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Glossary Of Printing Terms [49]

C C1S and C2S In printing industry, C1S is shorthand for “coated one side.” Likewise, C2S means “coated two sides.”
Calender A series of hard pressure rollers used to form or smooth a sheet of material such as paper or plastic film. In a principal paper application, the calender is located at the end of a papermaking process. Those that are used separately from the process are also called supercalenders. The purpose of a calender is to make the paper smooth and glossy for printing and writing, as well as of a consistent thickness for capacitors that use paper as their dielectric membrane.
Caliper Caliper refers to the thickness of the paper, which is generally measured in mils. One mil (or point) is equal to 1/1000th of an inch. It may also be measured in pages per inch (ppi) or microns (1/1000th of a millimeter). It may also refer to a device on some presses that is capable of identifying double sheet feeds.
Camera-ready Copy Any digital or digitized artwork that is ready for print as per the specifics of the process being used for reproduction. These files may also be called "finished art" or "reproduction copy".
Canvas A heavy-duty, tightly woven fabric; rolls of specialty canvas are used in inkjet prints to produce Giclée canvas prints. After they are printed, the canvas is treated with a protective coating that guards against scratching, and dust and water damage. Order online: Mounted Artist Canvas Rolled Artist Canvas
Car Wrap Also known as vehicle wrap, it is a form of wrap advertising. It is the marketing practice of completely or partially covering (wrapping) a vehicle in an advertisement. The result of this process is essentially a mobile billboard. While vehicles with large, flat surfaces (such as buses and light-rail carriages) are often used, automobiles can also serve as hosts for wrap advertising, despite consisting of more curved surfaces.
Carbonless Paper Carbonless copy paper (CCP), non-carbon copy paper, or NCR paper is a type of coated paper designed to transfer information written on the front onto sheets beneath. It was developed by chemists Lowell Schleicher and Barry Green. Instead of inserting a special sheet in between the original and the intended copy, carbonless copy paper has micro-encapsulated dye or ink on the back side of the top sheet, and a clay coating on the front side of the bottom sheet. When pressure is applied (from writing or impact printing), the dye capsules rupture and react with the clay to form a permanent mark duplicating the markings made to the top sheet.
Carload A carload is a paper weight unit that refers to stacks or pallets of paper that weigh between 20,000 and 100,000 lbs, depending on the mill in which the paper was created.
Carton A unit of paper noted for sale, which weighs about 150 lbs. Depending on the thickness (mils) and weight of the paper, a carton contains between 500 and 5000 sheets.
Case Binding Also known as hardcover binding, so named because the books are constructed using a hard outside “case” in contrast to the paper used for the covers of perfect bound (softcover) books.
Cast-coated paper A type of very glossy paper that was coated and pressed along a hot metal drum while the coating was wet, creating a high sheen finish.
Catalog Paper A lightweight paper of good printing quality suitable for use in mail-order catalogs or telephone directories.
Chain dot These dots of ink, otherwise called elliptical dots, which meet at the outer edges, creating a chain effect. The term may be used for any midtone ink dots that meet.
Chain lines This term may mean one of two things: 1) lines spaced widely apart in laid paper; 2) blemishes visible on a finished print, caused by tracking.
Chalking This deterioration occurs in printed images when the ink has been absorbed by the paper too quickly, or has been exposed to the sun or wind for long periods of time. The result is a "dusty", faded appearance.
Choke The act of reducing an image's size in print just slightly, to leave a thin outline or "trap" around the image. May also be referred to as to "shrink" or "skinny".
Chrome Chrome refers to the strength of a color when compared to neutral gray. Another word for "saturation".
Chromolithography An unique method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrome is frequently used. Lithographers sought to find a way to print on flat surfaces with the use of chemicals instead of relief or intaglio printing. Chromolithography became the most successful of several methods of colour printing developed by the 19th century, and it was initially mostly used in advertising. Nowadays it is used as fine art instead of advertisements, and they are hard to find because of poor preservation and cheaper forms of printing replaced it.
Close Up A tightly framed image of a person or an object.
Coated paper Refers to any paper that has been treated on the surface to achieve a specific quality: a shine or gloss finish, extra stiffness, texture or altered ink absorbency. Commonly used for photographic printing, these papers have a coating of clay or another thin compound, and will be classed as "dull, matte, gloss, or cast.
Collating marks These marks on the back side of printed pages are used to ensure an exact line up when papers are collated and bound. Most commonly used in book binding.
Collation Ordering pages when several copies of a document are bound after printing or copying.
