Image Processor (RIP) - the hardware engine which
calculates the bit-mapped image of text and graphics from a
series of instructions. It may, or may not, understand a
page description language but the end result should, if the
device has been properly designed, be the same. Typical
RIPs which aren't PDL-based include the Tall Trees JLaser,
the LaserMaster and AST's TurboLaser controller. A basic
page printer comes with a controller and not a RIP which
goes some way to explaining the lack of control

Ream - 500 sheets of paper.

Reference marks - symbols used in text to direct the reader
to a footnote. Eg asterisk (*), dagger, double dagger,
section mark ( ), paragraph mark ( ).

Register marks - used in colour printing to position the
paper correctly. Usually crosses or circles.

Register - the correct positioning of an image especially
when printing one colour on another.

Resolution - the measurement used in typesetting to express
quality of output. Measured in dots per inch, the greater
the number of dots, the more smoother and cleaner
appearance the character/image will have. Currently Page
(laser) Printers print at 300, 406 and 600dpi. Typesetting
machines print at 1,200 dpi or more.

Rest in Proportion (RIP) - an instruction when giving sizes
to artwork or photographs that other parts of the artwork
are to be enlarged or reduced in proportion.

Retouching - a means of altering artwork or colour
separations to correct faults or enhance the image.

Reverse out - to reproduce as a white image out of a solid
background.

Revise - indicates the stages at which corrections have
been incorporated from earlier proofs and new proofs
submitted. Eg First revise, second revise.

Right reading - a positive or negative which reads from
left to right.

Roman - type which has vertical stems as distinct from
italics or oblique which are set at angles.

Rotary press - a web or reel fed printing press which uses
a curved printing plate mounted on the plate cylinder.

Rough - a preliminary sketch of a proposed design.

Royal - a size of printing paper 20in x 25in (508 x 635mm).

Ruler - rulers displayed on the sreen that show measures in
inches, picas or millimeters.

Runaround (see also Text wrap) - the ability within a
program to run text around a graphic image within a
document, without the need to ajust each line manually.

Running head - a line of type at the top of a page which
repeats a heading.

S
S/S (Same size) - an instruction to reproduce to the same
size as the original.

Saddle stitching - a method of binding where the folded
pages are stitched through the spine from the outside,
using wire staples. Usually limited to 64 pages size.

Sans serif - a typeface that has no serifs (small strokes
at the end of main stroke of the character).

Scale - the means within a program to reduce or enlarge the
amount of space an image will occupy. Some programs
maintain the aspect ratio between width and height whilst
scaling, thereby avoiding distortion.

Scaling - a means of calculating the amount of enlargement
or reduction necessary to accommodate a photograph within
the area of a design.

Scamp - a sketch of a design showing the basic concept.

Scanner - a digitizing device using light sensitivity to
translate a picture or typed text into a pattern of dots
which can be understood and stored by a computer. To obtain
acceptable quality when scanning photographs, at least 64
grey scales are required.

Scraperboard - a board prepared with black indian ink over
a china clay surface. Drawings are produced by scraping
away the ink to expose the china clay surface.

Section mark ( ) - a character used at the beginning of a
new section. Also used as a footnote symbol.

Section - a printed sheet folded to make a multiple of pages.

Security paper - paper incorporating special features
(dyes, watermarks etc) for use on cheques.

Serif - a small cross stroke at the end of the main stroke
of the letter.

Set size - the width of the type body of a given point size.

Set solid - type set without leading (line spacing) between
the lines. Type is often set with extra space; eg 9 point
set on 10 point.

Set off - the accidental transfer of the printed image from
one sheet to the back of another.

Sheet - a single piece of paper. In poster work refers to
the number of Double Crown sets in a full size poster.

Sheet fed - a printing press which prints single sheets of
paper, not reels.

Sheetwise - a method of printing a section. Half the pages
from a section are imposed and printed. The remaining half
of the pages are then printed on the other side of the
sheet.

Show-through - see opacity.

