useful information

Glossary - S

S/S (Same size)

An instruction to reproduce to the same size as the original.

Saddle stitched

A method of binding a magazine that involves the pages being stitched together over a saddle shaped support with wire, which is later cut and bent across the middle pages. The result is a publication that appears to have been stapled together. Usually limited to 64 pages size. Traditionally performed on V shaped saddle. Many magazines are saddle stitched or stapled.

Sandwich construction

Panels composed of a lightweight core material to which two relatively thin, dense, high strength faces or skins are adhered.

Sans serif

Category of typeface design lacking the small finishing strokes that provide letter-to-letter transitions. Sans serif typefaces often have more impact at large size because of their design simplicity.

Saturation

Measure of the strength of a colour.

Sawtooth edge

Edge of a halftone that angles across the line of its screen - the pixels look like the teeth of a saw.

Scale

Increasing or reducing the size of a text or graphic element white retaining the proportion, or height-to-width ratio of the original also the means, within a page layout or graphics application, to reduce or enlarge the amount of space an image will occupy.

Scaleable artwork

Vector art, the type of illustration produced by software such as Illustrator, Corel Draw and Freehand. Because the files describe the shape of the images by mathematical formulae, rather than exact pixels, they are, like Postscript, resolution independent.

Scaling

A means of calculating the amount of enlargement or reduction necessary to accommodate a photograph within the area of a design.

Scamp

A sketch of a design showing the basic concept.

Scan

Convert photographs, 35mm or 6 x 6 trannies into digital files that can be placed into a publication. Precise cropping and resizing originals is simple, and is the necessary first-step towards other photo manipulation techniques, such as adjusting tonal values and colour castes.

Scanner

An electronic device used in the making of colour and tone corrected colour separations.

Schematic

Drawing showing relationships between various pages of a Web site. Used in the planning stages and to double-check that all pages are correctly linked.

SCK (Super-calendered Kraft)

A bleached, white paper used as a release liner with most standard roll label products.

Score

Crease a sheet of paper or board so it will not be damaged or crack when folded. Essential on weights of 170gsm and above.

Score cut

See score.

Scoring

Pressing a channel into a sheet of paper to allow it to fold more easily. Scoring and pressing the paper fibers together creates an embossed channel that does two things: acts as a guide for easier folding, and creates a hinge that keeps the fiber stretch short.

The score should run parallel to the paper grain; the thicker the paper, the wider the score should be. Paper should be folded with the scored side on the outside; making two short stretches rather than one long one. The outcome is a straight, durable fold that doesn't crack or break.

Scraperboard

A board prepared with black indian ink over a china clay surface. Scraping away the ink to expose the china clay surface produces drawings.

Screen

The lined glass, now called contact film, through which images are photographed to create halftones. Shooting through the mesh of a screen breaks an image into tiny dots. The closer the lines of the screen, the smaller the dots and the more dots per inch; the farther apart the lines of the screen, the bigger the dots and the fewer the dots per inch. The higher the dots per inch, the smaller the dots are, therefore creating a finer, crisper image. The coarseness or fineness of the screen is measured in the number of horizontal and vertical lines per inch. The less a paper absorbs and spreads ink, the finer the screen that can be used. Newspapers use coarse screens with 55 to 85 lines per inch. Most trade publications use 85 to 110 lines. With traditional printing, a coated paper can hold the small dots from a 200-line screen. With waterless printing, the paper can hold the dots from an even finer screen, 400 lines and greater. Though this approaches the quality of continuous tone, it is hard for the eye to discern the differences in resolution above 200 lines per inch.

Screen angle

In printing continuous tones (e.g. colours and greyscales) are simulated by patterns of dots, called screens. The rows of dots are applied at different angles less noticeable to the eye. In four colour printing these angles are: Black 45°, Cyan 105°, Magenta 75° and Yellow 90°

Screen Clash

See Moire.

Screen finder

Transparent template that determines the correct screen ruling for a halftone.

