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Machine Glazed (MG)
Paper holding a high-gloss finish only on one side.

Magenta
One of the four process colors.

Makeready
(1) All activities required to prepare a press or other machine to function for a specific printing or bindery job, as compared to production run. Also called setup. (2) Paper used in the makeready process at any stage in production. Makeready paper is part of waste or spoilage.

Making Order
Order for paper that a mill makes to the customer's specifications, as compared to a mill order or stock order.

Male Die
Die that applies pressure during embossing or debossing. Also called force card.

Manuscript (MS)
An author's original form of work (hand written, typed or on disk) submitted for publication.

Margin
Imprinted space around the edge of the printed material.

Mark-Up
Instructions written usually on a "dummy."

Mask
To prevent light from reaching part of an image, therefore isolating the remaining part. Also called knock out.

Master
Paper or plastic plate used on a duplicating press.

Matte Finish
Flat (not glossy) finish on photographic paper or coated printing paper.

Mechanical
Camera-ready assembly of type, graphic and other copy complete with instructions to the printer. A hard mechanical consists of paper and/or acetate, is made using paste-up techniques, and may also be called an artboard, board or paste-up. A soft mechanical, also called an electronic mechanical, exists as a file of type and other images assembled using a computer.

Mechanical Bind
To bind using a comb, coil, ring binder, post or any other technique not requiring gluing, sewing or stitching.

Mechanical Separation
Color breaks made on the mechanical using a separate overlay for each color to be printed.

Mechanical Tint
Lines or patterns formed with dots creating artwork for reproduction.

Metallic Ink
Ink containing powdered metal or pigments that simulate metal.

Metallic Paper
Paper coated with a thin film of plastic or pigment whose color and gloss simulate metal.

Midtones
In a photograph or illustration, tones created by dots between 30 percent and 70 percent of coverage, as compared to highlights and shadows.

Mil 1/1000 Inch
The thickness of plastic films as printing substrates are expressed in mils.

Misting
Phenomenon of droplets of ink being thrown off the roller train. Also called flying ink.

Mock Up
A reproduction of the original printed matter and possibly containing instructions or direction.

Moiré
Undesirable pattern resulting when halftones and screen tints are made with improperly aligned screens, or when a pattern in a photo, such as a plaid, interfaces with a halftone dot pattern.

Monarch
Paper size (7' x 10') and envelope shape often used for personal stationery.

Mottle
Spotty, uneven ink absorption. Also called sinkage. A mottled image may be called mealy.

Mull
A specific type of glue used for books binding and personal pads needing strength.

Multicolor Printing
Printing in more than one ink color (but not four-color process). Also called polychrome printing.

M Weight
Weight of 1,000 sheets of paper in any specific size.

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Negative
In Photography, film containing an image in which the values of the original are reversed so that the dark areas appear light and vice versa (see positive)

Newsprint
Newsprint has a high woodpulp content and is sometimes calendered for web-fed printing (letterpress or offset). Its grammage generally ranges from 40 to 57 gsm. The primary raw materials are wastepaper and wood fibers as well as chemical pulp. Newsprint is extremely opaque, but yellows
relatively quickly.

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Oblong
In binding, a booklet or catalog bound on the shorter dimension.

offset
In Printing, the process of using an intermediate blanket cylinder to transfer an image from the image carrier to the substrate. Short for offset lithography.

offset gravure
Printing gravure by the offset principle. Generally done on a flexographic press by converting the anilox roller to a gravure image cylinder and covering the plate cylinder with a solid rubber plate.

Offset paper
This is a broad term for stock suited to offset printing, covering both uncoated woodfree and woodpulp papers as well as uncoated recycled papers that have been calendered or machine-finished.

opacity
That property of the paper which minimises the " show-through" of the printing from the back side of the or the next sheet.

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Pad printing
Pad printing is an indirect gravure process where a flexible (often semi-spherical) pad of silicon rubber is used as a medium for transferring the ink from the plate to the surface to be printed. This method can be used to print a great diversity of irregularly shaped objects.

Pantone colors
Pantone colors are based on a system of standard colors used worldwide which Pantone, Inc., Carlstadt/New Jersey, originally a printshop, introduced for the graphic arts industry in 1963. The system is based on 512 reference color tones which are mixed from eight basic colors, black and white and are printed on coated and uncoated paper. Today, there are over 1,100 Pantone colors available on a broad range of papers. Pantone has also published color systems for textiles, plastics, paints and film/video.

