Glossary of Terms

By Pritesh Yadav June 21, 2026 7 min read —

4/0 (four over zero): A printing spec meaning full color (4 inks: CMYK) on the front and nothing on the back. Read as "four-over-zero."
4/4 (four over four): Full color on both the front and the back of the sheet. The two numbers are the ink count per side.
Aqueous coating: A water-based clear coat applied over the whole sheet on press to protect it and add a light gloss or matte finish. Cheaper and faster than UV coating.
Bindery: The department (and the set of steps) that finishes a printed job after the press — folding, cutting, stitching, binding, and packing.
Bleed: Extra artwork extended past the final trim line (usually 1/8 inch or 3 mm) so that when the paper is cut, color runs to the very edge with no white slivers.
C1S / C2S: "Coated one side" and "coated two sides." Describes paper with a smooth clay coating on one face (C1S) or both faces (C2S) for sharper images.
CMYK: The four process inks used in most color printing: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). Mixing them in dots creates the illusion of many colors.
Coating: Any clear layer added on top of ink — aqueous, UV, or varnish — to protect the print, change its sheen, or both.
Collate: To gather printed pages into the correct order before binding (e.g. page 1, 2, 3 of a booklet rather than 100 copies of page 1).
Color management: The practice of keeping color consistent from screen to proof to press, usually using ICC profiles so what the customer approves is what prints.
Crop marks: Thin lines printed outside the artwork that show the cutter where to trim the sheet to final size.
Die-cut: Cutting paper into a custom shape (a rounded label, a window, a folder pocket) using a sharp metal "die," like a cookie cutter for print.
Digital printing: Printing directly from a file with no plates, using toner or inkjet. Ideal for short runs and variable data; higher cost per page but near-zero setup.
Dimensional weight (DIM): A shipping charge based on a package's size, not just its actual weight. Bulky-but-light print (like banners) is billed on the volume it takes up.
DPI / PPI: Dots (or pixels) per inch — a measure of image resolution. 300 DPI at final size is the standard for crisp printing; low DPI prints blurry.
DTF (Direct-to-Film): An apparel method where the design is printed onto a special film, dusted with adhesive powder, then heat-pressed onto fabric. Works on many fabric types.
DTG (Direct-to-Garment): Inkjet printing of full-color designs directly onto a garment (usually cotton). Great for detailed, one-off, or short-run apparel.
Duplex: Printing on both sides of the sheet. The opposite is simplex (one side).
EDDM: "Every Door Direct Mail" — a postal program that lets shops mail to every address on a route without a name list. Common print-shop product.
Emboss / Deboss: Pressing the paper to create a raised (emboss) or recessed (deboss) shape, with no ink, for a tactile premium effect.
Flexography (flexo): A high-speed printing method using flexible rubber plates on rolls, used for packaging, labels, and corrugated boxes.
Foil stamping: Applying a thin metallic or colored foil to paper with heat and pressure for a shiny gold, silver, or holographic accent.
FSC: Forest Stewardship Council — a certification that the paper comes from responsibly managed forests. A common eco selling point.
Gang run: Combining several different jobs onto one large press sheet so they share setup and material cost. The key to cheap online print.
Grain (direction): The direction in which paper fibers line up. Paper folds and tears cleanly along the grain and cracks against it — critical for folding.
Gripper: The mechanical fingers that grab the sheet to pull it through a press. The gripper edge cannot carry image and reduces usable sheet area.
GSM: Grams per square meter — the international measure of paper weight/thickness. 80 gsm is copy paper; 300+ gsm is a business-card stock.
Gutter: The inner margin space near the binding of a booklet or book, left clear so text is not swallowed by the fold or spine.
Imposition: Arranging multiple pages on one large sheet in the right positions and rotations so that, after printing and folding, the pages come out in order.
Kiss-cut: Cutting through a sticker's top layer but not its backing, so the sticker peels off while the sheet stays intact.
Lamination: Bonding a thin plastic film over the printed sheet for protection and a gloss, matte, or soft-touch finish. Heavier and tougher than a coating.
Make-ready: All the setup work before good copies come off the press — mounting plates, loading paper, aligning color, running test sheets. A fixed cost per job.
Offset lithography: The dominant commercial method: ink is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket to the paper. High quality and cheap at large volumes after setup.
Pad printing: Transferring a small image from an etched plate via a soft silicone pad onto curved or odd-shaped objects like pens, mugs, and golf balls.
Pantone (PMS) / Spot color: A pre-mixed ink matched to a numbered swatch (e.g. PMS 286). Used for exact brand colors and shades CMYK cannot reproduce.
Perfect binding: A binding where pages are glued at the spine into a square-backed cover, like a paperback book or thick catalog.
Perforation (perf): A line of tiny cuts that lets a piece be torn cleanly by hand, such as a tear-off coupon or ticket stub.
Plate: The thin metal sheet carrying the image for one ink, mounted on an offset press. New plates are needed for each new job (part of make-ready).
Preflight: Automated checking of a print-ready file before production — resolution, bleed, fonts, color mode, and overprint — to catch errors early.
Prepress: All file preparation between receiving artwork and printing: preflighting, color conversion, imposition, and proofing.
Proof: A preview of the final job for approval — a soft proof (on screen / PDF) or a hard proof (a physical printed sample) signed off before the run.
Process color: Color built from the four CMYK inks (as opposed to a spot/Pantone ink). Most photographs print as process color.
Registration: The precise alignment of each ink/color layer on top of the others. Poor registration shows as blurry, off-color edges.
Saddle stitch: Binding folded sheets with staples through the spine fold, used for thin booklets, magazines, and brochures.
Score: A pressed crease that weakens the paper along a line so it folds cleanly without cracking — essential on thick or coated stock.
Screen printing: Pushing ink through a fine mesh stencil onto the surface, one color per screen. Best for bold designs on apparel and large runs.
Self-cover: A booklet whose cover is the same stock as the inside pages (versus a "plus cover" printed on heavier stock).
Spot UV: A glossy UV coating applied only to selected areas (a logo, a word) so they shine against a matte background.
Spread / Choke (trapping): Tiny overlaps between adjacent colors so small registration errors don't reveal white gaps. Usually handled in prepress.
Substrate: The material being printed on — paper, card, vinyl, fabric, plastic, metal. The umbrella term for "the thing the ink goes onto."
Text weight vs Cover weight: "Text" is lighter paper for inside pages; "Cover" (card) is heavier stock for covers, postcards, and business cards.
Toner: A dry powder fused to paper by heat in laser/digital presses. The digital equivalent of ink for many short-run jobs.
Trim size: The final dimensions of the printed piece after it is cut down from the larger press sheet.
Turnaround: The promised time from order/approval to a finished job ready to ship — a core field shops and customers care about.
UV coating: A clear coat cured instantly with ultraviolet light, giving a very high gloss and tough finish. Can be full-sheet or spot.
Varnish: An ink-like clear coating applied on press (gloss, matte, or satin) for protection or contrast; lighter than UV.
Variable data printing (VDP): Printing where text or images change from copy to copy — personalized names, codes, or addresses — driven from a data file.
Vector vs Raster: Vector art is math-based lines that scale to any size cleanly (logos); raster art is pixels that blur when enlarged (photos).
Web vs Sheet-fed: "Web" presses print on a continuous roll of paper at high speed (newspapers, mailers); "sheet-fed" presses print pre-cut sheets for higher quality.
Wide-format: Large printing — posters, banners, signs, vehicle wraps — done on wide inkjet machines that handle rolls or rigid boards.

Continue reading