useful information

Glossary - L

Label

The functional portion of a pressure-sensitive construction compromising the face material and adhesive, die cut into various shapes.

Label stock

Pressure-sensitive laminate, from which labels are produced, usually refers to roll stock.

Labelling machine

Dispensing apparatus that, by means of driving or pulling the backing, delivers a pressure-sensitive label and applies it to a product.

Lacquer (1)

Clear protective coating for paper that renders a high gloss.

Lacquer (2)

A clear or coloured coating applied to the finished surface of many engraving metals.

Laid

Paper with a watermark pattern showing the wire marks of the mold or dandy roll used in the paper making process. Usually used for high quality stationery.

Laid Finish

A paper with a translucent pattern of lines running both parallel to, and across the grain. Laid finished paper like dropping a patterned dandy roll onto the paper machine while the paper is still wet creates Champion Mystique.

Laminant

An adhesive for combining and bonding a combination of films, foils, plastics, papers or other materials. Pressure-sensitive constructions are often called laminants.

Laminate

Thin transparent plastic coating applied to paper or board to provide protection and give it either a gloss or matt finish.

Laminate (Engraving Stock)

A material manufactured by fusing two or more layers together to form one solid sheet.

Lamination

A plastic film bonded by heat, adhesive, and/or pressure to a printed web for protection or appearance. Two or more materials bonded together functioning as one.

LAN

Local Area Network; communications network serving users in a confined geographical area, made up of servers, workstations, network operating system and communications link.

Landscape

Work in which the width used is greater than the height. Also used to indicate the orientation of tables or illustrations that are printed 'sideways'.

Lap

Slight overlapping of two printed colours to ensure there is no fault in registration. More commonly referred to as Trap, Trapping.

Laser Compatible

Paper that performs on a laser printer or copier. Laser compatible paper has good dimensional stability that keeps it from curling, changing shape, and causing paper jams in printers and copiers. All of the premium writing grades that Champion manufactures are laser compatible.

Laser engraving

Engraving process done by laser, evaporating the paper rather than cutting it.

Laser paper

Paper suitable to accept laser printing.

Laser plate making

Exposing plates with lasers.

Laser printer

A high quality image printing system using a laser beam to produce an image on a photosensitive drum. The image is transferred on to paper by a conventional xerographic printing process. Laser printers range between 300dpi to 600dpi and with interpolation to 1,200dpi. It works by heating up toner to the pattern of the document in the printer's memory; and then fusing the toner onto paper.

Laser scanner

An optical bar code reading device that uses a low energy laser light beam to illuminate the code.

Last colour down

Last colour to be printed on the press.

Lateral reversal

A positive or negative image transposed from left to right as in a mirror reflection of the original.

Latex

An emulsion of rubber or resin particles dispersed in an aqueous medium. A natural or synthetic elastomeric dispersion in an aqueous system.

Latex paper

Paper manufactured by two major processes; one of which is where latex is incorporated with the fibers in the beater prior to formation of the sheet, and the second of which is where a preformed web of absorbent fiber is saturated with properly compounded latex. The papers are characterized by strength, folding endurance, resistance to penetration by water, flexibility, durability and resistance to abrasion.

Laydown

The imposition supplied by a printer with all the information for outputting films, with such information as grips and margins.

Laydown sequence

Order in which colours are printed.

Layout

A sketch of a page for printing showing the position of text and illustrations and giving general instructions.

Lead or Leading

(pronounced 'led') space added between lines of type to space out text and provide visual separation of the lines. Leading is as important as type size in determining the overall appearance and readability of a text element or column of type. Measured in points or fractions thereof - from the strips of lead that used to be inserted between lines of metal type.

Leaders

Row of typographic dots or dashes.

Leading

The space, measured in points, between consecutive lines of type. (Original name derived from the strips of lead placed between lines of hot type in the early 1900's.)

Legend

The descriptive matter printed below an illustration, mistakenly referred to as a caption. Also an explanation of signs or symbols used in timetables or maps.

Legend Plate

A small tag, often times engraved, that is affixed to a machine or other object that contains instructions, warnings or mechanical data.

Legibility

Cumulative effect of printed matter on the human eye.

Letraset

A proprietary name for rub-down or dry transfer lettering used in preparing artwork.

