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C1S - Paper coated on one side.
C2S - Paper coated on both sides.
Calender - A process on the paper machine where the paper is squeezed between metal cylinders to make the paper smooth and glossy.
Calender Dyed - Same as calender colored. Paper or paperboard that has been colored or stained at the calender stack. Color, transferred from the calender rolls to the paper, may be on one or both sides of the sheet.
Calender Rolls - A set or stack of horizontal cast iron rolls at the end of the paper machine. The web of paper is passed between the rolls to increase the smoothness and gloss of the surface.
Caliper - The thickness of a sheet measured under specific conditions. It is usually expressed in thousandths of an inch (points or mils). Caliper is particularly important when printed materials need to be folded, inserted, and mailed using automatic handling equipment.
Camera-ready - Mechanicals, photographs, and art ready to be photographed for platemaking according to the technical requirements of printer.
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 which will produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required).
Cardboard - General term for stiff, bulky paper such as index, tag, or bristol.
Caret Marks - An indication to the printer of an omission in the copy indicated as ( ) showing the insertion.
Carload - Selling unit of paper that may weigh anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 pounds, depending on which mill or merchant uses the term.
Carton - Selling unit of paper weighing approximately 150 pounds (60 kilos). A carton can contain anywhere from 500 to 5,000 sheets, depending on the size of sheets and their basis weight.
Cartridge - A thick general purpose paper used for printing, drawing and wrapping.
Case - In bookbinding, the covers of a hardbound book.
Case Bound - To bind by gluing signatures to a case made of binder's board covered with cloth, plastic, or leather, yielding hard cover books. Also called cloth bind, edition bind, hard bind and hard cover.
Cast Coated Paper - Paper or board that is coated by allowing the coating to harden while in contact with a chromium-polished surface. Cast coated papers are the glossiest of all coated papers.
Catalog (Open End) - Flap is on the envelope's short side. Its construction is strong to support the catalog's weight. Sizes are described using envelope's dimensions. E.g., 9" x 12" or 6" x 9".
Catalog Paper - Coated paper rated #4 or #5 with basis weight from 35# to 50# commonly used for catalogs and magazines.
Cellulose (fiber) - The chief component of the cell walls or woody structure of plants; the fibrous material remaining after the non-fibrous components of wood have been removed by pulping and bleaching operations, used in making paper.
Center Marks - Lines on a mechanical, negative, plate, or press sheet indicating the center of a layout.
Center Seam - Same as Catalog envelope.
Chain Dot - (1) Alternate term for elliptical dot, so called because midtone dots touch at two points, so look like links in a chain. (2) Generic term for any midtone dots whose corners touch.
Chain Lines - (1) Widely spaced lines in laid paper. (2) Blemishes on printed images caused by tracking.
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.
Check Copy - (1) Production copy of a publication verified by the customer as printed, finished and bound correctly. (2) One set of gathered book signatures approved by the customer as ready for binding.
Chipboard - Inexpensive, single-ply cardboard, usually brown or gray.
Choke - Technique of slightly reducing the size of an image to create a hairline trap or to outline. Also called shrink and skinny.
Chrome - Alternate term for Transparency.
Chuck - Blocks inserted at the end of cores to support rolls of paper on the roll stand. If the core size received is too large, a chuck can be used as an adapter.
Clasp - Like a Catalog envelope, but includes a metal clasp for temporary closure. May also have glue on the flap for a more permanent seal.
Clay - A fine-grained mineral material used as a filler in papermaking or as coating pigments.
Cleat Bind - Alternate term for Side stitch.
Clip Art - High-contrast drawings printed on white, glossy paper and made to be cut out and pasted to a mechanical.
Close Up - A proof correction mark to reduce the space between characters or words indicated as (').
CMYK - Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and black, the four process colors. It is based on the reflexivity of light and is broken down into Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. This combination should theoretically produce black. Since the black produced is actually muddy brown, printers add true black to define the color.
Coarse Screen - Halftone screen with ruling of less than 133 lines per inch.
Coated Paper - Paper with a coating of clay and other substances to give a smoother, greater opacity and better ink holdout. There are four major categories; cast, gloss, dull and matte.
