useful information

Glossary - M

M (Megabyte)

One million bytes.

M weight

The weight in pounds of 1,000 sheets (or two standard 500- sheet reams) or paper. On the label of a paper ream, the M weight is often given after the dimensions of the paper in the ream: for example, 23"x29"-42M. The capital letter M, like the Roman numeral M, designates 1,000; the 42 indicates that the 1,000 sheets weigh 42 lbs.

Machine Coated Paper

Machine Coated paper that is coated on the papermaking machine.

Machine Direction

The direction of any material parallel to its forward movement on the press.

Machine Finish

A paper texture of finish imparted onto the paper white it's still on the papermaking machine.

Machine glazed (MG)

Paper with a high gloss finish on one side only.

Machine proof

Pre-press proof.

MacOS

Disk Operating System (DOS in Windows environment, MacOS in Apple Macintosh environment and Linux et al): Software for computer systems with disk drives that supervises and controls the running of programs. The operating system is 'booted' into the computer from disk by a small program that permanently resides in the memory.

Macro

A series of instructions that would normally be issued one at a time on the keyboard to control a program. A macro facility allows them to be stored and issued automatically by a single keystroke.

Macromedia

A major publisher of DTP software with such programs as Freehand and Dreamweaver.

Magenta

One of the four primary colours for printing. One of the subtractive primaries the hue of which is used for one of the four colour process inks. It reflects blue and red light and absorbs light.

Magnetic Cylinder

A cylinder used in die-cutting that is magnetized to accept and hold in place flexible steel dies. Also used for metal-backed printing plates.

Magnetic Die

A thin, flexible, steel cutting plate that is held on to a base cylinder magnetically. Quite common in EDP label production where identical repeats are frequently used.

Magnetic ink

Magnetized ink that can be read both by humans and by electronic machines. Used in cheque printing.

Make-ready

Steps - or the time - necessary in preparing the press, folder or bindery equipment for a job.

Makeup

Assembling type and other elements in a page to produce the final arrangement for reproduction.

Make-up

The assembling of all elements, to form the printed image.

Making Order

A quantity of paper manufactured to custom specifications, such as a special weight, colour, or size not available as a standard stocking item. Special order requirements are necessary, and should be discussed with a local paper consultant. Also know as manufacturing order.

Manilla

A tough brown paper used to produce stationery and wrapping paper.

Manuscript (MS)

The original written or typewritten work of an author submitted for publication.

Margin

Space between the live area, or space occupied by text columns or visuals, and the physical edge of a page. Margins provide white space: The non printing areas of page and provide a pleasing contrast with the text columns.

Marginal punching

See feed slots; pin feed.

Mark up

Copy prepared for a compositor setting out in detail all the typesetting instructions.

Mask

Tracing an object, or portion of a photograph, with an image manipulation program prior to applying a different creative effect to it, like a blur, different coloured ink, or texture. Material used to shield artwork or film from additional retouching or exposure to light.

Mass

Sometimes used as another name for the adhesive.

Master plate

Plate containing the image for offset printing.

Master roll

A full width roll that has finished the primary manufacturing process and is usually untrimmed and unslit.

Masthead

Collection of information about a newspaper magazine or newsletter (editorial staff, publisher, business location and the like) usually placed on the first page.

Match Colour

A custom-blended ink that matches a specified colour exactly. Match colours are used to print line copy and halftones in one, two, three, or occasionally more colours. The specified colours are chosen from colour systems. The most widely used systems are the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, Colorcurve, and Toyo.

Matchprint

Brand name for a dry colour pre-press proofing system by 3M.

Material

Usually refers to unconverted stock, pressure-sensitive or not.

Material splice

An area where tape has been used to attach two rolls of material together to form one continuous web.

Matrix (waster skeleton)

The face and adhesive layers of a sensitive construction surrounding a die-cut label that have been removed after die cutting.

Matte Coated

A non-glossy coating on paper generally used to refer to papers having little or no gloss. A matte coated sheet is often specified when there is a lot of type, since it makes for easier reading.

Matte Finish

A dull finish. A de-glossed surface. A UV-curable clear coat may also be used to produce a matte or textured finish.

Measure

Width of a column of text. Usually, it is best that a column is no more than 12 or 13 words wide, otherwise the eye can have difficulty tracking back to find the start of the next line. Expressed in pica ems.

Mechanical

Assembly of all camera-ready line copy used to make a printing plate, including size and position of halftone reproductions and instructions to the cameraman and printer. Virtually obsolete now.

Mechanical binding

A method of binding that secures pre-trimmed leaves by the insertion of wire or plastic spirals through holes drilled in the binding edge.

Mechanical Pulping

Separating wood fibers for pulp by grinding wood chips mechanically, rather than by using a chemical process.

Mechanical tint

A pre-printed sheet of dots, lines or patterns that can be laid down on artwork for reproduction.

Memory (1)

The property of a material that attempts to return to its original dimensions after being distorted.

Memory (2)

The part of the computer that stores information for immediate access. Nowadays this consists exclusively of RAM, random access memory, which holds the applications software and data or ROM, read only memory, which holds permanent information.

