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Glossary

This is a basic list of words that may help understand printing terminology.
Acid-free paper: Paper manufactured to comply with type 1 permanence on the basis of pH and alkaline filler. Acid-free paper is expected to last several hundred years.
Acrobat: A cross-platform document distribution program created by Adobe Systems, Inc. A file saved in Adobe's PDF (Portable Document Format) format can be read by any computer that can run Adobe Acrobat's reader. Versions of the reader are available for most computer platforms.
Additive Color System: Also known as RGB, this is the color produced by your computer as viewed on the computer screen and other transmitted light sources. The additive primaries combine to form other colors, and mixing  all three produces white. RGB must be translated into CMYK before they can be printed on a press.
Advertising: Activities that bring a product, service, business or organization to the attention of current and potential customers.
Alignment: Alignment refers to type being set flush left, flush right, centered, or justified. Justified type lines up on both the left and right sides of the column's full measure.
Application file: May be asked for by the printer to open the designer's EPS files. It may not be needed for RIP, but can help  the printer solve problems without having to contact the customer.
Art direction: The process of managing or overseeing graphic design
ASCII file: Also called a text file, a text only file, it contains characters, spaces, punctuation carriage returns and sometimes tabs and end-of-file markers, but it contains no formatting information, so text transferred in this form must be reformatted before it can be proofed and printed in its intended form.
ASCII: (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) Pronounced askee: it is the general specification of bits in a computer to input, store, process and output text characters. ASCII file formats are frequently requested for text transfer because it allows different software programs and platforms to accept characters and punctuation. When you go to save a document as an ASCII file, you may find the designation to be a "text only" file, an "export file" or a file "to go to another computer" depending on the application program you are working in.
Automatic Text Flow: This desktop publishing program feature allows text matter to flow from one column to the next on each page and from one page to the next in a document automatically. It eases the pain of making significant copy changes to a long document.
Autotrap: A software program that automatically applies trapping to film which is output by imagesetters. Trapping is the precise relationship between two ink colors when they butt together on a printed sheet. If no trap is added, a white gap may appear between colors. If too much trap is added, a dark line will appear where the colors overlap.
Back up: To print on the reverse side of a sheet.
Bar: Horizontal stroke of letters such as A, H, R, e and f.
Beat to a pulp: The first step in making paper out of cotton. The cotton fibers and water are beaten to a pulp in a Hollander beater.
Bindery: The department in a print shop where print finishing (such as folding, scoring, binding and trimming) take place.
Bit map: Rows and columns of dots that when viewed together, create a graphic image.
Bitmap font: A font consisting of a bitmap for each letter, figure, or character comprising the font. A bitmap font is drawn to one size only and cannot be scaled (i.e. made larger or smaller) without severe degradation. Macintosh bitmap fonts also containing kerning information.
Bit-mapped: An image that is formed buy a rectangular grid of pixels. The computer assigns a value to each pixel, from one bit of information for black and white images up to 24 bits per pixel for full color images. Bit-mapped graphics are typical of paint programs, which treat images as collections of dots rather than as shapes.
Blanket: The rubber surfaced material, which is secured onto a cylinder onto which the image is transferred from the plate and then again transferred to paper.
Bleed: an image area (usually 1/8) that extends beyond the trim area of sheet or page. When trimmed, the image bleeds off the page or sheet.
Blends: The overprinting of two or more vignettes to create a series of secondary overprinted colors.
Blueline: Proofs for commercial printing jobs made from the impositioned film before plating or printing. All elements of the final printed piece are shown in place and any errors in stripping or layout are revealed. It is a representation of the final printed product although the actual color is not displayed. Also known as dylux.
Body text: the text that forms the main body of a document.
Bound Size: The dimensions of a book or folded piece after it has been bound or folded into its finished state
Break: the part of a story that is continued on another page. Also known as jumps. Breaks can be gathered together on a break page.
Broadside fold: folding a sheet in half before undertaking a folding style.
Bullet: Bullets can be solid dots or squares, open dots, or another tiny iconic symbol which is used to enhance a list. Bullets are normally set in a slightly larger point size than the text they accompany and should always be used in a list of no less than five items. Bullets are visually most effective when used with hanging indents.