Paperboard
Paperboard has a grammage higher than paper, but lower than cardboard. A distinction is made between single-layer and multilayer board. In the U.S., often called cover paper.

Papyrus
Papyrus is a writing material in roll, sheet or book form, which is made from a giant sedge, Cyperus papyrus. The pith is sliced into strips that are laid out in a row with the edges slightly overlapping. Another row is laid crosswire on top of the first. Next, the two layers are moistened with water and pounded into a sheet of writing material, smoothed and then dried. Papyrus was used as a writing material by the Egyptians since the beginning of the third century B.C. Papyrus was produced in Egypt in large quantities and was transported throughout the ancient world to the Greeks and Romans since the 2nd century A.D. Papyrus was largely replaced by parchment and from the 10th century onwards paper began to take over. The papal offices however continued to use Papyrus till the 11th Century. Papyrus is very durable.

PARC
Established in 1970,the Palo Alto Research Center –or PARC for short –run by the Xerox Corporation in California has had a decisive influence on the development of computer technology right up to today. Among other things, this research institute developed the graphic user interface used on Macintosh and Windows computers, the first commercially available computer mouse, the Ethernet network technology, the client server architecture, object-oriented programming and the laser printer.

PCL
PCL is an abbreviation of Printer Command Language, and is the language used to control computer printers. Introduced in the 1980s by computer manufacturers Hewlett-Packard and under constant development ever since, PCL allows application programs to control the functions of different printers in a standardized, efficient manner. PCL commands are embedded in the data flow of the print job. Compared to the Postscript page description language developed by Adobe, PCL is usually faster and requires less memory. However, the functionality of this language is less general in scope, which means that it is not suitable for all output devices.

PDF
PDF is the abbreviation for what is known as the Portable Document Format. Developed by software manufacturer Adobe Systems Inc. in the USA, this data format is used for exchanging and processing electronically stored, formatted documents with text and images, independently of the hardware and software used. One of the special features is that texts and graphics are stored in vector form, meaning that the resolution of their representation is dependently solely on the output device (monitor, printer). PDF files can generally be recognized by the ".pdf" file name suffix. They can be created using the Adobe Acrobat program. The Acrobat Reader is available free for displaying and printing PDF files.

Perfecting machine
A perfecting machine generally takes the form of a sheetfed press which prints the sheets on both sides in a single run (recto and verso).

Perfect Binder
Perfect Binder is the name given to a series of automatic book-binding machines from C.P. Bourg S.A., from Ottignies, Belgium. They are also intended to augment digital printing systems. The maximum throughput for these book-binding machines ranges from 200 to 2000 books per hour. The minimum and maximum dimensions for book covers and book blocks vary depending on the machine type. The maximum book thickness varies between 45 and 60 mm.

Personalized printing
Personalized printing refers to processes where to a certain degree the individual copies in a print run have distinctive imprints. A minimum requirement for personalized printing is a digital printing process for the individual imprints, which allows the printing data to vary from copy to copy. One common application of this process is the inclusion of the name and/or address of the recipient on the printed product.

Photocomposition
The first fundamentally new typesetting technology since the invention of letterpress printing by Johannes Gutenberg, photocomposition does not use solid forms for depicting the characters. Instead, the set text is created on photographic film. Older machines did this by imaging the characters visually with a flashlight from a negative original (which was generally rotating) or from a very bright screen (cathode ray tube) onto the film. The move to computer setting is marked by the lasersetter which, like the laser printer, uses a laser beam to write the text – but also images and other design elements – directly onto the film or a printing plate.

Photoshop
Photoshop, from Adobe Systems Inc., is the leading software package for digital image manipulation in DTP applications. It is available for Macintosh computers and Windows PCs.

Pica
A type size used in the Anglo-Saxon world and corresponds to 12 points.

Picking resistance
Also known as sizing strength. Picking resistance refers to the amount of force necessary to separate particles from the surface of the paper as it moves vertically. Picking resistance is a key criterion for offset-printing applications.

