Printing is reproducing words or images on paper or other printable form materials of such as card, fabric etc.

But sometimes, printing is confused with the term publishing? How do they differ? In publishing, publishers want to own the intellectual property of the book while printing is you just print and bind your book.

If you are reading this post, you’ve definitely thought of printing your own book or how the process of pressing ink against paper actually works. To understand it, you will need to be familiar with basic glossary terms of printing terminologies.

Here is a list of our most useful ones to make you look like a pro;

Artwork—all materials needed to prepare for the final print production. They include physical materials like images, graphics, texts and other digital components.

Batch production—this a cost-effective way of printing lots of work on a large sheet of paper. All jobs on the sheet enable the cost set-up to be split.

Bible paper—a thin opaque but strong paper, used in bibles and books.

Binding—it’s simply holding of pages together to achieve finished product.

Bleed—this is the ink coverage on a page when image extends up to or past the edge of a printed paper.

Bulk—thickness of the paper in relation to its weight.

Case-binding—is the binding of book cases using hard board covers.

Carbonless paper—paper chemically treated to transfer impression from first page to subsequent pages.

Center spread—two pages facing each other in the center of a book/publication.

Colophon—a identifying symbol for a printer’s/publisher

Colour correction—this is changing of colour or manipulation of colour on an image using a computer.

Colours—digital printing uses Red, blue and Green colour (RGB) while the physical print jobs uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) in their design. However, offset printers can use pantone colours to achieve specific colour swatch.

Crossover—this is carrying of a image or line art to an adjacent page of a folded or bound work.

Design Embossing & Debossing—embossing is putting your desired design onto paper to create a raised effect while debossing is indenting the design.

Digital printing—this kind of printing does not use printing plates but rather rely on electronic data for printing. It is cost-effective and mostly used small-sized jobs.

Die-cut—this is when a specific shape is cut out of a printed sheet.

Folds—folds give your print job an option to be presented in different ways with its striking elements such as concertina and French.

Foiling—is the addition of a metallic foil to the surface of your print job material to add a fashionable touch.

Finish—this is how paper quality looks on the surface.

GSM—Grams per Square Metre. It is the measurement for the paper of your print job

Image quality—the resolution of an image is usually measured in dots per inch (dpi). Website images have low dpi compared to that of print range from a minimum of 300 dpi to even 600 to ensure high quality end outlook.

Image ownership—always use your own images to avoid infringing or copying someone’s else.

Lamination—is the addition of a protective thin layer to the print job, either gloss or matt, for durability. Its used mostly in high ink coverage jobs to prevent ink rubbing against the sheet or darker colours remaining at the edge of sheet after cutting.

Offset lithography printing—this is the most preferred method of commercial printing that involves ink transfer from a printing plate that passes through a rubber blanket to a sheet of paper.

PP—simply means number of Printed Pages

Proofing—this is simply ensuring your printed work comes out with no mistakes. There are three kinds to it. Hard, soft and wet proofing. Proofing for hardcopy (ink-jet printing) is more on layout than color accuracy; wet proofing is running a few sheets and doing set-ups for your print job production. It’s usually for very expensive and huge-sized jobs whereas soft proofing is going through a soft copy on your computer like a pdf. This is the most common proofing but not everything that appears on screen comes out printed 100%.

Trim—when producing the final size in a design, a line will be cut through the bleed zone to ensure continuous edge.

.Now you are ready to print your item confidently and get the precise end results you desire.