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Tel: 0121 359 2346  |   Email: sales@alltradeprinters.co.uk

Print Glossary

Listed below in our Print Glossary are the common terms used within the printing industry in everyday speak as well as a few definitions and explanations that will be of great help to you. If you ever wondered what is meant when a job 'bleeds' or when a 'dummy' is needed, then here is your chance to wise up on printers' jargon.

Click on the links below to view glossary terms

Saddle-Stitch

A binding process in which a pamphlet or booklet is stapled through the middle fold of its sheets using saddle wire; To stitch with wire through the back of folded work

Score

To partially cut/crease with a rule into heavy paper or board to break the grain and so enable easier folding; A pressed mark in a sheet of paper, usually a thick paper, to make folding cleaner and easier

Section

A folded sheet of paper forming part of a book; sections are sometimes made of insetted folded sheets of four, eight, sixteen or more pages

Self-Cover

When the paper used inside a booklet is the same as that used for the cover and is generally printed on the same press run

Set-off

When ink from a printed sheet marks the underside of the sheet above it

Shrink Wrapping

Method of packing printed products by surrounding them with plastic, then shrinking by heat

Signature

A sheet of printed pages which when folded become a part of a book or publication; folded, printed paper forming a section of a book; usually in a multiple of four, and more often a multiple of eight; The consecutive number or letter which is printed at the foot of the first page of a section to enable a binder to check the position and completeness of the sections. Signatures are often indicated by printing a rule in the back of each section so that when the sections are folded and gathered the signatures appear ‘stepped’ on the back fold

Software

The programs that enable the computer to perform its tasks

Spine

The binding edge of a book or publication

Spot Colour

Any area of colour that is not printed using a CMYK process set; coloured areas reproduced using self coloured inks, such as PMS (Pantone) inks; A colour that is printed from a specially pre-mixed ink, usually identified by a Pantone number

Spot Varnish

Varnish used to hilight a specific part of the printed sheet

Stock

Material (paper and board) to be printed on

Carbon Capture & Storage Association Federation of Small Businesses British Print Birmingham Chamber of Commerce

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