Print Terminology

Colour management

Colour management ensures the accuracy of the colours from design to print stages when mass reproduced, due to the use of different equipment and processes.

GAMUT – this is a term for RGB & CMYK, it represents the reproducibility of colours within a particular spectrum. GAUMT’s describe how accurately particular systems can reproduce certain colours. RGB can reproduce 70% of the colours that the human eye can see, whereas CYMK is significantly less than this.

Colour profiles

Pre-set colour profiles are definded in relation to a specific printing method/equipment and stock.

Preset colour profiles differe from different creative softwares.

Coated/Uncoated: paper coating provides a certain surface quality but can affect how ink is absorbed – how sharp the image will appear.

Process Colour: CMYK in offer lithography colours are applied using the CMYK gamut applied using half tone dots.

Spot Colours: spot colours must be defined if a colour is to be printed lies outside the working gamut system. Spot colours must be defined within the image file (swatches) and in any conversation with the printer. Spot colours are defined using the pantone system.

Printing and alignment

Lithography: this is a printing process that uses plates and ink is applied on the basis that oil and water repel each other. Ink from plates are offset onto a rubber printing surface before being applied to the paper.

Web: ultra-high-volume printing, newspapers, onto huge rolls of paper. Often uses flexography (relief) or rotogravure (intaglio).

Black or Registration Black: In offset lithography black is on plate in the printing process (K of the CMYK). Registration is a black achieved by printing all four process colours in the same place. Registration black is used to apply registration marks to ensure accurate alignment of the litho plates.

Bleed: “Full bleed” images must be printed beyond the margin limits to ensure white edges don’t appear after trimming.

Crop marks: Crop marks communicated the trimming regions of a piece of printed content.

Finishes and Specialist techniques

Tipped in page: a page that is printed separately but bound along with the other pages. Tip-ins can use different formats or different stock to the rest of the pages.

Tip on: added content glued to a page or cover, like a card or insert.

Duplexing: Bonding two different stocks together to act as one page with different texture or colours on each side.

Foil Blocking: Coloured foils are pressed into stock using a heat stamp.

Embossing/Debossing: Embossed refers to a raised surface and debossing refers to an intended surface.

Die Cutting: a design is cut out of the surface using a metal dye.

Laminate: a plastic coating heat-sealed onto a stock to provide a crisp finish and liquid resistant surface.

Varnish: a colourless coating which can be applied similarly to spot colours. Varnish layers are often identified to the printer on a separate file using black to identify the varnished areas.