Screen Printing

A printing process also called silk screening, where ink is transferred through a porous screen, such as nylon, onto the surface to be decorated. An emulsion or stencil is used to block out the negative, or non-printing areas of the screen. A squeegee forces ink through the open areas of the screen and onto the paper, plastic, cardboard, wood, fabric, glass, or other material.

Script

A typeface designed to look like handwriting.

Scrolls

Long sheets of papyrus or parchment rolled for storage.

SCSI

Small Computer System Interface: “scuzzy”. Peripheral connection interface for hard drives, scanners, CD-burners and mass storage devices for personal computers. Each item has a number for an 'address'. Operates on a 'daisy chain' principal.

Scumming

Printing problem that occurs when the non-image area of a plate accepts ink in random areas.

Sealer

Continuous film that prevents the passage of liquids or gaseous media: a high-bodied adhesive generally of low cohesive strength to fill voids of various sizes to prevent passage of liquid or gaseous media.

Secondary colour

The colour that results when primary colours are mixed in equal proportions.

Secondary colours

Created by mixing the primary colours, making orange, green, and purple. These offer Lots more opportunities for creative expression and effects.

Section

A printed sheet folded to make a multiple of pages.

Section mark (§)

A character used at the beginning of a new section. Also used as a footnote symbol.

Security paper

Paper incorporating special features (dyes, watermarks etc) for use on cheques.

Self-adhesive label

See pressure-sensitive label.

Self-cover

Using the same paper on the cover of a publication as on the inside.

Self-wound

A roll of material with a single liner, which is coated on both sides with a release coating and a carrier having a pressure-sensitive adhesive on both sides. Also a material that has pressure-sensitive adhesive applied to one side and then rolled up on itself (no liner).

Semi-chemical pulping

Using chemicals and mechanical grinding to separate the cellulose fibers of wood. Because this pulping process doesn't remove lignin, it isn't generally used for fine printing and writing papers. It's used instead for papers not requiring permanence.

Separation

The technique used when printing colour documents - it refers to dividing colour documents into the four-process colours cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, which can be used to recreate every colour within the CMYK gamut.

Serif

The curls and points that appear as outward lateral extensions of the bottoms and tops of letterforms on some typefaces. Many designers consider serif type used for body text for easy readability. Times Roman is a well-known serif type font.

Service Bureau

The facility that provides professional services to graphics and printing professionals especially related to computer output. (i.e. plate ready film, matchprints, colourkeys, etc...)

Set

The interval of time required for adhesive bonding; relative bonding speed of an adhesive material.

Set off

The accidental transfer of the printed image from one sheet to the back of another.

Set size

The width of the type body of a given point size.

Set solid

Type set without leading (line spacing) between the lines. Type is often set with extra space; e.g. 9 point set on 10 point.

Set-off

See Offset.

Shade

The colour depth and hue in comparison to papers that are the same colour; also used to describe the colour achieved by adding dye to pulp slurry. There is a wide shade variety in white papers, as well as in coloured papers.

Shadow

3D effect created by illustration programs creating the illusion that text or graphic object is standing vertically and illuminated from the top or side, creating a background below and behind it.

Sharpen

Making the print dot sizes smaller on films using contact printing techniques and exposure manipulation. Plates can sharpen due to wear.

Shear cut

Term that describes a cut of a continuous web of stock using an action similar to the action of scissors.

Shear Strength

Internal or cohesive strength of the adhesive.

Shear Test

A method of separating two adhesive bonded materials by forcing (either by compression or tension) the interfaces to slide over each other. The force exerted is distributed over the entire bonded area at the same time. Strengths are recorded in pounds per square inch.

Sheet

A single piece of paper. In poster work refers to the number of Double Crown sets in a full size poster.

Sheet work

Sections printed by backing up a sheet with a different form from the front. The opposite of work and turn.

Sheet-fed Press

A press that prints single sheets of paper, rather than a continuous roll or web of paper. A sheet-fed press prints more slowly than a web press, and is typically used for shorter runs.

Sheeting

Process whereby rolls of PS base stock are converted into sheets of finished labels by cutting them to the desired length in the sheeting stations on a rotary press.

