APPENDIX 3 – GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Bleed– An extra amount of printed image that extends beyond the trim edge of a page.

BMP–Bitmap– A generic term for any image which has been scanned into a grid of pixels.

CD-ROM– A laser-encoded, optical storage disk.

CMYK– The use of cyan, magenta, yellow and black dots to simulate a wide variety of colours.

Collecting or Collect for Output– The process of gathering all elements of a digital printing job (i.e. fonts, images, application files, etc.).

Continuous Tone– Photographic images which contain varying shades of colour or black and white.

CRA (Camera-Ready Art) – Any artwork or type that is ready to be submitted for conventional prepress and printing.

CTP (Computer-to-Plate)– A computerized system which eliminates the need for traditional film-to-plate exposures.

DCS (Desktop Colour Separation)– A five-file EPS file format consisting of four high-resolution colour separations and a fifth position-only file for placement within documents.

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)– A standard format for saving an image as a mathematical definition which allows it to be moved from one program or platform to another. The EPS format is normally used for vector images.

Folio– Page number.

Fonts– A set of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and symbols that share a unified design. The design is called a typeface, a group of related typefaces is called a type family.

FPO (For Position Only)– A low resolution image placed in an electronic document which will be later replaced with a high resolution image.

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) – An image file format appropriate for on-screen viewing and use on the World Wide Web. This is not an appropriate file format for printing.

Hairline Rule– Rules that print at the lowest possible resolution of the output device. When preparing files, you should use a predetermined Hairline Rule (i.e. 0.25 pt.) or the output device may produce a line that is unprintable.

Halftone– A continuous tone image broken down into a series of dots, which are printable in offset lithography processes.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)– The coding language used to create documents for use on the World Wide Web.

Imagesetter– A high resolution printer used to prepare high quality page art on film or paper, usually at resolutions between 1200 and 5000 dots per inch.

Imposition– The positioning of pages so that when the printed page is folded, trimmed and collated, all pages will be in proper sequential order.

Jaz– A storage medium which comes in 1 or 2 GB capacities.

JPG or JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group)– An image file format appropriate for on-screen viewing and use on the World Wide Web. This is not an appropriate file format for printing.

Kerning– The adjustment of space between character pairs.

Leading– The space measured from the baseline of one line of text to the next baseline below.

Media– A type of disk used for storage or portability of files (i.e. floppy disk, CD-ROM or Zip disk).

Metafile– An image file that can contain both vector and bitmap information.

PDF (Portable Document Format)– A locked file format developed by Adobe for transferring files across multiple platforms, regardless of the platform and application used to create it.

Platform – Type of computer operating system (i.e. Macintosh, PC (Windows) or UNIX).

PMS (PANTONE Matching System) – A commonly-used system for specifying ink colours.

PostScript Files– A robust general purpose page description language that has become the defacto standard in the prepress industry. Used in most imagesetters and many laser printers.

Preflight– The process of analyzing a digital file for print production.

Printer Font – A font that is used to drive the printer or output device.

Registration Marks – Reference symbols placed on composed pages to align overlaying plates and mark trims and folds.

Resolution – The quality of image printouts based on the quantity of dots per inch.

RGB (Red, Green, Blue)– The additive primary colours used to create images on a computer monitor.

RIP (Raster Image Processor)– Part of an output device that rasterizes information so that it may be imaged onto film or paper.

Screen Fonts – Fonts that are used only for display.

TIFF (Tag Image File Format)– A file format for exchanging bitmapped images (usually scans) between applications.

Trapping – A prepress technique which allows for slight variation in registration during the press run. A trap is created by overlapping adjacent colours in the type and linework.

Trim Marks– Marks placed on the copy to indicate the end of the page.

Vector Files– An image file containing mathematical descriptions for drawing objects.

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)– What appears on the screen will generally be the same as hardcopy output.

Zip– A storage medium which holds 100 MB or 250 MB of data.