GWai | Glossary Text

A
A' Sized Paper	Paper sizes are based on dimensions of a large A0 sheet. Letterheads are commonly produced on A4 (297 x 210mm) sized paper.
A/W	Abbreviation for artwork.
Acetate	A thin flexible transparent sheet placed over artwork allowing the artist to write instructions or indicate where second colour is to be placed. (See Overlay)
Addendum	Various supplementary material additional to the main body of a book and printed separately at the start or end of the text
Against the Grain	At right angles to the grain direction to the paper.
Air (US)	An amount of white space in a layout.
Airbrush	A mechanical painting tool producing an adjustable spray of paint driven by compressed air. Used in illustration design and photographic retouching.
Align	To line up typeset or other graphic material as specified, using a base or vertical line as the reference point.
Alphabet (Length or Width)	The measurement of a complete set of lower case alphabet characters in a given type size expressed in points or picas.
Anodized Plate	An offset printing plate with a specially treated surface to reduce wear during printing.
Apex	The point of a character where two lines meet at the top, an example of this is the point on the letter A.
Application	A computer program designed for a particular use, such as a word processor or page layout application, i.e. Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign.
Apron (US)	Additional white space allowed in the margins of text and illustrations when forming a foldout.
Art (US)	In graphic arts usage, all matter other than text material eg illustrations and photographs.
Art Paper	A smooth coated paper obtained by adding a coating of china clay compound on one or both sides of the paper.
Artwork	A process which follows the initial design stage which makes rough ideas into a print-ready form.
ASAP	An abbreviation for As Soon As Possible.
Ascender	Any part of a lower case letter extending above the x-height. For example, the upper half of the vertical in the letters b or h.
Authors Corrections	Changes made to the copy text by the author after typesetting, but not including those made as a result of errors in keying in the copy.
Autofold	The process of skewing, distorting, or folding geometry by selecting a specific point on an edge or face and moving the points. See also Sticky.
Axonometric	Meaning ‘measurable from the axes.’ An axonometric projection is a view of a model in which lines appear parallel in both 3 dimensional and 2 dimensional space, and lines have a length that is to some scale, e.g. 1
B
Backing up	To print the second side of printed sheet.
Backslant	Letters that slant the opposite way from italic characters.
Balloon	A circle or bubble enclosing copy in an illustration. Used in cartoons.
Bank	A lightweight writing paper.
Banner	A large headline or title extending across the full page width.
Base Artwork	The artwork requiring additional components such as halftones or line drawings to be added before the reproduction stage.
Baseline	The line on which the bases of capital letters sit.
Bed	The base on which the Forme is held when printing by Letterpress.
Binding	The various methods used to secure loose leaves or sections in a book; eg saddle-stitch, perfect bound.
Bitmap	A grid of pixels or printed dots generated by computer to represent type and images.
Black Patch	Material used to mask the window area on a negative image of the artwork prior to stripping in' a halftone.
Blanket	Thick rubber sheet that transfers ink from plate to paper on the press.
Blanket Cylinder	The cylinder via which the inked litho plate transfers the image to the paper. The cylinder is covered with a rubber sheet which prevents wear to the litho plate coming into contact with the paper.
Bleed	The printed image extends beyond the trim edge of a sheet or page. A bleed may occur at the head, front, foot and/or gutter of a page. layout, type or pictures that extend beyond the trim marks on a page. Illustrations that spread to the edge of the paper without margins are referred to as 'bled off'.
Blend	A smooth transition between two colours, also known as a graduated tint.
Blind Emboss	A raised impression made without using ink or foil.
Block in	To sketch in the main areas of an image prior to the design.
Blow up	An enlargement, most frequently of a graphic image or photograph.
Blurb	A short description or commentary of a book or author on a book jacket.
Board	Paper of more than 200gsm.
Body (US)	The main text of the work but not including headlines.
Body Size	The height of the type measured from the top of the tallest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender. Normally given in points, the standard unit of type size.
Bold Type	Type with a heavier darker appearance. Most typefaces have a bold face.
Bond	A sized finished writing paper of 50gsm or more. Can also be used for printing upon.
Bond Paper	A grade of paper suited for letterheads, business forms etc.
Border	A continuous decorative design or rule surrounding the matter on the page.
Box	A section of text marked off by rules or white space and presented separately from the main text and illustrations. Longer boxed sections in magazines are sometimes referred to as sidebars.
