Glossary

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Adhesive

The glue substance applied to the back of a pressure sensitive material for adhesion to surfaces.

Anilox

A mechanically engraved steel and chrome coated metering roll used in flexo presses to meter a controlled film of ink from the contacting elastomer covered fountain roller to the printing plates which print the web.

Back Printing

Printing on the underside of a transparent film.

Back Split

Also known as back split, split liner, and slit back. Linear cuts into an adhesive liner to aid in the removal of the liner.

Bleed

When the ink coverage of the copy runs beyond the cut edge of a label.

Butt Cut (Kiss Cut)

A label made with square corners and no spacing between labels.

Carrier Width

Measurement of the liner or backer from edge to edge of the label or roll.

Cold Stamping

Cold Foil Printing is an in line process that works on rotary letterpress and rotary flexo presses closely duplicating hot foil stamping... but cold foil printing is faster, more efficient, and does not require the costly dies associated with hot foil stamping.

In commercial use for many years by a select few, the latest refinements in cold foil technology are now available to all label printers.

Regular anilox rollers and photopolymer plates transfer UV curable adhesive onto a wide variety of stocks. It can be applied in spot or solid print matching most artwork or design imaginable.

There are two types of Cold Foil Printing: Wet lamination and Dry lamination.

Color Changes

Refers to the wash up and changeover of ink colors within a production run.

Color Matches

Refers to the mixing of ink colors to match a specific color requirement or PMS (Pantone Matching System) standard.

Copy

The printed image and/or wording on a label.

Core

A tube on which labels are wound for shipment.

Corner Radius

The rounded tip on the cutting edge of an insert. The greater the corner radius, the greater the degree of roundness at the tip. A zero degree corner radius creates a sharp point.

Die

The tool that cuts the shape of the label.

Die Cut

Refers to the cut that produces a label shape and leaves a space between labels around the finished roll. In rectangles, it distinguishes rounded corners from the square corners common to butt cut labels and is a requirement for automatically applied labels.

Die Line

The outline of the die cut; often required to match artwork properly to the finished shape.

Distortion

Copy that is intentionally distorted in preparation, in order to compensate for the effects of dimensional changes due to subsequent processing or operation. Flexographic printing requires such allowances to compensate for shrinkage and stretch of the printing plate.

Dot Gain

A term used to explain the difference in size between the dot on the printing plate versus on paper. A phenomenon that occurs when wet ink comes in contact with the paper. As the halftone dots are transferred from the plate to the paper, the wet ink spreads, causing the dots to increase in size and halftones to appear darker. A number of factors affect dot gain.

DPI (Dots Per Inch)

A measure of the resolution of a screen image or printed surface.

Draw Down

A sample of ink and paper used to evaluate colors.

Embossed

Condition in which the image is raised above or below the surface resulting in a somewhat 3 dimensional effect.

EPS

Encapsulated Postscript File: A vector based, computer graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems. EPS is the preferred format for many computer illustrations, because of its efficient use of memory and fine color control.

Exact Repeat

Usually means a label reorder to exact specifications as previously followed without change.

Face Stock (Material)

Any paper, film, foil or vinyl material suitable for conversion into pressure-sensitive label stock. In the finished construction, this web is bonded to the adhesive layer and becomes the functional part of the construction.

Fanfold

Finishing labels with a perforation and zigzag fold so that it can be imprinted or used as continuous feed into customer printers.

Flexopgraphic Printing Process

Method of rotary printing that employs flexible plates, rotary die cutting, rapid dry inks, in-line lamination and other converting operations.

Flood Coat

Solid ink coverage on a label.

Four-Color Process

The print combination of Magenta, Cyan (blue), Yellow and Black in dot patterns called screens, to produce a variety of graphics, images or photos in all the color shadings desired.

Gear Streaks

In printing: parallel streaks appearing across the printed sheet at the same interval as gear teeth on the cylinder.

Gradient (Vignette of Blends)

The variation of printed dots from lighter to darker as a single or in multiple colors.

Halftones

A reproduction of a continuous-tone image (i.e. a photograph), through a screening process using fine dots of varying size and space to reproduce the shades and textures of the original.

JPEG

Joint Photographic Electronic Group: A common standard for compressing image data. JPEG is not commonly used in printing because of data loss that result in a low resolution print.

Lamination

The process of combining one or more surfaces together to accomplish a particular purpose.

Liner

The silicone coated base material used to facilitate release of the adhesive coated face while holding it together during printing, die cutting and automatic application.

M

Represents 1000 in the printing industry.

Mag Die

A flexible die plate that is wrapped around a cylinder for die cutting labels.

Matte Finish

Dull paper or ink finish.

Matrix

The waste face material around the die cut edges of a label that is stripped away and discarded.

Moire

An undesirable screen pattern caused by incorrect screen angles of overprinting halftones.