Side stabbed or stitched - the folded sections of a book
are stabbed through with wire staples at the binding edge,
prior to the covers being drawn on.

Side heading - a subheading set flush into the text at the
left edge.

Sidebar - a vertical bar positioned usually on the right
hand side of the screen.

Signature - a letter or figure printed on the first page of
each section of a book and used as a guide when collating
and binding.

Sixteen sheet - a poster size measuring 120in x 80in
(3050mm x 2030mm).

Size - a solution based on starch or casein which is added
to the paper to reduce ink absorbency.

Slurring - a smearing of the image, caused by paper
slipping during the impression stage.

Small caps - a set of capital leters which are smaller than
standard and are equal in size to the lower case letters
for that typesize.

Snap-to(guide or rules) - a WYSIWYG program feature for
accurately aligning text or graphics. The effect is
exercised by various non-printing guidelines such as column
guides, margin guides which automatically places the text
or graphics in the correct position flush to the column
guide when activated by the mouse. The feature is optional
and can be turned off.

Soft back/cover - a book bound with a paper back cover.

Soft or discretionary hyphen - a specially coded hyphen
which is only displayed when formatting of the hyphenated
word puts it at the end of a line.

Spell check - a facility contained in certain word
processing and page makeup programs to enable a spelling
error check to be carried out. Dictionaries of American
origin may not conform to English standards and the option
should be available within the program to modify the
contents. Dictionaries usually contain between
60,000-100,000 words.

Spine - the binding edge at the back of a book.

SRA - a paper size in the series of ISO international paper
sizes slightly larger than the A series allowing the
printer extra space to bleed.

Stat - photostat copy.

Stem - the main vertical stroke making up a type character.

Stet - used in proof correction work to cancel a previous
correction. From the Latin; 'let it stand'.

Strap - a subheading used above the main headline in a
newspaper article.

Strawboard - a thicker board made from straw pulp, used in
bookwork and in the making of envelopes and cartons. Not
suitable for printing.

Strike-through - the effect of ink soaking through the
printed sheet.

Style sheet - a collection of tags specifying page layout
styles, paragraph settings and type specifications which
can be set up by the user and saved for use in other
documents. Some page makeup programs, such as Ventura, come
with a set of style sheets.

Subscript - the small characters set below the normal
letters or figures.

Supercalendered paper - a smooth finished paper with a
polished appearance, produced by rolling the paper between
calenders. Examples of this are high gloss and art papers.

Superscript - the small characters set above the normal
letters or figures.

Surprint (US) - (see Overprinting) printing over a
previously printed  area of either text or graphics.

Swash letters - italic characters with extra flourishes
used at the beginning of chapters.

Swatch - a colour sample.

T
Tabloid - a page half the size of a broadsheet.

Tabular setting - text set in columns such as timetables.

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) - a common format for
interchanging digital information, generally associated
with greyscale or bitmap data.

Tags - the various formats which make up a style sheet-
paragraph settings, margins and columns, page layouts,
hyphernation and justification, widow and orphan control
and automatic section numbering.

Template - a standard layout usually containing basic
details of the page dimensions.

Text wrap - see Runaround.

Text - the written or printed material which forms the main
body of a publication.

Text type - typefaces used for the main text of written
material. Generally no larger than 14 point in size.

Thermography - a print finishing process producing a raised
image imitating die stamping. The process takes a
previously printed image which before the ink is dry is
dusted with a resinous powder. The application of heat
causes the ink and powder to fuse and a raised image is
formed.

Thin space - the thinnest space normally used to separate
words.

Thirty two sheet - a poster size measuring 120in x 160in
(3048mm x 4064mm).

Threaded or Chained (US) - see Pipelining.

Thumbnails - the first ideas or sketches of a designer
noted down for future reference.

Tied letters - see Ligature.

Tint - the effect of adding white to a solid colour or of
screening a solid area.

Tip in - the separate insertion of a single page into a
book either during or after binding by pasting one edge.

Tone line process - the process of producing line art from
a continuous tone original.