Bristol Board	A fine board made in various qualities for drawing.
Broadside	An original term for work printed on one side of a large sheet of paper.
Bromide	A photographic print made on bromide paper.
Bronzing	An effect produced by dusting wet ink after printing with a metallic powder.
Bullet	A large dot preceding text to add emphasis.
C
CAD	See Computer Aided Design or Computer Assisted Design
Calendered Finish	Produced by passing paper through a series of metal rollers to give a very smooth surface.
Caliper	The thickness of sheet of paper or board expressed in microns (millionths of a metre). Also the name of the tool used to make the measurement.
Camera	A software implementation of the user's point of view. See also Point of View.
Camera Angle	See Point of View.
Camera Ready	The artwork or pasted up material that is ready for reproduction. Cap line - an imaginary line across the top of capital letters. The distance from the the cap line to the baseline is the cap size.
Caps	An abbreviation for capital letters.
Caps and Small Caps	Style of type that shows capital letters used in the normal way while the body copy is set in capital letters which are of a slightly smaller size.
Caption	The line or lines of text that refer to information identifying a picture or illustration.
Carbonless	A paper coated with chemicals and dye which will produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required).
Carbonless Paper (NCR)	Paper coated with chemicals that enable transfer of images from one sheet to another with pressure from writing or typing.
Caret Marks	An indication to the printer of an omission in the copy indicated as ( ) showing the insertion.
Cartridge	A thick general purpose paper used for printing, drawing and wrapping.
Case Bound	A hardback book made with stiff outer covers. Cases are usually covered with cloth, vinyl or leather.
Cast Coated	Coated paper with a very high gloss enamel finish
Cast off	A calculation determining how much space copy will take up when typeset.
Catchline	A temporary headline for identification on the top of a galley proof.
Century Schoolbook	A popular serif typeface used in magazines and books for text setting which has a large x-height and an open appearance.
Chalking	Powdering effect left on the surface of the paper after the ink has failed to dry satisfactorily due to a fault in printing.
Character Count	The number of characters; I.e. letters, figures, signs or spaces in a piece of copy, line or paragraph.
Chase	A metal frame in which metal type and blocks (engravings) are locked into position to make up a page.
Choke	A method of altering the thickness of a shape by over exposure in processing or by means of a built-in option in some computer applications.
Chord Length	The distance between the starting point and the ending point of an Arc entity.
Chromolin	A fast proofing system which uses powder as opposed to ink.
Clipart	Graphics saved in ready-to-use computer files. these are normally vector illustrations and not photographic images.
Clipping Path	An outline embedded into the file, that tells an application which areas of a picture should be considered transparent.
Close up	A proof correction mark to reduce the amount of space between characters or words indicated as (').
CMYK	Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), the 4 process colours, which combined together in varying Proportions can be made to produce the full colour spectrum.
Coated	Printing papers which after making have had a surface coating with clay etc, to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity.
Cold Type	Type produced without the use of characters cast from molten metal, such as on a VDU.
Collate	To gather separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding.
Collating	Gathering together sheets of paper from a book, magazine or brochure and placing them into the correct order.
Colour Separation	Process by which a continuous tone colour image is separated into the four process colours (CMYK) for print production.
Column Rule	A light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type.
Component Definition	Defines the appearance and behaviour of all component instances. Component definitions are created and stored in the Component Browser either as part of a Component Library or when you create a component.
Component Entity	An entity that contains other entities.
Component Instance	Instance of a component definition, such as an a single instance of an office chair component. You can have multiple component instances from the same component definition.
Component Library	A series of related component definitions, such as a component library of doors or windows.
Compose	To set copy into type.
Computer Aided Design	Software used for precision design. CAD is traditionally rigid and is often used for creating construction documents from which you would create the actual item you are designing.
Concertina Fold	A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect.
Condensed	A style of typeface in which the characters have an elongated appearance.
Construction Tools	Tools used to create construction geometry and prepare physical documentation.
Context Menu	A menu of menu items or commands available in a particular context, such as when a line or component is selected.
Continuous Stationery	Printed Forms which are produced from reels of paper and then fan folded. these can be either single or multi-part forms.
Continuous Tone	A printed or displayed image in which the subject has continuous shades of colour or grey without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced in that form for printing but must be screened to translate the image into dots.
Contrast	The degree of tones in a photograph ranging from highlight to shadow.
