Print Jargon for the designer

Ordering print for the first time can be daunting. It might seem like there’s an entirely new language to learn. As a designer, it is even more challenging relaying the considerations to the client.

There are some basic terms worth being familiar. Some may impact on your design choices, like cracking and gutters. Other will help you prepare for print, like bleed and crop marks. Then there are those you need to discuss with the client, like paper finish and spot colour.

03-01

Artwork

Your computerised design for the materials you want printed in a format that is ‘print ready’. You can be sure to provide print ready artwork by using these Artwork Templates.

Backing up

Printing on the reverse or second side of a print order.

Bleed

Professional printers use a large roll of paper and crop out different sized items after printing. Where a design uses colour or images up to the edge, these must be printed over the crop area by 3mm. This ensures there’s no white slithers on the edges should the materials shift during cropping. Print Bleed is the extra 3mm area outside of the crop marks.

Bond Paper

This the standard home or office paper bought by the ream. This is also used for printing business stationary. It has a slightly porous finish making it easier to write on.

Cracking

This happens when the coating on paper break up over folds. A bigger issue when darker colours are printed, showing the white paper underneath.

Creep

When creating brochures and folding the sheets over one another, the sheets on the outside have further to travel over the spin. The printer will trim the pages flat, effectively making the inner sheets narrower. This is especially noticeable on higher page numbers so you’ll need to allow for this in the design.  Otherwise, when trimmed some elements on the inner pages maybe lost. 

Crop Marks

The printed lines that identify the crop, fold or perforation area of materials nestled on a roll of paper.

CMYK

This is an abbreviation of the four colour printing process that uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key colour (Black). Each ink is printed separately and the over lap creates the full spectrum of colours. It is important to ensure artwork is in CMYK colours through design software before sending to print. See RGB.

08

 

Digital Printing

A large-scale, high-quality version of a desktop printer. This method can increase turnaround time and be more cost effective at lower print quantities. See Lithographic Printing.

DL

DL or ‘Dimensions Lengthwise’ is used to describe a paper size that’s a third of an A4 sheet. This can be a single leaflet or a tri-fold leaflet.

Gutter

The area either side of a fold on a leaflet, flyer or brochure. This area must be factored into the design to avoid important information being to close to the spine or fold.

Lithographic Printing

This traditional process uses 4 wet inks that are absorbed into the surface of the paper. It is the most cost effective for larger print quantities. It requires greater turnaround time as ‘Plates’ of the design need to be made for the 4 CMYK inks.

Pantone

Recognized worldwide, Pantone is a colour matching system used for specific colours.  Ferrari red or Cadbury purple, are added as a ‘Spot colour’ during the lithographic process.

preview

Plates

The CMYK inks are transferred to 4 separate metal plates created from the artwork file for lithographic printing. They are specific to each individual print job. The plate set up is the costly part of the printing process so larger numbers are needed to spread the cost of the setup.

Print Ready

Artwork that is in the correct format, colour and size for the printers. This includes the necessary marks and additions required by the printers. These include ‘print bleed’ and ‘crop marks’.

Printed Proof

A digitally printed example of the finished artwork. Customers are responsible for thoroughly checking for errors before printing. This includes all elements, image quality, typos, layout maps, contact details etc. Any design elements such as, spot colours, must be clearly identified in the file AND to the print company in writing. This will save you tears and money later!

RGB

This is an abbreviation of the three colours used for electronic displays, Red, Green and Blue. These display best on screen for web-pages etc but do not print correctly. See CMYK.

28-01

Spot Colour

Spot colours are custom inks mixed to match a specific shade, tone or metallic effect using precise recipes. They are used for brand consistency to ensure a true reproduction is achieved. See Pantone.

Self-cover

When a brochure or booklet is printed on the same paper stock throughout rather than using a heavier weight on the cover.