Abbreviation for cyan in four-color process printing.

Paper with a coating of clay or other substances that improves reflectivity and ink holdout on one side only.

Paper coated on both sides.

Calibration involves adjusting a device—whether it be a monitor, scanner or printer—to perform at an agreed upon and known standard. It is mainly concerned with establishing correct white and black points while creating true neutrals to prevent the device from giving the displayed or printed image a color cast that was not already in the image. Devices should be calibrated periodically in order to consistently produce the same color and tonal values as defined in the device’s profile.

Also called cover stock. A stiff paper often used for postcards, catalog covers and other items that require rigidity. Card stock is described by point sizes that give the thickness of the sheet in thousandths of inches.

Common element in scanners that measures light reflected off or transmitted from the original. 

An optical storage device used by computers to write\read electronic data. 

Abbreviation for Compact Disc, which is an optical disk used to store data. It is “write-once” media, meaning it can only be written to once, after which it cannot be used for further data storage; it cannot even be erased.

Abbreviation for Compact Disc–Rewritable, which is an optical disk used to store data. Unlike a CD, it can be written to more than once for further data storage.

The number of characters that fit within a linear inch in a particular font.  

Used to provide a printing overlap between a color or tinted background in order to outline letters. The image remains the same except for a narrow reduction around its perimeter. 

Waste area for images that bleed off the edge of one card without interfering with the next card.

Acronym for “Commission International d’Éclairage” (also known as International Commission on Illumination) The CIE is an international association of color scientists that beginning in 1931, have established several visual color models that have become the basis for all measurements taken with a colorimeter (an instrument for measuring color the way the eye sees color).

Acronym for the four process color inks used in 4-color printing: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The “K” in CMYK does not necessarily stand for black, but rather, for the “Key” plate. The Key plate is the plate that holds the detail for the printed image, and in 4-color printing this is usually done with black ink.

Paper coated with clay, white pigments and a binder.

The color strip on plates that is used as a guide for the printer in determining the amount and density of ink needed.

In artwork and composition, a color break designates parts to be printed in different colors.

An unwanted dominant color present in the original image or in its reproduction. Color casts are usually the result of lighting variance during photography or incorrect processing of captured image; they are also the result of improper employment of methods used for proofing and/or printing the image.

In electronic pre-press, the process of adjusting an image to compensate for color casts due to image capture/processing inaccuracies or deficient characteristics of the output device and printing process.

A gamut is the range of color and tonal values that a particular device (monitor, proofer, scanner) or color reproduction system is capable of producing or capturing. It is formed by all combinations of a given set of light sources or colorants utilized by the device and the color reproduction system it resides in. Reflected light, ink impurities, and paper absorption, all serve to limit the color gamut of a conventionally printed image. Much of the work done in color correction arises from compression of the color gamut that occurs during preparation of images for printed output.

A drop-in component that provides the “engine” for profile-to-profile conversions. It defines how colors are computed using the sample points in the profiles as guidelines. It may be chosen automatically as the destination profile’s “preferred” CMM, or selected by the user either at the time of conversion, or as a default setting in the operating  system or application.

Software dedicated to handling device-to-device conversion of colors. The ICC-based model for a CMS consists of four components: a  PCS, device profiles, a CMM, and a set of rendering intents. 

A system to identify and map out colors within a specific color gamut by assigning a set of three or more numerical values to each color it can represent within that gamut. There are various color models, like HSB (hue, saturation, brightness), LCH (luminance, chroma, hue), HSL (hue, saturation, lightness), etc. The three color models that are of particular interest to us in the graphic arts and printing industry are RGB (red, green, blue), CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), and LAB (L defines lightness; A denotes the red/green value; and B the yellow/blue value).

A visual representation of the expected final reproduction; produced on a substrate with inks, pigments or dyes.

The process of separating full-color photographs, artwork, transparencies or electronic images into the four color components needed to create printing plates for the four process ink colors of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

A color space is the conceptual representation of either a device or device-independent color gamut, and is defined by the color model employed in the measurement and numerical identification of the color and tonal values within that color gamut.  There is no such thing as “raw,” “straight” or “true” RGB or CMYK values for any device or image. There are many different kinds of RGB and CMYK color spaces – and each one refers to either a particular device (monitor, scanner, printer), press condition (press/paper combination; i.e. sheetfed/coated) or working space (i.e. Adobe RGB, Apple RGB, sRGB), and the color numbers (RGB values or CMYK percentages) in an image file will have a specific color meaning particular to the device, press condition or working space the color space represents. The communication of this color meaning within the production workflow is done by embedding a profile in the image and/or document which describes that color space. Even if the image file doesn’t have a embedded profile (referred to as an “untagged” image), its color meaning is not “generic,” but rather, simply unknown. 

The pigment or color portion of ink, toner, proofing films or paper.

The accredited standards development committee under ANSI responsible for graphic arts industry standards. The mission of CGATS is to have the entire scope of printing and publishing technologies represented in one national standardization and coordination effort, while respecting the established activities of existing accredited standards committees and industry standards developers. It is charged with the overall coordination of graphic arts standards activities and the development of graphic arts standards where no applicable standards developer is available.

A narrow version of a regular typeface; permits more characters in a given measure; about 60% of the width of standard characters.

An image in which the subject has continuous shades of color or gray without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced in that form for printing, but must be screened to convert the image into dots that can be printed on any output device, including a press. 

The amount of variance between highlights and shadows in an original or reproduction. Quantified as the difference between the brightest highlight and deepest shadow in an image.

Dictated by the difference of tonal gradation between lightest and darkest values within an image. If the difference in light to dark tonal values is small, the image will look flat. If the difference is great, the image will look more dynamic. Image contrast is sacrificed somewhat when tonal values are compressed by an original's total ink density being brought down to a range that can be reproduced on a printing press. Contrast is also compressed when an image is converted from a larger color space into a smaller one, which generally happens when converting from RGB to CMYK.

Converting colors in an image from one color space to another (i.e. RGB to CMYK) always takes two profiles, a source and destination profile. The Source Profile tells the CMS what the actual colors the document contains. The source profile may be already embedded in the document, applied by the user (via assigning or converting) or supplied by a default setting (via assuming) in the operating system or application. The destination profile tells the CMS what new set of color values is required to reproduce those actual colors (as defined in the source profile) on the destination device. This may be selected by the user at the time of conversion (via choosing a printer profile at the time you print), or selected by a default setting (via assuming) in the operating system or application.

To photograph dot for dot in order to exactly match previously screened originals.

Designated area of a return card used for respondent information; e.g. name, address, etc.

Any piece that is used to cover the front and back of a publication, also called an overwrap.

Symbols placed in the margin outside the image area that indicate an area to be printed and/or trimmed from the image.

The elimination of parts of a photograph or artwork that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.

The length of the printed sheet off press, based on either the full circumference or 1/2 of the circumference of the impression cylinder of a web press.

One of the three subtractive primary colors used in process color printing.