Mylar

A polyester film that exhibits exceptional mechanical strength and dimensional stability. Common substrate used in flexographic printing.

Opaque Adhesive

Also called “grayback” or “block-out” used to eliminate any show through of previous printing.

Over Laminate

The application of a clear material for appearance or protection.

Overs (Overrun)

To print additional labels in excess of the order. Printing trade terms allow for +/- 10% to represent a completed order.

Over Print

To print a color on top of another. In most cases a very dark color is printed over a lighter one.

PDF

Portable Document File. A proprietary format developed by Adobe Systems for the transfer of designs across multiple computer platforms.

Perforation

A series of cut and uncut areas used to aid in tearing, folding, or some other facilitation.

Permanent

Common term for pressure sensitive adhesives designed to give a permanent or lasting bond.

Pin Feed

A method for moving continuous paper forms. Pins at both ends of a rotating platen or tractor engage the forms through pre-punched holes at both sides.

Plate

The raised surface, usually of polymer or rubber, which transfers the ink to print an image.

Pre-Press

The various printing related services performed before ink is put on the printing press (i.e. preparation of digital files by trapping and distorting, etc.)

Press-Proof

In color reproduction, an approved copy or version of the final image to be printed, to be used as a reference while printing.

Process Colors

CMYK. Cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow (process yellow), black (process black).

Process Printing

The printing from a series of two or more halftone plates to produce intermediate colors and shades.

Proof

The stage of making a number of trial prints to judge the final result prior to the production run.

Raster Graphics

Most images you see on your computer screen are raster graphics. Pictures found on the Web and photos you import from your digital camera are raster graphics. They are made up of grid of pixels, commonly referred to as a bitmap. The larger the image, the more disk space the image file will take up. For example, a 640 x 480 image requires information to be stored for 307,200 pixels, while a 3072 x 2048 image (from a 6.3 Megapixel digital camera) needs to store information for a whopping 6,291,456 pixels.

Since raster graphics need to store so much information, large bitmaps require large file sizes. Fortunately, there are several image compression algorithms that have been developed to help reduce these file sizes. JPEG and GIF are the most common compressed image formats on the Web, but several other types of image compression are available.

Raster graphics can typically be scaled down with no loss of quality, but enlarging a bitmap image causes it to look blocky and "pixelated." For this reason, vector graphics are often used for certain images, such as company logos, which need to be scaled to different sizes.

Registration

The quality of alignment of the different colored inks as they are applied to the substrate. (i.e. if the inks can be seen to overlap improperly or to leave white gaps on the label, the printing is said to be “out of register”)

Removable

A type of adhesive that is designed for clean removal from a surface.

Reverse

The opposite of what you see. Printing the background of an image. For example; type your name on a piece of paper. The reverse would be a black piece of paper with a white name.

Rewind Direction

A label rewind direction has three basic elements. How the label feeds off the roll; inside or outside, the direction the length and width of the label comes off the roll, and finally the text and image direction on the labels itself.

RGB

Red, Green, Blue – additive primary colors.

Score

A crease put on paper to help it fold better.

Screens

Any dot pattern used to produce various concentrations of color such as process, halftones or gradients.

Spot Color (PMS Color)

Single colors applied to printing when process color is not necessary or when process colors cannot achieve the desired color.

Spot Varnish

Varnish used to highlight a specific part of the printed sheet.

Step and Repeat

A procedure for placing the same image on plates in multiple places.

Substrate

Any surface on which printing is done.

Thermal Printers

These printers use a transfer sheet that carries ink in contact with the paper and a heated printhead.

TIFF

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

Trap

Process of creating slight overlap between abutting colors of a multicolor job in flexo printing, to compensate for errors in registration of color plates.

UV Coating

Liquid laminate bonded and cured with ultraviolet light.

UV Ink

Solventless ink that is cured by UV radiation.

VARNISH

A thin, liquid protective coating, either matte or glossy, that is applied to the product. It adds protection and enhances the appearance of the product. It can be applied as an all-over coating or it can be applied as a spot-coating.

Vector Graphics

Unlike JPEGs, GIFs, and BMP images, vector graphics are not made up of a grid of pixels. Instead, vector graphics are comprised of paths, which are defined by a start and end point, along with other points, curves, and angles along the way. A path can be a line, a square, a triangle, or a curvy shape. These paths can be used to create simple drawings or complex diagrams. Paths are even used to define the characters of specific typefaces.

Because vector-based images are not made up of a specific number of dots, they can be scaled to a larger size and not lose any image quality. If you blow up a raster graphic, it will look blocky, or "pixelated." When you blow up a vector graphic, the edges of each object within the graphic stay smooth and clean. This makes vector graphics ideal for logos, which can be small enough to appear on a business card, but can also be scaled to fill a billboard. Common types of vector graphics include Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, and EPS files. Many Flash animations also use vector graphics, since they scale better and typically take up less space than bitmap images.