| A4 |
A4
measurements are 210mm × 297mm. A4 is the usual letter
size in the UK and most printing companies produce A4
publications as standard. A4 is based on the ISO standard
which is rarely used in the USA. |
| ABC or Audit
Bureau of Circulations |
ABC
circulation certification is the industry standard
providing independent Verified Free Distribution
certification (VDF) to confirm the circulation of free
newspapers and magazines. The ABC logo is highly regarded
within the media industry as it identifies a publisher as
an ethical business partner and one that has met the
rigorous standards of an ABC audit. Before you get
excited about the prestige this could offer your
publication, perhaps we should mention the fees... You
will only be accepted as a member on completion of a
satisfactory ABC audit for your publication. For more details see the
website www.abc.org.uk or telephone 01442 870800. |
| Acid
Free |
Paper
which does not contain any free acid. Special precautions
are taken during manufacture to eliminate any active acid
that might be in the furnish, in order to increase the
longevity of the finished paper. |
| Acrobat |
Adobe
Acrobat is the trade name of several different computer
programs for making or reading PDF files (sometimes
mistakenly called 'Acrobat files') but actually Adobe
Systems' Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Adobe
Acrobat consists of a family of software, some commercial
and some free of charge. The Acrobat Reader program (now
just called Adobe Reader) is available as a no-charge
download from Adobe's web site, and allows basic viewing
and printing of PDF files. |
| Adhesion |
The bond
between ink and the material on which it is printed. |
| Adobe
Reader |
Adobe
Acrobat is the trade name of several different computer
programs for making or reading PDF files (sometimes
mistakenly called 'Acrobat files') but actually Adobe
Systems' Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Adobe
Acrobat consists of a family of software, some commercial
and some free of charge. The Acrobat Reader program (now
just called Adobe Reader) is available as a no-charge
download from Adobe's web site, and allows basic viewing
and printing of PDF files. |
| Advertising
Cost Equivalent or ACE |
Advertising
Cost Equivalent (ACE) is a comparison between the cost of
an advertising space and an equivalent editorial piece.
Gives PR a value. The industry view is that the value of
PR is 2½ times more than that of advertising, taking
into account the high editorial involvement and the story
content. |
| Advertising
Standards |
The
guidelines of the Advertising Standards Authority, the
independent body set up by the advertising industry to
police the rules for non-broadcast advertisements, sales
promotions and direct marketing. These rules are laid
down in the CAP Code, the code of the Committee of
Advertising Practice. The Family Grapevine Ltd.
subscribes to the ASA and receives regular updates on
Adjudications, News, Briefings and Reports. We recommend
that you do the same (it is free).
http://www.asa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7492 2222 |
| Advertising
Standards Authority |
The
Advertising Standards Authority is the independent body
set up by the advertising industry to police the rules
for non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and
direct marketing. These rules are laid down in the CAP
Code, the code of the Committee of Advertising Practice.
The Family Grapevine Ltd. subscribes to the ASA and
receives regular updates on Adjudications, News,
Briefings and Reports. We recommend that you do the same
(it is free).
http://www.asa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7492 2222 |
| Advertorial
|
A paid for
article that has the appearance of an editorial. Readers
will be able to identify the piece as a
‘promotion’ or as an ‘advertorial’. |
| Agency |
A company
in the business of creating advertisements, packaging and
names for products and services, as well as providing
marketing and merchandising advice and general business
and promotional counsel to its clients. One type of
agency is a PR agency. |
| Apron |
White
space added to margins of text area on a page to
accommodate a foldout. |
| Art
Paper |
This is a
generic term given to woodfree papers with a coating,
usually of china clay, which has traditionally referred
to papers in the upper quality bracket and which have a
highly polished surface. It can be gloss or matt and is
suitable for jobs requiring a fine finish such as colour
brochures and annual reports. Today the term is less used
because of the introduction of more categories in the
sector. However, "Real Art" is still used for
those woodfree coated papers which are considered to be
of the very highest quality. |
| Artwork |
Originally
this was physical art (sometimes referred to as Camera-Ready
Artwork or Mechanical) prepared by the designer and
including type, graphics and other originals. This was
used by the printer to produce the printing plates. Today
artwork exists almost wholly in electronic form.
Photographs and illustrations are input to the computer
using a scanner. All the elements are assembled using
page layout software. Artwork on Disc is complete,
requiring no edits, ready to output to final film or
direct to plate, and provided in recognised commercial
software such as Illustrator, Freehand, Coreldraw,
Pagemaker, In Design, Quark Express, or Photoshop. |
| ASA |
The
Advertising Standards Authority is the independent body
set up by the advertising industry to police the rules
for non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and
direct marketing. These rules are laid down in the CAP
Code, the code of the Committee of Advertising Practice.
The Family Grapevine Ltd. subscribes to the ASA and
receives regular updates on Adjudications, News,
Briefings and Reports. We recommend that you do the same
(it is free).
http://www.asa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7492 2222 |
| Back
Up |
This is
when a print job is printed on one side of sheet, the
sheets turned and printed again using the same plates.
