To have the tongue of the pros in printing is indispensable to understand what they are trying to convey. Another reason is for you to take advantage of the printing techniques, materials and everything that concerns printing.

Are you a person who often runs out of words when talking to the prepress staff or a printer representative? Do you always search for the right words? Well, you can do something about it by improving your printing vocabulary and speak the lingo.

To help you begin, here are the critical terms in both prepress and printer:

Prepress terms:

Bleed - the amount of spare space necessary when ink runs of the page edge.

Finished size – refers to the final size of the print item after it has been folded, trimmed and ready for distribution.

Line Screen – refers to the number of rows of dots per inch.

Lineup – includes all images that must line up together once the piece is folded or collated. This includes images from all the pages.

Page Count – the number of pages in a book once folded and bound. A sheet, for instance, can make two pages when folded.

Plus Cover – when another material for the cover is used other than the material in the inside pages.

Process – this is otherwise known as CMYK or full color printing. The printing process where cyan, magenta, yellow and black are used to formulate other colors.

Self cover - when same material in the inner pages is used as cover.

Portable Printer terms:

Inkjet printer – this kind of printer sprays tiny droplets of ink to form images.

Resolution – is the level of detail printable by a printer. The level can be indicated by dots per inch (dpi).

Thermal printing – is a printing technology that utilizes heat to print. In this technology, ink and ribbons are dispensed with.

Thermal transfer – is a printing technique that utilizes heat to transfer texts and images from a ribbon. Fusion printing is the other term for thermal transfer printing. It does not necessitate special paper.

Understanding printing terms is important in order to get or convey accurate details of the printing job including the materials and price. Lack of it may cost you a lot. It may mean waste of effort, time and money.