There are a lot of terms that have been adopted by the printing industry. Hopefully the glossary below will help.
3DAP is an Australia contract proofing standard primarily for Prepress facilities and advertising agencies to enable an individually verified and certified proof that conforms to the 3DAP standards. Originally this proof was conformed to the older Chromalin proofing standards, although the variance in this process was not ideal. The newer v2 standard conforms to averaged press standards that are far more universal. Each proof is read in with a spectrophotometer to measure accuracy, if ok, then a certificate (small sticker printed an a label printer) is attached to the proof for reference and verification.
This is used to measure the accuracy of colour. It refers to the distance from accurate a colour is. The maximum ΔE for a contract proof on the 3DAP v2 standard is 5, although most people choose to work to tighter tolerances than this. To put this in perspective, an offset press often varies by ΔE of 12 so these proofs are extremely accurate
In inkjet printing this refers to the appearance of lines in the direction the printhead travels. Usually a sign of poorly calibrated printer, clogged or misaligned print head nozzles.
Relates to black being added when converting from RGB to process CMYK colours. Normally done through UCR or GCR.
Occurs on media when too much ink is applied and what should appear as sharp lines feathers out.
Occurs on inkjet media when light that is reflected back from a dark or black area of the print takes on a bronzed appearance. This is caused by the gloss enhancers that are a part of the inkjet inks being unevenly distributed across the media (print will have dark and light areas and will be viewed with a difference gloss appearance across the printed sheet. Some new printers (e.g. HP's new Designjet Z series) add a clear "Gloss Enhancer" ink to compensate for this affect leaving a more desirable print.
Standardises a device.
- Calendared media or vinyl
Refers to the production method of the vinyl. Calendared vinyl is produced by taken a large mass of material and calendaring (or rolling) it down to become a thin flat product. This product type DOES have a memory and will try to return to it's original form (a large lump of vinyl), causing shrinking etc. It is also usually shorter term use and thicker than cast. There are 2 types of calendaring processes: Monomeric & Polymeric. Monomeric is the cheaper of the 2 and will last the shortest period and is the thickest and least conformable, and Polymeric is much better quality, although still not as good as cast.
Refers to the production method of the vinyl. Cast product is produced as a flat product as opposed to calendared vinyl. This vinyl is usually much better quality and offers better longevity. Because of the way it's manufactured means that it's also thinner and more conformable. It is also very dimensionally stable (does not shrink)
A contract proof that was processed directly from the film prior to the production of plates for an offset press. Not as common since digital proofing became popular.
A scientific 3D XYZ space that describes how the average human eye sees colour. Used as a conversion table in colour management. More advanced description here
Colour Matching System.
Stands for: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (black is abbreviated to K so as to not be confused with Blue). They are subtractive colours that are usually used in printing.
This has different meanings in different markets. In digital printing, this refers to a receptive coating designed to handle the type of ink being used to image the paper. This can be any finish (gloss or matt etc). However in the offset industry, coated paper refers to the finish of the stock (often glossy as an example).
When too much ink is applied to some media, the paper can sometimes deform into ridges and valleys as the paper stretches from being wet.
Used primarily for monitor calibration. Not as capable as a Spectrophotometer.
Describes the amount of colours that can be produced by a digital output device. In printing, the media and ink combination will also change the colour gamut available.
the process of splitting a full colour artwork into it's individual C, M, Y & K components. This must be done for offset and screen printing to produce plates or film for each colour. These separations also have a halftone screen pattern (visible in offset or screen prints under magnification as a rosette of each colour)
A measurement of light colour degrees in Kelvin. The higher the value the closer it is to white, daylight ranges between 5500°K to 6500°K
A digital representation of another printing process used by a print buyer to approve or reject the result prior to the actual print run. It's a contract proof because the customer is usually asked to sign the proof on approval creating an agreement between them and the print supplier of expected results. If the customer is unhappy with the final printed result, the contract proof can be reviewed, if the print matches the proof then the printer has accurately produced the job, but alternatively if the proof does not match then the customer has the right to request a reprint or discount on the job by negotiation. It's for this reason Pre-Press facilities are so careful with colour.
Not really used anymore, but was a proofing process than took the final film before making plates to go onto a press, and producing a proof directly from this film. Was very accurate although was labour intensive and expensive. Most people sent these to be scrapped years ago.
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