Pixel
A pixel – an abbreviation for picture element – is the computer term for an image dot, i.e. the smallest
unit of a digitally displayed image. The memory required by an image consisting of pixels is determined by the size of the image, its resolution, i.e. the number of pixels per unit of area, and the number of colors to be displayed.

Pixel format
The format for storing image data where, for a given resolution, every pixel in the image is represented by the appropriate data. Image processing programs such as Photoshop use the pixel format, the most common being TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). The pixel format is most suitable for real images, but, depending on the quality of the image, this requires a very large amount of memory.

Polaroid
As a method of producing finished photographs inside the camera itself, the Polaroid process was the first major development in photography since the genre was invented. It works on the basis of developer substances in paste form, which are distributed over the imaged film after a photograph has been taken and act on the film by diffusion.The Polaroid method was invented by Edwin Herbert Land (b. May 7, 1909, Bridgeport, Connecticut; d. March 1, 1991, Cambridge, Massachusetts). He founded the Polaroid Corporation in 1937, and launched the first Polaroid Land camera, the model 95, in 1947. This camera produced a black-and-white paper image measuring 83 x 108 mm around one minute after the photograph had been taken. The millionth instant camera was sold in 1956. The first Polaroid color camera was launched in 1963. Digital cameras have now taken the place of the Polaroid camera, whose manufacturer declared bankruptcy at the end of 2001.

Poster paper
Poster paper is uncoated and features special properties that allow it to soften before being posted, facilitate gluing, and add weather resistance. This woodfree, water-resistant, heavily sized stock can remain folded in water for a limited amount of time without loss of print integrity.

Postpress
Umbrella term for all processing operations performed on the printed product after the actual printing process, e.g. folding, binding, trimming, packaging. Postprint The word "postprint" is an alternative term for "finishing" and encompasses the operations that take place after the print run and result in the finished printed product.

PostScript
PostScript is a page description language developed by the software manufacturer Adobe Systems Inc. which has become a quasi-standard in the digital prepress stage. It describes documents largely independently of the device used, so that for instance the resolution of an image is not defined until the output device. The more recent PostScript 2 offers, among other things, improved colorimetric facilities, since the reference color space is integrated in accordance with the CIE standard. The latest version, PostScript 3, also improves the way in which colors and three-dimensional objects are
displayed and supports trapping of graphic objects.

Preprint
The word "preprint" is an alternative to "prepress" and covers all the working steps that take place before the actual print run and lead from the starting material to be printed - texts, images, etc. - to the ready printing copy.

Primary pulps
The raw materials for paper manufacture, removed from virgin forest products by mechanical means (woodpulp) or a chemical process (chemical pulp).

Primary colors
Primary colors are the basic colors of a color system, which are used to mix all other renderable color tones. The primary colors are cyan, magenta and yellow (black functions only as an auxiliary color for the technical aspects of printing)in the CMYK system, and red, green and blue in the RGB system.

Printability
Printability covers a range of paper properties affecting print results: gloss, smoothness, whiteness, opacity, etc.

Program paper
A flabby, generally woodfree paper made from chemical pulp derived from the soft leaves of hardwood trees. Allows noiseless page-turning.

Progressive proofs
When using a proof to check quality, progressive proofs are used to assess the colors on the printing stock. In 4c printing, the four process colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black are printed both alone and in various combinations on a small area.

Proof
A proof is a single print of an original which serves as a definitive means of verifying the layout and color for subsequent printing. In analog proof procedures (Dry-Match, Press-Match etc.) the proof is created from ready imaged films; this largely corresponds to the subsequent printing result. In digital proofing, the page composed on the computer is output on a color printer. This proof is more cost-effective, as it does not require the use of film. However in this case the imaging procedure remains untested.

Pulp
Paper pulp consists of cellulose fibers extracted chemically from plant materials-mainly wood, though annuals as used as well.

PUR binding
The PUR method of binding books and brochures uses polyurethane adhesive. It is processed hot and hardens by cooling. The bond is then impervious to heat. PUR adhesive binding is a particularly high-quality method that is ideal for high-use products such as trade show catalogs and for difficult types of paper.

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QuarkXPress
The Quark XPress program is one of the market leaders in DTP software for the professional market. The software is available for Macintosh computers and Windows PCs.