See also Work and Turn. |
| Bank |
A
lightweight paper, usually less than 60gsm. |
| Binding |
Any method
of holding together a finished book or magazine. |
| Blanket |
In offset
litho printing this is the rubber-coater sheet that
transfers the inked impression from the printing plate to
the paper. In gravure printing a similar rubber sheet
covers the impression cylinder of a printing press. |
| Bleed |
An area
which forms a narrow strip all around the outside of each
page (i.e. a bit bigger than A4). If any pages of your
publication have images, backgrounds or full page adverts
which need to go right up to the edge of the page you
need to place them so that they overlap the edges of the
page. This is so that the printing company can trim pages
to size without any white edges remaining, even if the
sheets on the press are not lined up accurately. Most
printing companies specify a bleed of 3mm all around, so
for an A4 page 297mm x 210mm, the total bleed area of
your pages would be 303mm x 213mm. |
| Blind
Embossing |
A type of
embossing where no ink is used. The design or text is
only visible as a raised area on the paper. |
| Blow-in |
An item
printed in advance of a publication, later inserted
loosely into bound copies. Also called a preprint. |
| Blueline |
In offset
printing this is a photo print made from stripped-up
negatives or positives used as a proof to check position
of image elements. |
| Bond |
A basic
paper, often used for copying or laser printers. The
better quality bond papers, with higher rag content, can
be used for letterheads. |
| Bright
White |
A paper
stock, particularly in reference to letterheads and
envelopes, etc., of pure brilliant white as opposed to
"off-white". |
| Business
Link |
Business
Link operates both nationally and locally and offers free
advice sheets, networking meetings, seminars and free or
charged workshops on topics such as business planning,
awareness and assessment, sales and money management. www.businesslink.gov.uk |
| Byline |
The name
of the author or journalist written under the headline. |
| Calendered |
Calendered
Paper has passed through hardened rollers during
manufacture to produce a smooth surface. |
| CAP |
The
Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) is the industry
body that creates, revises and enforces The CAP Code
– the rules that apply to non-broadcast marketing
communications in the UK. The CAP Code is endorsed and
administered independently by the Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA). |
| Cartridge |
A heavy,
textured paper often used for drawing. |
| Circulation |
The number
of copies distributed by a publication. Circulation
figures are available for all major publications. |
| CMYK |
Shorthand
for the four core colours used in Four Colour Process
Printing. These are Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black. |
| Coated |
Paper
which has received a coating to achieve a special finish.
The coating may be clay or other substances that improve
reflectivity and ink holdout. Coated papers come in four
finishes: cast coated, gloss, dull and matte. |
| Collate |
The
process of assembling the various sections or sheets of a
document in the correct order. |
| Collateral |
Marketing
collateral, in marketing and sales, is the collection of
media used to support the sales of a product or service.
These sales aids are intended to make the sales effort
easier and more effective. Common examples include sales
brochures and other printed product information. It
differs from advertising in that it is used later in the
sales cycle, usually when a prospective purchaser has
been identified and sales staff are making contact with
them. |
| Collating |
The
process of assembling the various sections or sheets of a
document in the correct order. |
| Colour
Bar |
Quality
control mechanism consisting of small strips of color and
patterns on press sheets. Used to check color
registration, dot gain, ink density and evenness. |
| Column
Centimeters |
Most
advertising is sold by the column centimeter - the price
of a space 1cm high and 1 column wide. ‘Pccm’
means ‘per column centimeter’ and
‘scc’ means ‘single column
centimeter’: esssentially the same thing! To
calculate the price of an advert, you multiply as follows:
Price pccm x height in cms x number of columns in the
advert. i.e. if your publication contains four columns,
each 25cm high, and your scc rate is £8, a full page
advert would cost £8 x 25 x 4 = £800. |
| Column
Centimetre |
Most
advertising is sold by the column centimeter - the price
of a space 1cm high and 1 column wide. ‘Pccm’
means ‘per column centimeter’ and
‘scc’ means ‘single column
centimeter’: esssentially the same thing! To
calculate the price of an advert, you multiply as follows:
Price pccm x height in cms x number of columns in the
advert. i.e. if your publication contains four columns,
each 25cm high, and your scc rate is £8, a full page
advert would cost £8 x 25 x 4 = £800. |
| Column
Inches |
A form of
measuring PR success by multiplying the length of a piece
of editorial by the number of columns. |
| Committee
of Advertising Practice |
The
Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) is the industry
body that creates, revises and enforces The CAP Code
– the rules that apply to non-broadcast marketing
communications in the UK. The CAP Code is endorsed and
administered independently by the Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA). |
| Competitor
Analysis |
A
comparison of PR success against competitors. Can be
measured in various ways. |
| Composite |
A
Composite Color Proof is a proof that shows all type and
images as they will be printed. Generally limited to four-color
process and several representative colors for spot colors. |
| Composition |
The
different types of audiences that make up the target
audience. |
| Core
Message |
The angle
taken in order to target the correct publications. Press
releases contain the core message. |
| Correction |
Colour
correction refers to any digital or traditional method
such as imaging, masking, dot etching or retouching used
to improve colour rendition. |
| Cost
per thousand |
The cost
efficiency of publications, calculated by dividing the
rate or specific advertisement cost by the circulation or
number of readers and multiplying by a thousand. |
| Coverage |
The amount
of exposure given to a company in the media. |
| CPT |
Cost per
thousand. The cost efficiency of publications, calculated
by dividing the rate or specific advertisement cost by
the circulation or number of readers and multiplying by a
thousand. |
| Crease |
A printed
job can be creased mechanically to make folding easier.
There are times when you might want a printed piece
delivered flat for ease of storage and then do the
folding yourself, manually. |
| Creative
Suite |
Adobe
Creative Suite is a collection of graphic design
applications made by Adobe Systems. It is not necessary
to buy the Creative Suite. Only InDesign and Photoshop
are required to run your publishing business. The suite
is available in Standard and Premium editions. As of 2006
the Creative Suite 2.3 Standard Edition features: Adobe
Illustrator CS2, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe InDesign CS2,
Adobe Version Cue CS2, Adobe Bridgeand a design guide and
training resources. In addition, the Premium Edition
includes: Adobe GoLive CS2, Adobe Acrobat Professional
and Dreamweaver. |
| Cromalin |
The brand
name of a colour proofing system produced by Du Pont. |
| Cyan |
The blue
colour used in Four Colour Process Printing. |
| Cylinder
|
The
cylinder is the part of a printing press onto which the
plate is fixed. |
| Demographics |
Information
about the target audience. Such as age, gender, race etc. |
| DIC |
The brand
name of a colour matching system produced by Dainippon
Ink & Chemicals, Inc. A range of inks are specified
and identified by number to produce standard results
across the industry. |
| Die
|
A die
press is a machine that is used to die cut or emboss a
shape into paper or board. Die stamping is a technique
that uses a die to emboss a relief image onto a surface.