Sheetwise

A method of printing a section. Half the pages from a section are imposed and printed. The remaining half of the pages are then printed on the other side of the sheet.

Sheffield

A test used to measure the smoothness of paper by measuring the rate of airflow over the surface of the sheet. The lower the number, the smoother the sheet.

Shelf Life

Storage life. The period of time during which a product can be stored under specified conditions and still remain suitable for use.

Show-through

When a printed impression on one side of a sheet is visible through the other side of the paper.

Show-through

See opacity.

Shrink Wrapping

A technique of packaging in which the strains in a plastic film are released by raising the temperature of the film thus causing it to shrink over the package.

Side heading

A subheading set flush into the text at the left edge.

Side stabbed or stitched

The folded sections of a book are stabbed through with wire staples at the binding edge, prior to the covers being drawn on. Also known as Side wire.

Sidebar

Firstly a text element, typically three to six pars long, next to a longer text article providing visual interest and permitting you to devote space to a single aspect of the longer article without interrupting the overall flow of the article and secondly the vertical bar on either side of a web site containing navigation.

Sidebar

A vertical bar positioned usually on the right hand side of the screen.

Signature

The letter at the tail of the first page in a section, in alphabetical order, serves as a guide to the binder in gathering. Also refers to the individual sections themselves.

Silicone

A unique polymer system that can be a very effective release coating, or pressure-sensitive adhesive capable of functioning effectively at extreme temperatures.

Silicone Adhesive

Adhesive compounds of this base have remarkable stability through a wide temperature range. Chief limitations in use are their high temperature cure, sensitivity to and aromatic fuels and relatively high cost.

Silicone coating

A unique polymer system which can be a very effective release coating.

Silicone stain test

A water based stain used to test silicone coating coverage and continuity on die cut paper release liners.

Silk Screen

See screen printing

Single-Faced

The adhesive is applied to one side of the backing only. Most pressure- sensitive tapes are of this type.

Sink

Or drop is a page layout technique based on reducing column height and adding white space to the top of each page. Sinks unify a publication and provide page to-page continuity.

Site map

A site map provides an overview of the contents of a Web site, showing visitors which pages are present and allowing them to navigate more quickly - typically text-only they load faster and occupy less on-screen space than would

Sixteen sheet

A poster size measuring 120in x 80in (3050mm x 2030mm).

Size

A solution based on starch or casein that is added to the paper to reduce ink absorbency.

Sizing a resin

Such as rosin, added to pulp before it's formed into paper, or added to the surface of the paper after it's dry. Sizing acts as a glue to keep the fibers of the finished paper tight, since loose fibers on the surface of the paper can cause printing problems.

Sizing

also helps the finished paper repel water, which is an especially important property for stock that will be used for offset printing.

Skewing

When plate or blanket cylinder are not parallel and so do not make proper contact.

Skid

A platform built with a solid wood bottom, for holding stacks of paper not packed in cartons. Paper may be ordered in skids or cartons. When printers are printing a large job, they generally prefer skids to cartons.

Slab serif

A typeface with heavy square serifs.Also called Egyptian.

Slip Sheet

A release treated sheet used to protect the edges of rolls from sticking to each other while stacked.

Slit

To cut rolls of stock to specified widths. Either rotary or stationary knives or blades are used with mechanical unwinding and rewinding devices.

Slit back

See split back.

Slit face

See split face.

Slitter

A sharp disk that cuts paper into pre-determined widths.

Slot

A cut make in a material of a specific size and location. May have the face material removed when used to feed through imprinters.

Slurring

A smearing of the image, caused by paper slipping during the impression stage.

Slurry

A thin, watery mixture. The mixture of pulp and water that is poured on to the papermaking machine is often referred to as slurry.

Small caps

A set of capital letters that are smaller than standard and are equal in size to the lower case letters for that type size.

Smooth Finish

Paper finished to a Sheffield smoothness between 50 and 150.

Smoothness

The surface property of paper that describes its degree of uniform evenness and flatness. When printing, the smoother the paper, the better the ink dot formation and the sharper the image.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol: worldwide de facto electronic messaging standard. Limited to ASCII characters it facilitates mail between the Internet and other networks.