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RAL colors
RAL colors are standard colors based on a series of color collections for industry which are published by the Deutsches Institut für Gütesicherung und Kennzeichnung, Sankt Augustin (originally "Reichsausschuss für Lieferbedingungen"). All in all, there are over 2,000 RAL colors. The RAL Design System, a color system which takes in the entire color space, contains 1688 color tones. All RAL colors in the RAL Design System and the RAL 840-HR classical color collection are also defined digitally and can be used with all popular graphic arts programs running under Windows and Macintosh and can be used with more than 20 output variants i.e. with different screens and printers.

Raw text
Raw text is a type of text design in which the lines are not made to be of uniform length by correspondingly enlarging the spaces between words. Nevertheless, the available space is put to maximum use by means of word splits. In contrast, deliberately varying line lengths as a creative technique is referred to as ragged setting.

Ream
A unit of measurement for sheets of paper. A ream used to be 480 sheets; in the U.S. the term now refers to 500 sheets or, in the case of a printer's ream,516 sheets.(The German "new" ream refers to 1,000 sheets of paper.)The word can be traced back to the Arabic rizma ("bundle")–a memento of the path travelled by the art of papermaking to reach the Western world.

Recycled paper
Recycled paper is paper which has been produced from 100% used paper. Used paper fibers (also known as secondary fibers) can be used three to five times in this manner. If the recycled paper needs to be pure white, de-inking chemicals have to be used to remove the inks from the used paper, and the fibers also have to undergo a bleaching process. The de-inking process is not used in the production of environmentally-friendly papers, but unprinted white paper has to be used as a raw material in order to
achieve a whiteness grade of 40-50%. However, these gray papers have not so far been well accepted by the public.

Reel spool
The take-up roll around which the paper web is wound after reaching the end of its journey through the paper machine.

Rendering
Rendering is the term used for the realistic representation of three-dimensional models by a computer - on the monitor or in a print. In this context, the object is given the most realistic surface possible, illuminated by a fictitious light source and embedded in an equally three-dimensional environment with light, shadows, reflections, etc.

Resolution
In an optical context, the resolution is a measure of the ability of input and output devices, or of photographic films, to visualize two adjacent dots separately from one another. The resolution depends on the physical properties of the visualizing or recording device or material and is usually limited by the wavelength of the light used. The resolution is usually stated in dots per inch (dpi) or in lines per millimeter.

RFID
The abbreviation RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) refers to systems used to identify objects (industrial products, animals, etc.) that work with radio signals for data transmission in the production, transportation and storage sectors. Instead of barcodes and optical scanning devices, RFID systems use transponders as markers on the objects being monitored. These units receive radio signals from the relevant interrogation devices and transmit their information back.Some of the key advantages of this technology over barcode methods include the fact that larger volumes of data can be stored in the transponders, the link between the transponder and the interrogation device is reliable without a direct line of sight, the data is interrogated more quickly and the data can be generally be changed. The manufacturers of RFID systems are grouped together in the AIM Association (Automatic Identification Manufacturers).

RGB
RGB is the usual additive color model for the primary colors red, green and blue and is used for self-illuminating output devices such as monitors, but also for electronic recording equipment such as scanners and video cameras. There are a number of different variants of RGB. Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft proposed a new, more uniform standard in 1998 in the form of sRGB.

RIP
The abbreviation RIP stands for Raster Image Processor, which prepares data from the prepress stage for the production of the printing plates. Its most important function is to create screens for printing images and other graphic elements. As a rule, an RIP is a separate computer, but it can also come in
the form of software.

Roman face
Roman face is the term used for fonts whose letters have small end-strokes (serifs) at the ends. The basic form of Roman face stems directly from the antique Capitalis style of the Romans: the upper-case letters are borrowed from the Roman script, while the lower-case letters come from the Caroline minuscule. In addition to serifs, varying weights are another common feature of Roman faces. They are especially easy to read in running texts. Famous examples include Times (as the classical model), Bodoni and Garamond.

RTF
The abbreviation RTF stands for Rich Text Format. It is a data format for texts that contains not only the text itself, but also information on the font, font size and formatting. The Rich Text Format was specified by Microsoft as a software-independent format for formatted texts.