Ink or metallic foil is generally used to add colour, but
if not the surface is said to be blind-stamped or blind
embossed. Also known as relief stamping. |
| Digital |
A recent
development has entered the market in the shape of
digital printing. These systems work directly from
electronic data and avoid the intermediate stage of films.
They are very cost effective for short runs. The quality
obtainable is not yet up to lithography standards but is
improving steadily and is adequate for many purposes.
Because these systems use an inherently four colour
process there is no cost saving to be made from using one-
or two-colour designs. Two popular digital machines are
the Indigo E-Print and Heidelberg Quickmaster. |
| Digital
proof |
A digital
proof is a color prepress proofing method where a job is
printed from the digital file using inkjet, color laser,
dye sublimation, or thermal wax print technologies to
give a good approximation of what the final printed piece
will look like. Digital proofs can often be produced on
the actual paper stock of the job adding another element
of accuracy. If you ask a printer for a digital proof,
make sure you know what it is you want, and what they
will give you. |
| Dot
gain |
Dot gain
is the increase in the size of a halftone dot caused by
the spread of ink during printing - can result in
darkening or loss of detail. |
| Double
Page Spread |
Two pages
of the same article covering both pages of an open
publication. Becomes more eye-catching to the reader. |
| DPS |
Double
page spread, i.e. two pages of the same article covering
both pages of an open publication. Becomes more eye-catching
to the reader. |
| Drill |
Make the
holes in paper for use in a ring binder. Drills can
neatly perforate a much greater thickness of paper than
can the kind of hole punch you have in the office. |
| Dummy |
1) a plain
white mock-up of a booklet or brochure - Not printed but
made up using the intended stock. Most printers will make
up a dummy if you ask nicely. This is the best way to get
a feel for the finished product. or 2) a mock-up produced
by the designer to show how the finished job will look.
This will usually involve colour prints from various
sources and will therefore not be on the intended stock. |
| Duotone |
A two-colour
halftone image sometimes used in two colour printing.
Produces a tinted effect using a black & white
original. It is made up from two ink colors by laying
down differing screen angles. |
| Duplication |
Where a
person consumes more than one media. I.e. they may read
‘The Times’ and ‘The Telegraph’. |
| Editorial |
Section of
a publication written by a journalist such as an article
or feature. |
| Emboss |
Stamping a
design into the paper to produce a raised effect. |
| Embossing |
Stamping a
design into the paper to produce a raised effect. |
| Feature |
An article
of a detailed nature. |
| Films |
Films are
produced by an imagesetter from the artwork. They are
used to produce the printing plates by a photochemical
process. There is one separated film for each ink used.
See Four Colour Process Printing. |
| Finishing |
Any
process that follows the actual printing. Can include
folding, creasing, stitching, binding and the like. |
| Flexographic |
A method
of direct rotary printing using flexible (often rubber)
raised image printing plates, fixed to variable repeat
plate cylinders, inked by a roll or doctor blade wiped
engraved metal roll, carrying inks to virtually any
surface. The process uses special fast drying fluid or
paste type inks that dry mainly by absorption and
evaporation. |
| Flexography |
A method
of direct rotary printing using flexible (often rubber)
raised image printing plates, fixed to variable repeat
plate cylinders, inked by a roll or doctor blade wiped
engraved metal roll, carrying inks to virtually any
surface. The process uses special fast drying fluid or
paste type inks that dry mainly by absorption and
evaporation. |
| Focoltone |
The brand
name of a colour matching system produced by Focoltone
International Ltd. A range of inks are specified and
identified by number to produce standard results across
the industry. |
| Folio |
Printer's
jargon for what the rest of the world calls a page number. |
| Font |
A complete
set of all the letters, numbers and characters in a
particular style or typeface. |
| Four
Colour Process |
The most
common system for producing full colour print. Originally
the artwork and originals were separated using filters
and four printing plates were produced. The four ink
colours are Cyan (Blue), Magenta (Red),Yellow and Black -
often referred to as CMYK. Because the inks used are
translucent, they can be overprinted and combined in a
variety of different proportions to produce a wide range
of colours. The vast majority of magazines and colour
books are produced using four-colour process.
Theoretically it is possible to produce an adequate range
of colours using just Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Indeed
for a time three Colour Process was a viable option.
However, in practice much better results are achieved
with the addition of black. The black plate is used to
strengthen the shadow areas and reduce the amount of CMY
inks required. |
| Frequency |
Since
people are exposed to more than one type of media,
frequency is the average number of times that your
audience could be exposed to your message. |
| Grain |
The
direction of the paper fibres in a sheet of paper. |
| Gravure |
A not very
common printing process where the image area is etched
below the surface of the plate (An intaglio process).
Gravure is most often used for either very high quality
or long run printing. The web version is sometimes
referred to as rotogravure. |
| gsm |
Abbreviation
for grams per square metre. This indicates the weight of
paper or other stock. For example; A typical photocopier
paper would be 80 gsm - a good letterhead paper might be
100 gsm - a postcard would be about 250 gsm. |
| Gutter |
The blank
space or inner margin between the printed area of the
paper to the fold where the binding is. |
| Halftone |
The method
of producing a range of tones, such as a photograph or
tinted area, by dividing the image into a series of dots.
Dark areas have relatively big dots, close together.
Light areas have small dots surrounded by white space.