Color balance In printing, the term "color balance" relates to the amount of primary colors (Red, Green, Blue, or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) required to mix and recreate the colors of the image
Color blanks When printing text on images, color blanks may be created as proofs, which reproduce the images but not the type or lettering. Also referred to as "shells".
Color break When a print is created using multiple colors, the color break is the point at which one color stops and another begins. May also be called a "break for color".
Color cast An undesired tint or tone covering part or all of an image.
Color Curves In image editing, a curve is a remapping of image tonality, specified as a function from input level to output level, used as a way to emphasize colours or other elements in a picture. Curves can usually be applied to all channels together in an image, or to each channel individually
Color gamut In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut (pronounced /ˈɡæmət/), is a certain complete subset of colors. Most commonly, this phrase refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented by a certain output device. Another meaning, less frequently used but no less correct, refers to the complete set of colors found within an image at a given time. In this context, digitizing a photograph, converting a digitized image to a different color space, or outputting it to a medium using a certain output device will most likely alter its gamut, losing some of the colors, tints, or shades in the process.
Color Model An abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components. When this model is associated with a precise description of how the components are to be interpreted (viewing conditions, etc.), the resulting set of colors is called color space.
Color Proof Also called prepress proof, it is a full-color test print that shows exactly how the colors will look in actual (final) printing. Color proofs are submitted before the press proof, and provide the penultimate chance to make alterations or to correct mistakes.
Color Separation The act of decomposing a color graphic or photo into single-color layers. For example, to print full-color photos with an offset printing press, one must first separate the photo into the four basic ink colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). Each single-color layer is then printed separately, one on top of the other, to give the impression of infinite colors.
Color Sequence In process color printing, the order in which the colors are printed. In offset lithography, for example, the common printing sequence is black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Also called printing sequence and laydown sequence.
Color shift Refers to changes in the color of an image across a single print, due to density of the ink or the grain of the applied color dots.
Colour wheel An abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc.
Comb Binding One of many ways to bind pages together into a book. This method uses round plastic spines with 19 rings (for US Letter size) or 21 rings (for A4 size) and a hole puncher that makes rectangular holes. Comb binding is sometimes referred to as plastic comb binding or spiral comb binding.
Commercial Printer The term used to describe a machine that produces a wide variety of products, from postcards and brochures, to posters, to magazines, and more. Also called a job printer.
Complementary Flat(s) One of two separate flats which will be imaged on the same printing plate. Complementary flats are one means of handling disparate page elements which need to be imaged on the same plate, but which yield better results when imaged separately on the same plate.
Composite Proof A color proof showing all of the final copy, graphics, type and color separations.
Comprehensive Dummy In printing, a proof that is fully assembled, with all typography, images, and colors. May also be called a color comprehensive.
Condition The act of storing the paper on which the image or text will be printed in the pressroom for days or hours before printing. This allows the paper to acclimatize to the humidity and temperature in the room. Also to "cure", "season", or "mature".
Continuous Form Paper A type of printing paper which consists of a single sheet or roll of paper, normally perforated at regular intervals so that sheets can be easily separated. Most continuous-form paper has holes punched along each side so that the paper can be pulled through the printer by a tractor-feed mechanism.
Continuous-tone A continuous tone image is one where each color at any point in the image is reproduced as a single tone, and not as discrete halftones, such as one single color for monochromatic prints, or a combination of halftones for color prints. The most common continuous tone images are digital photographs every single pixel of which can take a continuous range of colors depending on the quantity of captured radiance
Cotton A soft fiber made from the cotton plant. It is highly versatile, and in picture framing is used in mat boards, fine art papers and canvas. This white vegetable fiber grown in warmer climates in many parts of the world, has been used to produce many types of fabric for hundreds of years. Cotton fabric feels good against the skin regardless of the temperature or the humidity.
Crop marks Crop marks are small dashes, usually in black or gray ink, which appear at each corner of a printed image to indicate where the paper should be cut. They are most commonly used when a white border - the same color as the paper - will be included around the cropped image.
Crossover Printing across the gutter or from one page to the facing page of a publication.
Cure The process of using heat to completely fuse plastisol ink. Technically incorrect term for “drying” ink.
Cutout A shape of a person or thing cut out of cardboard or another material.
Cutting Machine A sharp-bladed machine used for cutting stacks of paper to a required size. The machine may be automated, or controlled by a foot or hand lever. Some cutting machines also include options for creasing or scoring.
Cyan A greenish-blue color. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of between 490–520 nm, between the wavelengths of blue and green. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK (subtractive), which can be overlaid to produce all colors in paint and color printing, cyan is one of the primary colors, along with magenta, yellow, and black.