Rubel Ira Washington
Rubel is considered to be the inventor of the offset printing process. Rubel, the owner of a small print shop in the state of New Jersey, USA, accidentally discovered in 1903 that he could obtain better results with indirect printing using a blanket cylinder than with direct printing. He had covered the impression cylinder of a printing press with a rubber blanket and paper sheets were then fed incorrectly several times during a printing run As a result, the impression from the printing forme ended up on the rubber blanket and from there on the back of the next sheet each time. Rubel discovered that these misprints were of a better quality than the regular prints, and consequently went on to develop the first offset printing press, which was also named by him.

Rub-off
What happens when pressure on stacked sheets causes the ink on one surface to rub off on the next. This "carbon-copy effect" can occur due to the pressure of the clamp in trimming machines.

Running directions
The running direction of paper is the direction it passes through the paper machine, generally the same as the grain direction (direction in which fibers lie). Paper is stiffer and has greater dimensional stability with the grain. The running direction is often indicated by an arrow on sheet packages.

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SaddleStitch
To fasten a booklet by wiring /stapling it through the middle fold of the sheets.
Satellite principle
An offset printing press works according to the satellite principle, where several complete printing units, including plate cylinder, blanket, inking unit and damping unit, are arranged around a central impression cylinder. In this way, all the colors are printed in a single, wet-on-wet process.

Scanner
The scanner is a device for capturing image data which works by optically scanning the original. Light-sensitive sensors convert the information relating to the image brightness and colors into
electrical values. The two major types of scanner are the drum scanner and the flatbed scanner. In the case of the former the originals are attached to a transparent drum, and scanning takes place line by line by means of a rotating fine beam of light from the inside of the drum outwards. In the case of the flatbed scanner, the original is placed on a flat glass plate and is scanned from underneath by an array of light-sensitive CCD elements which move across the scanning field.

Screen angle
When screens are regular, the screen angle indicates the angle of the screen from the vertical. When only single colors are used, the screen is generally positioned diagonally (45 or 135 degrees). In multicolor printing, different screen angles should be used for the different colors in order to prevent overlay effects (moiré). DIN 16547 lays down angles of 0, 15, 75 and 45 degrees for the four colors yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

Screen
In image reproduction terminology, a screen is an area made up of small geometric forms of either regular or random arrangement (e.g. round, square or other shaped dots, lines). The screen is used to convert contone images into a black/white or full-color representation which is suitable for printing. This is done by varying either the size or the frequency of the elements to reflect the brightness of the image.

Screen ruling
Screen ruling refers to the number of dots per unit length. Common specifications are l/cm (lines per cm) and lpi (lines per inch). '60 screen' means 60 l/cm and corresponds to approx. 150 lpi.

Secondary pulp
Secondary paper pulp consists of raw materials reclaimed from wastepaper. The term can imply chemical pulp, woodpulp or a mixture of the two.

See-through register
A see-through register is a print element on banknotes that is used to protect against counterfeiting. Parts of a symbol are printed on both sides of the note and only appear as a complete character (letter, number etc.) when the note is held up to the light.

Selective binding
The term “selective binding” describes the personalized production of bound print products from a selection of components. Selective binding can be used, for example, to produce different versions of catalogs where the content is geared to the needs of different customer groups. Selective binding can also be used, for example, when different advertising motifs are required for different issues of magazines.
Semi - fine
Semi-fine stock is paper with a mechanical woodpulp content of more than 5%. The term is usually reserved for uncoated papers; coated stock is more often designated "slightly mechanical".
Senefelder, Alois
Alois Senefelder (born 6 November 1771 in Prague, died 26 February 1834 in Munich), the inventor of lithography and stone printing. In 1796, he discovered that, by using a greasy substance to write on polished Solnhofen limestone which was then lightly etched with an acidic gum arabic solution, ink
only adheres to the areas which have been written on. In 1818, Senefelder published his “Vollständiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerei“ (Complete Textbook of Stone Printing), in which he outlined how his discovery had come about.

Serif
A serif is a small stroke on the end of the strokes of letters. This design feature is typical of so-called Roman faces, which can be traced back to ancient Rome. Serifs cater to the perception mechanism of the human eye and thus make type faces easier to read.

Serigraphy
Silk screen printing.