Menu-driven

Programs that allow the user to request functions by choosing from a list of options.

Merchant

A distributor of papers, often representing several different paper mills or manufacturers

Meta tags

Code that, together with the content of the Web page, go to form an HTML document. They describe the content of a page, list the keywords relating to the page, store information on the author and the software used in building the site.

Metal foil

Thin, flexible layer of metal, such as aluminium, sued as face materials. Thinner gauges are often laminated to paper for strength.

Metalising

Applying a thin coating of metal to a non-metallic surface. May be done by chemical deposition or by exposing the surface to vaporized metal in a vacuum chamber.

Metallic Film

A plastic or resinous film that has been coated on one side with a very thin layer of metal.

Metallic ink

Printing inks that produce an effect gold, silver, bronze or metallic colours.

Metamerism

The tendency of colour to change with the light source in which it's viewed. For example, two reds may appear to match under fluorescent light, but clash badly in the light of the sun.

Mezzotint

Random dot-pattern halftone screen or a method of engraving a plate to produce variations in tone.

MG (Machine glazed)

Paper with a high gloss finish on one side only.

Micrograin Carbide

Is a hybrid of conventional carbide that incorporates a smaller particle size. This finer structure results in a material that is considerably stronger and tougher than conventional carbide grades which equates to longer tool life.

Micrometer

A mechanical device for measuring thickness (usually in thousands of an inch).

Micron

A unit of measure. On millionth of a meter or about .00004" (25 microns = 0.001").

Middle tones

Grey areas of a photograph that are lighter than the shadows and darker than the highlights.

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface; specification standardising interface between computers and musical synthesisers. Multi-channelled, each channel corresponds to an instrument or voice.

Migration

The movement of one or more of the components of a pressure-sensitive adhesive to either a substrate or face material; the movement of one or more of the components of either or both the face material and the substrate into the adhesive and ink.

Mill

The physical site where paper is manufactured; refers to a company that manufactures paper. Champion premium papers, for example, are manufactured at the Hamilton, Ohio mill. Champion is also referred to as a mill.

Mill Broke

Mill Broke paper generated at the paper mill prior to completion of the manufacturing process. Wet mill broke originates at the wet end of the papermaking machine, while dry mill broke comes from the dry end of the papermaking machine.

Mils

Used in describing adhesive coat weights, thickness. The term means thousandths of an inch.

Minimum Application Temperature

The lowest temperature at which an adhesive will function.

Mock-up

The rough visual of a publication or design. See Dummy

Modem (MOdulator-DEModulator)

A device for converting digital data into audio signals and back again. Primarily used for transmitting data between computers over telephone lines.

Modern

Refers to typestyles introduced towards the end of the 19th century. Times Roman is a good example of modern type.

Moire

A pattern created by printing several repetitive designs on top of each other. In four-colour process printing, four screens of coloured dots print on top of each other. If the angles of the halftone screens of each of the four colours are not properly aligned with each other, an undesirable, blurry pattern, called "moire" appears in the final image; the term is from the watery or wavy pattern seen on moire silk.

Moisture Content

Percent moisture. The moisture present in a material, as determined by specified methods.

Moisture Resistant

That property of a sheet that resists uptake or passage of moisture. Usually achieved by adding sizing.

Moisture vapour transmission

A measure of the rate of water vapour transmission through a P.S. label.

Mold release agents

Materials used in the manufacture of molded objects to facilitate their removal from the mold. Mold release agents can, in some instances, cause serious adhesion problems.

Monochrome

Image made up of varying tones of one colour

Monospace

A font in which all characters occupy the same amount of horizontal width regardless of the character.

Monotype

An obsolete form of machine typesetting, casts one letter at a time.

Montage

A single image formed from the assembling of several images.

Montage

Collage of multiple images.

Mottle

Non-uniform colouring, coating or printing of a face material.

Mottling

Uneven impression, especially in flat areas - caused by too much pressure or unsuitable paper or ink.

Mounting board

A heavy board used for mounting artwork.

Mounting press

Machine that dry mounts photographs and artwork without liquid adhesives.

Mouse

A handheld pointing device using either mechanical motion or special optical techniques to convert the movement of the user's hand into movements of the cursor on the screen - technically known as the GUI, the Graphical User Interface. Generally fitted with one, two or three buttons and used on a mouse pad.

Moving beam bar code reader

A device which searches for a bar code pattern by sweeping a moving optical beam through a field of view.

MPEG

Motion Picture Experts Group; multimedia video playback standard - allows digital video to compressed using JPEG and encoded video sequences. Two MPEG standards exist: MPEG-1 is about equal to a VCRand the one associated with personal computers, while MPEG-2 supports high quality digital video.

MS (Manuscript)

The original written or typewritten work of an author submitted for publication.

Multiple exposure

Photograph with more than one exposure.

Mutton

A typesetting term for the em quod.

M-weight

Paper's weight as measured per 1,000 sheets.

Mylar

Dupont's trademark for clear, tough polymeric polyester film