The number of dots used determines the quality of the
image produced. In a newspaper the halftone dots are
easily visible to the naked eye - the screen used can
often be as coarse as 60 dpi (dots per inch). A halftone
screen can be applied to a solid colour in order to
produce tints of that colour. |
| Hickey |
In offset
printing, spots or imperfections in the printing due to
dirt on the press, dust, paper particles, etc. |
| Holdout |
A property
of coated paper with low ink absorption which allows ink
to set on the surface with high gloss. |
| Imagesetter |
Output
device used to produce separated films from digital
artwork. It can be thought of as a very high resolution
printer. Most systems use the Postscript page description
system. |
| Imaging
agent |
A type of
toner, typically used for large format printing. |
| Imposition |
The layout
of pages on the printed sheet so that they are in the
correct order when the sheet is folded up and trimmed.
Imagine a 16 page A5 leaflet printed on a single sheet.
The sheet is folded in half three times before trimming
and stitching. If you look at the printed, unfolded sheet
you will see that, for example, page 2 is adjacent to
page 15 and half the pages are upside down! There are
many different imposition layouts, some of them very
complex. |
| InDesign |
Adobe
InDesign is a desktop publishing (DTP) application
produced by Adobe Systems. Launched as a direct
competitor to QuarkXPress, it initially had difficulty in
converting users. In 2002 it was first to release a Mac
OS X-native version. Also, InDesign CS and CS2 were
bundled with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat in the
Creative Suite. InDesign can export documents in Adobe's
Portable Document Format and offers multilingual support
that Quark users can get only by purchasing a much more
expensive "Passport" version. InDesign was the
first major DTP application to support Unicode for text
processing, advanced typography of OpenType fonts,
advanced transparency features, layout styles, and
optical margin alignment. The cross-platform
scriptability using Javascript still sets it apart.
Finally, it features tight integration and user interface.
InDesign was positioned as a higher-end alternative and
successor to Adobe's own PageMaker. InDesign's primary
adopters are periodical publications, posters, and other
print media. Longer documents are usually still designed
with FrameMaker (manuals and technical documents) or
QuarkXPress (books, catalogs). |
| Ink |
A fluid
comprising solving and oils (called a "medium"
or "vehicle") in which a finely ground pigment
of plant dyes, minerals, or synthetic dyes is suspended
to provide color. There are many different types of inks
for the various printing processes. Gloss ink usually
contains varnish or synthetic resin base and drying oils.
Gloss ink ink dries quickly, does not penetrate far into
the paper and is normally used on coated and low-absorbency
papers. The degree to which ink shows the paper beneath
it is called transparency. Opaque ink is ink which is not
transparent and does not allow the paper to show through.
|
| Insert |
Jargon for
those adverts that fall on the floor when you open a
magazine. An insert is usually not secured to the main
publication and is sometimes referred to as a loose
insert for obvious reasons. |
| Inserts |
Jargon for
those adverts that fall on the floor when you open a
magazine. An insert is usually not secured to the main
publication and is sometimes referred to as a loose
insert for obvious reasons. |
| Institute
of Public Relations |
The
leading public relations industry professional body for
the UK and Europe. |
| Intaglio |
A printing
process where the image is engraved below the surface of
the printing plate such as gravure. |
| Interleaving |
Introducing
alternate sheets of blank paper between the printed
sheets as they come off the press to prevent set off. |
| International
Public Relations Association |
An
organisation based on membership for professionals in up
to 95 countries. Members gain valuable networking and
professional advice. |
| IPR |
The
leading public relations industry professional body for
the UK and Europe. |
| IPRA |
International
Public Relations Association - an organisation based on
membership for professionals in up to 95 countries.
Members gain valuable networking and professional advice. |
| ISBN |
ISBN
numbers are not relevant to free telephone directories
and are not used for serial publications. They are
individual identifiers for books, software and mixed
media. |
| ISO |
The most
common system of paper sizes in Europe is the ISO
standard. Most people are familiar with the A series
which includes A4 the usual letterhead size. The C series
is for envelopes - A C4 envelope being ideal for holding
an A4 sheet. There is also a B series which provides
intermediate sizes for the A series but this is rarely
used. DL is a special size for envelopes designed to
accept A4 paper folded in three. The aspect ratio of ISO
paper sheets is 1 to 1.414 (The square root of 2). This
gives them a unique property: If you cut a sheet into two
the resulting halves are the same proportion as the
original. In other words a sheet of A4 when halved gives
you two sheets of A5. All A size papers have the same
proportions. The largest sheet in this series is A0 which
is 841mm x 1189mm and just happens to be one square metre
in area (ISO paper sizes are rounded to the nearest
millimetre). Two other series which you may come across
are RA and SRA which are used by printers. They are
slightly larger than the A series to provide for grip,
trim and bleed. Of course you can use any size of paper
you choose. However, most paper merchants supply ISO
sized stock so it is most cost effective to stay with A
sizes. Use of the ISO system is much rarer in the USA. |
| ISSN |
International
Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs) are used by publishers
who wish to identify their serial publications,
particularly when they want to incorporate a barcode on a
magazine, journal or newspaper in order to offer it for
sale via major retailers or distribute it through
subscription agencies. They are not normally used for
free publications. Registration can be arranged on an
individual basis if you would like to incoporate on your
own editions. Details can be found here: http://minos.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/issn.html.
