Drill

If your printing job has to be put in a 3 ring binder or needs to be hung on a shop display you need some hole "drilled" into it. The machine used to do this is very similar to the drill presses used in other industrial situations.

Duotone

A black and white photograph reproduced using two halftone negatives and printed in black and one other colour ink.

EPS

Stands for Encapsulated Postscript. An EPS is a graphics file format that can contain vector and bitmap information. An EPS consists of a "header graphic" which is the part you see in your software program, and  the postscript information that contains the data for all the objects contained in the file. EPS files can only be printed to a Postscript Printer. If you print and EPS to a non-Postscript printer only the low resolution header graphic will print.

Fit

The alignment of printed colours on a sheet. Poor fit means colours do not line up correctly resulting in white gaps on the job. Tight fit means the design of the print job requires special attention when being printed and may need trap being added to the job. Sometimes referred to as registration However, registration refers more correctly to the consistent position of the print image relative to the actual stock's dimensions compared to consecutive sheets in the press.

Flexography

Printing from a rubber roller, i.e. direct rotary printing using resilient raised image plates. Typically used in the packaging industry for printing on heavy weight stocks.

Foiling/Foil

A letterpress based printing process that transfers a very thin layer of shiny metallic alloy onto the printed surface. Available in many different colours and patterns (including holographic) and used primarily to add a traditional or flamboyant element to a job's design. Greeting cards are a good example of this printing application.

Font

Historically, an collection of metal letters and numbers, all the same size and type with a predetermined amount of each letter or number. Today, the term refers generically to type or letter styles.

Four Colour Process

This is the standard printing method that uses the four process colours of Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K). These four inks are combined in varying percentages to create a broader spectrum of colour. The actual number of possible colours in the CMYK colour space is 100 x 100 x 100 = 1 000 000. This is not including black as this is not a colour but only adds shade to individual hues.

Full Colour

See Four Colour Process

Gamma

A mathematical curve representing both the contrast and brightness of an image. The steepness of the curve indicates greater contrast.