Glossary of Printing and Substrate Terms
The printing and substrate industry definitely has its share of confusing acronyms and terms. Some of our favorite head-scratchers include kiss cut, grammage, and hickey. Below we have compiled a brief list of some common printing and specialty substrate terms. We’ll continue to add to this list and if you have any questions about printing substrates, our Digital Material Specialists are here to help. Just call 636-349-6401 or email us.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Aqueous Coating | Coating in a water base and applied like ink by a printing press to protect and enhance the printing underneath. |
| Bleed | Printing that extends to the edge of a sheet or page after trimming. |
| Broken Carton | Carton of paper from which some of the sheets have been sold. |
| C0S | Abbreviation for no coating. |
| C1S and C2S | Abbreviations for coated one side and coated two sides. |
| Caliper | (1) Thickness of paper or other substrate expressed in thousandths of an inch (mils or points), pages per inch (ppi), thousandths of a millimeter (microns) or pages per centimeter (ppc). (2) Device on a sheetfed press that detects double sheets or on a binding machine that detects missing signatures or inserts. |
| Coated Paper | Paper with a coating of clay and other substances that improves reflectivity and ink holdout. Mills produce coated paper in the four major categories cast, gloss, dull and matte. |
| Coverage | Extent to which ink covers the surface of a substrate. Ink coverage is usually expressed as light, medium or heavy. |
| Crop Marks | Lines near the edges of an image indicating portions to be reproduced. Also called cut marks and tic marks. |
| Cure | To dry inks, varnishes or other coatings after printing to ensure good adhesion and prevent setoff. |
| Finish | (1) Surface characteristics of paper. (2) General term for trimming, folding, binding and all other post press operations. |
| Flood | To print a sheet completely with an ink or varnish. Flooding with ink is also called painting the sheet. |
| Ghosting | (1) Phenomenon of a faint image appearing on a printed sheet where it was not intended to appear. Chemical ghosting refers to the transfer of the faint image from the front of one sheet to the back of another sheet. Mechanical ghosting refers to the faint image appearing as a repeat of an image on the same side of the sheet. (2) Phenomenon of printed image appearing too light because of ink starvation. |
| Gloss | Consider the light reflecting on various objects in the printing industry (e.g., paper, ink, laminates, UV coating, varnish). |
| Grammage | Basis weight of paper in grams per square meter (gsm). |
| Gripper Edge | Edge of a sheet held by grippers on a sheetfed press, thus going first through the press. Also called feeding edge and leading edge. |
| GSM | The unit of measurement for paper weight (grams per square meter). |
| Hickey | Spot or imperfection in printing, most visible in areas of heavy ink coverage, caused by dirt on the blanket. Also called bulls eye and fish eye. |
| House Sheet | Paper kept in stock by a printer and suitable for a variety of printing jobs. Also called floor sheet. |
| Kiss Die Cut | To die cut the top layer, but not the backing layer, of self-adhesive paper. Also called face cut. |
| Matte Finish | Flat (not glossy) finish on photographic paper or coated printing paper. |
| Mil 1/1000 Inch | The thickness of plastic films as printing substrates are expressed in mils. |
| O1S and O2S | Abbreviations for digital printing optimized coating one side and two sides. |
| Parent Sheet | Any sheet larger than 11' x 17' or A3. |
| Perfecting Press | Press capable of printing both sides of the paper during a single pass. Also called duplex press and perfector. |
| Picking | Phenomenon of ink pulling bits of coating or fiber away from the surface of paper as it travels through the press, thus leaving unprinted spots in the image area. |
| Polycarbonate | Printing substrate also known by abbreviation PC. |
| Polyester | Printing substrate also known by abbreviation PET. |
| Price Break | Quantity at which unit cost of substrate drops. |
| Rigid Vinyl | Printing substrate also known by abbreviation PVC. |
| Score | To compress paper along a straight line so it folds more easily and accurately. Also called crease. |
| Sheetfed Press | Press that prints sheets of substrates, as compared to a web press which prints rolls. |
| Styrene | Printing substrate also known as Polystyrene (abbreviated PS). |
| Substrate | Any surface or material on which printing is done. |
| Synthetic Paper | Printing substrate also known as Polypropylene (abbreviated PP). |
| UV Coating | Liquid applied to a printed sheet, then bonded and cured with ultraviolet light. |
Source:
Printing Industry Exchange
Printing Industry Midwest