|
| iSUBSCRiBE |
iSUBSCRiBE
is the United Kingdom's most comprehensive independent
provider of magazines on the Internet. Their website is
www.isubscribe.co.uk. Their site aims to create a central
focus for the advertising of, and subscription to, all
United Kingdom magazine titles. |
| Keywords |
Specific
words or phrases often within a press release. Many
professionals use keywords in order to search for
specific publications or features. |
| Knockout
|
Type or
images that reverse out of a solid or tint. |
| Laid
Paper |
Uncoated
paper often used for business stationery which has a
textured pattern of parallel lines similar to hand made
paper. Compare to Wove Paper. |
| Lamination |
A plastic
coating which protects the printed surface and usually
gives a high gloss finish. Most paperback books have
laminated covers. |
| Landscape |
The
orientation of the page so that the long edge is along
the bottom. Sometimes referred to as horizontal. The
opposite is portrait. |
| Layout |
The
arrangement of all the elements on a page including
pictures, text, headlines, headers and footers. |
| Line
artwork |
Artwork
which contains no halftones (shading) such as company
symbols or simple diagrams. |
| Listings |
The free
entries which make up the content of a directory style
publication. |
| Lithography |
By far the
most common type of commercial printing. See Offset
Lithography. |
| Logo |
An image
which embies the corporate identity of a business. It may
be an image, a symbol or mark, text, or a combination of
these. |
| M |
Abbreviation
for a quantity of 1000 sheets of paper. |
| Machine
Minder |
The person
who actually runs the press. The quality of a printed job
is often dependent on the skill of the machine minder. |
| Make
Ready |
The
process of preparing a printing press before a new run,
to establish register, ink density, consistent impression
and so on. |
| Mask |
To prevent
light from reaching part of an image, therefore isolating
the remaining part. |
| Mechanical |
In the
days of manual artwork creation, a mechanical consisted
of hand-inked artwork and black-and-white photo prints
that were affixed to heavy artboard with adhesive wax or
rubber cement. Line shots of the mechanical were used by
film strippers as the starting point for creating film
for printing. Now, the term is sometimes used to describe
a finished page-layout file. |
| Mechanical
Data |
Mechanical
Data is the information which decribes the layout of a
publication in fine detail including page size, the width
of the columns and the number of columns. |
| Media |
A means of
communication such as television, newspaper, radio etc.
You may also hear the word media used to describe paper
or ink, because in the arts, media are the materials and
techniques used by an artist to produce a work. |
| Media
Pack |
Media
Packs are a collection of information for advertisers.
They vary from publication to publication and there is no
right or wrong presentation. They normally consist of:
• An introductory sheet of information about the
publication • A rate card and details of any special
offers or promotions • A sheet giving mechanical
data (this could form part of the rate card) • An
example copy |
| Microsoft
Publisher |
Microsoft
Publisher (full name Microsoft Office Publisher) is a
desktop publishing application from Microsoft. It is
often considered to be an entry-level desktop publishing
application, and to provide superior control over page
elements to Microsoft Word but inferior to page layout
programs such as Adobe Systems' InDesign and Quark, Inc.'s
QuarkXPress. Publisher has historically been less well-liked
among high end commercial print shops, compared with
other desktop publishing applications. It is a Windows-only
program, in industries with a significant proportion of
systems running Apple's Mac OS. Many higher end features
like transparency, object shadowing, slugs, text on paths,
built-in PDF output, etc. are either not fully-functional
or simply unavailable. However, recent versions have
greater capabilities concerning color separations and
proper process coloring output. Publisher 2007, set for
release in early 2007, will also include the long awaited
capability to output commercial press quality PDF with
embedded fonts as an optional download from the Microsoft
website. |
| Mock
Up |
A
preliminary layout showing the design, position of
illustrations and text prior to the final reproduction. |
| Newspaper
Licensing Agency |
The NLA
issue copyright licenses to companies who wish to copy
articles. Applies to all the national and some regional
and foreign newspapers. |
| NLA |
The NLA
issue copyright licenses to companies who wish to copy
articles. Applies to all the national and some regional
and foreign newspapers. |
| Offset |
Offset
Lithography is by far the most common form of commercial
printing. It is a printing system where the paper does
not come into contact with the printing plate. The ink is
transferred from the plate to a blanket cylinder and then
to the paper. The basic principle on which it works is
that oil and water do not mix. A litho printing plate has
non-image areas which absorb water. During printing the
plate is kept wet so that the ink, which is inherently
greasy, is rejected by the wet areas and adheres to the
image areas. Artwork is produced digitally with graphic
design software. An imagesetter is then used to produce
films (either positive or negative). When printing with
more than one colour there is a separated film for each
ink used. (See Four Colour Process Printing). Each film
is used to make a printing plate by a photochemical
process. The plate surface has non-image areas which
absorb moisture and repel ink. The flexible plates, which
can be made of a variety of materials, are attached to
the plate cylinder. The plate is kept moist throughout so
that ink only adheres to image areas. During every cycle
of the press the ink image is first transferred to a
rubber surfaced blanket cylinder and from there to the
paper. This indirect method is the 'offset' after which
the process is named. The blanket cylinder's flexibility
both preserves the delicate plate and conforms to the
surface of textured papers. After printing the sheets are
taken for finishing - trimming, folding and binding. The
press can either be fed with paper one sheet at a time (Sheet
fed) or from a large roll of paper (Web). Web printing is
normally reserved for large scale, long run work such as
magazines and catalogues. |
| One-up |
Single
printing of a single signature or image on a press sheet. |
| Originals |
The basic
elements of the artwork. Includes photographs on print or
transparency, illustrations, line artwork etc. |
| OTS |
Opportunity
To See - the number of times the target audience is
likely to see a marketing message. The equivalent in
radio is OTH - Opportunity To Hear. |
| Overrun |
Extra
copies of a printed publication in excess of the amount
ordered. Make ready sheets and spoilage affect every
press run, so more sheets are run to account for this.
Industry standards allow for 10% over-run or under-run.
It was once usual practice for a printer to charge pro
rata for overs. This is much less common nowadays and
overs may well be 'thrown in'. |
| Overs |
Extra
copies of a printed publication in excess of the amount
ordered. Make ready sheets and spoilage affect every
press run, so more sheets are run to account for this.