Server
Servers are computers or software packages which provide certain services within a network as part of a client/server system. In the prepress sector, high-performance computers are used as data servers to store centrally large amounts of data relating to texts and images in high resolution. Communications servers, which offer data transfer services on the network, play an important role in this field.

Set form
This is a text layout in which the length of the lines varies according, for example, to the placement of an optional image or graphic element.

SGML
The Standard(ized) Generalized Mark-up Language is a standardized language (ISO 8879) which is used to depict structured texts. SGML is very versatile, but is also difficult to use due to its size. Of greater significance than SGML is XML, a slimmed-down version of SGML, which has been designed specifically for exchanging structured data on the Internet.

Sheetfed offset press
Offset printing is the most popular form of lithographic printing used today and consists of the two variations – sheetfed offset and web offset. Sheetfed offset presses print individual, cut sheets. These presses are subdivided into the following format classes, indicating the maximum format of sheet that can be used: Format class Format
0 500 mm x 700 mm
I 560 mm x 830 mm
II 610 mm x 860 mm
III 650 mm x 965 mm
III b 720 mm x 1020 mm
IV 780 mm x 1120 mm
V 890 mm x 1260 mm
VI 1000 mm x 1400 mm
VII 1100 mm x 1600 mm
X 1400 mm x 2000 mm.

Sizing
The addition of size gives paper ink receptivity as well as other special characteristics. It is usually added to the furnish (the pulp mass)before processing; this is called pulp sizing. Special grades may also be subsequently surfaced-sized on the dry end of the paper machine.

Small caps
"Small caps" is the term used for upper-case letters with a size equal to the basic height of lower-case letters of the type size currently being used. Small caps are used to emphasize individual words in the text.

Spot Color
Spot Color is another term used to describe Special colors.

Stitcher
The stitcher is the name given to the device used for stitching printed products with wire staples. The term is more generally used for gatherer-stitchers, which perform all the processes involved with the manufacture of wire-stitched magazines and brochures, i.e. feeding, gathering, stitching and cutting.
Stone printing
Stone printing is a form of lithographic printing which uses Solnhofen limestone from the Franconia region of Germany for the printing form. Invented by Alois Senefelder in 1796, the technology was particularly popular in the 19th Century and early 20th Century. Today, stone printing is generally only used for graphics work.

Subtractive color synthesis
Subtractive color synthesis creates a color impression by filtering out individual frequency ranges – i.e. colors – from the overall spectrum of visible light. In the case of color printing, this is done by overprinting the inks – generally the basic colors cyan, magenta and yellow, which can be used to create all color tones of the relevant color space.

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TAGA
The Technical Association Of The Graphic Arts (TAGA) was founded in 1948 and is an international technical association for professionals in the graphic arts industry. Its some 900 members consist of scientists and engineers from publishing houses, printshops and other graphic arts businesses and suppliers in the industry.

Tabloid
Using a broadsheet as a measure, one half of a broadsheet.

Tag
Grade of dense, strong paper used for products such as badges and file folders.

Tagged Image File Format
Computer file format used to store images from scanners and video devices. Abbreviated TIFF.

Target Ink Densities
Densities of the four process inks as recommended for various printing processes and grades of paper. See also Total Area Coverage.

Template
Concerning a printing project's basic details in regard to its dimensions. A standard layout.

Text Paper
Designation for printing papers with textured surfaces such as laid or linen. Some mills also use 'text' to refer to any paper they consider top-of-the-line, whether or not its surface has a texture.

Thermography
Method of printing using colorless resin powder that takes on the color of underlying ink. Also called raised printing.

Thixotropy
The term "thixotropic" is used to describe viscous substances that become less viscous through mechanical action (stirring) and return to their original highly viscous form when left unagitated. Thixotropy is used in offset printing inks to enhance the quality of multi-color printing the lower viscosity inks in the inking unit solidify to a certain degree on the printing stock before drying, so that further printing processes turn out better.

Thumbnails
Initial ideas jotted on virtually anything in regard to initial concept of a future project.

TIFF
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a commonly used file format for images. It was defined by a computer industry committee in 1986. It is a so-called screen format that contains information on the brightness and hue of every pixel. The TIFF format supports various color systems, from black-and-white to full-color RGB images. TIFF files can be compressed by a variety of methods.

Tint
Screening or adding white to a solid color for results of lightening that specific color.

