Printing and Graphics Terminology

A

Alteration or Alt

A request by the client to the printer or graphic designer to alter the artwork before print. These should be done in writing/email as opposed to a phone call for legal purposes.

B

Bleed

Art colour or image that goes right to the edge of the paper after it is cut out of the master sheet. There is no white margin between the outside of the artwork and the edge of the paper.

C

CMYK

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, are the inks used in the majority of printed material these days. CMYK colours can't be as bright as RGB because they are intended for paper and aren't backlit like a computer screen.

Crop Marks or Trim Marks

Little black lines in the corners of the art that indicate where the art will be cut out from the master sheet. Trim marks indicate final art size.

D

Deep Etch

To remove the background or part of a photo. You do this in image editing software such as photoshop, gimp or others. The term 'Etch' comes from when the image used to be physically etched back on a printing plate so that it gets recessed and therefore will not print.

L

Low Res or low resolution

Images that won't look good once printed because they don't hold enough imformation in the picture. Printing requires high resolution images, which means you can't see any pixels or blocks when looking at the image at 100%.

M

Margin

The space between the art and the edge of the paper. If a margin is too small the artwork can look cheap. A big margin suggests affluence and professionalism. The margin should match the size of the art. Business cards can have a small margin compared to that of a billboard.

Mock-up or Dummy

A rough construction of your artwork such as a booklet that you supply to the printer so they can reference it when manufacturing your job. It is very important to make a mockup of your artwork for your printer.



R

Raster Image or Photograph

Is an image that is made up of a grid of squares with a particular colour defined for each square. As your increase these in size they decrease in qualit\y and you start to see those squares get bigger and more obvious. Raster file formats are jpg, tiff, psd, gif, png. You should always avoid putting raster images into a logo design.

Rich Black

Printing other inks on top of black to make it even blacker in the final print. Everyone will tell you a different recipe for their favourite rich black. Adding 30% Cyan makes the black look cooler. Adding 30% magenta makes the black look warmer. Adding Cyan and Magenta strikes a balance between warm and cool. Adding yellow to a rich black arguably does nothing at all because it's so light.

RGB

A colour space used on screens and not in ink on paper. If your artwork is RGB it can cause problems, slow your job down, make it more expensive, and it will likely not look as good in the end. RGB colours are brighter and more saturated or colourful than CMYK.

S

Spot Colours or Pantone Colours

Premixed and defined inks that are an alternative to CMYK printing. These often define corporate colours. Spot colours can often achieve looks that CMYK cannot such as brighter more saturated colours, metallics, and fluro. Spots are often defined by a number such as PMS204, which means Pantone Matching System colour number 204.

T

Typing:

to enter text into a machine using a keyboard. Performed by: Typist.

Typo:

a mistake made during the process of typing. Performed by: Typist.

Typography:

is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language readable and legible. Performed by Graphic Designer.

Type Setting:

to arrange text. Performed by Graphic Designer.

Typographical Error:

A mistake made with regard to typographical rules and guidelines ie. no spacing between lines that makes text less reabable. Performed by Graphic Designer.

V

Vector Image

This refers to graphic images that are defined mathematically and can therefore be stretched infinitely without a decrease in quality. These are not like photographs or raster images. People not familiar with the art world often percieve the visual look of vectors with "clip art" though they are different things. Vector formats are eps, ai, sag, and drw. These print extremely well. Vector versions of your logos and graphic files are valuable assets that you should not lose. Without them, you may have to pay someone to rebuild them at some stage. From a vector file you can generate all the raster formats, but you can't go back the other way accurately.