Industry standards allow for 10% over-run or under-run.
It was once usual practice for a printer to charge pro
rata for overs. This is much less common nowadays and
overs may well be 'thrown in'. |
| Pantone |
The brand
name of a colour matching system produced by Pantone, Inc
of the USA. A large range of inks are specified and
identified by number to produce standard results across
the industry. A reference such as PAN199 indicates a
colour in the Pantone range, in this case a bright red.
In a colour swatch book the number PAN199C would indicate
how the colour looks when printed on Coated or glossy
stock. PAN199U indicates how the same ink appears when
printed on Uncoated or matt stock. Sometimes the
difference can be quite dramatic. It is worth remembering
that Pantone inks provide a much greater range of colours
than can be achieved using CMYK. This is important if
trying to match work printed in four colour process with
that printed in special colours. |
| Pass
sheet |
A printed
sheet of optimum print quality that is removed from the
run, so subsequent sheets can be compared with it in
quality control. |
| Perfect
Binding |
A type of
book binding where the pages are held in the spine by
glue. Many magazines and most paperback books are perfect
bound. |
| Perfecting
|
In offset
printing, a configuration in which a continuous web or
sheets of paper are fed between two blanket cylinders,
printing both sides of a sheet in one pass through the
press. |
| Photomechanical |
The
preparation of printing plates involving photographic
techniques, now superceded by digital techniques. When
The Family Grapevine launched in 1996 all our pages were
printed out as hard copy and delivered to the printer
where printing plates were made by photographing each
page. |
| Photoshop |
Adobe
Photoshop, or simply Photoshop, is a graphics editor
developed and published by Adobe Systems. It is the
current market leader for commercial bitmap and image
manipulation, and, in addition to Adobe Acrobat, is one
of the best-known pieces of software produced by Adobe
Systems. It is considered the industry standard in most
jobs related to the use of visual elements. Photoshop is
available for Mac OS, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. |
| Plate |
The
printing plate is the physical surface which carries the
image of a group of pages. A plate is prepared for each
color used, or four plates in the case of 4-color (CMYK)
process printing. The plates may be made of metal,
plastic, rubber, paper, or other materials. The printing
plates used depends on the type of press, the printing
method, and quantity of the print run. In general, metal
plates are more expensive but last longer and have
greater accuracy. The image is put on the printing plates
using photomechanical, photochemical, or laser engraving
processes. The image may be positive or negative.
Typically, printing plates are attached to a cylinder in
the press. Ink is applied to the plate's image area and
transferred directly to the paper or to an intermediary
cylinder and then to the paper. |
| Platemaking |
The
process of making an image on a printing plate by
whatever means. |
| Plugging
|
A printing
problem where dot areas become filled in, resulting in
loss of detail and contrast. |
| Portrait |
The
orientation of the page so that the short edge is along
the bottom. Sometimes referred to as vertical. The
opposite is landscape. |
| Postscript |
The brand
name of a software standard created by Adobe. It is a
page description language which is used by most graphics
software and output devices to combine text, pictures and
graphical elements into an electronic document and create
output which can be used by the printer. |
| PR |
Public
relations (PR) is about reputation - the result of what
you do, what you say and what others say about you.
Public relations is the discipline which looks after
reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and
support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the
planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain
goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation
and its publics. |
| Preflight |
Preflighting
is a term used in the printing industry to describe the
process of confirming that the digital files required for
the printing process are all present, valid, correctly
formatted, and of the desired type. The term originates
from the preflight checklists used by pilots. Most good
dtp software including InDesign has an inbuilt procedure
for preflight checks. We strongly recommend carrying out
a Pre-flight Check on every ad you create, not just on
your finished publication. This will throw up any
potential problems, such as restricted fonts, missing
image files, RGB images etc. If all your adverts are pre-flighted,
it will make it a lot easier when you come to pre-flight
the finished publication! |
| Prepress |
Preparatory
work by the printer to get a project ready to print.
Includes scanning, computer work, output of files, and
proofing - in fact anything he has to do up to the point
where thet plates are made. |
| Preprint |
An item
printed in advance of a publication, later inserted
loosely into bound copies. Also called a blow-in. |
| Press
proof |
A press
proof is a printed proof run on a the same or similar
press to the one on which it will be printed, using the
actual inks, images and paper that will be used for the
job. |
| Press
Release |
A written
announcement issued to the news media and other
publications that seeks to draw the public attention of a
company’s developments. |
| Progressives |
A set of
proofs which show the different inks separately and
combined in various permutations. |
| Proof |
A test
print produced to show what the finished product will
look like. These can be made in a variety of different
ways and at different stages of the production process.
The simplest form is a colour laser or inkjet print which
can create a rough impression. It should be remembered
that at this point there are still a number of stages
through which the data has to pass and therefore a laser
print cannot be relied upon as an accurate proofing
method. Photochemical proofing systems like Cromalin have
for many years been the most popular method. The colour
print is produced directly from the separated films and
therefore gives an accurate interpretation. Sometimes the
colours can be even sharper and more vivid than can be
achieved on the press and there is a danger of creating
unrealistic expectations in the client. The most accurate
method is a wet proof. This involves using a special
proofing press designed for very short runs and actually
printing a quantity of sheets using the real stock and
real inks. Of course this requires producing the films
and plates, not to mention the cost of Make Ready which
makes wet proofing a very expensive option, particularly
if corrections are required. This is a bad time to start
looking for typographical errors. Increasingly popular
are digital proofing systems which aim to simulate the
Cromalin type proof. They are essentially very high
resolution colour printers which make use of colour
management techniques for their accuracy. Whatever system
you choose it is certain that proofing is a good thing
which can save a lot of heartache and cost later on. Sad
to say, many clients with an eye on the budget tend to
regard proofing as an unnecessary expense. "There's
always time for a reprint". |
| Public
Relations |
Public
relations (PR) is about reputation - the result of what
you do, what you say and what others say about you.