Coating - An emulsion, varnish or lacquer applied over a printed surface to protect it.
Coin Envelope - Small Catalog envelope.
Cold Type - Type produced without the use of characters cast from molten metal, such as on a VDU.
Collate - To assemble separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding.
Collating Marks - Mostly in the book arena, specific marks on the back of signatures indicating exact position in the collating stage.
Color Balance - Refers to amounts of process colors that simulate the colors of the original scene or photograph.
Color Bar - Strip of colors printed near the edge of a press sheet to help evaluate ink density.
Color Blanks - Press sheets printed with photos or illustrations, but without type. Also called shells.
Color Break - In multicolor printing, the point, line or space at which one ink color stops and another begins.
Color Cast - Unwanted color affecting an entire image or portion of an image.
Color Control Bar - Strip of small blocks of color on a proof or press sheet to help evaluate features such as density and dot gain. Also called color bar, color guide and standard offset color bar.
Color Correct - To adjust the relationship among the process colors to achieve desirable colors.
Color Electronic Prepress System - Computer, scanner, printer and other hardware and software designed for image assembly, color correction, retouching and output onto proofing materials, film or printing plates. Abbreviated CEPS.
Color Gamut - The entire range of hues possible to reproduce using a specific device, such as a computer screen, or system, such as four-color process printing.
Color Key - 3M brand name for overlay color proof.
Color Matching System - System of numbered ink swatches that facilitates communication about color.
Color Model - Way of categorizing and describing the infinite array of colors found in nature.
Color Process - Alternate term for 4-color process printing.
Color Separations - (1) Technique of using a camera, scanner or computer to divide continuous-tone color images into four halftone negatives. (2) The product resulting from color separating and subsequent four-color process printing. Also called separation.
Color Sequence - Order in which inks are printed. Also called laydown sequence and rotation.
Color Shift - Change in image color resulting from changes in register, ink densities or dot gain during four-color process printing.
Color Swatch - Sample of an ink color.
Color Transparency - Film (transparent) used as art to perform color separations.
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.
Comb Bind - To bind by inserting the teeth of a flexible plastic comb through holes punched along the edge of a stack of paper. Also called plastic bind and GBC bind.
Commercial (Diagonal Seam) Envelope - These are a group of envelopes most businesses use every day including #9, #10, #11, etc.
Commercial Printer - Printer producing a wide range of products such as announcements, brochures, posters, booklets, stationery, business forms, books and magazines. Also called job printer because each job is different.
Commercial Register - Color printing in which misregister allowable is within + or one row of dots.
Comp - Short for Comprehensive dummy.
Complementary Flat(s) - The second or additional flat(s) used when making composite film or for two or more burns on one printing plate.
Compose - To set copy into type.
Composite Art - Mechanical on which copy for reproduction in all colors appears on only one surface, not separated onto overlays. Composite art has a tissue overlay with instructions that indicate color breaks.
Composite Film - Film made by combining images from two or more pieces of working film onto one film for making one plate.
Composite Proof - Proof of color separations in position with graphics and type. Also called final proof, imposition proof and stripping proof.
Composition - (1) In typography, the assembly of typographic elements, such as words and paragraphs, into pages ready for printing. (2) In graphic design, the arrangement of type, graphics and other elements on the page.
Comprehensive Dummy - A detailed dummy or sketch of a design, intended to give a client or the printer a clear sense of how the finished publication will or should look when reproduced. Also called color comprehensive and comp.
Concertina Fold - A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbor, giving a concertina or pleated effect.
Condensed - A style of typeface in which the characters have an elongated appearance.
Condition - To keep paper in the pressroom for a few hours or days before printing so that its moisture level and temperature equal that in the pressroom. Also called cure, mature and season.
Consignment Memo - Alternate term for photographer's Delivery memo.
Contact Platemaker - Device with lights, timing mechanism and vacuum frame used to make contact prints, duplicate film, proofs and plates. Also called platemaker and vacuum frame.
Contact Print - Photographic print made by exposing a negative in direct uniform contact with paper.
Contact Sheet - Alternate term for Proof sheet.