Coplanar	Refers to entities that existing in the same plane.
Copyright	The Right of Copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without express permission or acknowledgement of the originator.
Corner Marks	Marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim or register marks.
Crash Number	Numbering paper by pressing an image on the first sheet which is transferred to all parts of the printed set.
Crease	To mechanically press a rule into heavy paper or board to enable it to be folded without cracking.
Creep	Phenomenon when middle pages of a folded section extend slightly beyond the outside pages.
Crop	To trim the edges of a picture or page to make it fit or remove unwanted portions.
Crop Marks	Lines near the margins of artwork or photos indicating where to trim, perforate or fold.
Cropping	Elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.
Cross Head	A heading set in the body of the text used to break it into easily readable sections.
CTP	Abbreviation of computer-to-plate; a process of printing directly from a computer onto the plate used by a printing press.
Cursive	Used to describe typefaces that resemble written script.
Curved Face Set	A series of faces joined to make up a curved surface, such as a tube or arch.
Cutaway	Cutaway (2 and 3 dimensional art). A cutaway involves selectively removing surface elements of a three-dimensional model to make internal features visible, but without sacrificing the outer context entirely. The technique is used extensively in Technical Illustration and Computer-aided design.
Cut Flush	A method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to the pages.
Cutout	A halftone where the background has been removed to produce a silhouette.
Cutting Behaviour	Ability for component entities to cut holes in faces. The component's cutting behaviour is established when the component is initially created.
Cutting Plane	A plane defining the exact location where the component will cut into a face.
Cyan	One of the four process colours.
D
Dagger and Double Dagger	Symbols used mainly as reference marks for footnotes.
Dash	A short horizontal rule used for punctuation.
Deboss	Image pressed into paper so it lies below the surface.
Default Material	A material assigned to all newly created faces. The default material is different for the front and back of faces.
Density	The degree of darkness of light absorption or opacity of printed images.
Descender	Any part of a lower case letter that extends below the x-height, as in the case of y and j.
Dialog Stack	Dialog boxes arranged such that they form a stack.
Die	A hardened steel engraving stamp used to print an inked image. Used in the production of good quality letter headings.
Die-Cutting	Process of using sharp metal rules on a block to cut out specialised shapes such as pocket folders or unusually shaped flyers etc.
Digital Printing	Benefits are for very short runs or for personalised print.
Display Type	Larger type used for headings etc. Normally about 18 point or larger.
Distort	Twisting out of natural shape.
Dot Gain	A printing defect in which dots print larger than intended, causing darker colours or tones; due to the spreading of ink on stock. the more absorbent the stock, the more dot gain. can vary by type of ink also.
Dot Matrix Printer	A printer in which each character is formed from a matrix of dots. They are normally impact systems, ie a wire is fired at a ribbon in order to leave an inked dot on the page, but thermal and electro-erosion systems are also used.
Double Density	Method of recording on floppy disks using a modified frequency modulation process that allows more data to be stored on a disk.
Double Page Spread	Two facing pages of newspaper or magazine where the textual material on the left hand side continues across to the right hand side. Abbreviated to DPS.
Downloadable Fonts	Typefaces which can be stored on a disk and then downloaded to the printer when required for printing. These are, by definition, bit-mapped fonts and, therefore, fixed in size and style.
DPI (Dots per Inch)	Measurement of resolution for page printers, phototypesetting machines and graphics screens. Currently graphics screens reproduce 60 to 110dpi, most page printers work at 300-1200dpi and typesetting systems operate at 1,000dpi and higher. A measure of the quality of an image from a scanner or output resolution of a printer. The more dots per inch, the higher the quality will be but the larger the file size the slower it will process.
Drawing Area	The area within the Drawing Window where you create your model. See also Drawing Window.
Drawing Tool	A software tool used to create entities and geometry from scratch.
Drawn on	A method of binding a paper cover to a book by drawing the cover on and gluing to the back of the book.
Drilling	Drilling of holes in product which will allow insertion over rings or posts in a binder of some sort.
Drop Cap	A large initial letter at the start of the text that drops into the line or lines of text below.
Dry Transfer (Lettering)	Characters, drawings, etc, that can be transferred to the artwork by rubbing them off the back of the transfer sheet. Best known is Letraset.
Dummy	A mock-up made to resemble the final printed product which uses the proposed grade, weight, finish and colour of paper.
Duotone	A method of enhancing a mono image using two colours.