Public relations is the discipline which looks after
reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and
support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the
planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain
goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation
and its publics. |
| Publics |
Publics
are audiences that are important to the organisation.
They include customers - existing and potential;
employees and management; investors; media; government;
suppliers; opinion-formers. |
| QuarkXPress |
QuarkXPress
is a page layout application for Mac OS X and Windows,
produced by Quark, Inc.. As the first version was
released in 1987, Quark can be seen as one of the
founders of Desktop Publishing (beside Adobe Systems and
Apple Computer). Beside QuarkXPress, Quark Inc.'s other
notable product is "QuarkXPress Passport",
which is QuarkXPress with the added ability to use
multiple language UI, hyphenation and spell-checking.
Although similar to desktop publishing applications for
the home and small office market such as Adobe PageMaker
and Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress is seen as one of
only two page layout applications for the professional
market, the other being Adobe InDesign. |
| Rasterize |
Rasterization
is the process of turning text and images created in any
piece of software into a matrix of pixels that will be
displayed on screen or printed on the page. These
conversions generally take place automatically and you
may not necessarily be made aware of them by the software
you are working with. If you are alerted to rasterization
and asked for your approval you can generally authorise
your software to proceed as it sees fit. |
| Rate
Card |
A sheet or
sheets detailing costs for publishing advertisements in
any type of media. |
| Reach |
The reach
of a PR campaign is the total number of people within
your target audience that may see your message. Often
referred to as coverage. |
| Readership |
A general
term that refers to the number of people reading a
particular publication. Includes both the individual that
purchased the publication and the other persons who have
read the publication. |
| Ream |
A Ream of
paper is a quantity of sheets. Formerly it was 480 sheets,
20 quires, for common sizes such as letter-size paper (8-1/2"
x 11"). A printer's ream was 516 sheets, perhaps to
allow for wastage. As part of international
standardization, this quantity was changed to 500 sheets.
The old value of 480 sheets is now known as a short ream. |
| Redemption
rate |
The number
or percentage of sales promotion offers that are acted on
by consumers or retailers out of the total number
possible. For example if your circulation rate is 10,000
copies a redemption rate of 0.1% means that 10 customers
acted on the offer. |
| Register |
When
printing with two or more colours it is necessary to
align the different plates. This is known as register. On
the edges of an untrimmed sheet you will see small target
shapes called register marks which are used for accurate
positioning. A printed piece which is out of register
will have an unfocussed look. |
| ROI |
Return On
Investment, i.e. a comparison between the money earned (or
lost) on an investment (in this case an advertising
campaign) and the amount of money invested. |
| ROP |
Run of
Paper. This is an instruction to a publisher indicating
that no special position is sought for an advertisement,
i.e. it can be placed in any convenient part of the
advertising space of the publication and is therefore
sometimes charged at a lower rate. |
| Rotogravure |
The web
version of gravure (as in web press not internet!), used
for either very high quality or long run printing. The
paper is fed on a large roll (the web). |
| Run
of Paper |
This is an
instruction to a publisher indicating that no special
position is sought for an advertisement, i.e. it can be
placed in any convenient part of the advertising space of
the publication and is therefore sometimes charged at a
lower rate. |
| Run-on |
Often when
a printing price is quoted it is given as a figure for
the basic job plus a figure for additional copies. For
example the price may be 2000 copies at £300 with £25
for a 500 run-on. This enables you to calculate a range
of prices for different quantities. It is very important
to note that the run-on price is for copies printed at
the same time as the main run. For instance, in the
example given, you could not have 2000 copies today and
then expect to have another 500 at some future date for
just £25. In many cases the set-up and Make Ready
charges represent a large proportion of the print cost. |
| Saddle
Stitch |
Staple. A
simple way of assembling a small booklet or magazine with
a wire stitch (staple) through the fold. |
| Scanner |
A device
for turning a piece of artwork into a digital form.
Transparencies, prints and illustrations are scanned so
that they can be accessed by software designed for image
manipulation and page make-up. For many years the
industry standard was the drum scanner, a rotary system
which produced very high-resolution scans. Recently flat-bed
scanners, such as you might use with a PC, have risen
dramatically in quality to the point where the better
models are suitable even for high-end work. |
| Score |
Heavier
paper and boards need to be scored with a rule to make
folding easier. |
| Screen
Printing |
This is a
process where the ink is transferred to the printing
surface by being squeezed through a fine fabric sheet
stretched on a frame. The screen carries a stencil which
defines the image area. The process can be manual or
mechanical but is most suitable for short runs. Screen
printing is usually used for large poster work and
display material. It comes into its own when printing to
difficult or unusual surfaces such as clothing or plastic
objects. It is often referred to as silkscreen printing
although the screens are generally made from artificial
fibres. |
| Section |
A folded
sheet which is assembled with others to make up a book.
For example an A2 sheet will provide a section of eight A4
pages when folded twice. A 20 page booklet would
therefore require two 8-page sections and one 4-page
section. These sections are then saddle-stitched together.
Larger booklets of, say, more than sixty pages could be
perfect bound. |
| Sector
Analysis |
The
measure of an industry sector's media coverage. |
| Separation |
Colour
separation is the process of separating colour
photographic originals into the primary color components
required for printing. |
| Series |
A number
of publications covering a geographical area represented
by the same publisher. |
| Set-Off |
A printing
fault where ink transfers from a sheet to the one below
as it leaves the press creating an undesirable ghost
image. This can be cured if necessary by interleaving.