Continuous-tone Copy - All photographs and those illustrations having a range of shades not made up of dots, as compared to line copy or halftones. Abbreviated contone.
Contract Proof - A color proof that represents an agreement between the printer and the client regarding exactly how the printed product will appear.
Contrast - The degree of tones between lightest white and darkest black in continuous-tone copy.
Converter - Business that makes products such as boxes, bags, envelopes and displays, etc.
Copy - For an editor or typesetter, all written material. For a graphic designer or printer, everything that will be printed: art, photographs, and graphics as well as words.
Copy Board - Surface or frame on a process camera that holds copy in position to be photographed.
Copy Preparation - In typesetting, marking up manuscript and specifying type. In pasteup and printing, making mechanicals and writing instructions to ensure proper placement and handling of copy.
Cord - Unit of measurement of pulpwood defined as a pile containing 128 cubic feet of wood, stacked eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet high.
Core - Shaft in center of a roll around which the web of paper is wound. Resides inside diameter of roll. Cores can be either metal or cardboard, returnable or disposable. They also come in many different inside diameters and wall thickness.
Corner Card - Refers to the printing on the upper left corner of an envelope-usually the return address.
Corner Marks - Lines on a mechanical, negative, plate, or press sheet showing the corners of a page or finished piece.
Corona Treatment Level - The electric charge on the coating that allows writing on it.
Corrugated - Characteristic of board for boxes made by sandwiching fluted kraft paper between sheets of paper or cardboard.
Cotton Content Paper - Paper made from cotton fibers rather than wood pulp.
Cover - Thick paper that protects a publication and advertises its title. Parts of covers are often described as follows: Cover 1=outside front; Cover 2=inside front; Cover 3=inside back, Cover 4=outside back.
Cover Papers - Strong, heavy papers suitable for covers of publications such as brochures, booklets or catalogs. They’re available in various colors.
Coverage - Extent to which ink covers the surface of a substrate. Ink coverage is usually expressed as light, medium or heavy.
Cover Paper - Category of thick paper used for products such as posters, menus, folders and covers of paperback books.
Crash - Coarse cloth embedded in the glue along the spine of a book to increase strength of binding. Also called gauze, mull and scrim.
Crash Printing - Letterpress printing on carbon or carbonless forms so image prints simultaneously on all sheets in the set.
Creep - Phenomenon of middle pages of a folded signature extending slightly beyond outside pages. Also called feathering, outpush, push out and thrust.
Cromalin - DuPont trade name for integral color proof.
Crop - To eliminate portions of an illustration or photograph so the remainder is more clear, interesting, or able to fit the layout.
Crop Marks - Lines near the edges of an image indicating portions to be eliminated. Also called cut 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 Direction (CD) - Direction or dimension at right angle to the flow through a papermaking machine; the direction across the grain. Paper is weaker and more sensitive to changes in relative humidity in the cross direction than the grain direction.
Cross Head - A heading set in the body of the text used to break it into easily readable sections.
Crossover - Type or art that continues from one page of a book or magazine across the gutter to the opposite page. Also called bridge, gutter bleed and gutter jump.
Crystallization - A condition of a dried ink film, which repels another ink printed on top of it.
Cure - To dry inks, varnishes or other coatings after printing to ensure good adhesion and prevent setoff.
Curl - Waviness, roll or curvature that can sometimes occur at the edge of the sheet due to differences in structure or coatings from one side to the other, or to absorption of moisture on an offset press.
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.
Cutoff - The circumference of the impression cylinder of a web press, therefore also the length of the sheet the press will cut from the roll of paper.
Cutout - A halftone where the background has been removed to produce a silhouette.
Cut Size - Refers to business or writing papers that have been cut to dimensions of 8-1/2 x 11 and 8-1/2 x 14 or 11 x 17.
Cutting Die - Usually a custom ordered item to trim specific and unusual sized printing projects.
Cutting Machine - A machine that cuts stacks of paper to desired sizes. The machine can also be used in scoring or creasing.
CWT - Paper distributor abbreviation for 100 pounds.
Cyan - One of the four process colors. Also known as process blue.