Letter spacing

The addition of space between the letters of words to increase the line-length to a required width or to improve the appearance of a line.

Letterflex

Photopolymer plate used in flexography and letterpress.

Letterpress

A relief printing method. Printing is done using cast metal type or plates on which the image or printing area are raised above the nonprinting areas. Ink rollers touch only the top surface of the raised areas; the nonprinting areas are lower and do not receive ink. The inked image is transferred directly to the page, resulting in type of images that may actually be depressed or debossed into the paper by the pressure of the press.

Letterset

A printing process combining offset printing with a letterpress relief printing plate.

Library picture

A picture taken from an existing library and not specially commissioned.

Lift tab

Ungummed edge of a label designed to make removal from the release liner easier. Sometimes used with order picking labels.

Lifting

Refers to the condition when a tape, on its own accord comes away from the surface to which it was applied.

Ligature

Letters that are joined together as a single unit of type such as oe and fi.

Light table

A box with a glass top and a light inside making it very useful for paste-ups, as the light allows you to see through the paper, improving alignment.

Lightface

Type having finer strokes than the medium typeface. Not used as frequently as medium.

Lightfastness

How much light exposure paper or film can withstand without losing original characteristics.

Lignin

The natural, glue-like substance that holds together the cellulose fibers of wood plants. Lignin that is left in pulp causes paper to age and yellow over time.

Like-sided

Paper that has the same appearance and characteristics on both sides (the opposite of two-sided).

Line block

A letterpress printing plate made up of solid areas and lines and without tones.

Line break

Command that allows you to break headlines at logical pauses without adding paragraph spacing. Line breaks also help you to avoid an extremely long line followed by a very short line.

Line conversion

Photographic elimination of middle tones from continuous-tone art or photographs to reproduce them as line art.

Line gauge

Or type gauge, a metal rule used by printers - divided into Picas it is 72 picas long (11.952in).

Line hole punching

See feed slots.

Line negative

Film negative of line copy. Image areas are clear, blank, areas are opaque.

Linen Finish

A paper finish that is similar to the texture of linen fabric, such as Champion Carnival Linen. Linen finishes are embossed after the paper comes off the paper machine.

Linen tester

A magnifying glass (or loupe) designed for checking the dot image of a halftone.

Liner

See backing.

Liner Side

In roll form it is referred to that side of the roll protected by a release liner.

Lines Per Inch (LPI)

The number of lines in an inch, as found on the screens that create halftones and four-colour process images (for example, "printed 175-line screen"). The more lines per inch, the more detailed the printed image will be. With the demand for computer-generated imagery, the term "dots per inch" (which refers to the resolution of the output), is replacing the term "lines per inch."

Lineup table

A table with an illuminated top used for preparing and checking alignment of page layouts and paste-ups.

Lining figures

Numerals that align on the baseline and at the top.

Links

The navigational tools allowing a Web site visitor to move from place to place within a Web site - moving from page to page or from location to location. They also permit Web sites to be linked together, so that visitors to one Web site can easily visit a Web site devoted to a similar topic or area of interest.

Linotype

Typesetting process that casts complete lines of hot type, known as slugs.

Linting

Printing problem caused when fibers from uncoated paper are pulled onto the blankets, plates or rollers.

Literal

A typesetting error involving one letter.

Litho

Short for lithography or offset lithography.

Lithographic paper

A paper coated on at least one side, suitably prepared for lithographic printing.

Lithography

A printing process in which an inked image is transferred from a plate onto a blanket cylinder and then onto paper. It is based on the principle of the natural aversion of water to grease. The image to be lithographed is created on the plate with greasy material that repels water. Water is run over the plate, and the non-image areas absorb it. When the oily ink hits the plate, it's attracted to the similarly greasy image, and repelled by the rest of the wet plate. When paper is pressed onto the plate, it picks up the ink (and a bit of the water). This process is now used primarily for limited-edition prints.

Live area

Aka the Image area.

Logo

Short for logotype. A word or combination of letters set as a single unit. Also used to denote a specially styled company name designed as part of a corporate image. From logos, Greek for word.

Loose-leaf

A method of binding which allows the insertion and removal of pages for continuous updating.

Loupe

From the German word for magnifying glass, a lens used by photographers, printers, and designers to examine details in printed materials.

Lower case

The small letters in a font of type.

Lustre

Gloss of a finish.