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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.

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.

Bromide - a photographic print made on bromide paper.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 (CMYK). These should not be confused with the optical primaries; red, green and blue (RGB).

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.

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.

CMYK - Abbreviation of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, see Colour separation.

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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.

Digital printing - a process whereby electronically computer generated files are printed using equipment that will print either black and white, or color directly from a digital file.

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

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. 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.

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

Electronic Publishing - a generic term for the distribution of information which is stored, transmitted and reproduced electronically. 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).

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

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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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

Grey scale - a range of luminance values for evaluating shading or colours through white to black.

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.

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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.

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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.

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

Mutt - a typesetting term for the em space.

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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.

ffset 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.

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

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.

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Tabular setting - text set in columns such as timetables.

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) - a common format for interchanging digital information, generally associated with hi-res images.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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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.