MasterPiece, LLC 703-392-0030

| Glossary Home |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | XYZ |

Packing - Paper used to underlay the image or impression cylinder in letterpress or the plate or blanket in lithography to get the proper squeeze and pressure for printing.

Page - One side of a leaf in a publication.

Page Makeup - The assembly of all elements to make up a page.

Pagination - Numbering pages in order. Also, the process of performing page makeup on a computer.

Palette - The collection of colors or shades available or used in a project, graphic system or program.

Panchromatic - Film that is sensitive to all colors of light.

Panel - One page of a brochure on one side of the paper. A letter folded sheet has six panels.

Parallel Fold - A folding succession in which all folds are made parallel with each other.

Paste-up - Placing graphics and text in a mechanical either manually or electronically.

Perfect Binding - Signatures that are folded and collated on top of one another, as opposed to saddle-stitch binding in which the signatures are folded inside one another.

Perfecting Press - Press that prints on both sides of the paper during a single pass.

Photostat - Brand name for a diffusion transfer process used to make positive paper prints of line copy and halftones.

Phototypesetting - Setting type directly on film or photosensitive paper for reproduction.

Pica - Unit of measure commonly used in typesetting and design. A pica is one-sixth of an inch.

Picking - The lifting of the paper surface during printing, leaving unprinted spots in image areas. This occurs when the pulling force (tack) of the ink is greater than the surface strength of the paper.

Pickup Art - Artwork from a previous job incorporated into a current job.

Pigment - The fine, solid particles used to give color, transparency or opacity to ink.

Piling - The building up or caking of ink on rollers, plates or blankets which will not transfer readily.

Pinholes - Tiny areas that are not covered by ink.

Pixel - Abbreviation for picture element. The separate elements of a bitmapped image on a video monitor.

Pixel Swapping - A CEPS technique to exchange pixels from one area of a picture for pixels in another area. Example: a window may be removed from a brick building if one area of the brick wall is placed in that area of the picture. Using this technique, blemishes can be removed and objects can be added to the reproduction.

Plate - Piece of paper, metal, plastic or rubber carrying an image to be reproduced using a printing press.

PMS - Acronym for Pantone Matching System, a set of preprinted color patches used to choose and communicate color so exact matches can be obtained.

Point - Unit of measurement commonly used to specify type sizes. There are 12 points in a pica and 72 points in an inch.

Porosity - The property of paper that allows the permeation of air, an important factor in ink penetration.

Position Proof - A color proof that is made to verify that all the elements of the reproduction (text, graphics and pictures) are in the correct position and are in register with each other.

Positive - A reproduction which is exactly like the original.

Post Bind - To bind using a screw and post inserted though a hole in a pile of loose sheets.

Pre-flight - Procedures used by a printing company to make sure that a customerï¿½s digital files are correctly prepared for production.

Pre-flight customer files - To preliminary evaluate customer supplied electronic files for completeness, compatibility, and composition.

Pre-master - To format a data file into the ISO 9660 format (which is the International Standard for CD-ROM), before the mastering process. The data file is then provided to the party responsible for the mastering process (see master).

Prepress - Camera work, color separating, stripping, platemaking and other functions performed by the printer, separator or service bureau prior to the actual printing.

Prepress Proof - Any color proof made using ink jet, toner, dyes or overlays.

Press Check - When a customer is at the printing press as the press begins to print his or her job, in order to approve the job as it is printed. A press check can last a few minutes or several days, depending on the size of the job.

Press Proof - A proof made on press using the ink and paper specified for the job.

Press Run - The actual running of the press to print the job following makeready. Also, the number of copies of a publication printed.

Price Break - Quantity at which unit cost of paper or printing drops.

Primary Colors - The colorants of a system used to reproduce the colors for the entire reproduction. Cyan, magenta and yellow are subtractive primary colors while red, green and blue are additive primary colors.

Printerï¿½s Spread - Two facing pages in the order they will be printed, e.g. pages 1 and 4 and also 2 and 3 will be keylined together for a four-page brochure.

Printing - Any process that transfers to paper or another substrate an image from an original such as film, electronic memory, stencil, die or plate.

Process Camera (also called graphic arts camera) - A camera used to photograph line or halftone copy or to produce color separation negatives for printing on another production process.

Process Colors - The three colors (cyan, magenta and yellow) plus black that are used in full-color printing.

Process Color Separation - A consequence of the offset lithographic process. In order to print full-color images, it is necessary to prepare four separate files for each of the process colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). When the colors are overprinted, they combine to render a wide range of color. CMYK produces the widest range of color with the fewest inks when printing.

Process Inks - The ink colors of cyan, magenta and yellow used to print color reproductions.

Production automation - Use of a centralized computer to monitor costing, workflow, job status, pressroom efficiency, billing, etc.

Progressive Proof - A set of proofs made with ink on paper from the actual plates to show the sequence of printing and the result after each additional color is applied. Also called progs.

Proportion Scale - Round device used to calculate percentage that an original image must be reduced or enlarged to yield a specific reproduction size.