Here at Haley Marketing Group, the Creative Team works together in the same room. Most times, we are all familiar with the terms we use to describe what we do every day. Every once in a while we find someone has a different name for something we have all known as by another name (like chicken beak for example – but we’ll save that for another discussion with programming terminology).
Here are a few:
Vector
A standard file format type that uses paths as opposed to pixels, used to assure accuracy and sharpness of artwork between applications, as it is infinitely scalable.
Crop
Term used to describe reducing the size of an image.
Crop Marks
Very small printed lines around the edges of a piece being printed, used to indicate where it is to be cut out of a sheet.
Bleed
An area within artwork that goes beyond the crop area to assure a finished-looking clean cut with no break in color around the edges.
cmyk
Abbreviation for the colors used in the four color print process: c=cyan, m=magenta, y=yellow, k=black
Spreads
There are two kinds of spreads:
- Reader Spreads refers to the order in which we read a book or a document.
- Printer Spreads which refers to the arrangement of pages in artwork, so that when a sheet is printed on both sides the final product will appear in a proper sequence.
Dot gain
A term used to describe when the individual dots on a printing press are printing larger than they should. This can be caused by many factors including the type of ink, paper, the temperature, or the pressure set by the press operator.
PMS
An abbreviation for Pantone Color Matching System which is the standard used by designers to math and assure color consistency across print pieces and systems.
Point
A unit of measure, perhaps now most commonly used when referencing type. A point is equal to 1/71 of an inch. There are 12 points to a pica and 72 points to an inch.
An abbreviation of portable document format. Made most popular by Adobe®, it is a file format that captures all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that can be viewed, navigated, printed, or forwarded to someone else who has the software on their device to open it. PDFs can be different qualities of resolution and can never be higher than the original file used to create it.
House Sheet
Refers to the paper that is kept on hand in the shop by a printer.
Loupe
A small magnifier used to observe the details (such as whether dots are aligned creating good registration) on a press sheet.
Mottle
This term describes spotty or uneven absorption of ink during printing.
Pagination
The numbering of pages in a document.
Creative Suite
This refers to the suite of software packages offered by Adobe®. It is the most commonly used suite of software in the design and printing industries.