I'm reposting a small dictionary of printing terms. Joel Friedlander published this originally last month, and I found it extremely helpful. Perhaps it will help you, too. The Language of the Book, Part I Ascender/descender—Descenders
are parts of letters that extend below the baseline
as in the “tail” of the letters “y” “g” or “p” while ascenders are the parts of
letters that rise above the height of lower case letters, like the
upward-extending parts of the “l” “h” or “t”. Baseline—The
imaginary line on which type, not including the bits that go below the line,
like the tail of the lower-case “g” or “p”. Bleed—When an
image or type is intended to run off the edge of the printed page, it is said
to “bleed.” Printers have their own specifications for how far the image has to
extend past the edge of the paper to allow enough room for manufacturing variances.
In offset printing it is standard to allow one-eighth inch for bleed. Some
digital printers, due to the looser manufacturing standards of their equipment,
require one-quarter of an inch for bleed.
Blind folio—A page
number that is assigned to a page but not printed on the page.
Book block—The
complete interior of a book after the individual signatures have been printed fooled and gathered together and
before being covered with a paper cover or hardcover case. Bulking—The
measurement of paper thickness expressed as how many pages it takes to equal
one inch, as in “360 ppi” or 360 pages per inch. Lower ppi will create a
thicker book, a higher ppi, a thinner one.
Bullet—A
typographic character used to bring emphasis to items, often in a list, and
therefore called a bullet list. Casebound—Hardcover
books are created by manufacturing a case from binders board and a covering such as cloth, leather or paper, then
covering the book block with the
case. In the bindery this is known as “casing in” and results in a casebound
book. CMYK, RGB—Different
ways of representing color, CMYK is used in printing and creates colors through
a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. RGB is used for screen
displays and creates colors through a combination of red, green and blue
pixels. Materials prepared for printing usually need to be in the CMYK color
space.
Colophon—A notice,
usually at the end of a book, that credits the design, typography and
production of the book.
Crop marks—Lines on
artwork, either digital or mechanical, intended to show where the reproductions
should be cut to achieve the final trim size. Double truck—An image in
a book or magazine that extends over two pages and across the gutter. DPI—The amount
of information contained within an image file is expressed as dots per inch. Screen images are usually
displayed at 72 DPI on monitors, but printers typically require images of 300
DPI to produce acceptable results. Folio—This is
what we call page numbers in books. Folio is a term derived from early
printing. Thus, page numbers at the bottom of a page are referred to as drop folios and pages without page
numbers might be referred to as using blind
folios (you can’t see them but they are implied.) After adding page numbers,
we might say the pages are foliated. Grayscale—The color space for black and white graphic
images. For book interiors intended to be printed only in black, all graphics
should be grayscale.
Gutter,
margin—Margins are the blank spaces around the type area on a book page,
but the inside margin has the special name gutter
and it is always the margin on the bound edge of the book page. When you’re
looking at a book page spread you’ll
have two gutters together, doubling
the apparent space. Keep that in mind when laying out your book page. Imposition—Not
something being forced on you. Books are usually printed on large sheets of
paper which are subsequently folded several times and then assembled and
trimmed on the outside edges. The arrangement of pages on the large sheets is
the imposition, and before computers it was the responsibility of specialists
who could figure out which page should go where. Justification—Describes
how the left and right edges of a block of type are arranged by the typesetter.
Flush left type is even on the left
margin and ragged on the right edge
as a standard amount of space is used between each word and lines are allowed
to end wherever, creating a “ragged” appearance. Flush right is the opposite. Justified
typesetting varies the amount of space between words (and sometimes between
letters) to create straight margins on both the left and right sides of a block
of type. Kerning—The
adjustment of the inter-letter spacing of in typesetting to account for the
shapes of the letters and to make the type appear to be uniformly spaced. Leading—Quite
simply the measurement of space between the lines of type, usually measured
from one baseline to the next. Ligature—Another
carryover from the work of scribes before typesetting was invented, ligatures
join two letters together where the forms of the letters would otherwise create
an awkward inter-letter spacing problem. Frequently used for “fi” “fl” and
similar combinations.
Page, leaf,
spread—Different ways of describing the book page. A page is one side of a leaf
of paper. The basic unit of design in printed books is the spread, or two facing pages as you see them when a book is opened
flat. In ebooks, the spread has become obsolete, since ereaders simply create
pages on the fly and there is no “open book” as with a printed book. Pagination—Dividing a
book into pages, and the assigning of page numbers (folios) to the pages in a
specific style of numbering. Pica, point—The
printer’s standard unit of measure for typography and layout. The pica is now
standardized as one-sixth of an inch. There are 12 points in every pica. Used
most commonly to denote type size and leading,
as in “12 point Minion on 15 points leading.” Running
head/running feet—Page elements that show the reader where they are in
the book, running heads (at the top of the page) or running feet (at the bottom
of the page) can include the book title, author name, part title, chapter title
or subject headings to provide navigational help to the reader.
Safe area—Designated
by a book printer, the area that is far enough away from the trim or gutter
edges to be considered “safe” within the tolerances of the printer’s
manufacturing equipment.
Serif, sans
serif—Typefaces that evolved from calligraphic originals still show the
influence of scribes writing with square-nibbled pens in the little serifs, or
finishing strokes of the letters. Type designs without these flourishes are
sans serif, (from the French).
Signature—Books are
printed in multiples of 8, 16 or 32 pages on large sheets of paper. Once the
paper has been printed and folded to the size of the book it becomes a
signature. If the sheets hold 16 pages, we refer to the book as being printed
in “16-page signatures.” Tracking—An
adjustment offered by typesetting programs that adjusts the overall spacing
between letters. Looser tracking is often used for smaller type or type set in
small caps. Tighter tracking is common in larger type sizes like those used for
headlines. Trim size—Books are
printed on large sheets which are then folded into signatures. The signatures are gathered to create the book block which is then trimmed on the
top, bottom and the opening side. Thus the final size of the book is called the
trim size. Although a book can be produced in any size, printers and trade practice
mostly use standard trim sizes for economy. Widow/orphan—The first
or last line of a paragraph left at the bottom or stranded at the top of a
page, usually considered an aesthetic defect in better typography.
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/06/dont-let-me-find-you-bleeding-in-the-gutter-understanding-book-terminology/
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