Glossary

Use this glossary of terms to search for the definition / meaning of certain terms used in this documentation.

Binding Types

Saddle-stitching - It's probably the easiest (have you the tools) and the most economical binding method. Pages are folded, creased and stapled together (not by an ordinary stapler - a stapler with long jaws, designed specifically for saddle stitching). We often see this type of binding used for lookbooks, booklets, and magazines that have a smaller page count. Perfect Binding - a form of binding most often used in the types of books you find yourself reading on the train or at home, otherwise known as paperback or softcover books. Perfect bound books can also be useful for manuals, catalogues, and annuals. Pages are folded into sections (termed signatures in the industry) and glued with a heavier printed wrap-around cover into the spine using a strong adhesive. It's not the strongest form of binding and your book won't open flat; you'll know a book has been poorly perfect bound when your pages start falling out.Section Sewn - Your most secure binding method. Here pages are folded together into sections (signatures). Each section is then sewn into the following section along the spine. The spine is then glued together for extra support and the cover then attached. A Section Sewn book, regardless of pagecount will be able to lay flat.Wire Binding/ Spiral Binding - Most of you would have bound a document throughout school or university using one of these methods. In a nutshell, holes are punched through the pages of your document near the bound edge, and held together using either wire or plastic coils. If you're after a something a little fancier, a a document can be wire bound inside a hard cover, cloth or printed case.Cased-in Wiro Binding - If you would like to hide the wire from the outside there is a solution known as a Cased-in Wiro. This technique, however, is more involved than your traditional wiro bound document, but the final result looks lovely as you can see.Pamphlet Binding uses a single section (signature) and is sewn with a running stitch down the spine; often an alternative to stapling (saddle stitch) but in my opinion leaves you with a much more elegant finish. Coptic Binding – A non-adhesive form of binding that stems from bookbinding methods employed by ancient Egyptians! Signatures are sewn through their folds, and attached to one another and again sewn through two loose covered boards with a chain like stitch across the spine.

Bleed

In printing, a “bleed” is where your background color or image extends all the way to the edge of the sheet. This must be printed on a larger sheet and then trimmed down. In other words, the bleed is the area to be trimmed off. After trimming, the bleed ensures that no unprinted edges are in the final trimmed document.

Collate-and-cut

The Collate-and-cut binding method includes several types of binding including Side stitch — which means it is stapled along the left side of the pages, Corner stitch — which means it is stapled in the upper left corner, Spiral wiring, GBC and 3-hole binding. Each of these methods actually means that the pages are collated into order and holes have to be drilled or punched once the job is printed and trimmed.

Continuous forms

Continuous forms - also known as “dot-matrix” forms or “pin-fed” forms - are either carbonless or carbon-interleaved. See also NCR books.

Die Cutting

Die cutting is seen in business cards, postcards, brochures and all personal stationary sets. The best way to describe die cutting is a cookie cutter - A blade is formed into a certain shape, and then used to cut the paper. The die is embedded into a block of wood that is securely held in a die cutting press. The machine presses the paper against a metal plate, cutting the shape into the printer.

Imposition

Imposition, broadly defined, is what describes the arrangement of pages on the press sheet so that when folded, the pages will read consecutively. When you decide how to arrange the pages on the sheet, you will base it on the size of the press sheet and the pages, as well as how the job will be folded and bound. The imposition design will also depend, in part, on the binding method to be used. It consists of the arrangement of the printed product's pages on the printer's sheet, in order to obtain faster printing, simplify binding and reduce paper waste.

Make Ready

What is Make Ready (MR)? It is simply an extra amount of paper required for a printing project, used so that a pressman can make sure the job is running correctly. It is basically warmup or practice sheets that help the pressman ensure plates are aligned and ready for printing. And how does this affect you and your print project? Depending on the type of job, a printer may be required to purchase extra paper to give a pressman sufficient make ready. So instead of simply purchasing one 500 sheet ream to match your letterhead order, a printer might need 550 sheets. Which means, that they will need to purchase 2 reams of paper to complete the job. This will necessarily depend on the paper being used, how a project is being printed and how the paper manufacturer sells the product. So every different printed material that goes on press will vary in its requirements.This is primarily an issue with traditional presses, but its not entirely absent in digital printing. On a digital press there will invariably be issues with color or brightness that will need to be addressed before the entire job is printed. Also remember that if you are having any kind of finishing done like binding, folding, scoring or what have you, then you will need even more make ready available to ensure that your finished project can be completed with the amount you need at top-notch quality.

