Find the jargon in print quotes confusing? Here's a bit of 'insider info' to explain some of the terminology....
1pp, 2pp, 4pp, 6pp, 8pp, etc: 'pp' means page/s. To a printer, a page is a side, so '1pp' means printed 1 side and '2pp' means printed both sides. '4pp' is usually a sheet folded down the middle to give 4 printed sides. An 'A4 4pp', therefore, is an A3 folded to give four A4 sides. '6pp' is usually a sheet folded twice resulting in 6 printed sides. So a 'DL 6pp' is an A4 folded twice, giving six one-third-A4 printed sides. '8pp' generally means 2 sheets folded & stapled together through the spine to give 8 printed sides. Though confusingly, an '8pp' can also be a single sheet folded map-style to give 8 sides!
2/1, 4/1, 4/4, etc: The number of colours to be printed to the front & back of a sheet or document, eg; '2/1' means 2 colours to front , 1 to back. Unless stated otherwise, the '1' is deemed to be the same as one of the front colours. '4' in this context usually means 4-colour process (full colour), so '4/4' is full colour front & back. '4/1' normally means full colour to front, black to back.
4-colour process (aka CMYK): Still the most commonly used method of printing full colour. A total of 4 printing plates are used to print 4 different ink colours which combine to make up the full colour image. The 4 colours are cyan (C) - a sort of light blue, magenta (M) - a type of fuschia pink, yellow (Y) and black (K - CMYB was clearly felt not quite so snappy!!). Most modern full-colour presses print the 4 colours simultaneously, but a printer with, say, a 2-colour press will print the first 2 colours then put the sheets back through to print the other 2.
Bleed: Where print needs to go right to the edges of the sheet, the image (printed area) is extended 5mm or so past the trim marks so no white border is left when the sheet is cut. This area of print past the trim marks is called the bleed.
Board: Print terminology for card. The point at which material stops being paper and becomes card is debatable, though generally with coated material 200/220gsm can be regarded as very light card, 250/300gsm as medium weight card, and 350/400gsm as heavy card. Even these are not particularly thick compared to many forms of cardboard, but 400gsm is generally the heaviest card that can go through a conventional litho press.
Bond: Uncoated paper. Letterheads are usually 100gsm or 120gsm, photocopier or laser paper generally 80gsm.
Capacity: The spine width of a folder, eg; '5mm capacity'.
Coated (or art) paper or board: The most commonly used material for leaflets & brochures. The coating is usually a very thin layer of china clay, which is milled (polished) to a gloss, silk or matt finish. Gloss paper has been polished more, which is why a gloss will sometimes feel thinner than its same-weight silk or matt counterpart.
Concertina fold: As it sounds, where a sheet is folded concertina-style to make a multi-page leaflet.
dpi: Dots per (square) inch. Refers to the number of dots which make up a printed or screen image. A low number, say 72dpi, will give a coarse, low-resolution image whilst a high number like 400dpi will give a sharp, high-resolution image. Most screen or web imagery is only 72dpi for fast downloading. For best results the litho print process requires at the very least 300dpi, which is why screen images downloaded from the web often print poorly.
Encapsulation: The enclosing of a printed sheet in clear film (usually gloss). The film is applied both sides of the sheet and extends past the edges to fully enclose it. Commonly used where moisture is a problem - bar or restaurant menus, laboratories, etc.
Ex works: Usually means delivery is extra.
Fold, stitch & trim (FST): A finishing process for booklets, magazines, etc of collating & folding the printed sheets, stapling through the spine and trimming to size.
Gatefold: Where the 2 front pages of a brochure are effectively half-pages, trimmed & folded to meet in the middle. A Closed Gatefold usually consists of four joined full-page leaves, each (for example) A4. The two outer leaves are folded-in to meet in the middle, then the brochure is folded once more to (say) A4 finished size.
gsm: Grams per square metre. This is the mill weight of the raw paper on the roll, and the most common measure for defining weights/thicknesses of paper & board. 60gsm is very thin, 130gsm is most common leaflet/flyer weight, 400gsm is very thick.