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Uncoated Paper
Paper that has not been coated with clay. Also called offset paper.

Undercolor Addition
Technique of making color separations that increases the amount of cyan, magenta or yellow ink in shadow areas. Abbreviated UCA.

Undercolor Removal
Technique of making color separations such that the amount of cyan, magenta and yellow ink is reduced in midtone and shadow areas while the amount of black is increased. Abbreviated UCR.

Universal Copyright Convention (UCC)
A system to protect unique work from reproducing without knowledge from the originator. To qualify, one must register their work and publish a (c) indicating registration.

Unsharp Masking
Technique of adjusting dot size to make a halftone or separation appear sharper (in better focus) than the original photo or the first proof. Also called edge enhancement and peaking.

Up
Term to indicate multiple copies of one image printed in one impression on a single sheet. "Two up" or "three up" means printing the identical piece twice or three times on each sheet.

UV Coating
Liquid applied to a printed sheet, then bonded and cured with ultraviolet light.

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Value
The shade (darkness) or tint (lightness) of a color. Also called brightness, lightness, shade and tone.

Varnish
Liquid applied as a coating for protection and appearance.

Vellum Finish
Somewhat rough, toothy finish.

Velox
Brand name for high-contrast photographic paper.

Viewing Booth
Small area or room that is set up for proper viewing of transparencies, color separations or press sheets. Also called color booth. See also Standard Viewing Conditions.

Vignette
Decorative design or illustration fade to white.

Vignette Halftone
Halftone whose background gradually and smoothly fades away. Also called degrade.

Virgin Paper
Paper made exclusively of pulp from trees or cotton, as compared to recycled paper.

VOC
Abbreviation for volatile organic compounds, petroleum substances used as the vehicles for many printing inks.

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Wash Up
To clean ink and fountain solutions from rollers, fountains, screens, and other press components.

Waste
Unusable paper or paper damage during normal makeready, printing or binding operations, as compared to spoilage.

Watermark
Translucent logo in paper created during manufacturing by slight embossing from a dandy roll while paper is still approximately 90 percent water.

Web Break
Split of the paper as it travels through a web press, causing operators to rethread the press.

Web Gain
Unacceptable stretching of paper as it passes through the press.

Web Press
Press that prints from rolls of paper, usually cutting it into sheets after printing. Also called reel-fed press. Web presses come in many sizes, the most common being mini, half, three quarter (also called 8-pages) and full (also called 16-pages).

Wet Trap
To print ink or varnish over wet ink, as compared to dry trap.

Window
(1) In a printed product, a die-cut hole revealing an image on the sheet behind it. (2) On a mechanical, an area that has been marked for placement of a piece of artwork.

Wire Side
Side of the paper that rests against The Fourdrinier wire during papermaking, as compared to felt side.

Wire-o Binding
A continuous double series of wire loops run through punched slots along the binding side of a booklet.

With the Grain
Parallel to the grain direction of the paper being used, as compared to against the grain. See also Grain Direction.

Woodfree Paper
Made with chemical pulp only. Paper usually classified as calendered or supercalendered.

Working Film
Intermediate film that will be copied to make final film after all corrections are made. Also called buildups.

Wove
Paper manufactured without visible wire marks, usually a fine textured paper.

Wrong Reading
An image that is backwards when compared to the original. Also called flopped and reverse reading.

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Xerography
Xerography, invented in 1937 by the American patent lawyer Chester F. Carlson, is a printing method originally developed for copiers but is now also used with laser printers and digital printing systems. The technology is based on a drum coated with a photo semiconductor which is charged up and then partially discharged by a motif projected onto it. Dark areas retain their charge and toner applied to these areas remains in place. The image created in this way is then transferred to paper and fixed with heat.

XML
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a symbol language which is used to describe the structure of documents. Externally, XML is similar to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) used throughout the Internet. The most important difference lies in the fact that the symbols (“tags”) used in XML can be selected with a great degree of freedom, while they are fixed in HTML. This allows special forms of XML to be generated for virtually any type of application. XML is essentially a slimmed-down form of the SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) document description language defined in ISO 8879 and was created for transmitting richly structured documents via the World Wide Web. The International World Wide Web Consortium is responsible for standardization of XML.

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