Sheet-Fed Printing Terms You Should Know

| Digital Printing / How To / Large Format Printing / Marketing / Offset printing

Sometimes, it’s fun to talk the talk! Here’s a short list of sheet-fed printing terms you might find useful when communicating about your project. Be sure to download this printable version and visit our solutions page to read more about sheet-fed printing.

Offset Printing: A printing technique where an inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then onto the printing surface.

Sheet-Fed Press: A type of printing press that uses individual sheets of paper, rather than a continuous roll.

Plate: A metal sheet that carries the image to be printed.

Blanket: A rubber sheet that transfers the image from the plate to the paper.

Prepress: The process of preparing digital files for printing, including color separation, proofing, and plate-making.

Color Management: Techniques used to ensure consistent color throughout the print run.

Spot Color: A pre-mixed ink used in printing to achieve specific hues not possible with standard CMYK inks.

CMYK: Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black); the four basic colors used in printing.

Finishing: Post-printing processes such as coating, embossing, and die-cutting that enhance the appearance of the printed material.

Coating: A finishing process that adds a protective or decorative layer to printed material.

Proofing: The process of creating a preliminary version of a print job to ensure accuracy before the final run.

Digital Proof: A proof created on a computer screen to simulate how the final print will look.

Press Proof: A proof created on the actual press to show exactly how the final print will appear.

Binding: The process of assembling and securing printed pages, such as in a book or magazine.

Trim: The final size of a printed piece after excess edges have been cut away.

Bleed: The portion of a printed image that extends beyond the trim edge, ensuring no white borders appear when trimmed.

Imposition: The arrangement of pages on a printer’s sheet to ensure correct order and layout after folding.

Gutter: The space between two facing pages in a printed piece.

Registration: The alignment of different color plates on a printed sheet, ensuring all colors line up correctly.

Moire: An unintended pattern that can occur when screen angles in halftone printing are misaligned.

Halftone: A technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size, shape, or spacing.

Color Separation: The process of dividing a full-color image into the four separate colors (CMYK) for printing.

Dot Gain: The tendency of printed dots to increase in size, which can affect the accuracy of the printed image.

Gripper: The mechanism in a printing press that grabs the sheet and feeds it through the press.

Makeready: The process of preparing the press for a print run, including setting up plates, inks, and ensuring correct registration.

Stock: The paper or other material that is printed on.

Scoring: Creating a crease in paper to facilitate folding without cracking.

Die-Cutting: A finishing process where shapes are cut out of printed material using a custom-made die.

Varnish: A transparent coating applied to printed material to protect and enhance its appearance.

DPI (Dots Per Inch): A measure of print resolution; the number of dots of ink per inch in a printed image.

Pantone ®: A standardized color matching system used in printing for consistency across different jobs and materials.

Overprint: Printing one color over another, typically used to avoid gaps between colors.

Undercolor Removal (UCR): A process in color printing that reduces the amount of CMY inks in dark areas and replaces them with black ink to reduce ink coverage and drying time.

Lamination: A finishing process where a thin layer of plastic is applied to printed material to protect and enhance durability.

Collating: The process of arranging printed sheets into a specific order, often used in multi-page documents.

Feeder: The part of the press that feeds sheets of paper into the printing press.