Perfect Binding

This is how multiple pages are bound together. A good example of Perfect Binding would be a telephone directory. Once printed, the pages are collated into their proper order and put into a clamp device at the bindery. Typically, about 1⁄8” of the spine edge is removed (cut off), and glue is applied to the spine area as well as a small section over the edge front and back. The directory cover would then be adhered to the glue area

Plates

Aluminium printing plates are supplied to the printing industry and specifically used in a lithographic printing process which is also referred to as offset printing. This uses a metal backed photopolymer relief plate, similar to a letterpress plate, but, unlike letterpress printing where the ink is transferred directly from the plate to the substrate, in dry offset printing the ink is transferred to a rubber blanket before being transferred to the substrate.

Print Run

In publishing, a print run of something such as a book or a newspaper is the number of copies of it that are printed and published at one time.

Qty-up Printing

In printing, 2-up, 3-up, or more generally N-up refers to a page layout strategy in which multiple pre-rendered pages are composited onto a single page; achieved by reduction in size, possible rotations, and subsequent arrangement in a grid pattern.

Run Overs

This refers to copies above and beyond the stated press run. These copies are produced to allow for make-ready (set-up operations) and spoilage during the various components of the printing and finishing process. If a custom printing service produces exactly 1,800 sets of text signatures for an 1,800-copy case-bound book order, portions of the books (both signatures and cases) will be inadvertently damaged during the manufacturing process. This is referred to as spoilage. So to be safe and not wind up with too few copies, a printer will produce more copies than needed (up to a stated amount). The printer can then bill for these copies to recapture costs

Saddle Stitching

This method of binding is achieved by stapling the pages along a center fold - like a magazine, or catalogue. In preparing an imposition for a saddle-stitched job, you must realize that the pages on a single sheet of paper are not going to be consecutive. Folding the job is what provides a detailed example of a saddle-stitching job. A publication/piece that is bound by saddle-stitching can be easily opened and will lie flat when opened up.

Sheet fed

The Sheetwise method means printing the second side of the paper using a completely different plate. Sheetwise is also used for jobs that only print on one side of the paper. If your press uses a press sheet that is capable of printing 8 pages on a single side and your job contains only 16 individual pages, then you can go with a sheetwise imposition method. It means the press will print the fronts of 8 pages, flip the paper and print the back of those same 8 pages. Your specific job has to consist of enough pages to fill up both sides of the press sheet.
In sheet-fed offset printing the paper has the form of a sheet, which is printed with offset inks of high viscosity fixed by absorption and polymerization, and in the case of UV and hybrid inks by polymerization initiated by ultraviolet. After printing, sheets of paper must dry before the following processes, which makes production’s lead times longer. After a suitable time needed for ink to dry, printed sheets are subsequently refined with foil, UV or without additional special finishes they are folded to the final format. The folded sheets are then transferred to the post-press department for saddle stitching or perfect binding.

Signatures

A signature is a group of pages that are printed on both sides of a single sheet of paper that once folded, trimmed, bound and cut, become a specific number of pages depending on the page size and the size of the press sheet. See image here.

SMTP

The acronym SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the procedure behind the email flow on the internet.

Washup

To clean the colour station so a different colour can be used. This process will ensure that the next colour will not mix with the old colour and to not make unwanted stains on the print job.

Web Offset

Web offset presses use paper from a roll, which is printed with inks intended for a specific type of printing. We distinguish two ways of web offset printing:- Coldset web offset: ink is fixed by absorption into paper.- Heatset web offset: ink is fixed by absorption into paper and evaporation at high temperatures.Coldset web offset is used in printing less demanding products like newspapers or supermarket flyers. Whereas, heatset web offset printing is used for the high-quantity printing works, such as periodicals, magazines or catalogues. The other technique is used particularly for publications of the highest quality printed on better paper.
The distinctive feature of heatset web offset machines is a very high speed of printing, four or five times higher than in sheet-fed printing, which allows to complete the order faster in comparison with sheet-fed printing. Additionally, directly in the machine, after the printing process, there is the automatic folding system, turning sheets into the final format product. It eliminates additional processes, which are essential in the case of sheet-fed printing, where we obtain a printed non-folded sheet. Thanks to the faster process of printing and folding directly in one process, web offset printing is more economical and allows proposing to the customer much lower unit prices than in the case of sheet-fed printing. Additionally, paper in a roll is cheaper when purchased than sheet paper.

Work and Tumble

A Work-and-tumble layout is equivalent to the Work-and-turn, except that following the printing of the first side of the press sheet, the paper is “tumbled” or flipped from top to bottom. In other words, the left side of the press sheet for the first side printing is the same as the left side of the press sheet on the second side printing.

Work and Turn

A Work-and-turn layout means that after the first side of the press sheet is printed, the paper is flipped over side-to-side and fed through the printing press again. Unlike the Work-and-tumble method, when flipping, the top and bottom are not inverted. The top of the first side is the top on the second side

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