Smudge Resistance

Smear Resistance. Resistance of a printed-paper surface to ink blurring or smearing and thus related to the absorption of the paper.

Snap-to (guide or rules)

A WYSIWYG program feature for accurately aligning text or graphics. The effect is exercised by various non-printing guidelines such as column guides, margin guides that automatically place the text or graphics in the correct position.

Soft back/cover

A book bound with a paper back cover.

Soft dot

Excessive halation around a halftone dot.

Soft or discretionary hyphen

A specially coded hyphen that is only displayed when formatting of the hyphenated word puts it at the end of a line.

Soft return

Shift-Return on a Mac.

Softwood Pulp

Pulp made from coniferous trees (evergreen tress with cones and needles, such as pine and fir trees). Paper is often made using a blend of pulps; softwood pulp has long fibers, giving paper strength; hardwood fibers are short, lending smoothness, bulk, and body.

Solid Gum

The use of 100% adhesive coverage on a pressure-sensitive material.

Solidus (/)

A slash character. The regular slash is the virgule; one designed for typing fractions is called a solidus (produced on the Mac with Option-Shift-1). It has a different angle allowing better kerning of numbers over and under it.

Solvent

A chemical substance capable of thinning or reducing the viscosity of ink, coating or adhesives. Specifically, a solvent is a liquid that dissolves another substance.

Solvent adhesives

Adhesives' components are dissolved in a variety of organic solvents for coating. Rubber or acrylic-based systems can be coated this way.

Solvent resistance

The resistance of a P.S. label to the action of specific organic liquids.

Solvent welding

Using chemical solvents such as methylene chloride to glue plastics together.

Specifications/specs

The description of the requirements of a particular printing job - including size, press run and colour, given to the printer by the client.

Specifying Paper

Choosing the appropriate paper for a specific printing job, in order to meet its individual design, printing, handling, and economic requirements. A paper merchant or a paper mill consultant when choosing a paper frequently assists designers and printers.

Spell check

A facility contained in certain word processing and page makeup programs to enable a spelling error check to be carried out. Dictionaries of American origin may not conform to English standards.

Spindle

The part of an engraving machine that holds the cutter.

Spine

Centre of the case of a book that covers the back when it is cased in.

Split back

Slits in the release liner to facilitate its removal by hand.

Split face

Slits in face or pressure-sensitive product usually for facilitating removal from the release coated backing.

Split fountain

Printing more than one colour with one impression by using more than one ink in the ink fountain

Split liner

See split back.

Spoils, spoilage

Badly finished sheets discarded before delivery of a job.

Spot colour

Single colours, either added to the pages of a document, e.g. most newspaper front pages used produced with a black plate and a spot colour red for the logo or nameplate or also be added to four colour process documents as either straight Spot colours to get the vibrancy you can’t get from process, or specialty inks like metallics or flouros.

Spot varnishing

Varnishing specific areas on stock.

Spread (1)

Two pages that face each other, also called a DPS, Two-page spread, Double-truck.

Spread (2)

Spreading the ink beyond the edge of an object so that there is no gap between it and the next coloured object. "Choke and Spread" are common methods of trapping elements of a printing job.

SPSI

Samples Per Square Inch. This is the square of a DPI measurement used as it gives a true representation of resolution density. Hence a 300 dpi image is 90000 SPSI, whereas a 600dpi image is 360000, making its resolution density four times greater - and the image quality is obviously better.

SRA

A paper size in the series of ISO international paper sizes slightly larger than the A series allowing the printer extra space to bleed.

Stack press

Flexographic press where the printing stations are placed one above the other, each with its own impression roll.

Stacker

Device on the take-off end of a press that automatically stacks sheeted labels.

Standard viewing conditions

The area surrounded by neutral grey and illuminated by a light source of 5,000 Kelvin both for viewing transparencies and reflection prints.

Standing cap

A large capital letter that shares a baseline with the adjoining text but rises above it.

