PUB: Definitions of Commercial Printing Terms
PUB: Definitions of Commercial Printing Terms
Q138034
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Publisher for Windows 95, version 3.0
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SUMMARY
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This article contains definitions for many of the common terms found in
commercial printing.
MORE INFORMATION
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Many of these terms apply to multicolored printing. When you have a color
job printed commercially, each piece of paper is run through a printing
press more than one time. Each time the paper goes through the press, a
different color of ink is printed.
Printing Term Definition
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Bleed An object that prints off the edge of a page is a
bleed.
CMYK This is an abbreviation for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow,
and blacK. CMYK is a way of defining a certain color
by the relative amounts of process inks required to
make that color.
Color separations If you break a single page of a color document into
multiple pages or plates, you are color separating
it. There is one plate for each color of ink you
want to use. Each color plate contains only the
parts of the page that are to be printed using a
certain color ink. After each plate has been used to
print on a single piece of paper, you have the color
page.
Crop marks Crop marks are L-shaped marks that make it easier to
cut down or "crop" the final printed output. For
example, if your page size is 5-by-7 inches and you
print to an 8.5-by-11-inch page, the actual page
area of your publication will be surrounded by crop
marks.
Knockouts Knockouts are "holes" left in one color plate to
leave room for something on another color plate to
print.
Overprinting Overprinting is printing one color of ink on top of
another color of ink. With Publisher for Windows 95,
you can allow black overprinting--that is, you can
allow objects printed with black ink to print on top
of a region of another color of ink. If you don't
allow black overprinting, there will be holes (or
"knockouts") left in the spot color plates for the
objects on the black plate to fit into. Select this
option during Outside Print Setup under Spot Color
options.
Allowing overprinting gives your print job a more
solid and professional look (there is no chance of
the paper color showing through around the edge of
the black shape.) However, with certain ink and
paper combinations, the colors can run together. Ask
your printing service whether they would prefer
overprinting before you send your job.
Pantone(R) A common method of telling a printing service what
color of ink you want used is to use Pantone colors.
If you want to be sure your logo prints a certain
shade of red, you look in your Pantone swatch book
to find the color you want and call the printer with
the specific color number. When the printer prints
your job, he goes to the ink cabinet and chooses the
ink that matches the Pantone number you specified.
You can't print Pantone colors without using Pantone
inks, although some software allows you to simulate
Pantone colors on a home or office color printer.
You can use Pantone colors with Publisher for Windows
95. If you use Publisher's spot color feature, you
can tell the printer which Pantone color to use for
each spot color (you will have to get a Pantone
color table or swatch book first).
Process color If you create colors by using multiple color plates
with industry standard Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and
Black ink, you are using process color.
Registration Registering two or more color plates means that you
are lining them up. Color comics in Sunday
newspapers are notorious for having bad registration
(that is, the colors don't line up very well).
Registration marks Marks placed on color plates to help register them
are called registration marks. They generally look
like one or two concentric circles superimposed on a
set of cross-hairs.
Shade A shade is a color made by overprinting black and a
color. A 10 percent shade is one part of the
original color and nine parts black.
Signature This is a bookbinding term that means multiple pages
of a book printed on a single sheet of paper. After
printing, the signature is folded and cut as
necessary. Each signature can have 4 pages (2 on
each side), 8 pages (4 on each side), 32 (16 on each
side) or sometimes 64 (32 on each side). Publisher's
book layout give you signatures of 4 (2 pages on
each side).
Spot color You are using spot color if you print colors by using
multiple color plates with specifically designated
inks. The color of the ink can be designated by a
Pantone number or a similar color matching
designation.
Tint A tint is a color printed at less than full
intensity. A 10 percent tint is one part of the
original color and nine parts white (or the paper
color).
Trapping Trapping means allowing two colors of ink to print on
top of each other around the edges of a shape. If
trapping is disabled, the knockouts left in one
color plate will be exactly the same size as the
objects on another color plate. If trapping is
enabled, the knockouts left in one color plate will
be slightly smaller than the objects on the other.
This prevents the paper color from showing through
around the edge of the object if the printer's
registration is slightly off. Publisher currently
does not support trapping.
Web A Web is a continuous roll of paper. If you print to
a Web, your pages are printed on a continuous roll
of paper instead of individual sheets. The pages are
cut apart at the end of the printing job. Newspapers
are printed using a Web process.
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