Dye Transfer	A photographic colour print using special coated papers to produce a full colour image. Can serve as an inexpensive proof.
E
Edge Entity	Edges bound faces within geometry. The term edge and line are used interchangeably
Edge-Based Modelling	A form of modelling in which a surface is automatically created for 3 intersecting coplanar edges.
Egyptian	A term for a style of type faces having square serifs and almost uniform thickness of strokes.
Eight Sheet	A poster measuring 60 x 80in (153 x 203cm) and, traditionally, made up of eight individual sheets.
Electronic Publishing	Generic term for the distribution of information which is stored, transmitted and reproduced electronically. Teletext and Videotext are two examples of this technology in its purest form, ie no paper.. Desktop publishing forms just one part of the electronic publishing market.
Em	In printing terms it is a square unit with edges equal in size to the chosen point size. It gets its name from the letter M which originally was as wide as the type size.
Em Dash	A dash used in punctuation the length of one em.
Embed	Inclusion of elements and data into a computer file necessary to maintain or change the elements when used remotely.
Embossing	A process performed after printing to stamp a raised (or depressed) image into the surface of paper, using engraved metal embossing dies, extreme pressure, and heat. embossing styles include blind, deboss and foil-embossed.
Embossing	Relief images formed by using a recessed die.
En	A unit of measurement that is half as wide as an em.
En Dash	A dash approximately half the width of an em dash.
End Papers	The four page leaves at the front and end of a book which are pasted to the insides of the front and back covers (boards).
EPS	Acronym for Encapsulated PostScript, a computer file format widely used by the printing and graphics industries.
Epson Emulation	The industry standard control codes for dot matrix printers were developed by Epson and virtually all software packages and most dot matrix printers either follow or improve on these codes.
Expanded Type	A typeface with a slightly wider body giving a flatter appearance.
Express	a printer control language developed by OASYS.
Extrude	The action of thrusting out or growing a form.
Extrusion	A from that has been extruded. See Extrude.
F
Face	An abbreviation for typeface referring to a family in a given style.
Face Entity	A planer entity bounded by 3 or more intersecting coplanar edges or lines.
Face Shadows	Shadows projected onto horizontal faces by vertical faces based on the sun's angle in the sky.
File Format	The system by which data is held in a particular type of computer file.
Filler	Extra material used to complete a column or page, usually of little importance.
Flag	The designed title of a newspaper as it appears at the top of page one.
Flexography	A rotary letterpress process printing from rubber or flexible plates and using fast drying inks. Mainly used for packaging.
Floating Accent	An accent mark which is set separately from the main character and is then placed either over or under it.
Flush	To align, to be even with. (flush right to a margin for example).
Flush Left	Copy aligned along the left margin.
Flush Right	Copy aligned along the right margin.
Flyer	An inexpensively produced circular used for promotional distribution.
Foil Blocking	The process for stamping a design on a book cover without ink by using a coloured foil with pressure from a heated die or block.
Foil Stamping	A metallic finish, or other embossed finishes applied by specialist equipment.
Font	One of a range of styles/typefaces in which lettering can be produced during the type setting stage, e.g. Times New Roman, 10pt.
Font (or Fount)	A complete set of characters in a typeface.
Format	Size, shape and overall style of layout or printed project.
Forme	Type and blocks assembled in pages and imposed in a metal chase ready for printing.
Four-Colour Process	Reproduction of full-colour photographs or art with the four basic colours of ink (cyan, magenta, yellow, black).
Free Delivery	To your address within 50 miles of Bishops!
French Fold	A sheet which has been printed on one side only and then folded with two right angle folds to form a four page uncut section.
Full Colour	Or 'four colour process' using the four basic printing colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Full Measure	A line set to the entire line length.
Full Point	A full stop.
Functional Terrain	Terrain that has no portion of itself bending back upon itself creating overhangs, underhangs or caves.
G
Galley Proof	Proofs taken from the galleys before being made up into pages.
Galleys	The printing term for long metal trays used to hold type after it had been set and before the press run.
Gatefold	An oversize page where both sides fold into the gutter in overlapping layers. Used to accommodate maps into books.
Gathering	The operation of inserting the printed pages, sections or signatures of a book in the correct order for binding.
Gloss Ink	For use in litho and letterpress printing on coated papers where the ink will dry without penetration
Gluing Behaviour	The ability of component entities to align to faces in a specific orientation. The component's gluing behaviour is established when the component is initially created.