Toolbox - an on screen mouse operated facility that allows
the user to choose from a selection of 'tools' to create
simple goemetric shapes- lines, boxes, circles etc. and to
add fill patterns.

Transparency - a full colour photographically produced
image on transparent film.

Trash can (US) - the icon selected for the deleting of
files or objects.

Trim - the cutting of the finished product to the correct
size. Marks are incorporated on the printed sheet to show
where the trimming is to be made.

Turnkey - a system designed for a specific user and to work
as an integrated unit. Usually has built-in contractual
responsibilities for hardware and software maintenance.

Twin wire - paper which has an identical smooth finish on
both sides.

Typeface - the raised surface carrying the image of a type
character cast in metal. Also used to refer to a complete
set of characters forming a family in a particular design
or style.

Typescript - a typed manuscript.

Typo (US) - an abbreviation for typographical error. An
error in the typeset copy.

Typographer - a specialist in the design of printed matter,
and in particular the art of typography.

Typography - the design and planning of printed matter
using type.

U
U&lc - an abbreviation for UPPER and lower case.

Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) - gives protection to
authors or originators of text, photographs or
illustrations etc, to prevent use without permission or
acknowledgment. The publication should carry the copyright
mark c, the name of the originator and the year of
publication.

V
Varnishing - a finishing process whereby a transparent
varnish is applied over the printed sheet to produce a
glossy finish.

Vellum - the treated skin of a calf used as a writing
material. The name is also used to describe a thick creamy
book paper.

Ventura Publisher - the desktop publishing package marketed
by Xerox. The Ventura approach is a document-oriented one
working on the basis that each page will have a similar
format. The package with its lends itself to the production
of manuals and directories.

Vertical justification - the ability to ajust the interline
spacing (leading) and manipulation of text in fine
increments to make columns and pages end at the same point
on a page.

Vignette - a small illustration in a book not enclosed in a
definite border.

W
Watermark - an impression incorporated in the paper making
process showing the name of the paper and/or the company
logo.

Web - a continuous roll of printing paper used on web-fed
presses.

Weight - the degree of boldness or thickness of a letter or
font.

Wf - an abbreviation for 'wrong fount'. Used when
correcting proofs to indicate where a character is in the
wrong typeface.

Widow - a single word left on the last line of a paragraph
which falls at the top of a page.

Windows - a software technique that allows a rectangular
area of a computer screen to display output from a program.
With a number of programs running at one time, several
windows can appear on the screen at one time. Information
can be cut and pasted from one window to another. The best
known version of "windows" is that developed by Microsoft.

Wire - the wire mesh used at the wet end of the paper
making process. The wire determines the textures of the
paper.

Wire stitching - see saddle or side stitching.

Woodfree paper - made from chemical pulp only with size
added. Supplied calendered or supercalendered.

Word break - the division of a word at the end of a line.

Word wrap - in word processing, the automatic adjustment of
the number of words on a line of text to match the margin
settings. The carriage returns set up by this method are
termed "soft", as against "hard" carriage returns resulting
from the return key being pressed.

Work and turn - a method of printing where pages are
imposed in one forme or assembled on one film. One side is
then printed and the sheet is then turned over and printed
from the other edge using the same forme. The finished
sheet is then cut to produce two complete copies.

Work and tumble - a method of printing where pages are
again imposed together. The sheet is then printed on one
side with the sheet being turned or tumbled from front to
rear to print the opposite side.

Wove - a finely textured paper without visible wire marks.

WYSIWYG What-you-see-is-what-you-get (pronounced
"wizzywig") - used to describe systems that preview full
pages on the screen with text and graphics. The term can
however be a little misleading due to difference in the
resolution of the computer screen and that of the page
printer.

X
X-height - the height of a letter excluding the ascenders
and descenders; eg 'x', which is also height of the main
body.

Xerography - a photocopying/printing process in which the
image is formed using the electrostatic charge principle.
The toner replaces ink and can be dry or liquid. Once
formed, the image is sealed by heat. Most page printers
currently use this method of printing.