The machine minder should be able to correct the problem. |
| Sheet
Fed |
A press
which prints by taking up one sheet at a time. This is
the system you are most likely to come across. The
opposite of web. |
| Special
Colours |
This
refers to colours which are produced using specially
mixed inks from one of the commercially available colour
ranges such as Pantone, DIC or Focoltone. They are most
commonly used when using Two Colour Printing. To print
colours outside the range of four colour process it is
necessary to use special inks. If for example the exact
colour of a company logo could not be achieved from a
CMYK mix then it would be necessary to print a fifth
plate with the special ink. It is not unusual, where an
elaborate effect is required, to print in six or more
colours. There are presses which are capable of printing
eight different plates in a single run through the
machine. It is worth bearing in mind when choosing a
colour for a company logo that sooner or later you will
want to print a colour brochure using four colour process.
A vivid ink which you have chosen from the Pantone book
may not have an acceptable CMYK equivalent. You may be
forced to change the company colour or swallow the
ongoing expense of a fifth plate. |
| Stepcheck |
A service
providing independent verification of the circulation of
publications delivered door to door. |
| Stock |
A general
term for any paper or board which is used as a printed
surface. |
| Swatch
Book |
Swatch
books are produced by ink manufacturers to indicate how
their inks look when printed. They are typically very
small and very expensive. Most printing companies have
one and will let you refer to it for a particular job. It
is highly unlikely that you would buy your own. A
reference guide like 'Colour Index' by Jim Krause is a
more economical alternative for everyday use. |
| Syndicated |
The same
article published across a series. The copy and layout
can sometimes vary within the series. |
| Syndication |
The same
article published across a series. The copy and layout
can sometimes vary within the series. |
| Target
Audience |
The group
of people you are trying to reach with your message. |
| Target
Publications |
Newspapers
and magazines whose readership profile best matches a
company's target market. |
| Three
Colour |
Theoretically
it is possible to produce an adequate range of colours
using just Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. In Four Colour
Process Printing the black plate adds shade and depth
reducing the amount of ink required. Today this system is
very rare. Three colour printing may also refer to the
use of three special inks or black combined with two
specials. |
| Transparencies |
Many
professional studios like to have photographs for
printing supplied as transparancies (just like your
holiday slides) rather than as prints. Transparencies
generally have sharper images and better colour than
photographic prints. The three most common sizes are 'five-by-four',
'two-and-a-quarter' (both in inches) and 35mm. Now that
most photos are supplied as digital images via email,
transparencies are rarely mentioned. |
| Trim |
Trim area
is the finished size of your publication, in other words
the size to which your printing company will cut (guillotine!)
your pages. For example the trim area for an A4
publication is 297mm x 210mm. |
| Two
Colour |
A two
colour press prints two colours during one pass through
the machine. It is possible to print four colour process
by printing Cyan and Magenta, changing the plates and
then sending the sheets through again to print the Yellow
and Black. Two colour printing is commonly used for
stationery because of its cost-effectiveness. The typical
design includes a special colour such as a Pantone ink
along with black. The special ink is for the 'company
colour' for use on the logo and the black is for text. In
addition, tints of both inks could be used to produce
variations of the colour and greys respectively. For
example, if a strong blue is chosen as the main colour
then the opportunity exists to have a pale blue tint,
perhaps as a background 'ghost' image. A range of greys
is also available from tints of black. Two colour
printing can be an economic way of producing brochures
and catalogues if full-colour images are not required. |
| Type
Area |
This is
the area within the margins of your pages, into which you
fit page numbers, headings, free listings and adverts,
for example a type area for a 297mm x 210mm A4 page might
be 281mm x 195mm. When preparing documents to be printed
by a printing company, such as inserts, the company will
tell you the maximum type area they can deal with, so
that you never risk anything being trimmed away. The
essential content of any full page should never exceed
the maximum type area your printer specifies. When
designing documents you print at home such as rate cards,
you must be careful to set your type area within the
limits for your own domestic printer as it will not be
able to print up to the edge of the page, (some are
better than others!) |
| Universe |
The total
number of people that read, listen to and watch a type of
media. |
| UV |
UV
Varnishing is a method of adding a gloss finish to
printed surfaces. The advantage of UV varnishing is that
it is similar to printing an extra colour and can be
applied to selected areas to produce special effects. The
UV refers to the Ultra-Violet lamp under which the
varnished sheets pass for rapid drying. |
| Verified
Free Distribution or VFD |
Verified
Free Distribution certification (VFD) confirms the
circulation of free newspapers and magazines. See ABC
more more details. There is another verification service
called Stepcheck but this only deals with door to door
deliveries. |
| Visuals |
Jargon for
the images in a publication. |
| Voucher
Copy |
A copy of
a publication sent to an advertiser to prove that their
advertisement appeared as and where agreed. Some
advertisers, particularly large corporates, require a
voucher copy before they will pay. |
| Web |
Nothing to
do with the internet. The opposite of sheet fed. A web
printing machine is one that accepts the paper on a large
roll (the web). These are very fast presses and are only
economic for long run and high volume work. Most people
have seen film of newspapers being printed - this is a
web process. The majority of magazines you find in the
newsagent have been printed by web. |
| Work
and Tumble or Work and Turn |
This is when a whole job is printed on
one side of sheet, the sheets turned and printed again
using the same plates. For example, a single sheet A4
flyer is printed with back and front adjacent to each
other on one side of an SRA3 sheet. The sheets are
flipped over and printed with the same plates again. When
trimmed you have A4 sheets with a different image front
and back. The advantage of this technique is to save a
plate change and make-ready cost. |
| Wove |
Wove paper
is uncoated paper often used for business stationery
which has no obvious surface texture or pattern. Compare
to Laid Paper. |
