PMS: Pantone Matching System. A widely used system of color specifications by number.
Color Separation: Refers to a process in which a multi-colored or continuous tone artwork is divided by photographic filtration or electronic scanners into the four process colors for Reproduction.
CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. This form is usually used for print, while the Opposite (RGB) is usually used on monitors.
Camera Ready Art: A completely prepared paste-up or clearly printed artwork that is ready for camera, xerographic or press reproduction. This may also include electronic artwork e-mailed Or supplied by disc.
Aqueous Coat: A heavy, durable coating that can be applied to paper; much like a laminate.
Press Approval: Viewing the job on the press (aka: press run) for quality assurance purposes.
Saddle-Stitch: A method of binding commonly used in brochures or smaller publications where a continuous wire is used to form staples in the fold of the spine of the book.
Score: To crease the fold lines with a blunt instrument and a straight edge. Heavy paper requires scoring before it can be folded cleanly and accurately.
Signature: A group of pages (AKA: a form), printed on one sheet of paper, folded for binding.
Thermography: A printing process also known as raising printing, is produced by using a very thick sticky ink which is dusted with a fine powder before being heated to fuse it to the Paper.
Logo: A trademark or signature of a company or product.
Layout: A drawing, sketch or plan of a piece, page or advertisement showing all elements in position, a blueprint.
Cast Coat Finish: Coated paper with a highly polished, mirror like exceptionally smooth surface.
Coated: Any type of paper whose surface has been given a mineral coating.
Cover: A heavy weight of paper. Can range from 65#, 80# to 100# and higher.
Lbs.: Measurement for the weight of the paper. Also shown as “#”.
Matte Finish: A paper that has a dull, eggshell finish and is usually clay-coated. Non-glossy.
Text: A light weight of paper whose surface is raw without coating.
Uncoated: Any type of paper whose surface is raw without coating.
Watermark: A design embedded or impressed in paper during manufacturing
Print: Any design project that will be printed on paper. Includes brochures, advertisements, direct mail, identity systems etc. Does not include multimedia or web projects.
Specs: Itemized list of specifications or detailed instructions for each part of a project. Can include color, size, typeface, paper, image size, etc.
Thumbnails: Very rough, small and quick initial sketches. Used to work out an idea before execution.
Font: A term synonymous with weight, it refers to the member of the typefaces family, i.e., Light, medium, bold, semibold, etc.
Typeface: A family of type, i.e., Helvetica, Bodoni, Univers etc. Within a particular typeface, there are Many fonts.
Point Size: Term referring to the size of type. Point sizes range from 2 to 720.
Layout: The form or position of type, art and logos on a printed document.
Paste-up: The additional charge added to the base price of a printed document for positioning pieces of type and art.
Photographs: For best results a black and white glossy is preferred or electronic format. A color glossy is acceptable but a color matte finish produces inferior results. Do not send a pre-screened photo.
Screens: Do not send pre-screened artwork. Supply a black and white solid and specify screen % on order form. In general screens under 20% or over 80% are not recommended for thermography.
Art: For a 2 or 3 color card, it does not have to be color separated unless the colors touch.
Type: For best results let Business Card Express do the typesetting. If we can’t match the type style Please send a clear, clean black and white start.
Gradation: Refers to when one color blends smoothly into another; with no visible steps.
Saturation: The density of a color.
Tint: An even tone area whether solid or screened.
Tone: The varying shades of a color.
Digital Photograph: The need for film is eliminated. The image is captured directly from a digital camera to a computer or to a digital storage device.
.EPS: Encapsulated PostScript. A format for storing object-oriented vector artwork. Can also store bitmaps, but seldom used because of large storage requirements.
.GIF: Graphic Interface Format. A format for saving solid color, images. Not ideal for photographs or illustrations.
.JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. A compression technique for reducing the amount of data needed to describe a full-color bit map.
.PDF: Portable Document Format.
Pixel: The smallest unit of measurement on a computer screen. Screens with more pixels provide a higher resolution image.
RGB: Red, Green and Blue: The colors system used in computer graphics.
.TIFF or .TIF: Tagged Image File Format. A format for storing gray-scale data, not object-oriented images; the standard format for scanned images and for exporting gray-scale and color images to Other programs. There are three types: Monochrome TIFF, Gray-scale TIFF, and Color TIFF.