Today’s lesson for our customers is to educate on some of the more common printing terms in our industry. Each letter in this alphabet represents something meaningful to the work we do. It could be one of our products or services, a method of printing or even the name of our shop cat! Class is in session.

printing terms

A – Artwork (the process of using files and editing programs to create a print job)
B – Business Cards (the most informative product to our line)
C – Cheques (yes, we do print cheques)
D – Diecutting (our letterpress can be set up to stamp out a shape into various kinds of stock)
E – Envelopes (stuff em and send em)
F – Flange Protectors (we make custom diecut flange protectors for pump companies)
G – Gluing (we don’t use glue sticks here but we glue lots of forms and pads)
H – Hickey (this is a term used to describe when a piece of dust or debris sticks to the printing plate and creates a spot on the print job)
I – Image Area (the portion of a printing plate that carries ink and prints on the stock)
J – Jogging (this is a term used to vibrate a stack of paper so it is in good alignment to cut)
K – Kiss-cutting (A term used to cut the front side of a label but not all the way through the back. Meant for easy peeling)
K #2 – KYO (the name of the cat that strolls through our shop to make sure everyone is doing their jobs)
L – Laminating (protect your job with a clear or matte laminate cover)
M – Magenta (the colour magenta is the ‘M’ in the CMYK printing process)
N – Natural (this is a popular colour for paper, representing the look of wood)
O – Offset (we don’t like when a job ‘offsets’. Meaning the ink from the front of the stock transfers onto the backside of the stock placed on top of it)
P – Plates (we burn images onto aluminum plates that are used on our offset presses to print jobs)
Q – Quitting Time (5pm)….hard to come up with something for ‘Q’ but very common printing terms.
R – Register (this term refers to the arrangement of 2 or more printed images in exact alignment with each other)
S – Stock ( I have been using the term ‘stock’ throughout my descriptions. The unprinted paper that is used for a print job is called stock)
T – Typo (even the professionals make them from time to time. That is why we send our customers proofs for them to review our work before print)
U – Uncoated (opposite of coated, duhhh. This is the finish on stock)
V – Vector (vector artwork is high resolution files that are used in editing programs to create artwork)
W – Wash-up (the procedure of cleaning a particular ink from the unit of an offset printing press)
X – We are open to suggestions for the letter ‘X’
Y – Yellow (the colour yellow is the ‘Y’ in the CMYK printing process)
Z – We are open to suggestions for the letter ‘Z’

Thus concludes the alphabet according to Bialas Printing. We hope that these printing terms give you the knowledge to communicate professionally the next time a printing topic comes up.

Be sure to check back for our next blog.

Bialas Printing Ltd.