Interleave: A process often used for business cards needed in a hurry. Business card board takes a while to dry, and if cut down too early the pressure of the guillotine can result in ink transfer from the front of each card to the back of the next. Interleaving is the placing of sheets of paper between the sheets of cards so they can be cut down & boxed. The ink transfer still takes place, but onto the paper instead.
Laminate: A covering of clear gloss or matt film trimmed flush with the edge of the page. Used on brochures, folders & book covers for added gloss, protection or design effect. Or in the case of a matt laminate, for a smooth silky feel. Other processes, such as spot-gloss UV & foiling, can be applied on top of laminates.
Micron: A thickness measure for board (card). Usually used for uncoated board, also known as pulpboard.
pdf: Postscripted Data File. Basically today's version of the old 'postscript' files. Emailed pdfs are a popular current method of proofing, combining impressive amounts of visible data with small file sizes. They require Adobe Acrobat software to open, a Reader-only version of which is usually downloadable free from Adobe's website (www.adobe.com). 'Printable' pdfs are a fairly common form of finished print origination, though these are much higher resolution than the screen pdfs used for proofing.
Perfect bound: A finishing process for books, where pages are produced in sections and glued into the spine. Or for extra durability, glued and thread sewn. Most paperback books are bound this way.
Plotter proof: A very low-resolution laser or inkjet proof.
Pulpboard: Uncoated white or coloured card.
Remoist gumming: Where strips of remoistenable (lickable) gum are required on a printed document, eg; Reply Cards that the recipient needs to fold, stick down & post back. Some printers can carry out this gumming as part of the print run, to others it's a separate finishing process.
Roll fold: The most usual way of folding brochures & leaflets. A4 or DL 6pp's being common examples.
Saddle stitched: Wire staples (usually 2) through the spine of a booklet
Scan: Hard copy photos or images (as opposed to digital files) need converting to digital dot-resolution files before they can be printed. The resulting file is called a scan. Images from photo libraries or on disk/CD from designers or previous printers have already been scanned, but it is important to check the resolution is sufficiently high (see 'dpi').
Seal (or Machine seal): A clear light varnish applied on press as part of the print process. Usually to silk, satin or matt art stock (paper or board) to aid the drying process and 'seal' the inks to the material, otherwise the finished job can smear, smudge & sometimes never fully dry. If a quote for printing these types of materials doesn't include the words 'plus seal', beware!! Gloss & uncoated stocks rarely need sealing.
Self cover: Where the cover of a document is the same material, weight & thickness as the pages.
Simulated watermarking: A process for applying a personalised watermark such as a company logo to corporate stationery. It uses a chemical applied to the back of the sheet which renders the desired section translucent giving the appearance of a watermark. Not to be confused with 'ghosted' logos or images, which are simply printed onto the material as tints (dilutions) of the main ink colours
Solid (or Full-out solid): An area of heavy ink coverage. Letterheads & forms, for example, have very little ink coverage (referred to as 'line' print) whereas brochures often have large areas of all-over coverage (solids). Heavy ink coverage right to the edges is a full-out solid.
Spot-gloss UV: A high-gloss varnish used to pick-out selected areas of imagery for design effect. Usually a separate finishing process & costed according to how much of the sheet area is to be varnished. A quote may say 'spot-gloss UV to cover, up to 25%'.
Throw: The way in which the pages towards the centre of a saddle-stitched booklet are 'thrown' out further than those nearer the front & back due to the number of paper layers at the spine. In days past, designers & repro houses had to compensate for throw by marginally repositioning each page of imagery. Today most design or repro software automatically adjusts for throw.
Underpin: The process of printing a colour beneath another colour for greater opacity. Black is often 'underpinned' with blue to make the black appear denser.
UV varnish: A high-gloss all-over varnish, often used on booklet covers for extra protection or design effect.
Work & turn: A cost-effective mode of printing where both the front and back of a leaflet or document are on the same printing plate, resulting in fewer plates being used. At the end of the run the stack of printed material is 'turned' over & around, and run back through the press so the same images print on the other side. The back image ends-up on the reverse of the front image from the first run, & vice-versa. Where viable, most printers automatically quote work & turn to give the most competitive price.
Widow: A lone word ending-up as the last line of a block of text. Good designers & typesetters will often re-space sentences & paragraphs to avoid 'widows'.