Standoff

The distance between a graphic and the text that wraps around it.

Start/stop character

A bar code character that provides the scanner with start or stop reading instructions as well as code orientation. The start character is usually at the left-hand end and the stop character at the right-hand corner of a picket-fence oriented code.

Stat

Photostat copy.

Static

Electrical charges generated in handling materials which cause materials to cling together. Can jump to humans or equipment causing shock or fire if solvents are present. With reference to films, causes them to cling to one another or to other insulating surfaces.

Static cling

An induced property of a film which enables it to grab onto a smooth clean surface without using a pressure-sensitive adhesive. Static cling is a phrase applied to both mechanical grabbing and grabbing by electrical static.

Static eliminator

A device for neutralizing static electricity.

Static neutraliser

A device that removes static electricity from paper.

Steel engraving

Intaglio printing process that presses an inked, engraved surface onto paper, leaving a raised printed impression.

Steel-to-steel label

See anvil cut or sheeted labels.

Stem

The main vertical stroke making up a type character.

Stencil

A sheet of plastic, paper, or other material with letters or an image cut out of it. When placed on a surface and inked, it reproduces the cut-away images onto the material behind it.

Step-and-repeat

Photomechanical process of using negative or positive images to produce multiple images.

Stet

Used in proof correction work to cancel a previous correction. From the Latin: 'let it stand'.

Stickyback

Double-faced adhesive coated material used for mounting printing plates to the plate cylinder.

Stochastic screening

A relatively new method for creating halftones. Rather than producing the regularly space dots of lined screens, stochastic screening generates randomly placed dots. Because the generation of the dots is frequently modulated, the technique is also called FM screening. Registration on press is slightly more difficult than with lined screens, but the colors rests can be brilliant.

Stock

A printer’s term for paper to be used for printing.

Strap

A subheading used above the main headline in a newspaper article.

Strawboard

A thicker board made from straw pulp, used in bookwork and in the making of envelopes and cartons.

Strike-through

The effect of ink soaking through the printed sheet. See Show-through.

Strip heating

Heating a piece of plastic along a narrow line in order to bend it at that line. Used for making self-standing counter signs or nameplates and over-the-pocket badges.

Stripping

The process of assembling film for type, art and halftones in position for photomechanical reproduction.

Stroke

The line that defines a shape (such as the outline of a letter).

Stub roll

A short roll of face material or pressure-sensitive label stock.

Style sheet

A collection of tags specifying page layout styles, paragraph settings and type specifications that can be set up by the user and saved for use in other documents.

Styrene

A liquid unsaturated hydrocarbon (CgHg). See polystyrene.

Subscript

The small characters set below the normal letters or figures.

Substrate

The surface to which a label is applied; adhered. Converters also refer to the face stock being printed as the substrate.

Subtractive colours

In printing, an ink or filter that subtracts some of the colours from white light projected through it.

Supercalender

Alternating steel and fiber-covered calender rolls that increase a sheet's gloss and smoothness. The supercalender is a separate piece of equipment located close to the dry end of the paper machine.

Supercalendered paper

A smooth finished paper with a polished appearance, produced by rolling the paper between calenders. Examples of this are high gloss and art papers.

Superscript

Small letters or figures set above normal letters or figures.

Surprint

Superimposing a second negative on an already exposed negative.

Swash letters

Italic characters with extra flourishes used at the beginning of chapters.

Swatch

A colour sample.

Swatchbook

A booklet containing paper samples and paper specifications for a line of paper. Champion produces individual swatchbooks for each of its fine printing papers.

Swelled rule

A line that is thicker in the middle and tapers to the ends.

SWOP

Specifications Web Offset Publications, a booklet that gives the web offset specifications for separations, proofing and printing process colour.

Symbols

Typographic characters used to replace spelled-out words, e.g. © for copyright.

Symmetry

A design term describing individual pages or two-page spreads characterised by left-right balance.

System fonts

Come as standard with Windows and Macintosh systems and are used in the system to display menus etc. Usually named after cities or people who fetch and carry (New York, Monaco, Geneva, Courier etc).