Golden Ratio	Rule devised to give proportions of height to width when laying out text and illustrations to produce the most optically pleasing result. Sometimes called the Golden Rectangle.
Gothic	Typefaces with no serifs and broad even strokes.
Graphics File	General term used for a computer file containing a picture: photographic image, illustration etc.
Gravure	A rotary printing process where the image is etched into the metal plate attached to a cylinder. The cylinder is then rotated through a trough of printing ink after which the etched surface is wiped clean by a blade leaving the non-image area clean. The paper is then passed between two rollers and pressed against the etched cylinder drawing the ink out by absorption.
Greeking	Areas of grey are used to simulate lines of text. One of desktop publishing's less clever methods of getting round the slowness of high resolution displays on the PC.
Grayscale	Shades of grey ranging from black to white; in printing, grayscale uses only a black halftone plate.
Grid	A systematic division of a page into areas to enable designers to ensure consistency. The grid acts as a measuring guide and shows text, illustrations and trim sizes.
Grippers	Metal fingers which hold paper and carry it through printing impression to the delivery end of the press.
Ground Shadows	Shadows projected onto the ground plane by vertical faces based on the sun's angle in the sky.
Group Entity	An entity that contains other entities. Groups are commonly used to combine several entities into a single entity for the purposes of performing a quick operation, such as a copy and paste.
GSM	Grams per square metre. Paper weight is measured in grams per square metre.
Guard	A narrow strip of paper or linen pasted to a single leaf to allow sewing into a section for binding.
Gusset	Expandable portion of a pocketed folder or envelope.
Gutter	The central blank area between left and right pages.
GWai	An abbreviation for Griff Wason art and illustration.
H
Hairline Rule	The thinnest rule that can be printed.
Hairlines	The thinnest of the strokes in a typeface.
Half up	Artwork one and a half times the size which it will be reproduced.
Halftone	Picture with varying shades of tone created by varying size dots.
Hanging Punctuation	Punctuation that is allowed to fall outside the margins instead of staying within the measure of the text.
Hard Disk	Rigid disk sealed inside an airtight transport mechanism. Information stored may be accessed more rapidly than on floppy disks and far greater amounts of data may be stored. Often referred to as Winchester disks.
Hardback	A case bound book with a separate stiff board cover.
Head	The margin at the top of a page.
Head Margin	The white space above the first line on a page.
Healing	The concept of joining two faces by erasing, or "healing" a line that intersects a face. Creating one face from two.
Helvetica	A sans serif typeface.
Hickey	Spot or imperfection in printing.
Highlight	The lightest area in a photograph or illustration.
House Style	The style of preferred spelling, punctuation, hyphenation and indentation used in a publishing house or by a particular publication to ensure consistent typesetting.
Hue	The main attribute of a colour which distinguishes it from other colours.
I
Icons	Pictorial images used on screen to indicate utility functions, files, folders or applications software. The icons are generally activated by an on-screen pointer controlled by a mouse or trackball.
Image Area	Portion of paper where ink appears.
Imagesetter	A device that plots high-resolution bitmaps which have been processed by a RIP. may include type, graphics and photographic images.
Import	To bring a picture or text file into and application ready for editing or design work.
Imposition	Positioning pages in a press-ready form so that they will be in the correct numerical sequence after folding.
Impress	A page description language developed by Imagen and supported by over 60 software products including Crystal, TeX, Superpage and AutoCAD. Almost certainly the first commercially available PDL.
Impression Cylinder	The cylinder of a printing machine which brings the paper into contact with the with the printing plate or blanket cylinder.
Imprint	Name and place of the publisher and printer required by law if a publication is to be published. Sometimes accompanied by codes indicating the quantity printed, month/year of printing and an internal control number.
InDesign (Adobe)	Adobe InDesign CSx - An industry standard typesetting and page layout program.
Indicia	Postal information place on a printed product.
Inference	The Identification of relationships between entities in the drawing area. These relationships are identified and pointed out to the user by the inferencing engine and can be used as references for drawing in 3D space.
Insert	An instruction to the printer for the inclusion of additional copy.
Insertion Point	The point where the cursor will grab and insert the component in to a model from the component browser.
Instance	See Component Instance.
Interface	The circuit, or physical connection, which controls the flow of data between a computer and its peripherals.
International Paper Sizes	International Standards Organisation (ISO) system of paper sizes is base